Last spring I was checking the web sites of several different popular diet plans, and each of them had aspects that didn’t appeal to me (cost factors or elimination of certain whole food groups, etc.). Then I found Dr. Phil McGraw’s site dealing with weight, and it contained a lot of common sense, so I decided to buy his book, The Ultimate Weight Solution: The Seven Keys to Weight Loss Freedom.

Let me say at the outset that I am not a Dr. Phil disciple, so please don’t take this as an endorsement of anything he has ever said or written. I have never seen a whole episode of his show. I have caught parts of it at the doctor’s waiting room and the last ten minutes or so when my husband turns on the TV after dinner some times. I have found myself disagreeing with him on occasion (particularly one program dealing with when to end a marriage) and I have heard him once or twice use language I find offensive. But from what I have seen he is good at laying out a situation in plain black and white and applying common sense solutions. So with that in mind, I started reading his book.

And he does lay things out in plain black and white. Take, for instance, this statement in response to the excuse that “Because obesity runs in my family, I just can’t lose weight.”

Is holding on to the excuse that you’re a victim, blaming others for your results, really going to help you get in shape? Does it bring you happiness, peace, calm, and fulfillment? Is it working for you? If you answered No, No, and No, then stop listening to your own justifications and excuses for why you are putting up with these thoughts and beliefs, actions and inactions, that are not working for you. If it’s not working, let go of it!

Bottom line: there are no victims, only volunteers. You are creating the situations you’re in; you’re creating the thoughts and emotions that flow from those situations. You must embrace the fact that you own your problems and take action to solve them.

He reminds that, if we eat in response to stress, “None of these situations will get better if you respond by stuffing yourself with uncontrolled amounts of food.” You might say, “Well, duh.” But many people fall into that trap of comforting themselves with food, and sometimes that plain, clear realization is a wake-up call.

Here is another quote:

If you don’t have time to exercise, you are saying, in effect, that you have time to stay overweight and that you have time, at some point in your future, for a long, and still-growing list of life-crippling, life-threatening diseases that exercise ios known to prevent. If you don’t have time for exercise, ask yourself if you have time for heart disease, stroke, cancer, or diabetes. If you don’t exercise with some degree of regularity, you are making a decision to compromise your life quality, today and in the future.

Ouch. 

His first “key” is right thinking, and really that premise underlies the whole book, the premise that what you think determines how you feel and act.

I did find a few areas of disagreement. One was a statement in the chapter on right thinking: “You have within you everything you will ever need to be, do, and have, anything and everything you will ever want or need.” As a Christian, I find all that I need, including the strength to do right, in God, not in myself. In the chapter on emotional control, he cites David and Goliath as an example of confidence on David’s part in contrast with fear of the other soldiers, but, again, David’s confidence in both his victory and his cause came from God, not his own self confidence (I Samuel 17). Also in that chapter he recommends certain relaxation techniques. I have no problem with breathing techniques, contracting and relaxing muscles to ease tension, listening to music (Dr. Jim Berg also advocates the use of these in Quieting a Noisy Soul), but yoga and meditation as the world thinks of it cross the line in my book, and I think people need to be wary of them.

He does also talk about specific foods and which kinds are best. There are several helpful charts and quizzes. He cautions against unrealistic expectations, such as thinking that once you do lose weight you’ll find a mate, get a great job, and everything will be rosy.

My problem with any kind of instructional book is that, as I am reading along, I’ll think, “Yes, that’s good,” “Yes, I agree there,” “That’s very helpful,” and then I get done, close the book, and a day or two later, think, “What was that again?” Things just don’t stay with me like they do when I read a story. So I think what I need to do is skim back through a chapter at a time, maybe listing out the points I underlined or noted to review the major points.

The Booking Through Thursday topic for this week is:Who’s the worst fictional villain you can think of? As in, the one you hate the most, find the most evil, are happiest to see defeated? Not the cardboard, two-dimensional variety, but the most deliciously-written, most entertaining, best villain? Not necessarily the most “evil,” so much as the best-conceived on the part of the author.

