OneHealthyGirl.com - Carla Golden's Get Healthier! Blog

TWO YUMMY FOOD BOOKS TO SHARE!

I love technology and the virtual age, but I'm also glad that books seem to not be going out of style any time soon. They are so much fun to discover! Here are two:

"Rather than being about what food is not, NEW GOOD FOOD is an introduction to or perhaps a reminder of what food is. It is a weaving together of descriptions, cooking suggestions, and just enough history, food science, and nutrition to get a glimpse of all the wonders each food has to offer. It is also an appreciation of food for its possibilities, its bringing together of people to the table, its melding of cultures, its nourishment, which enriches body and soul, its celebration of the people, plants, and animals that make it all happen, and, of course, its extraordinary flavors."

Learn more at Margarget's website especially her recipes and cooking tips.

"With four locations in the San Francisco Bay Area--two in San Francisco, one in Berkeley, and one in San Rafael--Cafe Gratitude has become well known in the alternative community for its inspiring environment and distinctive, flavorful organic foods.

In I Am Grateful, co-founders Terces and Matthew Engelhart present their view of life and their business philosophy. Terces also presents her own story of personal healing, sharing with the reader her recovery from food addiction while explaining the benefits of an organic lifestyle.

The book's gorgeous, full-color photographs accompany easy-to-follow recipes for the cafe's most popular items, making it easy for readers to prepare live foods at home. Recipes include such cafe favorites as "I am Luscious", a satisfying raw cacao smoothie, as well as juices, soups, and appetizers. There are also entrancing entrees like "I am Elated" spicy rolled enchiladas and delicious desserts including "I am Amazing" lemon meringue pie with a macadamia nut crust."

Learn more at the Cafe Gratitude website and follow Cafe Gratitude on Twitter!

Enjoy and Live Light, xo-C.

BOOK REVIEW: SKINNY BITCH!

I can't say that the title initially attracted me, but eventually the lure of its position on the best seller lists knocked down my defenses and I decided I had to buy Skinny Bitch to see what the hype was all about.

I LOVE THIS BOOK! Not for its boot camp approach, not for its oftentimes leud language, not for its Hollywood authors, but for its message. I can appreciate its packaging (choice of images and words) because I know sexy, tough packaging sells in this country and if you have to knock people between the eyes, lure them with hips and boobs, and shout obscenities at them to get a good message across, well...sometimes it just takes that. I promise you've never read a diet or wellness book quite like this one.

Skinny Bitch is full of citations - I love research and science - and this bite sized book has it all. Compact, straight-forward and easy to understand, authors Freedman and Barnouin cut through the nonsense and get to the point...quickly and precisely. They've done their homework!

I agree with all of their dietary recommendations except for their promotion of soy. They do admit that un-fermented soy is controversial and you need to do your own research to make up your own mind. But soy is recommended throughout the book and in their menus. I am personally in the fermented-soy-is-the-only-good- soy-and-all-other-soy- is-by-product-garbage (except for organic whole soybeans). Also, I'm not a hater of organic butter and eggs like they are. Other than that, we see eye-to-eye.

If you can read Chapter 6 without altering your diet, then I don't want you near my child. Knowingly eating decaying flesh from abused and/or sick animals, is - TO ME - one small step away from cannibalism. (Remember Easter Island....they went there when there was nothing left to eat!)

You may occasionally get offended (Chapter 8 is the tops!) but you will definitely laugh. Hopefully you will learn a thing or two and improve your diet because of it.

The first person (any location...I'll mail it!) to email me wanting my copy of Skinny Bitch can have it, if you agree to write your review for posting here on OneHealthyGirl.com and let me know if and how it changed your food choices. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a swift kick in the pants to help get into better health habits.

Live Light, xo-C.

These are a Few of My Favorite Things!

When I introduced you to The Maker's Diet by Jordan Rubin, I totally forgot to bring to your attention two of my favorite parts of the book.

First, Appendix A is a collection of delicious sounding (I've not tasted any yet) recipes like Mushroom Soup, Better Butter, Wild Alaskan Salmon with Pecan Pesto and Blueberry Pecan Pancakes...nearly 30 pages worth of approximately 100 robustly healthful recipes. Many of the recipes are borrowed (with permission) from Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions cookbook. Sally serves as the founding president of the Weston A. Price Foundation.

Secondly, Appendix B is essentially a catalog of companies who offer healthful, sometimes hard to find, foods and body products. Forty pages of resources at your fingertips! What a gem!

And the book - a nutritional primer, a cookbook and a resource guide - only costs $14.00. I know you'll put this on your Holiday Wish List! And share the gift of health with those you love....purchase copies for them!

Here's to eating well and loving it! xo-C.

Two Books Added to List of Recommendations

I have been reading two exceptional books. The first one is The Soul of Money by Lynne Twist.

"Twist takes an honest and critical look at the extraordinary power that money wields over our lives and its profound and often destructive influence on our self-image and relationships. In a consumer society that glorifies the pitch, the sale, and the insatiable appetite for more as a measure of self-worth, The Soul of Money asks us to step back, to examine our relationship with money, to assess our connection with core human values, and to change this relationship and, in so doing, to transform our lives."

The second book is The Maker's Diet by Jordan Rubin. Someone dear to me has recently been diagnosed with Crohn's disease. While this book's title is not new to me, I am reading it for the first time and have not only learned how Jordan healed himself from this reportedly incurable disease, but I am also learning complimentary information about a whole food diet (by this I mean a lifetime of food choices, not a temporary set of choices aimed at weight loss) that supports the information and other books I have shared here.

"Diet remains the single most influential factor in overall human health. The longest lived cultures in the world had a few things in common - they consumed "living" foods that abounded with nutrients, enzymes, and beneficial micro-organisms. Cutting-edge medical researchers now believe that life and death begin in the digestive tract."

I highly recommend the guidance of these two books for your holistic wellness - physical, mental, financial, emotional, spiritual and social. This is why I have added them to my list of Recommend Health Books. Clicking on the title will take you directly to BarnesandNoble.com to order. Email me for my B&N discount number and you'll save 10% off your order.

These books make excellent gifts for the holidays! Share the abundance of good health with those you love. xo-C.

Challenge No. 1

If you are serious about altering the course of your health starting today, then get The Schwarzbein Principle II: The Transition - A Regeneration Process to Prevent and Reverse Accelerated Aging (2002) (see my Health Books links).

Why?
- Heal or improve your metabolism
- Lose excess fat weight
- Prevent and reverse the degenerative diseases of aging
- Achieve your ideal body composition
- Stop chronic dieting
- Eliminate cravings and addictions

You'll learn:
- Why low-fat and low-calorie diets are harmful to your health
- Why sleep deprivation and other stresses can cause weight gain
- What medications - including birth control pills - are slowly destroying your metabolism and making you ill
- How to successfully taper off refined sugars, alcohol, nicotine and caffeine (These are all considered worthy of the same trash bin. Don't get all high and mighty because you only drink coffee and turn your nose down at smokers. )
- Why your cardiovascular exercise program might actually be ruining your health (You have to read the book to understand this. Don't take this one sentence as your excuse to not exercise!!)
- The facts versus the scare tactics about hormone replacement therapy

Here's the challenge: Buy this book (retail $14.95) between now and the end of 2007. Save your receipt - tape it into the inside cover of the book. If by the end of the year, you've purchased the book, READ it, made significant changes to your lifestyle based on your new knowledge and understanding and STILL haven't seen an improvement to your health, then I'll buy your book from you!

Be your own hero, xo-C.