Carol L. Spencer (61-year-old integrative medicine)

I have enjoyed an extremely thin body all of my life. Going through the Happy Body program has shown me that thin doesn’t always translate to “healthy,” however. In my younger years I did not eat correctly and didn’t treat my body with the respect it deserved. In those years I was merely concerned with outward appearances.

About eight years ago I was struck by a life-threatening illness that rendered me bedridden for three years. In this process of lack of activity and the drug regimen that was prescribed, I gained almost thirty pounds. To be overweight was a new phenomenon for me. Over the next five years, I tried every diet imaginable, and the only result I obtained was frustration and misery.

The overriding goal that spurred me on was a closet full of beautiful clothes – all size 6! My friends tried in vain to get me to forget about these clothes, saying that I must love myself no matter my size; that it’s “who I am inside” rather than what I wear. They urged me to buy new clothes that would go with my larger body, reassuring me that I was not “fat” after all; that I would still have an elegance that self-acceptance would foster.

On a superficial level, it would have been easy to rationalize that they were right, but I came to understand that to accept their philosophy rather than to lose the weight would be the easy way out. After all, I have always taken pride in how I look, and I have always loved pretty clothes. Those two elements of my personality were difficult to relinquish.

A few months ago a friend introduced me to the Happy Body program. Though I have not yet reached my weight goal on this journey, I have been able to see that through daily exercise (that I find very enjoyable), meditation, and sensible eating, I can have the best of all worlds (I can have my cake and eat it too!). I can be healthy, look good, and fit into clothes I haven’t been able to wear in years.

Fast forward to March, 2009: I have been on the Happy Body program for the last nine months. I have lost the 30 pounds I gained, and I no longer wear a wardrobe that consists only of things that are black and stretchy! I am able to fit into all of the clothes in my closet, which was my original goal, but there is so much more to the story.

Indeed, Jerzy and Aniela have equipped me with a proper exercise regimen that exercises the body in the necessary ways for a healthy, happy body, and they have shown me the proper way to nourish my body, but more than ever, I am able to see that this journey extends beyond the external. I am one who espouses the premise of the body, mind, spirit connection, and in my humble opinion, that oneness cannot be disputed. I am privileged to say that the Happy Body concept of Jerzy and Aniela has also been greatly beneficial – and has happily spread – to my mind and spirit!

Each day following my exercise routine, I rest in meditative state, and take a journey – generally to a place of peace and wisdom. The overarching reward, then, is that through the Happy Body program, one is led to the state of harmony and balance. It has been said that the body is naturally thin and is happiest in that way. It rebels against fats and sugars, and excess of such toxins can lead to disease. If the body is kept in alignment with its natural way of being, the mind and spirit, too, soar with energy and joy.

I marvel at the fact that so many of us search high and low for the answer to weight loss, only to come up empty each time! The concept is quite simple, if we only allow and accept it. Thank you Jerzy and Aniela for opening my eyes to the fact that such a basic concept has vast benefits. Yes, the body thins down, but the individual, per se, is favorably rounded out!

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