"The Secret" book/movie: excerpt on weight loss. Is the author serious?

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zeroth

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After I watched this week's SNL skit about the book titled The Secret I went off to read a bit about it online. After I found the following excerpt, I began to wonder if this book is 100% serious...it apparently is.

The excerpt:

"The most common thought that people hold, and I held it too, is that food was responsible for my weight gain. That is a belief that does not serve you, and in my mind now it is complete balderdash! Food is not responsible for putting on weight. It is your *thought* that food is responsible for putting on weight that actually has food put on weight. ... If you see people who are overweight, do not observe them, but immediately switch your mind to the picture of you in your perfect body and feel it."​

:confused: :confused:

It's about visualization, I'm sure, but am I taking this out of context or is the author saying that one of the ways to lose weight is to not look at overweight people? Is she saying that I have to ignore (disdain?) people who are less than my personal model of perfection? Or is all of this carefully crafted hype to sell the book?
 
The book is nothing but a giant scam that was pushed by Oprah.



The mind-body connection is a strong one indeed, but believing that donut is not fattening will not make its 500 calories "go away".
 
(Silent) said:
The book is nothing but a giant scam that was pushed by Oprah.



The mind-body connection is a strong one indeed, but believing that donut is not fattening will not make its 500 calories "go away".
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Hi, (Silent).

Oprah: :rolleyes: :) (It's great that she's gotten some people to read, but I'm not a fan of a lot of the books on her lists. And she's got so much power now that it's a little scary.)

About The Secret: I was so, so offended that the author advises people to ignore people who look a particular way. That's just sad. I have a friend who is overweight and she says that so many people do not see her. She said that people will look at her and seem to sort of see through her. It's sad enough that that happens, but it's really sad for people to advocate doing that just as a means to their own personal goals...that's nasty.
 
zeroth said:
Hi, (Silent).

Oprah: :rolleyes: :) (It's great that she's gotten some people to read, but I'm not a fan of a lot of the books on her lists. And she's got so much power now that it's a little scary.)

About The Secret: I was so, so offended that the author advises people to ignore people who look a particular way. That's just sad. I have a friend who is overweight and she says that so many people do not see her. She said that people will look at her and seem to sort of see through her. It's sad enough that that happens, but it's really sad for people to advocate doing that just as a means to their own personal goals...that's nasty.
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Opera most people love her, i do not.

I was shocked when i saw her have those pathetic people pushing a book that basically states. "what you think is what happens to you." And i agree your thoughts have a huge impact on your life. But what i gathered from it was you had to do NO work and just sit and imagine all day and the riches will come.
Opera before she sold out, would have never put on guest who's soul purpose is to make money.
 
I hope there's more context to that, which makes it...um, not crazy. As is, it's rambling and nonsensical.
 
DEF said:
I hope there's more context to that, which makes it...um, not crazy. As is, it's rambling and nonsensical.
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my thoughts too. I think there is. There was this tv show, "hypnotize yourself skinny" something like that. The dude just taught some techniques on how not to eat as much food, eat slower and be aware and stuff like that. instead of just stuffing your mouth until you cant fit anymore inn.
 
First of all, the entire 'Secret' concept is a huge scam. The only secret is that they're raking in millions from people by playing off their desire to have everything they've ever wanted. It's the old 'have your cake and eat it too' idea. Sure, you can have a huge impact on your life by thinking positively, but none of us are God, so believing we can have things just by thinking about them is preposterous.

You eat too much and exercise too little, you'll get fat. Whether you think you will or not.
 
trainerbob said:
First of all, the entire 'Secret' concept is a huge scam. The only secret is that they're raking in millions from people by playing off their desire to have everything they've ever wanted. It's the old 'have your cake and eat it too' idea. Sure, you can have a huge impact on your life by thinking positively, but none of us are God, so believing we can have things just by thinking about them is preposterous.

