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.”
Read Full Post >

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.
Read Full Post >

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.

Read Full Post >

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.

Read Full Post >

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.

Read Full Post >