The Cleaner Plate Club

This is another book I borrowed from the library.  As I was looking for some other books, I came upon this and it looked healthy and interesting.  And, I was totally correct.  This cookbook not only has recipes, but it gives a lot of great information.

This is not a vegetarian cookbook, but the emphasis is to get more vegetables into our children.  It gives the background of the vegetable and pictures of all different varieties of that vegetable in color.  It tells you how to select and store them, the nutritional goodness, then, some recipes that are typically easy to make. 

In a different section, it does things like Soups, Desserts, etc. which combine a variety of vegetables, fruit, and meat/poultry/fish.  It's really informative, which I absolutely love.  The layout of the book is great.  It gives you healthier alternatives to the traditional stuff - for example, sweeteners are resigned to white sugar, rather you can use maple, honey, stevia, agave nectar, etc.  And, the alternatives they give are natural, not yucky synthetic.

All the recipes look to be kid-friendly.  If you have kids, you know how things like peer pressure or changing taste buds can wreak havoc on a family's meal times.  They also give suggestions for packing school lunches that are healthy.  I think at some point in the future, I will purchase this book when I can find it for under $5 with shipping. 

Eat, Cheat & Melt the Fat Away

I have one of Suzanne Somers' books that I bought several years ago but never got very far in it.  The reason why I borrowed this book from the library was because it was mentioned on a teleseminar that I was listening to.  Since the library had it, why buy it?

Maybe it's where I am in my life, in my 40s, and my body is changing and the things I used to do, it used to be easier to lose bodyfat and exercise.  Now, I feel more aches & pains. 

Not sure how many pages this book is, but I was able to complete this book in a matter of a couple days.  There are lots of good recipes in the back of the book.

Anyway, it is an easy read.  Suzanne can be a little long-winded in some areas, but that's okay.  I think it's her being real and that is what reaches a lot of people.  She makes no bones about being challenged to drop bodyfat and to look good.  She says it was easy when she was in her 20s & 30s, but once she got into her 40s, things changed and continued to.

Suzanne's book is about living more naturally, though, everything isn't totally green and organic, but she gives tips and helps people to make strides to begin making healthier choices for their lives.  I'm not sure how much this information is repeated in her other books or not.  But, since this is the first book of hers I actually read, it is a good book. 

It's less overwhelming than Paula Owens' book, but you have to weed through the personal stuff with the factual stuff.  I like the testimonials, but then, who doesn't.  Testimonials are given to help motivate.  Anyway, I did end up buying the book used for hardly anything.  Shipipng cost more than the book.

She lays out what the eating plan to lose bodyfat is and maintenance.  These are ways to eat for life.  The recipes are really yummy.  I have a bad habit of food combining, like fats & carbos.  That's a no-no.  And, I'm used to eating fruit with proteins.  Also another no-no.  So, I have some challenging habits to break.

The Final Summit

I'm not a fan on fiction, but there have been a few books that I absolutely LOVE.  The first fictional book I read in years was The Shack, by William Young.  Awesome book.  Then, I read The Traveler's Gift, by Andy Andrews.  Since both books were life changing and caused me to be moved in action, when Book Sneeze offered this book for review, I snatched it up.  The Final Summit is just in line with Andrews style of writing and is another hit with me.

David, the main character, has experienced great failure, as well as great success in life.  His greatest successes came after his biggest failures.  Gabriel, the arch angel (he is an arch angel and not just an angel), plays a vital role in this story.  The Final Summit is a summit comprised of incredible people throughout time where God brought revelation to these people to help them through life and impact a good portion of mankind.

Though David did not see himself as impactful like Winston Churchhill or Abraham Lincoln, because of the courage of David's life as he relied on God, he is considered just as great.  Without giving away the whole story, the summit is a gathering of these great people throughout all time, including King David & Solomon from Bible times.  Five people, called "Travelers", are called out to help David determine the correct answer to the question "WHAT SHOULD HUMANITY DO, INDIVIDUALLY AND COLLECTIVELY, IN ORDER TO RESTORE ITSELF TO THE PATHWAY TOWARD SUCCESSFUL CIVILIZATION?"

They were given 5 chances to get this right.  With each chance, David and Winston Churchill could call upon a pre-selected "Traveler" to help them figure out the answer.  With each addition of a Traveler and discussion, despite great wisdom & incredible discussions, each of the answers were wrong.  If they did not get it right by the 5th time, all of mankind would be doomed.

