Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Book Review: "Love Your Body" by Brooke Parker, R.D. (And a Contest!)

By Nichole Giles

**Keep reading for contest information!
 The blurb:

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!

My daughters play sports. Both of them are the athletic type—which, for them, translates to fit and healthy. But that doesn’t mean I don’t constantly worry about what they eat and how much. Or how they view their bodies. In my world, eating disorders are far too common, taken much too lightly. And I realize that athletic girls are at just as big a risk as heavier girls who aren’t as active.

Because healthy eating works both ways. Over-eating or under-eating? Both are equally dangerous. Both have something to do with how a person views his or her body.

And let’s face it, body image is an issue for everyone. (Okay, so maybe one person in a million is healthy in this area, but I’ve never personally met that person.) This is why I so enjoyed reading the book, Love Your Body, A Diet-Free Approach to Balanced Eating by Brooke Parker, R.D..

Before we go on, I want to clarify something. This is NOT a diet book. And actually, the subtitle might be confusing, because the book isn’t as much about eating as it is about learning how to think about eating, exercise, and…well, ourselves in a healthy, balanced manner. I don’t have a weight problem, yet as I read this book, I noticed many, many issues that apply to me, my daily habits, and the way I think. Not only that, it has given me a different view of my daughters and how I teach them to love themselves as they are, not as society might try to mold them to be.

In this short, quick read, I found so many valuable little nuggets of information. For instance, in chapter nine, Brooke talks about the expectations we heap on ourselves. She even gives examples of identifying unhealthy expectations and how to change them into healthy ones. Another good example is in chapter sixteen when she talks about destructive thinking styles and how to overcome them.

One of the most important topics? “I don’t have to be beautiful to be loved or liked.” Now, I’m sorry, but to me, that says it all.

To top it all off, she has included charts and worksheets to help you analyze your strengths and weaknesses, and to remind you to have gratitude for your body. Not to mention the suggestions for pampering yourself. Seriously? Who doesn’t need a little pampering now and then.

As I mentioned before, I’m not often a dieter. My goal in general is not to lose weight, but to stay healthy and take care of myself—an area in which I often fall short. I really enjoyed this book, and the thoughts it brought to mind. This is one of those books that everyone should read. And here’s a secret: according to the author of this book, who is a registered dietitian, it’s actually BETTER to eat the foods we love sometimes than to cut them out completely. Chocolate included. Yahoo! Good news for all.

As mentioned in the title of this post, Walnut Springs Press is hosting a contest in which they're giving away five copies of Love Your Body. That's right, FIVE! As I said above, this is a great book to have on hand for yourself and to give away as a gift to someone you love. Here are the important details:

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
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

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.

Remember that you MUST fill out the nifty little form HERE to be entered.


To buy your copy of Love Your Body, click here.

To learn more about the author, click here.

**The author of this blog received a free copy of this book in order to read and review it. However, because I found it a beneficial aid for a healthy lifestyle, this particular book will be included in a future giveaway so I can spread the wealth of information.

6 comments:

Kimberly Job said...

Sounds like a great book on a much needed topic. Can't wait to read it.

Anonymous said...

A great book and contest too! I need to think better about my body.

Brooke Parker said...

Thank you so much for your eloquent review of the book. My heart is overjoyed when I see others catching the vision of my book. I especially love the impact mothers can have on their precious daughters. Thanks again.

Kellie said...

As I have gotten older in these last couple years (and had babies change my body shape) I've realized that I can't eat the way I did before--as in, whatever I want, when I want. I've had to go to bed hungry every night this week instead of having my usual midnight snack because I just can't seem to lose my middle. This book sounds really helpful!

ps, I'm already a follower!

Nichole Giles said...

Brooke, you're very welcome. Thanks for writing such an easy to read, but much needed book that will help so many people.

Kellie, there's a section in this book that tells about why going to bed hungry won't help. =) Good news, huh?

Nichole

Anonymous said...

I love the hunger scale chart shown in this book. It somehow makes more sense to stop eating when you get full, once you've read her description of what being stuffed feels like.