I was recently given the opportunity to review a new book, Health? Your Way! by Anat Feldman. All opinions are my own.
I read this book on an e-reader. (More on that below.) This book has a lot of wonderful information. Dr. Feldman takes the reader through many various aspects of health and fitness. She focuses on gymnastics and mind (combined to be gymind) and spins a new approach to being fit.
One portion of the book that sticks out to me in particular is the section on BMI. She focuses in on the disparity between muscle, water, bone, and internal organs when it comes to the standard formula used to determine BMI, and also the ranges of the results. She ultimately concludes that BMI is a decent predictor for health-related illness, but it’s fascinating the way she makes the connection that just because you’re in the “overweight” category and also a body builder, does not mean you’re overweight. It just means for your body type, you weigh more than the average.
She also uses real-life scenarios that she worked through with personal training clients to drive home the points of each chapter. It brought it to a more personal level than is sometimes conveyed by similarly created books.
For example, at one point she focuses on walking and running to bring the physical body in sync with the mental (or spiritual) side of things. She points out that walking and running backward help to ground us through our lower chakra — basically the “root” of our being — and she instructs one of her clients to work on this type of conditioning. When we focus on our lower chakra, the rest of our body comes into sync. While we are working on our physical fitness, we are also working on balancing our mind, body, and soul.
I had a tough time reading this book. I found the topics to jump around a bit too much for my liking. I’m also new to e-books, and I’m not particularly fond of reading on-screen. This was my first bona fide experience with an e-reader. I prefer the touch and feel of an actual book. You know, the kind with pages to turn? It’s personal preference but I like being able to see how many pages I have left until the next chapter. Or how many chapters I have left in a section. With an e-reader, it’s impossible to flip through pages. As such, it was hard for me to focus. I think I’ll stick to reading real books in the future.
Bottom line — would I recommend the book to a friend? Maybe, but probably not. I don’t know if my opinion is tainted from my dislike of the e-reader, or if it’s from something else. Overall, I think the topics Dr. Feldman touched on were very relevant but maybe the book just wasn’t for me.
Happy Hump Day!
xo
Are you an e-reader or do you prefer the real thing?
Do you practice yoga?
Do you practice yoga?
Do you feel more centered because of it?
