| 
©iStockphoto.com/Tomas
Bercic
Editor’s
note: Today's article is the seventh regular monthly update of a
column that ran in Meridian for 45 straight weeks, exploring a new
diet based on mental and spiritual rather than physical paradigms.
A sampling of those installments are still available in the Bridell
archive. Besides reviewing them for yourself, you can send them
to friends whom you think might need this new and dramatic (and
remarkably simple) diet. Dr. 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 actually be the least important of
the ways in which you will benefit!
The response to
the column was so overwhelming that the diet has now been put into
a book, the first edition of which is now available exclusively
to Meridian readers. If you don't have it yet, order your copy today!
Notice at the bottom of today's column that Dr. Bridell makes a
new offer to personalize and sign copies of the book that are ordered
during August.
I continue to get wonderful letters
from Bridell dieters and weight-losers by the score. The general
theme seems to be "this is the only diet that has ever
worked — and kept working — for me!"
This makes me so pleased, because it
continues to work for me too. Not only did I lose the weight I wanted
to, and not only am I maintaining the weight target I set, but I
continue to enjoy food more, and to enjoy the pleasures and joys
of so many other appetites now that I have really got them bridled.
I really do sometimes wish I were not
quite so "mysterious" and anonymous, because I would like
to have you know the real me (the new, slenderer, me). I'd like
to tell you my gender, my history, and why I needed this diet so
badly that I created it. I'd even like to introduce you to my horses!
Maybe someday.
In the meantime, I hope you have ordered
the Bridell
Book or that you will soon. So many readers have said that while
the column helped them, it wasn't until they got the whole diet
together, between two covers, that they really grasped it and were
able to fully implement it.
I also have to tell you that the book
is not a bad gift to give to others who have been complaining about
their weight, who could use the eat-half diet! Once you start getting
the book to others, you are becoming part of the Bridell Posse,
an organization that we will build over the next several months
so we can encourage each other, pass on success stories about the
diet, and "round up" other "law breakers" who
need to be corralled into the eat-half diet and taught how to recognize,
control, appreciate and bridle all of their good appetites!
For this month's update, let me just
mention some random thoughts I have had during the past month that
are relevant and related to the Diet:
Junk, Stress, and Pharmaceuticals
Do you get a little tired of medication
advertisements on TV? It seems like half the ads we see are from
the drug companies, pushing on us yet another chemical to treat
yet another of our stress and lifestyle caused maladies. (I really
detest the huge pharmaceuticals, by the way, because they advertise
and charge so much and make so much money on the medications they
develop for all our first world, stress related maladies, from acid
reflex to erectile dysfunction, and produce and distribute so little
of the cheap, basic meds that could save tens of thousands of lives
in the poverty stricken third world.)
Estimates are that almost half of today's
illnesses result entirely or partially from stress and from the
way we live. And a big part of the way we live is the way we eat.
The fast foods, junk foods, processed foods, fat foods, artificial
foods, and just plain bad foods that we gulp into our gullets keep
us alive, but they also keep us from fully enjoying life.
The old adage "you are what you
eat" is sadly quite true, and so if you take those adjectives
we just used to describe the food we eat, you begin to describe
your own body: junk, processed, fat, and artificial. "Fast"
of course, describes how we eat it, and also is an indication of
how long it takes to start developing the kind of lifestyle and
“eatstyle” related diseases that the drug companies
can try to create expensive chemical solutions for.
Think of the Bridell diet as the "anti-pharmaceutical!"
Hot Dogs and Krispy Kremes
OK, here is a personal confession:
There is this one drive I make a few times each summer to a weekend
place I like to go. About half way through the drive, there is a
gas station where I often fill up that has fantastic hot dogs. (They
remind me of the kosher hot dogs you used to be able to get on the
streets of New York.) This gas station also has Krispy Kreme dough
nuts. When I stop there, I often have half a dog and half a d'nut.
I eat them so slowly, and in such small bites, that it takes me
about 50 miles of savoring to finish them off.
Does this destroy your confidence in
the mysterious Dr Bridell? Well, don't let it, because let me remind
you of one thing: The bottom-line premises of the Bridell Diet are:
- There are LOTS of wonderful things
to eat in the world, and that a little of ALL of them, now and
then, is a GOOD thing.
- Our bodies and appetites, once we
have trained or "broke" them and got them bridled,
will start to crave the right things and tell us what we need
by what we want. Unbridled appetites crave junk (and sweet and
salt and fat) pretty much all the time, and our bodies, as long
as they can get enough nourishment out of the large quantity of
bad food, just go along for the fatter and fatter ride.
- But when we start limiting the quantity
— eating only half at each meal — our bodies, realizing
they can't have the quantity, begin to demand quality instead.
(That’s because they now need to get the same amount of
nourishment out of half as much food.)
