Showing posts with label workout machines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label workout machines. Show all posts
Natural Facelift
Posted by
Unknown
on Friday, March 7, 2014
Total Home Workout
Posted by
Unknown
on Thursday, November 21, 2013
Living with Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Guide to Maximizing Brain Health and Reducing Risk of Demen
Posted by
Unknown
on Thursday, November 7, 2013
CONS too academic and detailed to be a self-help book for MCI patient; seriously lacking list of resources, print too small: ** or ***
This is a great book for those dealing with people who have MCI. A tremendous amount of information is collected here. Many other books (and support groups like the Alzheimer's Association) give MCI only minor attention and primarily deal with dementia. Instead, this book squarely addresses MCI itself, its characteristics (and differences from dementia), how it is diagnosed, questions to ask the doctor, strategies for coping and improving the life of the MCI patient, and so forth. It nicely clarified many aspects of this diagnosis, and I really appreciate having all of this information pulled together in one spot. High points and summaries are extracted and boxed (along with little vignettes), which is really helpful to the reader.
The biggest problem with this book is that the people who need it the most, MCI patients themselves, won't be able to deal with the textbook academic style of most of this book. Someone who is diagnosed with MCI has very little out there addressed to them specifically. They are caught in the territory between between normal aging, and dementia, which most information sources address. So this book supplies a tremendous resource, but because of the academic style, more for the family members of the MCI patient and for professionals who treat them.
I was really excited about this book when I read about it in the NY Times a few days ago, and immediately ordered it and read it cover-to-cover the day it arrived. The online preview of the book made it seem like it would be a great book to hand directly to my MCI family member (who is a DIY type who is refusing to avail herself of other help that is out there). I especially noticed Section Three of the book which has a number of chapters with proven improvement strategies, steps the patient can take to make a real difference. By chance the "Surprise Me!" pages missed all the dry academic discussions, so I hadn't realized that much of this book is written in medical journal style.
Unfortunately, this book can't decide what audience it is addressing. Some parts of the book are directly addressed to MCI patients themselves, e.g. "The previous section showed that exercise can improve cognitive functioning, increase the size and activity of *your* brain, and reduce dementia risk" (p. 254, emphasis added). However, the style and content of most of the book seems written for clinicians and academic journals. For example, they discuss various proposals for how MCI should be classified in the DSM-V. Frankly, patients and family members won't care about where MCI appears in the DSM. And in talking about whether specific individual nutrients help (in the section addressed to the MCI patient), they spend 20 lines of academic blather about randomized controlled trials, outcome measures, etc. (too much copying and pasting?). This level of discussion is way too detailed for the cognitively struggling MCI patient, when the authors just should have simply stated the conclusion: Eat a variety of foods, because so far, in spite of numerous well-controlled studies, there is no scientific evidence showing that there are any wonder nutrients to help with MCI. (p. 221).
Additionally, they did a less than half-hearted attempt to compile a list of "Memory Intervention Programs" (p. 152-153). It is misleadingly brief: only three in Canada, one in the US, and one in Germany; with a branch in Hong Kong. They should either make a serious attempt at assembling an accurate and more complete list, or they should not have included such an incomplete list at all. The effect is to make the reader feel rather hopeless about program availability, when this is not the case: In reality, there are many more Memory Training and Memory Care programs in medical centers in N. America. For example, they omitted the Memory Training program at UCLA (which has been licensed in several additional locations across the US). Other possible places to look for useful programs: the Alz Assn Community Resource Finder site for "Early Stage Programs", or perhaps NIH's Alzheimer's Disease Centers (listed in Jean Carper's book 100 Simple Things You Can Do to Prevent Alzheimer's and Age-Related Memory Loss. (p.299) [ETA Oct 3, 2012]
Finally, on my laptop screen, the font of the book preview is larger and more comfortable to read than in the actual printed book. So while I feel my MCI family member could easily read what I saw on the screen, the printed book is a less approachable smaller-print experience, that will be harder for many to read comfortably (ymmv). Since this book is ostensibly written for older people who have more problems with smaller print, this is an puzzling choice.
I really hope they (or someone else) writes a good non-babyish self-help book addressed to intelligent MCI patients themselves, that they take all the content of Section Three along with clarifying portions of the earlier parts, throw away all the academic prose, and produce something that will be genuinely helpful to MCI patients. For myself, I'm going to go through this book again and underline the most cogent portions, before passing it on, to make it more readable for my intended recipient.
p.s. There is evidence of hasty editing:
The URL given in the preface (for updates and a few worksheets) doesn't work, but you can access the (minimal) worksheets by googling "livingwithmci pdf site:baycrest.org" [as of this writing 10/3/2012]. [The URL is working now! ETA 10/25/2012]
The vignette in box 1.5 is about "Carlos", but when the text discusses that example, they talk about "Tom".I'm a neuropsychologist and purchased this book to screen for patients. It has great information for patients and families in simple, easy to understand language.
Are You Ready!: Take Charge, Lose Weight, Get in Shape, and Change Your Life Forever
Posted by
Unknown
on Thursday, October 3, 2013
What makes this book different from many other fitness/diet books is Bob deals with the emotional-mental side of things. He tries to get at the root of why we do what we do to ourselves and how to overcome that. For most people where emotions and food share a common thread, this helps you identify that thread and break it!
