Written by: Robin Arroyo

As a product reviewer for Fit After Thirty, I am normally used to researching new fitness gadgets, working my buns off to exercise videos, or testing yoga pants and jog bras to find neat things that we can recommend to all of you. So, during a recent business trip to sunny California, to discuss and retrieve products for review, I was surprised to find some books in my assignment bin.

It makes sense that Suzy would ask me to review books, as I am an avid reader of fitness and self help books, and have years of experience in and around the fitness world, and have a triathlete-fitness trainer for a brother, whose expertise on all things fitness has made me more familiar with the topic than I ever even cared to be.

No problem, I thought. I can do “book reports”, fully expecting that my first assignment would be a diet or weight lifting book. Leave it to Suzy to throw me a curve ball. She handed me the book called Stop Self-Sabotage: Get Out of Your Way to Earn More Money, Improve Your Relationships, and Find the Success You Deserve, by motivational speaker, Pat Pearson, M.S.S.W.

So, while Suzy was off to a meeting, I picked up the book to read, and within seconds I put it down. Not in the mood.

The next day was unseasonably warm for a winter day, (even for California) so I headed to the beach for a little R&R. I slipped the book in my bag. With the sound of the ocean surrounding me, I skimmed through the book, and once again, I quickly put it down. Too distracted.

Maybe I was being a book sob, thinking I had read all of this in previous other books by different writers. I sat back in my fold-up beach chair and took in the sites. After a few minutes of looking around at the fit runners and cyclists passing by in their spandex shorts and tank tops on the strand, I looked down at myself, fully covered in a sweat suit. A year ago, I would have been wearing less than the exercise enthusiasts I saw around me, but due to some recent weight gain, I have been too self conscious about my body to want to reveal it.

I looked back at the book, and it all clicked. Maybe I need to read this book, not just for my assignment, not just for Fit After Thirty readers, but for me. So I did.

Pearson uses her experience as a psychotherapist to break down the common behaviors pertinent to sabotaging ourselves and she addresses how we obtained the negative beliefs behind our sabotaging behaviors in the first place.  She does this by using self-tests, exercises and examples of other people’s life struggles.  

I am a firm believer in the Law of Attraction, and Pearson addresses this in Stop Self- Sabotage. She discusses self-talk, affirmations, and how you truly feel about yourself.  She states:  ”A belief is simply a thought you keep practicing.”  It sounds so obvious; and intellectually, I know this concept from various other self-help books, but the way Pearson expresses it truly hit home for me.  I was “wowed” by her definitions of self-esteem and self- confidence. 

After figuring out your type of self-sabotage (for me - denial - hence, my resistance to reading the book) she helps reprogram and raise your “Deserve Level”. This book came into my life at the most appropriate time.  As many Americans are these days, I am currently unemployed and bankrupt, and have suffered through some grave losses in recent months, financially and otherwise. Besides family and friends, where did I look for comfort through these hardships? You guessed it! Food!

Not only did this book reveal to me how some of my own self-sabotaging actions contributed to my recent weight gain, but how they contributed to all of the other problems in my life leading up to the weight gain. The Fit After Thirty belief that fitness is about the connection between a healthy mind, body, and spirit, is one I often forget to embrace, and one that is demonstrated throughout this book.

Stop Self-Sabotage has given me tools to help myself! This book has given me the knowledge and the realization of my self-defeating patterns and also practical exercises to help me get off my personal, not so fun, merry-go-round.

This is a must read!! Whether you’re needing inspiration to help you in your dieting and weight loss goals, or in other areas of your life, I believe this book will help you get a *f.a.t. body, mind, and spirit!