Feedback from Cancun

We’re on our way back to Connecticut from a week in Cancun. This is one of the perks of being married to someone who is an Arbonne representative J. Vicky has earned this trip 2 years in a row now and we are anxiously looking forward to the reveal of next year’s destination!

What does this have to do with the Healthy Gourmet? I had a chance to get some feedback on the book’s concept. It was encouraging to hear that others see a need for a book like this. My belief that there is a story to tell that will help others change their lives and be healthier and happier was definitely shored up. Lately I’ve been pondering what the emphasis of the book should be: Should it be a recipe book or should it emphasize the fitness aspect and have the recipes be one tool to leverage? The feedback I received leads me toward the second choice. I will definitely include a large number of recipes and cooking techniques, but much more also.

To give you a little teaser of the book, one chapter will be entitled “Weight is not the problem, it is the symptom”. One foundational truth I discovered is that while being overweight causes problems, it is often not the problem. There are reasons why we become overweight. For some it might well be a medical issue and that’s one reason why any weight-loss endeavor should start with a visit to your primary care physician. For many though, there are other, non-medical causes. I discovered my personal causes. Once they were clear to me, and only then could I form a plan to change my life. A life-change is what we seek, not just to lose weight because if we lose weight but don’t correct the true cause, we will likely gain it back. That’s the classic yo-yo effect of diets. Diets aren’t the answer, but they can be a tool for some. For me, I wanted a life-change. I set reasonable goals and made permanent changes to my life to achieve those goals and then make them my normal state of being. No diets for me. They have never worked, though I’ve tried several. Life-change is what I sought after.