Thursday, January 13, 2011

Love For No Reason: 7 Steps to Creating a Life of Unconditional Love


When I got a copy of Love for no reason by Marci Shimoff , my first thought was: "I loved the last book of Mark, happy for no reason, but do we really need another book on love? "I mean, if you search Amazon for books on love, there are about 300,000 .... hmmmmm ...

With my skepticism intact, I sat down and started reading the book (which, incidentally, is a page turner - "unusual for a self-help book) and all I can think of is now" How I can get a copy in the hands of everyone I hold dear in my life? "Love without reason is like no other book about love (and read a lot). The quotations are inspiring stories of the life of Marc and others are highly mobile, wisdom is deep and profound, and above all, exercise and action steps are simple and clear so you can begin use immediately and experience the tangible results in their lives (and your own heart!).

I often find books on love as being too theoretical or almost everything about romance. Although this book provides advice on major cost about romantic love, it is also realistic to transform all relationships, even with yourself, so that every moment of every day, you're grounded in love and love is the road.

I read the book to end, and now keep it by my bed to read something inspirational before i go to bed!

Sexy Forever: How to Fight Fat after Forty


I tried all sorts of diets and weight loss programs for many months without much success. I used to be able to lose weight by running and just cut a few calories, but it seems no longer work. Suzanne's book helped me understand how to accomplish what I wanted without all the crazy diets and exercises. Simple and easy to read his own history reflected in clear descriptions, and it motivated me to finish what I have worked.

Suzanne Somers has written another book filled with the latest thinking on healthy lifestyles, this time losing weight. The theme of the book is that the best way to lose weight is to get healthy. Her plan - which is for people over 40 - but it is actually healthy for anyone covering:

(1) stress reduction (including dealing with the unhealthy beliefs, the need for intimacy, and psychological needs are not met);

(2) Get enough sleep (7-8 hours)

(3) elimination of food cravings through good nutrition,

(4) discuss any allergies (eg gluten, dairy products)

(5) Maintenance of the digestive system

(6) Avoid toxins

(7) Exercise

(8) Management of natural hormones, and

(9) Do insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome by managing the glycemic load.

She shows, what all this mean and how to do it.

In the book the author includes a diet based on Tuscan and French country (which is more like Whole Foods diet), exercise program, and recommendations for supplements and products for weight loss. The author describes many of the products they sell, but I found this useful and not overwhelming. He also has not limited its recommendations, sells items - the book contains a wide variety of resources. Diet does emphasize the light, food combining, it is also full of carbohydrates in the food chain at all stages (combined correctly, and at certain times during the day).

The diet consists of a rehab for 30 days, followed by a phase of weight loss and then a maintenance phase. The book includes a section of recipes and menus of many examples. The recipes look delicious, and easy enough for me to do as a non-cook, I like that they include some interesting notes with those of the author are fun to read.

I bought the Kindle book and read it first. I liked it so much I bought the hardback book also connected as a reference and be able to use easy recipes. I really found the information important enough to justify the additional cost.

Highly recommended.

The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman


I liked the book. I will not pretend that the book is perfect or fails, or something. I enjoy reading it and everything Tim Ferriss put in it. I also benefited from some of its recommendations (not all). This is what is in the book so you can make your own decision. I have read all 571 pages and I've tried most of the strategies.

Here's what it is:

Chapter 1: Fundamentals--First And Foremost
* Ferriss describes "the minimum effective dose" (done the bare minimum to get the most desired outcome).

Chapter 2: Ground Zero--Getting Started and Swaraj
* Use Mahatma Gandhi Reference in the case that we can govern our own body and destiny who deliberately chose to do so.


Chapter 3: Subtracting Fat
Five rules to reduce body fat:

1. Avoid "white" carbs

2. Eating the same foods over and over again a few

3. Do not drink calories

4. Do not eat fruit

5. Take a day off per week

* The Lost Art of madness: the specific measures to minimize weight gain, while waste

Chapter 4: Adding Muscle
* Building the Perfect Posterior

* Ferriss turns the table for readers who want to gain weight, offering strategies on how to gain 34 pounds in 28 days with exercises like the Memorandum of Occam, the effect of bike shed, and shaped press (gallons of milk per day.)

Chapter 5: Improving Sex
* Ferriss tells the story of a promise he made to a yoga instructor in women who have never experienced an orgasm in her life that he "fix their inability to orgasm"

* Women have to be "out there".