Anyway, I don't want to spoil the ending of the story, but it's a definite must read.  My guesses were wrong, but I learned a great deal in this book.  Failure isn't failure unless you give up.  Keep relying on God.

I hope you enjoy the book as I have.  Thank you again, Book Sneeze, for sending this book to me for free to review.
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The Boy Who Changed The World

The illustrations in this book are so beautiful and the message is so sweet. It's regarding the Butterfly Effect, but made simpler so young kids can read and understand this.

The message is simple, "EVERY THING YOU DO MATTERS!"

This includes big things, small things, and everything in between. This reinforces that we are beautifully and wonderfully created for a purpose by God. Our lives are significant, they do matter.

The book is physically a nice big book. The pictures are like mini-paintings and thoughtful. The expressions on the people's faces are tender & loving.

There is great hope in this book. Both my kids read this book and loved it. It's a must to share with your children, grandchildren, young people. This book also gave me time to speak to book of my children about making wise choices and to know that nothing they do is insignificant.

This book helps greatly convey in a simple manner that a person does have great value & worth. Great job Andy Andrews!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The Butterfly Effect

This is the second book I've read by Andy Andrews. The first was the The Traveller's Gift, which was an wonderful fiction book that had a great message and has really changed how I view things. The Butterfly Effect also has the same poignant impact on me.

The jist of the book is to not place judgment on whether an event, something we do or say is of greater or lesser important, rather that ALL that we do has a consequence and is important. We do not know whether any consequence at any moment in time can result in something really impactful and significant or not occuring.

Sometimes seemingly insignificant events can ultimately result in HUGE things happening. He gives a couple examples in history that ONE person was able to impact the lives of millions and billions of people - countries, nations. However, when each person acted in whatever manner they deemed best in that moment, it set about a chain reaction that has greatly made a difference.

The conclusion of this is MY LIFE IS SIGNIFICANT. I really do matter. This isn't only for myself, but for every single person ever born.

When thinking about the impact of our words & actions can have for all eternity, it's a very sobering thought and makes me want to make wiser choices, be more courageous, be a person of integrity, a better person. Excellent book and very easy to read.

I had both my children read this book and they loved it.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Let's Do Lunch

I would have to give the author of the book 5 stars for his accomplishment of losing 230 pounds and keeping it off for more than a decade. That is quite a feat and he figured out what he needed for him to lose the weight.

However, I am disappointed in a number of things as I thought there would be a greater emphasis on the Lord in the book, so that was maybe an assumption I made that wasn't all that great. My error. He does give God the credit.

Although my background is not medical, nutrition or fitness, this book kind of pulls this and that out of each of those areas. Yes, it does give a disclaimer at the beginning of the book to check with your doctor, blah, blah, blah. Most doctors have very little training in nutrition. I found some of Roger's suggestions like using Splenda (though, it seems like he uses Stevia more) a horrible suggestion, as well as some references to diet soda. Those are just simply awful. Really, would you rather have arsenic 1 or arsenic 2?

Roger is also big into corn. The fact is, corn is really hard for your body to process & digest. He seems to be really in favor of these corn cracker things, popcorn, I Can't Believe It's Not Butter.

Butter, real butter isn't bad for you when eaten in moderation. It is way better than margarines or other more processed spreads. He also isn't a big advocate of avocados or nuts. God created these things to be eaten and they do have very healthy fats in them.

The nutritional content of the book is poor and I give this, at best, a 1 star. This was quite disappointing. Though he says that this isn't a fruit diet, it seems mainly that way. He doesn't address on this weight loss style of eating about people who are into weightlifting or more intense forms of exercises.

He advises eating your 3 meals a day: lots of fruit for breakfast, lots of protein for lunch, and a dinner that has very little protein. No snacking, but if you must, it seemed rather limited here, as he advises to not eat fruit between meals. The "nutritional" stuff that is correct is scattered all over the book where some things are bogus and others are factual. The thing is, you need to know what is what.

So, if you seriously exercise, what about feeding your muscles after your workout? He doesn't talk about this unless I missed it. He says you can do this weight loss program without exercise, but that if you exercise, it will accelerate the weight loss and help you get healthier.

The reason why I give it 3 stars is because people do get positive results. It's something that can probably be doable for many people, but it's unclear to me for those in a more rigorous exercise program that you will have more meals.

I think he could've just simply said for a good part of the book is to really eat 1 ingredient items instead of processed things. Anyway, he wasn't as organized in the book as well as I would've thought.

Anyway, I would be willing to give some of the general thoughts of this way of eating for a bit to see how effective it is to give him the benefit of the doubt.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”