Staying fit in a fast food nation

Ideas and inspiration for getting in shape this year

REVIEWS BY AMY SCRIBNER

Sometimes it seems the cavemen had it easy: They kept in shape foraging for their meals, a menu limited to whatever nuts, roots and woolly mammoths they could find.

Times have changed. With a modern food supply clogged with unhealthy choices and a culture that makes a sedentary lifestyle all too easy, obesity has reached epidemic proportions. These books by well-known fitness and nutrition experts offer plenty of tools to combat our fast food nation.

Looking out for YOU

Doctors Michael F. Roizen and Mehmet C. Oz, the authors behind the phenomenally successful guide to the human body You: The Owner's Manual, now turn their attention to nutrition in You: On a Diet. With their uncanny ability to easily explain the complexities of human biology, the good doctors present a commonsense, science-based diet and fitness plan (deemed "waist management") in their distinctive, lively way.

Roizen and Oz understand just how tough getting—and staying—in shape can be. "When it comes to dieting, trying to whip fat with our weapon of willpower is the food equivalent to holding your breath under water," they write. "You can do it for a while, but no matter how psyched up you get, at some point your body—your biology—forces you to the surface gasping for air."

You: On a Diet mixes goofy-fun illustrations, suggested exercises and appealing recipes with in-depth explanations of everything from how your body processes food to the difference between healthy vs. bad fats. Roizen and Oz also uncover the chemistry behind emotional eating. Craving sugar, for example, may signal depression, while reaching for salty foods likely means a major case of stress. Armed with such useful information, the battle of the bulge may become a lot easier.


You'd better think

According to Brian Wansink, author of the fascinating, informative Mindless Eating, we make more than 200 decisions about eating every day. It's no wonder Americans have such a love-hate relationship with our food.

Wansink, director of the Cornell University Food and Brand Lab, has made a career breaking down the phenomenon of mindless eating: We ignore serving sizes even when they're printed right on the label. We gravitate toward name brands because we assume we are getting a better product. We roll through the drive-through for French fries even though we know a banana would be an infinitely healthier snack choice.

Why do we sabotage ourselves with reckless consumption? It's easy to blame the food industry, but Wansink doesn't cast blame there and urges readers not to, either. (He hears regularly from food-industry reporters writing conspiracy stories such as why Pop-Tarts come two to a package if a serving size is one. Does the Kellogg's brand want us to become helplessly hooked on their toaster pastries? No, Wansink explains. It's a simple issue of economics: It's cheaper for the company to package two tarts together).

Instead, Wansink puts the onus on readers to be thoughtful consumers—both at the store and at the table—and offers sensible ways to do just that. "We may not be able to outlaw every drive-through restaurant or tax every pint of ice cream in our community," he writes, "but we can re-engineer our personal food environment to help us and our families eat better."


Making fitness fun

If exercising has turned into drudgery (and at this point, who isn't a little sick of treadmills and free weights?), try injecting some fun into your workout with Elena Rover's The Chelsea Piers Fitness Solution. An enormous New York City gym/sports complex with rock climbing walls, batting cages, boxing rings and skating rinks in one bustling locale, Chelsea Piers offers it all. Sounds great, you think, but I live in Santa Fe/Duluth/Seattle. What does this huge NYC gym have to do with my fitness regime?

Plenty, as it turns out. Rover explains that while not everyone has access to one of the world's largest gyms, everyone should vary his or her exercise plan to keep from becoming bored and discouraged by a stale routine.

The author offers useful background information and tips on a wide variety of physical activities that should put newbies at ease as they try kayaking, snowboarding, golf or gymnastics. By detailing what kind of gear you'll need for, say, snowshoeing or yoga, what to expect the first time you try it, and suggesting websites and books to learn more about each activity, Rover demystifies exercise and even makes it sound fun again.


Eating for health

Ivy Ingram Larson was just 22 when she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Determined not to let the debilitating disease rule her life, she turned to a diet of whole foods and regular exercise. The medical student and childhood friend who helped her put together the plan, Andrew Larson, soon became her husband. Together they've built a healthy lifestyle that has kept her MS in check and the whole family healthy.

The Gold Coast Cure's Fitter Firmer Faster Program virtually pulses with the enthusiasm of its authors, who lay out a sensible program combining eating well and fat-burning exercise. The bulk of the book consists of meticulously explained sample workouts combining strength and cardio, accompanied by how-to photographs, and a hefty section of recipes that seem deliciously out of place in a diet book: Spice-rubbed lamb kebobs with tahini sauce? Baja fish tacos? Sounds like a diet anyone could get behind.

    The Gold Coast Cure's Fitter Firmer Faster Program
    By Andrew Larson and Ivy Ingram Larson
    Health Communications, Inc., $15.95
    323 pages
    ISBN 9780757305566

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Celebrity fit club

Naomi Judd is nothing if not honest. In Naomi's Guide to Aging Gratefully, she shares her secrets for keeping family close, keeping romance alive and keeping mind and body nimble.

In spelling out her philosophies for living well, she also dishes out a fair amount of Judd family dirt. Daughters Wynonna and Ashley, famous performers in their own right, take a central role in the chapter titled, "Children, Grandchildren and Parents," in which Naomi recounts the trio's now infamous appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and wonders, "If I say something in the woods and Wy and Ashley aren't there to hear me, am I still wrong?" Still, it's clear that for Naomi Judd, family will always come first. Judd even keeps a "mom line," a phone for her daughters only, which she always answers no matter the time of day. Judd's joie de vivre spills from every page of homespun wisdom. As she puts it, "Shift happens," but her approach to aging makes it sound downright fun.


Actress and yoga enthusiast Mariel Hemingway will always be known as one of the famous descendants of Ernest Hemingway, but she is carving out her own niche as a proponent of healthy living. In Mariel Hemingway's Healthy Living from the Inside Out, she shares a four-part, 30-day plan that encourages readers to "clear the clutter" and "cut the crap" with holistic lifestyle changes in four areas: food, exercise, home and silence.

While she occasionally lapses into Hollywood new-age speak—you may or may not be ready to learn to "stay present" or consider whether your home has negative energy—Hemingway offers sensible changes to transform one's life into one a little less hectic and a little more enjoyable.


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