Thin is a State of Mind

by Nancy Bryan

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0896380556
• ISBN13: 9780896380554
• Release Date: January 1980
• Publisher: Compcare Publications
• Length: 192 Pages

Customer Reviews

One of those great accidental finds!

I HIGHLY recommend this book! I came upon it in a local library years ago and it blew me away! She writes such truths, that if you have struggled with your weight, you will right away identify with. And take away such great insight and revelation. It really is a grand book, I am surprised it has never been reprinted!

Way ahead of her time

I fondly remember that when I first read a review of this book in a fitness magazine in April, 1980, my mother called the publisher and ordered it for me. I still have my orignal copy: tattered cover, text full of underlining, highlighting, and my comments in the margins. Many excellent books on the market today harken back to Nancy Bryan's "non-striving" concept that she so aptly illustrated long before most people were writing about it. I have read the book over and over again. Some of her points make so much sense and ofter occur to me when I think about the horrors of compulsive eating and impatient weight loss. For instance, she points out that if you heard about a magical scheme to have a baby in 3 months you would never believe it. So why believe that you can "lose 20 pounds in 20 days"? Dr. Bryan helped me to understand that weight loss is about so much more than "dieting" at a time when most of the literature was touting one quick "cure" or another and I was feeling more and more hopeless because of my lack of "willpower." It is so comforting to remember that I am not worthless because I lack willpower; I simply need to stop obsessing about a "diet" and remember that I need to break old patterns and internalize healthier ones by practicing them until they become familiar and comfortable. This is the only sane way to get on the road to better emotional and physical health and subsequently to a thinner body. I know because I lost 80 pounds and this way of thinking is the only way I can keep it off and stay healthy.

Right brain dieting - no more do's and don'ts!

This books explains a very complex issue in a very simple way which exposes the underlying misconceptions regarding weight loss. The result is an arsenol of equipment to make and sustain permanant changes. A paragraph in chapter 3 called "You Are Your Habits" explains so clearly that the reason it is so hard to stay on a diet is because we are so programmed to do things the way we've always done them. This is the beauty of habits - they are great when we've learned things the right way. But when our habits are working towards our detriment, understanding the self protecting process can help us endure the discomfort that is neccessary to create new habits. Dr. Bryan refers often to the bestselling book "Inner Tennis" by Timothy Gallwey, as his view of mastering tennis helped her to change her view of dieting from one of self-effort to self-actualization. I loved this book, and believe it will help me to maintain my 125 lb. weight loss because it has changed me from the inside out.