Category: book reviews

Cooking as Therapy

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The photo is an image of a recipe in Cooking as Therapy book.

This month I checked out of the library the new book published last month: Cooking as Therapy: how to improve mental health through cooking. Each chapter on how to heal what you feel features three recipes: a Fast Lane, Easy Rider, and Scenic Route that take 5 minutes, 30 minutes, and an hour respectively.

You’re supposed to wash your hands before you begin and I forgot this.

In Session Four: Surviving Sadness I used the Fast Lane: Top It All Off Treat. I chose this recipe first not because I was depressed. Anyone who’s feeling ordinary sadness or is grieving could follow this recipe.

The ice cream sundae in the photo above is what I created to Top It All Off as my Treat. Who could resist having ice cream as a form of therapy?

In each chapter the author who is an LCSW features recipes she’s preplanned for readers to use. At the end of the book she gives readers a list of food ingredients and methods for using the food on your own. To create unique recipes customized to what you’re going through.

I recommend installing Cooking as Therapy on a Kindle or iPad or checking it out of the library if you can’t afford to buy it.

A library is a free college of knowledge. And hey today if you return a book late as long as it’s checked back in a lot of libraries will remove the fine you incurred.

I’m going to Top It All Off again every so often. My first foray into doing this sparked an ingenious idea I had for a celebration to host at the beginning of the year like Kwanzaa only for individuals living in recovery.

Stay tuned for the details on this coming up.

ItaloPunk Recipes

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ItaloPunk original Italian food recipes

The cookbook in the photo above can be checked out of a library if you’re lucky. The ethic I’m fond of is called Principessa Punk–Princess Punk.

The 145 Recipes to Shock Your Nonna I won’t be using though. As the recipes often require at least 8 ingredients.

Otherwise if you’re a regular user of multiple-ingredient recipes Fire Away!

In coming blog entries I’ll be posting health coach vetted information on how and what to eat. Designed for those of us who want to take our meals up a notch in terms of health-sustaining benefits.

Mangia!

Food and Mood: The Final Foray

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I’m going to top myself in this blog entry. I make no pie-in-the-sky promises. I don’t sell a product. I don’t guarantee that you’ll lose 30 pounds in 30 days by following my rules.

However what I’ve been writing in here for years about the food we eat improving our mood has been verified by two M.D.s

Drew Ramsey, M.D. the author of Eat to Beat Depression and Anxiety I found out is a psychiatrist in private practice. Long before I read his book I was eating the food he recommends: eggs, cod, cashews, bell peppers, salmon, shrimp, fermented dairy (yogurt) and mussels. (Italians love our mussels!)

The connection between food and mental health has been taken up by Georgia Ede, M.D. in her 2024 book Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind.

After watching a YouTube interview with this nutritional and metabolic psychiatrist I was astonished to find out I’d been doing what she recommended as well long before hearing her talk.

She recommended a ketogenic diet. Though I don’t eat meat I was surprised that all along I’d been eating the other foods in a ketogenic diet for years.

I have three eggs for breakfast. Seafood like shrimp, mussels, salmon, red snapper, flounder, and scallops for dinner. Organic chicken.

No grains at all. (I stopped eating grains 20 years ago before an expert like Ede told people not to.)

Dr. Edie told viewers to cut out refined sugars and refined fats. Like Dr. Lipman she’s no fan of vegetable oils or canola oil or seed oils. She rails against the modern-day scourge of eating processed food.

On this note the Mediterranean Diet is toast. Even the Nutritarian Diet doesn’t hold a candle to eating animal fat.

Watching the video unsettled me. It shocked me to find out that I’d been eating all the food you’re supposed to be eating.

Even smoothies got creamed by Dr. Ede. She is against this standard advice experts give people when they tell us what to eat.

Dr. Ede has had success using the ketogenic diet to treat patients not helped by traditional psychiatric medication. Some had been ill for years or even decades. After Dr. Ede prescribed a ketogenic diet in coordination with slowly lowering the doses of the traditional pills they had a miraculous recovery.