You eat too much and exercise too little, you'll get fat. Whether you think you will or not.
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I've had the same thoughts--it has to be a scam or just a big, hyped-up project that's designed, ultimately, to make money.

I absolutely do think that visualizing an actionable goal will help you to reach it, but I think that there are certain laws of the universe that you sort of have to obey, no matter how many secrets you're onto. :)

BTW, before that SNL skit, I'd never heard of the book or the movie (DVD). It just rubbed me the absolute wrong way to suggest what they appeared to be suggesting. And like someone else pointed out, there might be more to this--I surely need more context to understand this fully. Maybe with the added details, there's a bit more of a sound foundation, but I'm doubtful just because of the whole "ignore the fat people" advice.
 
The secret is hard ****ing work, that's the secret. I agree with Silent, bob, and everyone else with a similar opinion in this thread.
 
Aw comeon Lei...you don't have to work hard or diet or exercise. All you have to do while eating your Big Mac is look at the skinny people walking by the McDonald's (*note they aren't walking in) and you'll get skinny. oh, damn, now I get it! I mean if Oprah says it, it has to be true!

Seriously. :rolleyes:

How sad is it that right now there are who knows how many overweight housewives clinging to that.

By the way, I wonder how the overweight people who paid money for this book feel about being the actual people that the book says to ignore? You would think that the overweight would be the last ones to advocate something like that being that they have already been on the ugly end of it.
 
This is all making me smile now.

Part of me wants to read the book to see what claims the author makes about natural disasters. I suppose we could do away with the annoying hurricanes and inconvenient floods by not talking about them or looking at them as they're threatening. :)
 
tonymcclellan said:
Oprah is not the one to listen to for diet advice. Shes lost more (and gained) weight than most a small country.
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I know, but she's got this avid, cult-like following. I guess in some ways, people who (think they) can't lose any weight at all look up to her despite the overall yo-yo-iness of it all.

I would HATE to struggle like that--down, up, down again. There is a group of yo-yo dieters at my work and each one goes down by maybe 20-40# by the time each summer rolls along. They're generally unhappy with their weight (to them, it's about appearance/clothes) except for the few months each summer when they fit into smaller clothes. I've been watching them do it for a bunch of years and now, after maybe 10-15 years of this, they're complaining that they can't lose any fat (or it's maybe a pound or two here/there). Their response to that: doing a cleansing/starvation thing: they're going three days with only liquids because, according to the one, that'll "jump start" the metabolism.
 
In a way, it's right.

Often, what trips us up is mindset. The people who fail often don't see themselves as successful, lean people. It's a matter of mindset.

However, taken at face value, that author is a dork.
 
That much is true, Cynic. There is a huge mind/body connection that is getting more and more recognized. I could see where focusing your thoughts on being lean and fit could actually help, but by no means is it going to be what actually gets you lean and fit, which seems to be what he is suggesting.
 
deschain said:
That much is true, Cynic. There is a huge mind/body connection that is getting more and more recognized. I could see where focusing your thoughts on being lean and fit could actually help, but by no means is it going to be what actually gets you lean and fit, which seems to be what he is suggesting.
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I agree with all of that as well. You set your thoughts to a thing and chances are that your actions will begin to glide along to support getting/being/doing that thing. It's a good practice. What I object to is the concept of ignoring <n> people just because they might interfere with your own mental images of beauty.

I imagine people walking down the street, thinking thin thoughts of themselves and then as a heavy person approaches, I hear the sound of a needle dragging across a record--putting an abrupt and unwelcome stop to that mental image. That's the way that excerpt of the book plays out for me. I just resent the implication that people should be disdained or ignored because they might interfere with your visualization. :(
 
Just seems like another attempt to divert responsibility for one's life/lifestyle away from the person living it into something else. Overweight? Not your fault - it's the fault of those overweight people you've been looking at. (I wonder if the same applies to race, or religion or anything else.) The answer as always lies inward, not outward, but that's a longer and more difficult road to follow.
 
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