Fit for the new year:
Diet, health, and exercise books for all

Is it time to pay for that Christmas buffet? For those who know that Fit and Trim are not the latest Las Vegas nightclub act, grab your dumbbells and get ready to look great in 1999. The newest self-help books will show you how to lower your blood pressure and melt inches off your waist.

REVIEWS BY PAT REGEL

For the past 60 years, the consensus has been that the only proven way to reverse the aging process is to restrict calories, but Barry Sears's new book, The Anti-Aging Zone, adds another dimension to the equation -- restricting calories does not mean a bread-and-water diet for the rest of your life. The book is well worth the reading, and not only by graying Boomers. It's for anyone who wants to live longer and better. Sears gives insight into how hormones control the aging process and how a few simple lifestyle changes can alter that process. His anti-aging Zone Diet helps turn back the clock and restore strength and stamina, improve sexual performance and fertility, revitalize and maintain mental function, and decrease the risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. As an aid to understanding terminology, Sears includes a glossary, sample Zone meals, and recipes. Sears believes that there is definitely a proven "drug" to reverse the aging process, and that "drug" is food in the form of his Zone Diet.


For the women

The Women's Complete Wellness Book is a weighty tome that focuses on women's wellness, instead of illness. Its message is rooted in prevention, taking women from puberty to pregnancy and on to menopause. It is an excellent resource for topics that are essential to women's health, yet focuses on the key elements of wellness: becoming an informed consumer regarding health care providers, charting a family health history, mastering lifestyle choices such as proper diet, exercise, and stress reduction, and examining the body for early detection of various illnesses. Edited by doctors Debra Judelson and Diana Dell, the book is fully illustrated -- an indispensable resource for young and old.


Keep it simple

Personal trainer Kathy Kaehler believes in keeping exercise simple, especially if you spend most of your time working. She stresses that the average person doesn't need to spend money on personal trainers, expensive equipment, or gym memberships to get fit. Her book, Real-World Fitness is designed to offer effective exercises that can be squeezed into everyone's busy day. Kaehler also includes her "8 Weeks to a Show-Off Body," a program she developed for the Today Show, where she is a monthly contributor. Helpful photos demonstrate exercises, and the appendix suggests books, videos, Internet sites, and academic journals to take you further along the fitness path.

It's no secret that Americans are known for the large portions of everything they can pile on a plate. Using American know-how, Carrie Latt Wiatt approaches weight gain from a different angle -- portion sizes. In her book, Portion Savvy: The 30-Day Smart Plan for Eating Well, Wiatt maps out an eating plan that satisfies the palate and reduces the weight. Her program matches intake to energy needs and includes perforated illustrations of right-size portions which pop out for easy reference. Wiatt's unique informational snippets, kitchen savvy, and scientifically proven program make recipes like "Chocolate-Orange Biscotti" and "Pizza with Shrimp, Mushrooms, and Red Pepper" a weight watchers delight.


Only the B.E.S.T.

Marilu Henner's Total Health Makeover does a thorough job of discussing every aspect of diet and weight control, but she goes further by including her ten-step, energizing, B.E.S.T (Balance, Energy, Stamina, Toxin-Free) plan. Advice on toxic foods, mood swings, food combining, digestion, stress management, detoxification, and the uses of alternative medicine make this a total health book. Realizing that health is the single most important factor in anyone's life, Henner stuffs plenty of good health sense into her personal makeover plan.


Get energized

It probably won't come as a surprise that the market for alternative medicine therapies has grown into a 14 billion dollar industry or that one-third of all Americans used such services last year. If you were one of those users, you'll be interested in Energy Medicine by Donna Eden. Practitioners of T'ai Chi Ch'uan and other martial arts know the secrets of the body's energy flow and how to control it, but now, Eden offers the everyday consumer a practical guide for managing these energies. For 22 years, she has studied the subtle energies that underlie the body's health and shown how certain therapies work with the body as an energy system. Her case studies, recent supportive research, and program for personal self-care warrant a closer look.


In sickness and in health

If he won't stop and ask for directions, he probably won't read this book -- but she will. When the Man You Love Won't Take Care of His Health by Ken Goldberg is a helpful guide for women, who are more likely to be the caretakers in a relationship. Goldberg covers everything they need to know to help the men in their lives stay healthy, including the most common male health issues. He explains simple self-exams for the most common forms of male cancer, starting and maintaining an exercise program, male nutrition and weight loss, coping with prostate problems, stress, depression, impotence, STDs, and the biggest mystery of all -- why men don't take care of themselves.


Get over weight

Of course, you may be perfectly happy with your weight and physical condition -- some people are. But, like most, you're probably . . . well, fed-up with eating regimens, exercise, and extra inches that don't seem to come off no matter what you do. If this is the case, Just the Weigh You Are shows you how to improve your nutrition without dieting and how to exercise moderately with positive results. Authors Steven Jonas and Linda Konner propose a foolproof, natural approach to living that won't make you feel deprived; the personal life histories of their everyday clients will sound all too familiar. This book teaches you how to accept yourself now, not 50 pounds later.



Okay, so you're still vexed at Great Aunt Irmintrude because she positively forced you to eat all that chocolate cream torte at Christmas. Curl up in front of the fire with a hot cup of sugar-free cocoa, renew with these great books, and begin helping yourself repair the damage.

Also recommended

Pat Regel writes, gardens, and weightlifts in Nashville.

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