I’m no fan of taking Big Pharma pills for medical conditions that are caused by lifestyle choices. I say Take the Pill! if you need to take a pill to be well mentally physically or emotionally. By all means take the pill if it’s helping you be well.

The friend I watched the YouTube video with clarified that the psychiatric medication hasn’t been effective for a lot of people. Things got better when they went on the ketogenic diet. This is one of the few instances where I think alternative treatment should be considered. I think this because in my own life I’ve benefitted by eating ketogenic food.

I turned 60. I look and feel decades younger. The proof is in the fact that I exercise consistently and eat well. I hope by reading this blog entry you followers are energized and empowered to consider what you swallow: the lies being told as well as the Coca-Cola.

Now: I will always take the pill I’m taking. It strikes me that maybe this pill works precisely because my diet aids and abets the pill to be effective. You can’t outrun chowing down on candy bars and expect to be healthy.

The best thing is we don’t have to be rich or go broke to eat food that can improve our mood.

”t

The Happy Home

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I’ve gotten a kick out of the book above. The subtitle is The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Home that Brings You Joy.

The six chapters are Uplift, Calm, Energize, Comfort, Empower, Express.

What I’ve believed is that a person can transform a drab space or a not-ideal living arrangement into a wondrous haven with a little art-felt ingenuity and creative decorating.

A person who lives in a room in a halfway house can hang a poster on the wall with Command hooks.

Ways exist to brighten your abode and boost your happiness living in it.

In a coming blog entry, I will talk about Christine Platt’s newsletter. She is the author of The Afrominimalist’s Guide to Living on Less. Her new forthcoming book is Less is Liberation.

As said, I think that livening up your home can turn it from boring to buoyant with a little simple and not costly tweaks.

For years I’ve studied and practiced feng shui. Using feng shui guidelines in our homes we can attract abundance. Generating good fortune not with money more than anything else but with health and wellbeing.

Why settle for less. Like Marie Kondo attested in her book Kurashi at Home: Organize Your Space and Create Your Ideal Life. She wrote that you’re not limited in how you express yourself in challenging quarters like a 350 sq. ft. apartment.

The Happy Home book gives readers questions to write down answers to about your ideal living space and aspects in your space today that disrupt your ease and harmony.

With guidance for creating a home that instills joy.

Sometimes a tiny act can spark a right-then improvement. Like simply arranging objects atop your desktop in a neat and tidy way. Banishing the items you kept on the desk and keeping only za few items remaining.

Simply rearranging something like this can give cheer. I’m a fan too of removing items from view that clutter up surfaces and storing them out of view.

For instance: I took magnets and other small objects off the desktop.

I would say that clutter is an insidious force that can cause us to feel miserable not only about our homes. It can erode how we feel about ourselves and our prospects in life.

I’ll end here by saying that organization is a form of self-care by design. Forget the cleanses and bubble baths and other influencer-peddled forms of self-care that aren’t really effective in improving our health long-term.

If those forms of self-care had any real lasting benefits Americans would not be getting ill with diabetes heart disease and other issues like we are today.

Tidying up is one of the best forms of self-care that I know of. It works to give us self-confidence and a spring in our step.

Now that it’s spring I say let’s tackle a tidying project or two.

Appetite for Destruction

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This blog entry is not intended to be a boot in the bum. At the end I tack on the truth: we cannot judge each other for the choices we make. The choice to eat meat is a personal decision. Fire up the barbecue if you want.

I’m not a total saint as though I don’t eat meat I have chicken and turkey. They are not without controversy either.

My goal is to make followers think for five minutes about what each of us can do to promote the health and welfare of Americans. Seeing beyond our own plates is called for.

The book shown above is an expose of the food industry where a handful of corporations earn billions of dollars at the expense of their loyal customers who buy their food “products.”

Apart from what I believe is the health risk of eating meat I won’t eat meat for other reasons. I stand in solidarity with homeowners living right near the CAFOs–slaughterhouses.

Negative health effects of the people living near these confinements include “a lower life expectancy and higher rates of infant deaths, asthma, kidney disease, tuberculosis, and blood poisoning” according to the book which everyone should read.

