A Diet Book for Tired-Of-Dieting-Dieters

Another diet book.  Thousands upon thousands of “wanna-be diet gurus” confusing most of us, most of the time with some recycled diet and weight loss idea. 

However, The Younger (Thinner) You Diet by Eric R. Braverman, MD is really different!  I’m inspired by a few things.  It approaches anti-aging, dieting and weight loss from a "brain perspective," not a "time and stomach perspective."  And Dr. Braverman uses an integrative approach in his medical practice, which puts him in the same niche as Dr. Andrew Weil.

The first rule that I use to evaluate a non-fiction book is to see if it sufficiently addresses the problem or situation addressed by the title and tag line. The title, The Younger (Thinner) You Diet, draws me in (as a resistantly aging baby-boomer) by suggesting that I can be younger and thinner with this particular You Diet.  What a hook!  It intrigued me!  Of course that’s exactly what I care about, and will likely care about for the next 20 years.  Next, his tag line, How Understanding Your Brain Chemistry Can Help You Lose Weight, Reverse Aging and Fight Disease, places him in a very unique niche as far as diets go.  Wow, this tag-line promises all this from “Brain Balance!”

Okay, did he succeed?  Yes, he delivered a do-able, anti-aging diet and weight loss book - one that I’m going to use.  Of course, not all of it appeals to me. The beginning of Part II offered quite a few details, along with the rational of the Diet.  For me, this was TMI (too much information) for my time constraints.  However, the latter part of Part II was filled with fantastic recipes, which he coded to the specific brain chemical deficiencies that I discovered in Part I, when I took his Younger Thinner Diet Quiz.  The quiz was so practical, and completely held my interest.  I also felt the results were quite accurate.

Another interesting part of Braverman’s book is how he uses herbs, foods and supplements to balance out the four brain chemicals, suggesting prescription medication as the last resort.  The premise he uses in his medical practice is mind-body balance, and it’s the foundation of this book.  I totally buy into this primal connection in regards to natural beauty, health and wellness. 

Would I recommend this book to you?  Yes.  I would suggest that you get a support group started of “Tired-of-Dieting-Dieters” because you can have a lot of fun identifying with someone who is deficient in the same brain chemicals as you are.  I always feel that accountability helps in our diet and weight loss journeys. 
 

Your Hairdresser REALLY Knows For Sure!

The other day was my hair day.  As usual, I came up with another plan for my hair.  “Lisa, I want you to make it darker so that my highlights will stand out.  I want to go back to being a “winter” instead of this false “autumn” look.”  I want you to do this, I want you to do that”.  She said - “Wow, you waited too long to get your hair done, that’s what’s wrong with you”.    Well after about an hour of explanation why she STRONGLY disagreed with me about going darker, I finally got it, and can again equate it to Photoshop. 

Here is the truth about aging from a Hairdresser’s view.  No amount of makeup, hair dye or clothes is going to recapture the ”vibrancy” of youth.  That’s because we are FADING with age.  I finally understood this because she said my skin is fading and that’s why she wouldn’t go darker for my hair - she insisted that it would look “witchy” even though not 10 years ago that was my natural color.

I get it now.  It’s like taking a layer of digital beauty (a photograph) and making it more transparent.  Each little bit of decrease in the opacity takes away the intensity of the color.  Well I guess that’s a good view of aging.  A more transparent picture is the same picture - it’s just a softer, paler version of it. 

Eventually, when it’s so transparent that it’s barely there, it kind of becomes “ethereal”.  If you have “The Ugly Duck Makeover” then look how I made the very back page - I faded it out quite a bit.  The more “opaque” (darker) version was just too harsh and sent the wrong message. 

So, friends, this is meant as encouragement for those of us who are NOT into aging (or as Arbonne says - looking younger, longer.)  There is just as much beauty in getting older as being younger.  We’re the same picture, just less opaque and more transparent. 

She (my hairdresser) knows for sure - she promotes beauty no matter what the age - “Black hair like your 28 year old daughter???? Come on, Diane, you’re 55, so be proud of it and quit fighting it.”  “Ok, Lisa … thanks, I guess?”

Take a Walk … Find some Truth!

The world of furniture is pathetic at the moment.  The question is whether it will recover or not.  The answer is OF COURSE, it will.

I’m a student of cycles - in fact, I’m fascinated by them.  I’m really rusty in what I know so here it is in a nutshell.  Everything is a cycle - there are very long cycles - 500 + years, there are business cycles, growth cycles, real estate cycles, planetary cycles, sunspot cycles … you get it.  The other thing hooked into this is the reality of "entropy", which means everything is fighing against the natural decline/decay of things. 

Healthy and proactive people and businesses know this, and reinvent themselves BEFORE they begin their decline.  They follow an "S" curve.  This means they grow, they plateau, and either begin their decline or reinvent themselves and begin a new "S" curve.

Yesterday I took a walk up my street and remembered about cycles and "S"s.  I made a loop.  I "worked hard" at walking up a hill, and I was thinking the entire time that I’ll get to the straight part any minute, in fact that was my goal.  And the straight part was easy … then I went down a steep hill, which was a slight bit of work.  Then, I naturally ended back at the straight part again.  

So I thought, hmm … just like life.  We struggle so to "grow up".  All of the sudden we’ve reached the plateau and walk along at a leisurely pace.  And then decline.  Maybe the deline part is the "fighting of the inevitable" and after that is the acceptance of it, so we just walk along evenly, till the end.

Ok, reality check.  Where am I?  The answer is - it’s all relative to what aspect of my life I’m inspecting.  Health wise, I’m in the first plateau.  Business wise, I’m climbing up the hill.  Age wise, I’m fighting the decline.  The good news is that I just started the decline (at least I’m claiming that to be fact.  The way I see it, I’m half-way to my goal of 110 years old.) 

Where are you?????