Book Review: Love Your Body: A Diet-Free Approach to Balanced Eating by Brooke Parker

Today, I'm reviewing Love Your Body: A Diet-Free Approach to Balanced Eating by Brooke Parker.

From the back cover:

Are you tired of dieting and feeling unsatisfied with your appearance? In
this book, registered dietitian Brooke Parker shares secrets for developing
a positive body image and creating your own customized eating plan. You'll
also learn how to replace negative thoughts about yourself with positive,
motivating thoughts.


With the tools you master in Love Your Body, the scale, the media, and your
"skinny jeans" will no longer have the power to determine your mood or your
life!


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
. . . and many more.


I have personally been struggling this past fall and winter - trying to balance stress, family, and life. During that time, I felt so overwhelmed I decided to simplify my schedule. One of the things that ended up on the "temporary hiatus" list was exercise. And oh how I regret it now.

Spending hours and hours each day, sitting in front of my computer editing, writing, and working on various other projects for my kids' school, I ended up growing out of not just one, but a few pant sizes. As a result, I've felt absolutely horrible about myself. The tighter my jeans felt, the more I hated how I looked.

I was asked to review Love Your Body the same week I decided to get back to a serious exercise routine. I was excited to read a book that doesn't say, "Follow this diet & lose twenty pounds in one week!" or some other such nonsense.

As I read, I was impressed with the logical and sound advice Brooke Parker gives. Right from the beginning, I found techniques that were helpful. My favorite of which is the hunger scale. There's a scale you can use to gauge how hungry or full you are. You use your best judgment to determine where you are.

After reading and understanding the concepts of using the scale, I found myself stopping to ask myself how I was feeling about every hour or so during the day. If I was starting to have hunger pangs, but it wasn't close to a major meal, I first drank some water. Another thing I've discovered is I'm horrible about drinking enough water and in general drink very little. So sometimes when I feel hungry, really my body is just thirsty. After having a glass of water, I wait about five or ten minutes to see if I'm still hungry or if my body is happy again.  If I'm still hungry, then I'll have a snack - like a granola bar or apple. As I've exercised and started gauging my appetite, I've been reaching for more healthy snacks rather than tempting sweet snacks.

I think Love Your Body is a great book for anyone - from teens and adults. I highly recommend it. You can purchase Love Your Body through most bookstores or order it on Amazon.com




Or you can enter to win a copy! The publisher of Love Your Body is doing a blog tour giveaway. For more information, keep reading!


We will be giving away 5 copies of
Love Your Body: A
Diet-Free Approach to Balanced Eating
as part of the online book book
tour. The contest starts February 17th and will close on March 5th at
midnight, 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 a them ask? Well lucky you because you get an entry for that too.

Walnut Springs Press
Brooke Parker RD
Of Writerly Things
Random-ish by Nichole
Queen of the Clan
Rachelle Writes
The Write Blocks Ronda
Gibb Hinrichsen
Tangled Words and Dreams
*Tristi Pinkston, LDS
Author

Why Not? Because I Said
So!

LDS Women's Book Review

Cami's Book


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/valerieipson
http://twitter.com/Rachellewrites
http://twitter.com/LDSWBR
http://twitter.com/nicholegiles

http://twitter.com/TaDaFerguson

5. Tweet about the contest or one
(or all) of the reviews.
Yep, 144 characters or less is all it takes
to 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.


Also, here is the blog tour schedule, so you can find the reviews on the correct days.





February 22 Valerie Ipson
Of Writerly Things


February 23 Nichole Giles
Random-ish by Nichole

February 24 Danyelle Ferguson
Queen of the Clan

February 25 Rachelle Christensen
Rachelle Writes

March 1 Ronda Hinrichsen
The Write Blocks

March 2
Tangled Words and Dreams
Alison Palmer

March 3
*Tristi Pinkston, LDS
Author
Tristi Pinkston

March 4
Why Not? Because I Said
So!
Sheila Stayley
LDS Women's Book Review

March 5
Cami's Book Cami
Checketts

Would you like to comment?

Kellie said...

I think I need this book and another copy for my sister. She's struggled with weight for a long time and is now a size 10, but still has issues because her ex-husband used to call her a fat cow, so that obviously did some emotional damage that is still there.

Kellie said...

Ok, I'm assuming I let each individual reviewer know if I'm following them or not and only one reviewer of the extra things I've done. You get to be that one!

I've been a follower for a long time;)

I am now following you on Twitter (I actually opened an account just for this contest. I didn't even know I could open one without a cell phone, see how much I know?)

I blogged about it, tweeted about it, fb about it, and did a goodreads thing on it.

Posted a comment above on your review.

I'm a fan on FB of the book.

So that is 8 things I did, plus having already been a blog follower. yay!

Anonymous said...

This is such a wonderful book, and every woman needs to read it.

Kimberly T. said...

Oh, I want this book! And one for both my sisters, my mom, my SIL's, my friends. . . :)