* Men need to change the angle and pressure distribution.

* The 15-minute female orgasm

1. Tell your partner you will touch her

2. Be in position

3. Find the clitoris and gently stroke the upper quadrant Point for 15 minutes.

Chapter 6: Perfecting Sleep
How to sleep faster:

* Focus on getting to sleep

* 67 º F to 70 º F is the best room temperature for sleep

* Eat a meal high in fat and protein-dominated meal three hours before bedtime

* Use a dark bedroom

* Take a cold shower an hour before bedtime

* Use a cool-mist humidifier to generate

* Try to sleep in the position of half-military analysis

How to sleep less and feel good

* Learn how to manipulate the sleep cycle in REM sleep to stay longer

* Take frequent 20-minute nap during the day

Chapter 7: Reversing Injuries
$ 10,000 FIX: Ferriss cured of his "permanent" injury by receiving a concoction of chemicals (platelet-rich plasma, stem cell factor, bone morphogenetic proteint-7, the growth factor insulin-like 1) by injection.

The cheapest fix in several phases:

* Step 1: Movement

* Step 2: Manipulaiton

* Step 3: Drugs

* Step 4: Surgery

Chapter 8: Running Faster and Farther
* Jump up: Joe DeFranco, a renowned coach of the NFL Scouting Combine, worked with Ferriss on the shoulder, arm position before the jump, the hip flexors and squatting allowed to jump three inches vertically Ferriss high in 48 hours.

* Run faster: Joe DeFranco also trained Ferriss on how to run the placeholder fastest 40-yard line by correcting Ferriss' line and arm at the starting line. Ferriss is advised to keep his head down, the knee head of his toes to the chin tucked and upper head of the lower body, and take a few steps. Ferriss has improved its control panel 40 yards in 0.33 seconds in 48 hours.

* Running on: Ferriss trains by running 400 meters several times (and again), while controlling the amount of repetitions, the maximum of effort and time to rest. Ken Mierke, a world champion triathlete has contributed to its passage rate, welding position and movement of the arms. With preparation, biomechanics and training, Ferriss was able to increase his distance of 5 km race of 50Km in 12 weeks.

Chapter 9: Getting Stronger
The beads in this chapter to become stronger than experienced Ferriss include:

* Dynamic Stretching

* Bench press, push-ups, deadlift to knees

* Static stretching

* Hold "time under tension", while you raise less than 10 seconds to avoid fatigue.

* T"Lift heavy loads, but not difficult "

* Keep your training time (day or night) consistent.

Chapter 10: From Swimming to Swinging
* Ferriss learned to swim effortlessly in 10 days

* How to swing a bat like Babe Ruth

* How to keep your breath as long as Houdini and David Blaine

Chapter 11: On Longer and Better Life
* Take 5-10 grams of creatine per day

* Correction of protein and cycling

* To donate blood

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks


Wow. This book should be required reading for scientists and students of life. The true story of Henrietta Lacks and her family has finally been told, beautifully, in this book. The book encompasses science, ethics, and the story of a family who was terribly wronged in the pursuit of scientific research. I could gush about this book for pages but I'll try first to hit the main points of why this book is so remarkable in list form for the sake of brevity:

1. The author clearly developed a strong relationship with the Lacks family, which was absolutely critical to ensuring the story was told accurately and with the respect to Henrietta Lacks that was so deeply deserved.

2. The storytelling is amazingly moving despite the need to convey a lot of scientific information. It reads like fiction.

3. Ms. Skloot's research into the science is impeccable.

4. The book is FAIR. It presents the unvarnished truth, obtained DIRECTLY from as many prinicpal people involved in the story as is humanly possible. It would have been easier to simplify the story into heroes vs. villians, but Ms. Skloot deftly handles all sides of the story.

It would have been very easy for the author to come across as condescending or patronizing or possibly as being exploitive as she wrote about a family that is poor and uneducated. Instead the story is infused with compassion and patience as she not only takes the family along with her on a journey to understand their current situation and the ancestor whose life was so rich in legacy but poor in compensation; she educates the family in the process. I get the sense that the author grew to genuinely love Henrietta and her family. I am in awe of this level of commitment.

All I want to say is I am STUNNED that this is the author's first book. She has poured ten years of her heart, soul, mind and her life in general in this book. What she has given birth to in that long period of labor is worthy of her sacrifice and honors Henrietta Lacks and her family.

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