- Once you have your appetite bridled
(eating half), it is vegetables and fruit and lean, quality food
that you crave — along with the OCCASIONAL hot dog and Krispy!
Getting Comfortable while Eating
your Half Meals
Interestingly, things like relaxing,
posture, heart rate, and comfort are important parts of the Bridell
diet. Watch the eating habits of someone who is controlled by his
appetite — hunched over his food, body a little tense, gulping
and guzzling and gorging and gluttoning away, snarfing down the
food in big bites. He is pretty much a slave of the food, unaware
of most everything else. (Well, maybe most people don't look THAT
bad while eating, but you get my point.)
The contrasting picture would be someone
sitting very relaxed and comfortable, sipping and savoring her half-meal,
taking small bites, setting his fork down between bites, aware of
the aroma and the texture of the food and aware of the things and
the people and the beauty around her. Eating is a pleasure, not
a task, and appetite is a delightful servant, not a demanding master.
Let me be personal again (though you
may be starting to think I am a little eccentric). I often put my
feet up on another chair, or sometimes even sit in a comfortable
recliner while I eat. Lately, this summer, I like to have meals
outside where I sit in a patio lounge chair. The more relaxed I
feel, the slower I eat and the more I savor each morsel, and the
more satisfying it is to just eat half. Something about relaxing
and being more aware while I eat puts me in charge rather than my
appetite.
Watch a really good cowboy on his horse
sometime. He is completely in control, completely relaxed, no tension
or fear or anxiety. He knows he is in charge. He is enjoying the
ride. That horse is bridled and completely in control. Once you
have bridled your appetite by developing the eat-half habit, you
can relax and enjoy and lope along peacefully.
The Fascinating Connection
between Appetites, the Bridell Diet and JOY
We live in a society of excesses, obsessions,
and addictions. And guess what, they all begin with appetites! That
is the sequence of things. First, an appetite, which — if
unchecked or unbridled — leads to excesses. If still unbridled,
the excesses become obsessions which are very hard to control, and
which, if not bridled at that last chance, become addictions. So
we should blame our appetites, right — because they are what
starts the whole horrible sequence!
Wrong, we should not "blame" appetites. Appetites and
passions are a gift from God, an important and wonderful part of
mortality, and an important tool of our progression toward eternity.
Appetites are the HORSE in the core metaphor of the Bridell diet
and the Bridell philosophy. Horses are beautiful and swift and strong
and capable of giving us great joy. But they must be bridled! Alma
said it perfectly "see that ye bridle your passions that ye
may be filled with joy."
An "excess" is a horse that
is inadequately bridled and begins to run away with us. An obsession
is a horse that has had its way for so long that it begins to become
dangerous. An addiction is a horse that has become so uncontrolled
and dangerous that it can kill us.
The tragedy of this progression form
appetite to excesses to obsession to addiction is that, besides
ultimately killing us (spiritually if not physically), it ROBS US
OF JOY. Especially in this modern world, where excesses abound,
no one seems to know what "enough" is. We want more and
more. We are never satisfied. We want a bigger house, a better car,
a more beautiful spouse, and we compare ourselves continuously with
others who have more or better. Thus we become less and less able
to appreciate what we have, and to find joy in the simple, basic
fulfillments of life. Whether it is our appetite for food, for sex,
for material things, for recognition, or simply for trying to do
everything and keep up with everyone else, we want MORE.
The poet e.e. cummings said it well:
"More, more, more, more. What are we all becoming, morticians?"
(I like the quote because it implies the ultimate danger of unbridled
appetites — that they can kill us.)
The Bridell Diet is, simply stated,
a plan for bridling our passions, for controlling our appetites.
My hope for those who follow it is simple: That they steer away
from death, and toward JOY.
Get a Signed Copy
You know what? I feel so close to Meridian
readers. Your support (and your letters) helped me so much in developing
the eat-half diet and in sticking with the diet until I reached
the results I wanted in my own body (and my own spirit.)
I want to stay personally connected
with you. One way I can do that is to "personalize" the
early copies from the first edition. Anyone who orders copies during
the month of August will get one with an individual hand-written
message on the first page. I will do this signing and personalizing
only for Meridian readers who order by the end of the month. By
then I will have writers’ cramp and have to discontinue.
Thanks for being my friends and fellow
dieters. Spread the word about the logical and rational and poetic
and beautiful diet. Make the world a lighter place! And remember
to catch up with right here in the update on the first Friday of
each month. Send any questions or comments to me at DrBridell@meridianmagazine.com,
and I will answer and respond in the next monthly update or by return
email.
Meridian Publishers
is proud to be the official publisher of the Bridell Diet Book.
Get your signed, personalized copy by ordering
here before September 1.
Click
here to sign up for Meridian's FREE email updates.
©
2007 Meridian Magazine.
All Rights Reserved. |
