Today, I'm privileged to be reviewing Love Your Body: A Diet-Free Approach to Balanced Eating by Brooke Parker. Take this book for just what the title implies. This is not a diet or nutrition book, it doesn't give you lists of good and bad foods, or suggest 20 quick and easy ways to lose 20 pounds. The topic is much more timely and crucial than any of these. It's about loving your body. Plain and simple. That's something I think every woman needs to understand and contemplate.
To present this material, Brooke Parker draws on her experience as a nutritional counselor for women with eating disorders. Don't discount the advice because you feel you don't have problem in this area. I don't know a single woman who couldn't benefit from the types of advice Ms. Parker gives. It's wholesome, sound and meant for every woman and girl who has ever looked in a mirror and felt uncomfortable with what they've seen.
Topics include:
· Finding a New Relationship with Food
· Honoring Your Hunger and Fullness
· Finding Your Own Healthy Balance
· Creating Healthy Expectations
· The Inner Dialogue
· Put an End to Worry
· Your Body Is a Gift
· Eliminating the Physical Triggers
· Destructive Thinking Styles
· Pampering Activities
Our bodies, our mortal experiences (including food) are supposed to be about bringing us joy and Brooke tries hard to remind us of that. We may not all experience the same intensity or the same thoughts, but as women we do tend to put a lot of undue pressure on how we look and how we think others see us. Nine times out of ten these fears are unfounded. If you've ever spent an evening berating yourself for that second piece of pie, reaching for the Ben and Jerry's on a bad day, or months depriving yourself of a certain type of food, this book is for you. Just as I mentioned, Love You Body is a message every women should come to understand. Even if you think you have no body image issues, I can almost guarantee that at least one woman you love does.
Ms. Parker does not expect you to take her word for everything. She has a few resources that she favors quoting, even drawing some of her specific messages from those texts. She gives them full credit, there in the text and does not try to hide the fact that she is introducing material that is not uniquely hers. To me, that was reassuring. I may not know Brooke Parker from Adam, oops, make that Eve, but I can acknowledge the usefulness of thoughts and ideas that have been studied and well documented then come to understand them through her use of them. Others may not see it that way. I can see some saying "Well, if I wanted to read so-and-so's book, I would have gotten that one not Love Your Body". I personally didn't think there was an issue, but I do read books for different reasons than some do. You'll have to judge that for yourself. I would suggest, however, that if the material in Love Your Body is ringing especially true look up those other resources and read them too.
Again, Love Your Body is not the source you want to turn to for diet and nutrition advice. That's not its purpose, and there are a million books out there that can promise you if you only eat this, or avoid that, or calculate and keep your numbers straight that you'll be healthy and happy. Good for them. But for me, I was thrilled to see someone actually address the thoughts and feelings we have behind reading such books. Love Your Body is the source to turn to for learning how to appreciate who you are, right here and now, and how to find joy in the blessings God has given us, namely a variety of good food and a body that is meant to bring us joy.
Pick up Love Your Body. It belongs on your shelf. It's a sweet, easy read that acts like a talk between good friends and leaves you with ideas, thoughts, and tools to tackle even the worst "why do I even keep that pair of skinny jeans" days.
Here’s a note from the publisher regarding a great give-away they’re hosting on Brooke’s blog tour. Make sure to get your entry into the pot!
We will be giving away 5 copies of Love Your Body: A Diet-Free Approach to Balanced Eating as part of the online book blog tour.
The contest starts February 17th and will close on March 5th atmidnight, MST.Entering the contest is easy--all you have to do is blog, tweet, follow, or comment and then fill out this little form here.
So exactly how do you blog, tweet, follow, etc. Here's how.
1. Become a follower of our reviewers blogs. You can follow one of our reviewers or you can follow all of them. Remember that each blog you follow gives you another chance to win, so why wouldn't you choose to follow them all? But what if we are already following them you ask? Well lucky you, because you get an entry for that too.
2. Post a comment on the reviews.
3. Blog about the contest or one of the reviews. Spread the word. Just remember that the blog post either needs to link to the contest or to one of the reviews.
4. Follow us on twitter. Maybe you use twitter, maybe you don't. But if you do, you should follow us.
http://twitter.com/walnutspringspr
http://twitter.com/brookeparkerrd
http://twitter.com/camichecketts
http://twitter.com/Rachellewrites
http://twitter.com/nicholegiles
http://twitter.com/RondaHinrichsen
5. Tweet about the contest or one (or all) of the reviews. Yep, 144 characters or less is all it takesto enter.
6. Become a fan of Love Your Body on facebook. Brooke is constantly updating her fanpage with articles, recipes, and helpful hints.
7. Post about the contest on Facebook.
8. Anything else you can think of that will spread the word. If you mention it on goodreads, shelfari, google buzz, or any other social media site, or make it your status on gmail chat, MSN or yahoo messenger let us know. We want to reward your creativity with an entry.
Remember that you MUST fill out the nifty little form Here to be entered.
2 comments:
I hope I hope I hope I win a copy of this book. I read it, and it has helped me every time I head for the kitchen. "Am I really hungry? Or just bored? How hungry?" And I feel okay about having a treat too, just in moderation.
I battle with so many of these issues. I do a better job at refraining from eating something because I'm afraid of my dentist (my husband) than I am because I know my waistline will hate me later. And since I'm not all that afraid of my dentist, staying away from junk food is not easy.
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