By the Mysterious Dr Bridell

Today’s article is the 45th weekly installment of a column that explores a new diet based on mental and spiritual rather than physical paradigms.  It is arranged in "bite-sized chunks" that come to you each Friday and that build on each other.  Bridell’s promise to you who follow the diet is that you will lose a substantial amount of weight —.and that this weight loss will be the least important of the ways in which you will benefit! Columns from the past few weeks have tied the Bridell diet directly to the principles and admonitions of the Word of Wisdom and the law of the Sabbath.  Click here to go to the archives and read those columns.

This week we are shifting from what Bridell can do for us to how we can receive and use the Bridell book when it comes out next year — and how we can help in getting it to more people who need it.

Joining the Bridell Posse and Becoming a "Bookstore"

Requests for the Bridell Diet book continue to pour in, and so many Meridian readers want multiple copies of the book to get them to friends and relatives (or to be "bookstores" that sells them in a more personal way than a store ever could).

I have not been able to answer each individual letter because there have just been too many of them. But be assured that if you have written in, we have you on the list for a discounted copy from the first edition.  We did hold a drawing, and notified the 250 who will receive a free book. 

Perhaps more importantly, we have now decided that all Meridian readers will be able to order as many copies as they reserve from that first edition at my author's discount of 40%.  In fact, this may consume the entire first edition, and regular retail bookstores may not receive copies until the second printing. 

The reason this makes me so happy as writer is that I know the first edition will go to Meridian readers, who already know and appreciate the concepts and spiritual connections of the diet (or they will go to those that you give or sell the book to — along with your explanation and testimonial).  Thus everyone who gets a first edition will have some kind of personal tie to me and to the origin of the book.

Please continue to send me your inputs and thoughts, but know that I may answer some of them here in the column at Meridian rather than by individual return e mail. The timetable for the book’s publication, and any instructions you need to get your copies will all be here in this column which will appear (always on a Friday, but perhaps not every Friday) here on Meridian.

I have enjoyed so much getting to know so many of you through your letters, and receiving your inputs.  I have written other, earlier books, and writing can sometimes be a lonely process, and a little like a one-way conversation.  I have loved the interactivity of this column, and I don't want to give up that association. 

In fact, I want it to grow!  I want us to be a team, you and I, in implementing this diet, perfecting it and making it better — and getting it to other people who need it.  So here is what we are going to do:  We are going to form a posse!  It just seems like the appropriate thing to do when dealing with a horse metaphor and when we have the objective of rounding up others who may want or need or appreciate the principles and practices of the diet.

Logistics

Here's how it will work.  Meridian readers who reserve copies of the first edition will also receive a "posse membership" that will get them into the special "posse" section of an online website that will be called drbridell.com (original huh!).  The site will have additional information and insights about the diet, but will also be the key to a whole new kind of book distribution. 

I've mentioned before that I am a little fed up with how books are usually sold so impersonally, just in bookstores with a big markup, and often out of stock so you have to order it and go back again to pick it up.  Oh, the book will be in regular retail bookstores of course, but how much better it is to have posse members become "personal bookstores" and sell autographed, personalized, first edition copies to people they know and who they can work on the diet together with.

The drbridell.com website will also be an online support group, where posse members can share their own diet experiences — both successes and failures — and can share ideas and motivation to make it work better for us all.  We will also share with each other the broader spiritual truths that the diet is a "type" and metaphor for — and the experiences of sipping and savoring life and learning to enjoy it more. 

The diet, as you all know by now, is not only a way of eating, but a way of thinking and a way of living, and with a whole posse of us working on it together, we will all have the additional benefits of shared thoughts, experiences, and motivations.  And the web, of course, is the perfect place for this to happen. 

If you have already sent in your name and e mail address, either for the free book drawing or the 40% first edition author's discount, then your name is in a file that qualifies you for the posse.  We already have you down for one first edition copy if you have already e mailed. 

Hundreds of you have gone beyond that and expressed interest in being a "personal bookstore" and told us how many additional signed copies you want reserved from the first edition (You will pay $12 for each copy and sell it for the retail of $20.  Some have reserved 10 or 20 copies, but many just want 3 or 4 for starters.)

As mentioned earlier, when the book is ready, I will get you instructions for sending me a stamped, self addressed, padded envelope to be sure that your book or books, personalized and signed in the right way, get to you without a glitch. (Those who reserve 8 copies, or multiples of 8, will not have to send an envelope.  I will send them to you in book cartons.)

If you have already e mailed, the only reason you would need to email again is to reserve additional copies.  If you have not e mailed yet, just write to drbridell@meridianmagazine.com and say "posse" and put the number of copies you want to reserve.

And then be patient.  To do the book right will take a few months, and we are still incorporating some of the ideas you Meridian readers have sent in.  But in the meantime, I will continue to write periodic updates in Meridian — always on Fridays, at least one or two a month.  You will find them by the "medicine bottle" logo, just as now, and they will continue to have tips and ideas on how to live the diet better and better.  They will also contain progress updates on the book. 

The full Bridell archive will stay active and accessible, so that you can e mail any of your favorite columns to friends or relatives whom you want to get acquainted with the diet — and who may want a copy of the book when it is ready.

At some point, hopefully early in the new year, the official website of the Bridell posse will be announced in a Friday column, and those of you who have joined the posse will be told how to get your password.

In the Meantime....

Now here is my suggestion to you:  Use the next few weeks and months (while we are all waiting for the book) to become a true expert in living the Bridell diet.  I know from your letters that there are thousands of you who, despite your acceptance and agreement with the principles of the diet, are not living it yet!  Toughen up!  Go back in the archive and review the physical diet (first 10 columns) and recommit yourself to it.  I would like to challenge you to make the diet a part of you and a part of your life before the book comes out.  That way, you will be a living testimonial of it by the time you have it. You will be a fruit of the diet — not only in terms of the weight you have lost, but also in terms of how your mind and your spirit function and in terms of your new awareness and perspective.

This is my new year’s wish for you!  But only you (with Divine help) can make it happen.  Good luck!

Keep watching Meridian on Fridays.  Though the official column is over, there will be updates most weeks, and they will always appear on Fridays and stay at the top of the page through the weekend.  And as I said, the Meridian bridell archive will stay up and active so that you can review, check back on things, and email favorite columns to friends who you want to get prepared to receive the book. 

Stay in touch through email, and keep me posted as to your progress and experiences with not only the physical, but the mental and spiritual diet.   Love and Blessings, Dr Bridell.

Share your ideas/experiences/successes/failures on the bridell diet by writing drbridell@meridianmagazine.com.  Also write to join the Bridell posse and/or to reserve 40% discounted copies from the first edition.  Be sure to specify how many copies you want to reserve.