Tag Archives: book reviews

52 Small Changes Could Be Your Tool For a Happier, Healthier Year

Perhaps you resolved to be happier and healthier in 2024. If you feel overwhelmed or do not know where to start, a great book just came across my desk that could be exactly what you want. Brett Blumenthal has written 52 Small Changes: One year to a happier, healthier you, and it looks like an excellent program.

On the first page of the introduction, I was immediately impressed that not only is this research-based, but she has done her homework and cited her references. All of her theories seem to be right on, and it is all things we need to hear when trying to make a change, even if it seems basic. The approach is holistic, including change items in four sections: diet and nutrition, fitness and prevention, mental well-being, and green living. If you are suspicious that “green” is simply a marketing label, I would venture that these are truly healthy living habits that don’t quite fit into diet and nutrition or fitness and prevention. Each change is something that will lead to a physically and mentally healthier life, so even if you never complete the book, you can be healthier and happier.

While she is using the kaizen theory to create an entire lifestyle change in a year, I do think this is a lot of change very quickly. No single change will be cemented in a single week. You will still be practicing when you add in the next thing. After several weeks, there may be a lot to track. Brett states that you can use this book in any way that fits for you. That may mean mastering each change (which could take several weeks or months) before moving on to the next one. It may mean starting on January first. It may mean starting on Monday. It may mean starting on or a year before a milestone birthday. It may mean picking and choosing what is most applicable to you right now.

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Posted on January 11, 2024 by Brooke Randolph

Calories & Corsets Looks at 2,000 Years of Dieting

Book by Louise FoxcroftIn the book Calories & Corsets, Cambridge historian Louise Foxcroft explores the history of diets, which reaches back 2,000 years in Europe. She not only explores the emergence of fad diets and the weight loss industry, but also a history of attitudes towards fatness.

In Western civilization, people who are overweight have been judged as morally and spiritually weak, so by logical extension, diets and weight loss regimes were something punishing. The Ancient Greeks induced vomiting and used enemas in an effort to reduce body fat. The rise of Christianity further enforced the association between fatness and sin. Being fat was not only a proof of gluttony, but also represented too strong an attachment to worldly pleasures.

As the title suggests, female bodies have been submitted to higher pressures to become thin. Foxcroft looks at how the ideal female figure has evolved, along with the schemes and fads that promised to mean the means of achieving this goal. Once a problem only for the rich, over time weight gain and obesity became a problem for all classes as sedentary lifestyles became the norm and unhealthy snacks became less and less expensive.

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Posted on January 11, 2024 by Margaret

Tao Song and Tao Dance Continues Study on Alternative Healing Techniques

As part of the Soul Power Series, a new release by New York Times Bestselling author Dr. and Master Zhi Gang Sha, “Tao Song and Tao Dance” hit stores today and offers a continued study of Dr. Sha’s extraordinary healing techniques and concepts.

Dr. Sha is a conventional medical doctor as well as a doctor of Chinese medicine. Demonstrating his humanitarian efforts, for which he was awarded the Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Commission, Dr. Sha founded the Institute of Soul Healing and Enlightenment and the Love Peace Harmony Movement. He is also a master of Eastern disciplines such as tai chi, qigong, feng shui and kung fu. Named Qigong Master of the Year at the Fifth World Congress on Qigong, Dr. Sha’s Soul Power Series reveal his secrets, wisdom, knowledge and practical techniques to transform every aspect of life. As a soul leader, healer and divine servant, Dr. Sha claims that we should “Heal and transform the soul first; then healing and transformation of every aspect of life will follow.” (more…)

Posted on November 29, 2023 by Jill

Get Out of Your Veggie Comfort Zone with Easy and Healthy Ways to Prepare Fresh Vegetables

Learning how to cook can be intimidating, but learning how to cook when you’re trying to lose weight can seem impossible. Easy and Healthy Ways to Prepare Fresh Vegetables is an approachable, easy to read book that instructs readers how to peel, prepare and preserve your favorite produce.

