Body & Soul

If you are a food addict, a compulsive eater, or you simply can’t seem to lose that pesky last 10 pounds, a more holistic approach just might be your answer. Enter Marianne Williamson, internationally acclaimed lecturer and bestselling author of A Course in Miracles, A Return to Love, and A Woman’s Worth. Williamson’s latest book, A Course in Weight Loss: 21 Spiritual Lessons for Surrendering Your Weight Forever, explores the mind/body/soul connection between weight loss, and offers a systematic approach for integrating the various parts of yourself for lasting weight loss and emotional health.

Q:What moved you to write A Course in Weight Loss?

A: For years, I was a compulsive overeater. Diets did not work. I would starve myself, then binge, in a constant cycle of self-abnegation and self-indulgence. Then, when I began studying the concepts that formed the basis of my book, A Course in Miracles, I found that the weight simply dropped off effortlessly, and I realized why. The weight had merely been a physical manifestation of my need to keep others at bay. In A Course in Weight Loss, I wanted to share the kind of lessons and internal processes that I had gone through that allowed me to finally shed the excess weight. Additionally, Oprah Winfrey was very involved with his book from its beginning. She really inspired the book, directed its course, and guided its vision.

Q: How is A Course in Weight Loss different from other books on losing weight?

A: There are many diet and exercise programs out there, many of which are absolutely wonderful and do work. The problem is how often people lose weight on these diet and exercise programs, but then end up going back to their old patterns. A Course in Weight Loss teaches “conscious weight loss.” It guides people to do the inner work-to address the serious addictive patterns that caused them to gain weight in the first place.

Q:One of the lessons is about developing a love affair with food. How does this help us in our quest to shed excess pounds?

A: The last thing you need to do if you want to stop thinking obsessively about food is to tell yourself not to think about it! Doing so is an invitation for such thoughts to overwhelm you. This particular lesson is about learning to build a ritual of healthy, wise, non-secretive, and loving eating.

Q:What is the most important thing for someone to know who is thinking of embarking on A Course in Weight Loss?

A: The lessons are not just something you are going to read; doing this course requires your active participation. This course is cumulative. Every day you will be given a lesson, and while the content of that lesson is to be focused on for a particular day, its energy should be allowed to live continuously within your psyche as the days unfold. And realize that overeating is an emotionally violent act, so begin with a commitment to be kind to yourself.