One of the best crafted villains that comes to my mind is Javert of Les Miserables because he doesn’t seem like a villain. He thinks he’s on the side of right. He stands for the good causes of righteousness and justice but forgets forgiveness and mercy and compassion. He reminds me somewhat of the apostle Paul who persecutes Christians because he thinks they are sinning against the God he thinks he is serving, yet unlike Paul, who is brought prostrate and converted when he is brought face to face with the truth, Javert can’t face it, can’t comprehend it, and sadly destroys himself.

I was looking on my bookshelf for something easy to get into in anticipation of a long doctor’s appointment (rather a long time in the waiting room). I found a small book called Sweet Dreams Drive by Robin Lee Hatcher there. I don’t remember buying it, but it had a big sale sticker on it and I had at least heard of the author, so that must’ve been part of my motivation, plus the fact that it looked like a good story. I didn’t realize at first it was the fourth in a series called Hart’s Crossing about a folks in a small town in Idaho. It wasn’t originally on my Summer Reading List, though I am adding it on. :)The story is about a couple who had found each other unexpectedly, fallen in love, and went on to pursue the American Dream — and run into problems with debt and a lack of communication and the sleep deprivation and tiredness resulting from the birth of twins. The point of view shifts back and forth between the husband and wife, Al and Patti, but what I liked about that was that we see the same situation from each point of view and see how it causes different reactions. It’s a sweet story of how they learn to sacrifice and put each other first and make their marriage even better than it was before.

Now I want to get the first three books in the series! I don’t think they are needed to really understand this story, but I liked the town the characters and want to read about the rest of them.

The second book is a prize that I won in Katrina’s Books Galore give-away last spring (thanks. Katrina!), Scrap Everything by Leslie Gould. The basic premise is the friendship that develops between two unlikely women. Elise has moved to her husband’s home town as a temporary stop on her way to her dream location of Seattle. Partly because she doesn’t really want to live in the town and partly because she considers it a short stay and doesn’t want to put down roots and partly because of her personality, which is somewhat reticent to get to know people, she seems aloof (another character later described her as “needy,” but I didn’t see her as needy at all: she seemed just the opposite to me. She didn’t want or think she needed their friendship or their help at all at first). One of the first women she meets is Rebekah, a new owner of a scrapbooking shop, whom Elise thinks is “perky” and describes as someone who “spoke in italics and exclamation points.”

Elise’s husband, Ted, is unexpectedly called back from army reserves to active duty and her oldest son has behavioral problems. Rebekah’s adopted daughter faces a medical crisis with a need for a kidney transplant, and the family seems about to lose either their farm or Rebekah’s business due to the expenses, especially when a laspe in insurance coverage is discovered. As they meet over scrapbooking, horseback riding at Rebekah’s farm, and helping each other through their problems, they learn to give each other a chance, they learn to give, and they learn to give up control to the only One who can control the events in their lives.

Even though the title and a lot of the setting pertains to scrapbooking, a reader wouldn’t need to be a scrapbooker to enjoy the book.

I found the physical transitions a little choppy and unclear in places. For instance, in the sixth chapter, Rebekah and her husband, Patrick, are in their kitchen talking. He has just gotten a glass of water when their conversation takes an unpleasant turn, and Rebekah says, “I’m too tired for this. Good night.” and turns off the kitchen light. It sounded (to me, anyway) like she left him standing in the kitchen in the dark. Maybe she did. But I think it was meant to convey they were done in the kitchen and going on to bed. There were a few “Huh?” moments like that throughout the book, but I don’t feel they marred the major part of the story.

I identified most with Elise; I could understand her feelings and reactions throughout the book. Maybe because of that, I felt some of the others were too hard on her later on in the book. I empathized with her mapping out her ideal plan and getting frustrated because God wasn’t allowing things to work out accordingly, then having to yield that plan to Him. And Rebekah, though a go-getter and ones who makes things happen, had to learn there are things out of her control as well that she just has to trust God for.

Overall I would recommend this book, and I’d like to read Leslie’s other two books as well some time.

I won a book from Deena at A Peek At My Bookshelf and volunteered to review a couple of other books, and wanted to start right away on the new book just out by Kay Washer, so I may have to scrap my Summer Reading List before it’s over. 🙂 But that’s fine — I do want to read all those books, whether I get to them this summer or next fall. We’ll see how it goes. I have plenty of to-be-read books stacked up to keep me happy for a long time. 🙂