Co-authors Arnold Weislo and Annabelle Delaval decided to write the book after a trip to their town market where Weislo watched his friend, an excellent cook, choose vegetables for a pasta dish that he would prepare.

“When I saw him choose the vegetables while I was buying pasta, it bugged me slightly. And I wanted to do like him: be able to choose vegetables and most of all, be able to cook them afterwards,” said Weislo.

With plenty of photographs to help guide readers through the steps of cooking with popular vegetables, the book addresses nutritional qualities, health benefits, peak seasonal information and recipes, like Tomato and Goat Cheese Tart, for 20 vegetables.

Not only does the book offer general tips for preparing fruits and vegetables, but it provides insight on how to clean, cut and prepare some of the trickiest types of produce. (more…)

Posted on November 1, 2023 by Maris

Moving Beyond Depression Utilizes Physical Health to Improve Mental Health

The book Moving Beyond Depression: A whole-person approach to healing by Gregory L. Jantz, Ph.D. with Ann McMurray may be a self-help treatment approach that you find fits well with your desires to improve health and lose weight. Dr. Jantz suggests that our culture is over medicated, especially when treating depression, and many find side effects like weight gain and decreased libido contribute to depression even if overall mood is improved. While the book begins with emotional currents, there is also a nice focus on nutrition, movement, and the whole person.

It is likely that Dr. Jantz chose to begin with the various emotions that can be involved in depression because a major part of experiencing depression is what one feels. Also many therapists are most comfortable discussing emotions. There are several examples and stories throughout the book in which you may be able to recognize aspects of yourself.

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Posted on October 18, 2023 by Brooke Randolph

As Thin as You Think Promises a Quick Fix with Hypnotism

The book As Thin as You Think by Kristin Volk Funk is the kind of self-help about which research and my experience make me very skeptical. The intention is for the book to offer “The Keys to Unlocking Your Weight Loss Power,” revealing both the path to success and the reasons that caused your weight gain in the first place. The book is meant to be positive, encouraging, and easy, but I am always skeptical about a “quick fix”.

A “quick fix” is offered within the preface of the book- and it’s trance. I have worked under an experienced therapist who practiced trance, a variation of hypnotism, with clients and observed more than one client undergoing a trance session. I do believe it can be a powerful technique, but it is still not a “quick fix” for any type of struggle.

Kristin offers several mantras that readers can adopt. However, it seems that she is forgetting the research that reminds us that such mantras cannot be given to us but must be something that we already believe and must be used simply as a reminder for the self.

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Posted on October 13, 2023 by Brooke Randolph

Felon Fitness Gets You Prisoner Ripped Without Being Behind Bars

There are too many excuses as to why we aren’t fit as a country. Among those excuses are mentions of how pricey it can be to buy gym memberships or workout equipment for the home. Those excuses seem fair to most people, but what if you were told that some of the fittest people in the country have no money and no access to any standard gym equipment? An attorney found this to be true as he dealt with clients in California correctional facilities.

After seeing how incredibly strong and fit inmates became during their time in prison, attorney William Kroger and his friend, a trainer, Trey Tuefel, devised a workout plan called Felon Fitness. Now, they’ve written a book, Felon Fitness: How to Get a Hard Body Without Doing Hard Time.  Now all can become prison yard fit without doing time.

In the 90’s, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation removed free weights from the prisons. Inmates looking to strengthen up had to resort to body-weight exercises. Exercises such as push-ups, cherry pickers, pull-ups, and burpees were done at very high repetitions to obtain extreme levels of strength.

The tough repetitive body weight workouts are exactly what the book promotes along with a no nonsense diet plan.

