Friday, May 25, 2007 at 1:01am
Our Lady of Weight Loss
Column: Outing the Goddess Within
Once upon a time, a girl called Rita starved herself for God, bore wounds from rogue crucifix thorns, prayed furiously 24/7, and eventually became the patron saint of impossible cases (and, as I understand it, hyperbole). But in this day and age of pro-anorexia, made-in-China-plastic-crucifixes and prayer-by-proxy, who prays to beleaguered saints anymore?
It's good news for sore ears that there are some pretty good icons out there that patronize more practical worldly tasks. One of them is Our Lady of Weight Loss, who is, well, the patron saint of weight-loss artists.
A weight-loss artist, according to Janice Taylor (an All-Round-Good-Gal specializing in weight loss, self-esteem and happiness), "is someone who makes art about food instead of eating it and, in the process, loses weight."
Weigh to go, Janice! She is my new personal goddess, because she's making it very easy for me to connect with my inner-thinner core.
Her book ("Our Lady of Weight Loss: Miraculous and Motivational Musings from the Patron Saint of Permanent Fat Removal,") for example, is already helping me practice girth control — by placing it on my coffee table, I no longer have room for a plate of cakes. You see how easy it is?
A truthful woman is one who doesn't lie about anything except her age, her weight and her husband's salary. She also doesn't blame her dry-cleaner for her pants being too tight, but we'll leave that to her discretion. Janice, therefore, must be a very truthful woman, because she's loud and proud about her own weight loss achievements and what it has done for her self-esteem. (She's also honest about her dry-cleaned pants!)
"I permanently removed 55 pounds almost six years ago. I look great and younger, and a lot hotter than I did six years ago, and my health is certainly better," she says.
"But the biggest joy is at the end of the day: I am NOT berating myself for what I ate that I shouldn't have. I like myself. You know — I love myself. And I believe in myself. Weight loss presented an opportunity for reinvention and transformation."
A poll for the health magazine Prevention (April issue) found that 85 percent of American women would rather reveal their age than their weight — and even then they were likely on average to shave four years off their age.
Rather than promote such creative truth-telling, Janice prefers to use two other very effective tools for success.
The first tool is forgiveness.
"Forgiveness is a key ingredient to entering the Kingdom of Permanent Fat Removal," she says.
"The act of NOT forgiving keeps us in the 'fat loop.' But if we forgive our dietary transgression and move on, we are free of the inner tirade. And really, what was the crime? A piece of cake? One piece of cake does not a fat person make. All is forgiven. Move on."
The second tool is a Creative Act of Weight Loss (CAofWL) — anything that diverts you from food (as in eating too much, making bad choices, obsessing about whether chocolate really isn't good for dogs).
Janice broke the broken-zippers-broken-dreams cycle by becoming America's first weight loss artist. Since 2001 she has been collaging, sewing and crocheting her way to health and fitness and motivating thousands of others to boot.
Sure beats bearing a thorn in your forehead, for God's sake!
— — —
Anita Ryan-Revel is the author of "The Goddess Guide to Chakra Vitality," aimed at helping you connect with your beautiful, sassy, intuitive, lovable, sacred and authentic self. She has incorporated her journey into hundreds of articles, countless websites and numerous books, many of which can be found at her website, Goddess.com.au You can read more of her columns here. © copyright 2007 by Anita Ryan-Revel.
It's good news for sore ears that there are some pretty good icons out there that patronize more practical worldly tasks. One of them is Our Lady of Weight Loss, who is, well, the patron saint of weight-loss artists.
A weight-loss artist, according to Janice Taylor (an All-Round-Good-Gal specializing in weight loss, self-esteem and happiness), "is someone who makes art about food instead of eating it and, in the process, loses weight."
Weigh to go, Janice! She is my new personal goddess, because she's making it very easy for me to connect with my inner-thinner core.
Her book ("Our Lady of Weight Loss: Miraculous and Motivational Musings from the Patron Saint of Permanent Fat Removal,") for example, is already helping me practice girth control — by placing it on my coffee table, I no longer have room for a plate of cakes. You see how easy it is?
A truthful woman is one who doesn't lie about anything except her age, her weight and her husband's salary. She also doesn't blame her dry-cleaner for her pants being too tight, but we'll leave that to her discretion. Janice, therefore, must be a very truthful woman, because she's loud and proud about her own weight loss achievements and what it has done for her self-esteem. (She's also honest about her dry-cleaned pants!)
"I permanently removed 55 pounds almost six years ago. I look great and younger, and a lot hotter than I did six years ago, and my health is certainly better," she says.
"But the biggest joy is at the end of the day: I am NOT berating myself for what I ate that I shouldn't have. I like myself. You know — I love myself. And I believe in myself. Weight loss presented an opportunity for reinvention and transformation."
A poll for the health magazine Prevention (April issue) found that 85 percent of American women would rather reveal their age than their weight — and even then they were likely on average to shave four years off their age.
Rather than promote such creative truth-telling, Janice prefers to use two other very effective tools for success.
The first tool is forgiveness.
"Forgiveness is a key ingredient to entering the Kingdom of Permanent Fat Removal," she says.
"The act of NOT forgiving keeps us in the 'fat loop.' But if we forgive our dietary transgression and move on, we are free of the inner tirade. And really, what was the crime? A piece of cake? One piece of cake does not a fat person make. All is forgiven. Move on."
The second tool is a Creative Act of Weight Loss (CAofWL) — anything that diverts you from food (as in eating too much, making bad choices, obsessing about whether chocolate really isn't good for dogs).
Janice broke the broken-zippers-broken-dreams cycle by becoming America's first weight loss artist. Since 2001 she has been collaging, sewing and crocheting her way to health and fitness and motivating thousands of others to boot.
Sure beats bearing a thorn in your forehead, for God's sake!
— — —
Anita Ryan-Revel is the author of "The Goddess Guide to Chakra Vitality," aimed at helping you connect with your beautiful, sassy, intuitive, lovable, sacred and authentic self. She has incorporated her journey into hundreds of articles, countless websites and numerous books, many of which can be found at her website, Goddess.com.au You can read more of her columns here. © copyright 2007 by Anita Ryan-Revel.