Chappy's Weight Loss Solution by Chaplain Richard Phelps

Chappy, as he is called, had a detailed vision in 2012. He pursued the ideas he was given regarding helping firefighters lose weight. This booklet is one of the results. He also developed a website, a nonprofit organization, a Facebook page, and training.

He shares his own story of struggling with weight. He had success with Weight Watchers for a time, regained weight, then sought professional help. He began to understand the role emotions had in his eating, finding out he was a food addict.

He shares many lessons he learned, such as about his own self-will, shame, food strategies that worked (and ones that didn't), the spiritual component, and the reality of food addictions.

I appreciated his struggle over his relationship with God and overeating. He found that Christian faith does not automatically lead to overcoming addictive behavior. He gives some suggestions and advocates the strategy of The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and/or Overeaters Anonymous.

The focus of this booklet is helping firefighters and directing them to the website Phelps developed. There is good material in the booklet for any person struggling with weight issues.

Appendixes include resources and previous articles written by Phelps. You can find out more at http://firefightersweightloss.com/.

My rating: 4/5 stars.

Richard Phelps served in the army, then returned to Rhode Island and was involved in business and politics. He had a spiritual experience in 1973 and dedicated his life to helping others. He was called to pastoral counseling in 1987 and began Pastoral Counseling in Melbourne, Florida, in 1989. He was ordained in 1994 and founded a Christian counseling center in Palm Bay, Florida. He became interested in Workplace Chaplaincy and investigated fire departments. He became a volunteer firefighter and Chaplain at Indialantic Fire Rescue at Indialantic, Florida, in 2005. He and his wife have five adult children and sixteen grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

Elk Lake Publishing, 116 pages.

I received a complimentary digital copy of this booklet through The Book Club Network for the purpose of an independent and honest review.