WHAT'S INSIDE:
Chapter 1 Are you Really Ready? Step One = he deals with your baggage and fears that are keeping you fat
Chapter 2 Accept Where You Are and Forgive: Step Two = You learn to reconnect with your body and forgive yourself for what you've done to it
Chapter 3 Love Yourself: Step Three = Building confidence and setting goals then staying positive
Chapter 4 Change Your Internal Tape Recorder, Change Yourself: Step Four = This is where he deals with emotional eating, mental hunger vs. physical hunger and provides a proactive formula
Chapter 5 It's an Eating Plan, Not a Diet = he explains a bit about foods and their relationship to weight loss. He then provides a great food list and then seven(7) options for a quick breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks
Chapter 6 Your Food Journal = Yes you need to start counting calories. You can photocopy the pages in this chapter to get you going with your own journal.
Chapter 7 Stress Busters = How to deal with dinning/eating out while on your plan; shopping strategies and then staying on course with your eating while in the real world
Chapter 8 Getting Started: Phase One = Introduction to exercise, including why monitor your heart rate. Also levels of exertion defined, basic equipment needed then his words on Cardio workouts
Chapter 9 My Master List = With over 65 exercises described and with most pictures of Bob performing the steps to the exercise. Though black & white, the photos are clear and easy to see what he describes the exercise performing
Chapter 10 The Workout = Three options for a week's worth of working out or you could look at it as 3 weeks of workouts. The options get progressively tougher. As someone like myself who is already fairly fit, Option 1 was too easy but Option 3 was a very good challenge.
OVERALL:
I liked this book, though the workout Bob puts together in the Biggest Loser book that came out first was a lot tougher (5 minutes of walking lunges and 7 minutes of crunches. Ack!).
This is a nice comprehensive book that hits the holistic experience of eating and working out and the challenges we go through starting and continuing a healthy process.
This book is a good addition to anyone's library.I read this book, cover to cover, in 2 days and really enjoyed it. I think it is the perfect book for anyone who has a lot of weight to lose or for someone who is relatively new to working out. The book has a huge section of strength training exercises, which is great-especially for someone who is new to the weight room or concept of training with weights. I also enjoyed the food lists and recipe ideas.
I'm not sure how helpful this book is to someone who is already accustomed to working out and knows a lot about nutrition, but it a GREAT book for anyone in the beginner, intermediate range. I love how Bob combines mind and soul to make the weight loss a true, life-changing event.
Buy Are You Ready!: Take Charge, Lose Weight, Get in Shape, and Change Your Life Forever Now
I'm a huge fan of The Biggest Loser. I cry when the contestants lose weight. Bob Harper is a great guy the perfect counterpoint to Jillian Michaels drill sargeant persona. He appears to be kind, gentle, understanding, yet able to influence huge weight losses from the shows participants. I couldn't wait to get this CD and actually get a dose of the whole "Change Your Life" package. The truth is, there's really nothing new here. Bob tells us that we must get our insides together in order to be successful at changing our outsides; that we need to eat healthy foods and exercise at least 5 days a week. He tells us that if we screw up, we don't beat ourselves up. All this is delivered in Bob's charming, encouraging style. There is an enhancement to the CD that allows you to read his food list, sample menus & all of his prescribed exercises (or download the PDF version & print it out). I think that if you ordered the CD you will still want to get the book. There's too much information on supplements, exercise plans and implementation stages. I suspect that the book may have more details. My 4 star rating has nothing to do with what I think of Bob Harper. However, if you've been dieting/exercising for any length of time, you've probably already got this.I've been watching Bob Harper since he started on The Biggest Loser, and his book is just like he is on TV--positive and upbeat. It's all about fixing what is wrong with you emotionally before attempting to fix what's wrong with your diet. He is all about empowerment and shares personal stories to help solidify the need to balance your Inner Compass.The nutrition advice is really helpful, and it never seems like he's telling you what to do. Instead, he shares with you and reinforces the fact that you shouldn't give up if you mess up once or twice. He stresses effort, and discipline that comes with personal growth.
This is definitely a book for beginners. This book, coupled with his Biggest Loser workout DVD, will have you well on the right track toward living a better, more healthful life.
Thanks Bob.
Want Are You Ready!: Take Charge, Lose Weight, Get in Shape, and Change Your Life Forever Discount?
I don't know about you, but I start off every year with a fresh batch of diet books and exercise DVDs. And every year by the end of the first week I still haven't tried a single recipe. And the exercise DVDs have been watched and deemed too tough for any human to get through.This year I wanted to find something that would help me lose weight and keep it off for good. They say if you want to grow as a person get in a new relationship. Every piece of baggage from previous romances shows up.
Well the same thing happens when you decide to change your eating habits. Every piece of your dieting emotional, mental and physical past rears its ugly head and preys on you via your inner fat critic.
Where the majority of diet books ignore the "diet baggage" we all carry, Bob gets you to deal with it BEFORE you jump into a healthy eating and exercise plan. He has trained enough people in his life to know that even the most dedicated dieters at some point will back off when their inner fat critic starts to stalk them.
Bob's book is for those of us who continue to yo-yo diet and cannot figure out why we keep starting over again. He provides a concrete plan for resolving inner sabotage. And while this is not a substitute for serious psychological problems that require professional help, it is a great place to start for those who just need a four step plan to lose weight permanently.