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Posted on October 13, 2023 by Lacy

We Love 8 Keys to Recovery From An Eating Disorder

I am generally fairly skeptical about self-help books, but I was very pleasantly surprised to read 8 Keys to Recovery From An Eating Disorder: Effective Strategies from Therapeutic Practice and Personal Experience by Carolyn Costin and Gwen Schubert Grabb. I am guessing they believe that simply using their names makes them more approachable to readers; however, it is clear that these are intelligent, educated, and experienced professionals. Perhaps I would have been less surprised by the expertise of this book if they had included their degrees and licensing (all those fancy letters after their names) on the title page.

By the time I got to the third key, I had stopped writing down highlights for this review because the value of this book is greater than than the sum of the eight individual keys. Not only do I believe this book can be extremely helpful to someone suffering from an eating disorder, but I believe it could be helpful for other practitioners who are not specialized in eating disorders in helping someone experiencing a mild eating disorder. (I still think it is important to refer to specialists for anyone suffering from a moderate to severe eating disorder.)

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Posted on September 29, 2023 by Brooke Randolph

No Whine with Dinner Makes Mealtime Fun for Moms and Kids

Do you ever wish you could invite a registered dietitian into your kitchen during mealtimes to peer over your shoulder and help you modify your favorite meals into healthier options for your family?

If you do, then Janice Newell Bissex, MS, RD and Liz Weiss, MS, RD, of the award-winning website Meal Makeover Moms, have the perfect solution with their latest cookbook, No Whine with Dinner (M3 Press, 2024).

The book contains 150 recipes that were tested by their own families and offers advice on choosing “healthy basics” from the grocery store – from fresh fruits and vegetables to convenience foods like jarred pasta sauce and salsa.

“We don’t believe in ‘kid food,'” said Bissex and Weiss in the book’s forward. “All of our recipes are made with color and flavor in mind and incorporate nutritious ingredients into their essence.

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Posted on August 11, 2023 by Maris

Tomatoland Opens the Curtain on the Dangers of American Agriculture

Something is not ripe with the tomato industry, according to Barry Estabrook’s book, Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit. Estabrook examines the corruption and hardships of the red and juicy fruit that is often seen atop  many salads.

The fruit best known for being fresh in the summertime finds its way to the produce section each winter thanks to warm, sunny Florida weather. Estabrook writes that approximately one-third of the U.S.’s tomato supply comes from a state where tomatoes do not naturally grow. Florida’s environment is often difficult with a lack of nitrogen in the soil, insect pests, and bacterial and fungal diseases that can threaten the life of a plant. To make up for these disadvantages, tomato growers often spray the tomato farms with chemicals and pesticides, according to Estabrook.

These chemicals are very harmful to the hard-working tomato pickers and their families, who can get sick or have children with several birth defects. Not to mention these chemicals are extremely harmful to consumers, who may be at risk when ingesting the tomatoes. In addition, tomato pickers work very long and taxing hours in the brutal sun. The workers get no paid vacation and no benefits, and some have even been forced into slavery.

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Posted on July 13, 2023 by Jamie

Wisdom to Wellness Explores the Emotional and Physical Health Connection

Maureen Minnehan Jones is the author of the new book Wisdom to Wellnes: HealingYour Emotional Sufferings so the Physical Healing Can Follow. Ms. Jones has worked in the healthcare field for over 38 years. Her career path began by working as a registered nurse but eventually evolved into the practice of more alternative and holistic healing methods.

Maureen contends that the occurrence of disease often has an emotional underpinning. She has developed a technique she calls the “Modus Operandi (MO) Technique.” This technique consists of 12 steps that serve to heal the emotional suffering which she believes to be instrumental in the healing of physical disease.

Ms. Jones firmly believes that disease is triggered by the body and everyone possesses what she refers to as “The Common Thread of Disease.”  This common thread consists of four separate emotional sufferings which are: resentment, anger, powerlessness, and a lack of love. It is the existence of all of these that together create a virtual “perfect storm” in which disease can be sparked by a particularly emotional event according to Ms. Jones.

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Posted on July 13, 2023 by Brooke Randolph