Fat Broke Lonely Review

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Michael Wade Simpson
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Fat, Broke & Lonely No More!—Your Personal Solution to Overeating, Overspending, and Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places.

by Victoria Moran

Harper One, A Division of HarperCollins Publishers, 2007, New York

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One of my favorite proverbs is: “When you pray, move your feet.” It could serve as a subtitle for Victoria Moran’s brilliant new self-help book Fat, Broke & Lonely No More!—Your Personal Solution to Overeating, Overspending, and Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places.

The shelves at the big bookstores are chock-full of self-help books, some actually helpful, many boring and silly, but only a few that fulfill the promise to really help a reader to a better life. Moran’s books, and especially her new one, stand out.

She makes the meaning of the proverb come alive in that her book not only serves as an effective introduction to the power of the spiritual side of recovery and self-improvement, but she ends each chapter with recommendations for actions, often simple ones that even the most befuddled reader can take. This combination of “pray” or the spiritual side of making your life better with the “move your feet” action element is what makes the book so powerful.

That, and the fact that Moran has, by her own admission, been there and done that in the fat, broke, and lonely categories. This book is based solidly on her own life experience and not just research and clever ideas. Today Victoria Moran is anything but fat, or broke, or lonely; she abounds in inner and outer beauty, she is a best-selling author, a successful life-coach, and a rising star on the motivational speaker’s circuit. And lonely? No. She is happily married with a talented and beautiful daughter, and the book’s acknowledgment page hints that she has plenty of friends too. But she arrived at these to-be-desired circumstances starting right where many of her readers find themselves: fat, broke, and lonely.

There’s no magical formula in Moran’s book, but instead some ways of looking at one’s life with fresh eyes and an enlightened consciousness. She makes it entertainingly clear that the pathway to the higher levels of spiritual awareness pass through simple (but not necessarily easy) actions such as drinking enough water, getting enough exercise, getting out of crippling debt, and decluttering your home and your life.

She shows the reader a world where it’s obvious that dressing well and creatively is great but not on quite the same spiritual level as meditating every day, that being healthily hydrated isn’t quite as dramatic as making peace with your inner child, or as exciting as vision-mapping, but that they all work together to help a reader go from where she is to where she wants to be. Moran makes it clear that she’s been on such a journey of transformation herself, and that she continues along the way. She encourages progress, not perfection.

Although she writes mostly for her female readers, if you’re an open-minded male sort of person, you can still learn from her book. You may have noticed that there are more than a few fat, broke, and lonely guys on the subway as well as gals. The book’s cover is in shades of shocking pink, so male readers with a case of image-insecurity may want to slip a NASCAR dust jacket onto the book.

But really, it’s an all-gender book, with ideas and strategies that transcend our limitations. Moran believes that we can all have better lives, and she makes the reader believe it too.

fat, broke and lonely no moreClick Here

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