Making the Case

As my unusual snowy mid-February interlude dies down, I am looking forward to getting back to work and out of the house. In order to get myself re-energized without having to actually leave the house yet, I pulled an old favorite inspirational diet book off my shelf, Making the Case for Yourself, by Susan Estrich, Riverhead Books, 1997.

Susan Estrich has always been an overachiever: first woman head of the Harvard Law Review, for one small accomplishment. But the tagline on her book, "A diet book for smart women" was surely designed to appeal to me. This book was first suggested to me by my sister, who had heard about it from a friend at work, but I read it in the middle of my Big Loss and it really helped keep me on track.

Her basic premise is we fail at dieting because we fail to make it a priority. She argues as a lawyer why we should make it a priority. She brings lawyering tools to help us be successful - arguments to use with ourselves, contracts to sign, rules to follow. She wants us to start by listing our individual reasons, just like Judith Beck.  She offers up her own Miracle Diet to follow (yes, I got the name from her).  None of this is especially original, which she freely admits. She has been an expert dieter her whole life, and she tackled her Big Loss "like the "A" student I am", by reading and studying and trying things out.  Most of her techniques are entirely aligned with the Beck approach.

What I like best about this book is her authentic voice and her humor.  She did indeed get fat (not so obese as women are today, but size 16 on a short body fat). She did indeed keep the weight off (and lists as one of her reasons for writing the book "you can't go on a book tour for a diet book if you gain all the weight back...").  Her anecdotes ring totally true with me - such as the feeling you get when you are feeling successful at the diet, your pants are loose on you, you are in control, and you decide to go out to eat... DANGER LIES AHEAD.

But I believe my absolute favorite line in the book is when she is talking about getting ready to start the diet:
"Look at next three weeks. Is there anything in the next three weeks you can't do and diet?  What is it, a pie-eating contest?"

Gotta love her. A couple of chapters in, I was on the NerdicTrak grooving to the music.