Review of Stop Your Cravings: A Balanced Approach to Burning Fat, Increasing Energy, and Reducing Stress (Hardcover)

It's the new year. Time for those annoying resolutions - the `fridge at work is jammed with co-workers' lunches who have decided to eat healthy, the fitness club is jammed with new people lifting weights and trotting on treadmills. And the bookstores are jammed with "new you" diet books, everybody claiming to have the ANSWER that we need. Don't make the mistake of lumping Jennifer Workman's book in with the others; it simply stands alone in its own special category. At its heart is Ayurveda, a 5000-year old Indian medical practice. You can't go wrong with something so timely. Combine that with a solid fitness and nutritional background, and you have someone who can help us make it in the modern world.
The book does focus on food but it's more than that - understanding why we grab certain foods, why some foods may not work well in some situations (cayenne aggravates someone like me in the dead heat of summer while a good friend thinks it's just fine), and why certain kinds of exercise don't get the weight off and why yoga does help a lot. The food is all do-able --- from the ginger, lemon, and honey-laced green tea (OK, I gave up coffee as the first thing to my lips in the morning) to kale sauteed with garlic and onions. What we don't want to give up is taste and Workman beautifully explains how to integrate the basic principles into daily eating. Nobody looks at my lunches and exclaims, "Oh yuck! WHAT are you eating now???" It's easy to move in and out of restaurants making interesting yet delicious choices based on my metabolism and genetic makeup without even thinking about it. Yes, chocolate is part of the plan! No guilt. Just good food.
The book takes on new meaning with all the stress inflicted upon us after September 11. How do we make everything stay in balance without stressing out and gaining a few tons? Jennifer's program isn't just about eating - it is about whole life, encompassing the mental, emotional and spiritual parts, too. Everything truly does work together. Lofty? Not really. It makes sense that at the end, she addresses the big picture and world hunger. How many diet books are concerned about that? Better hang onto this one.



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