…and it’s all about the inside job it takes to not only get the weight off, but find lasting peace and confidence.

Ask any sailor and they’ll concur: when a ship is in distress, it’s of absolutely no use to fuss about the deck, mopping up the puddles of water and rearranging the deck chairs. Better to put energy into the bowels of the ship’s epicenter and fix its engine and/or patch up the gaping hole that’s taking on water and causing the vessel to lumber and sink.

Sounds perfectly logical, right? Then why, do we continue to fuss over the exterior of a person rather than look inward to discover what the real problem is and how to solve it? The short answer: it’s less painful to prescribe a diet, or new hair color, new wardrobe, or a quick touch-up at the plastic surgeon. Less painful and probing for sure, but far less effective.

I can tell you for sure that dieting as a remedy to weight gain has zero efficacy. Zero. Worse than zero because everytime I’ve undertaken it it has resulted in regain plus more. So, after sheer burnout which left me with an utter inability to give dieting one more chance, I put the ship’s engine in reverse and headed in another direction. Specifically, I dove inward. I had to. How else would the wounds of bullying, size bigotry, and isolation heal?  Not via calorie-counting or counting fat grams, I can assure you.

And that, my friends, is how my fourth book came to be. My first three works were about cooking (healthy, delicious food, BTW). “The Untended Soul” is all about coping.

I’ll be the first to admit the content may not be everyone’s cup of tea. Heck, it wasn’t mine for many years. But if you’ve A) had enough of the dieting hamster wheel, and B) suspect you may have been taken for a ride by the industry and have wasted unquantifiable amounts of time and money on a pile of nothing-burgers, you may want to crack my latest book. Or at least read the back cover. One of the reviews on Amazon describes it as “required reading for emotional eaters.” If you feel this may be you, well, you know what to do. All it takes is a little willingness to try a different approach. Self-Inquiry is easier than you think…once you’ve agreed to let your guard down.

My weight-loss success story is well documented, and includes a gluten-free and dairy-free revamping of my eating habits and plenty of DDPYOGA workouts. But guess what preceded all of that? Yup. The dive inward. And you know what I found. Gold…pure gold that can’t be found in the world of externals. It’s yours to have…

She was in there all along…and I finally found her

And a BIG Thank You to the very talented Robert McLearren, who put this book together, designed it, and gave it FLAIR! He has created the look of every one of my books and I absolutely would have no books without him. He’s also an amazing artist and painter of pet portraits. Send him an I-Phone photo of your dog or cat, you’ll be astounded at what he can do. Makes a great Christmas gift!  Thank You Robert.

Our Sophia: I-phone photo left; Robert’s rendering on the right – phenomenal!