Workers falling into manure pits die from the fumes. Industry-bought economists at college universities tout the economic growth that CAFOs bring to these areas. That is a lie.

Income inequality thrives where CAFOs exist in rural areas like these. Elected leaders are in cahoots with these big food businesses via deregulation and rubber-stamping the building of new slaughterhouses.

“High poverty rates and anemic job growth” follow these CAFOs. Undocumented workers comprise the employees here as no Americans want their kids to work there. The fallacy is that CAFOS promote good jobs. In fact indentured servitude is more likely what these kinds of jobs are.

The solution is voting with our wallets and pocketbooks like always. We don’t have to buy what these billionaires living in mansions are selling: ill health and income inequality.

Elected leaders who don’t want undocumented people coming here are colluding in allowing undocumented people to work in CAFOs. This hypocrisy is not funny.

What else can we do?

Some of us will tout the benefits of eating a nice juicy steak and continue to do so. We cannot judge each other for the choices we make.

However we can open our eyes to what is going on. Lobby for workers’ rights and the ability to form a union at a CAFO.

Fridge Love

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I found this book on Amazon where I search for new books. Then checked it out of the library for free. I recommend buying the book.

Qualifying “buy the book” with the caveat: The author uses only nutritarian recipes at the end. Perfect for you if you’re an all-in vegan with a strict adherence to what’s allegedly the healthiest diet.

I’ll only use a couple recipes like the “unfried” rice and tofu eggs. That’s because a significant number of the recipes require at least 8 or more ingredients. Food like coconut aminos (I have no idea why they’re healthy) and chia seeds.

The recipes turned me off because I lived in the 1970s. I can remember that then there were TV commercials advertising the Chi-Chi Chia Pet. You could buy a terracotta planter, insert chia seeds in it, and water the seeds. Presto–a head of green sprouts would bud, and you had your own “pet.”

Owing to the unfortunate association of chia seeds with the Chia Pet I won’t be eating chia seeds in my lifetime : )

Other than my not liking these recipes the front of the book has intrinsic value thus my “buy the book” stance. For one the detailed information on types of refrigerators, how and where to store food in each type, and how and when to clean inside the fridge is golden.

The other better part of the book was the alphabetical list of produce and how to wash and how and where to store these items in the fridge.

So–I’m going to buy this book as a reference guide. It’s in paperback so is cheaper.

Author Kristen Hong’s Instagram account is hellonutritarian.

Flexing Our Muscle at Any Age

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The book above received a ton of one- and two-star reviews on Amazon.

To be honest I checked the book out of the library and didn’t buy it. I thought it was an OK book and will read it again in my spare time to get inspired.

The reviewers who trashed Flex Your Age didn’t like that the guide offered no exercise routines and no eating plans.

In my humble blog here I’ve been reposting my workout routines for readers to use if you want.

What impressed me about Joan MacDonald the author is that she didn’t start lifting weights until she turned 70. By 71 she was lifting 175 pounds with a fully loaded barbell.

And I thought it was remarkable that I didn’t start lifting weights until I was 46. 3 years later I could lift 205 pounds with the trap bar at the gym.

Joan has me beat! Though this is not a competition. Nor should the two of us and what we’ve done intimidate readers or make you feel poorly if you can’t do these things.

The point to our stories is that change is possible at any age. Incremental change is always better to effect if you ask me.

Soon I will post my 2023 Fall Upper Body and Lower Body routines.

New Lunch Recipe Book

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I created the soba noodle tofu and sugar snap pea salad from this cookbook which requires very little cooking.

A few of the recipes require Italian deli meat and other deli products.

So for those of us who are not vegetarians it’s a great time-saving book. For those of us who don’t eat meat other recipes abound.

Instead of using a plastic lunchbox I have a glass container with a bamboo lid.

I bought a box of 4 different-sized glass containers with bamboo lids.

From Bovado a company where the containers are Made in America. For $35 in a kitchen wares store. You can order them online at Bovado website.

In the coming blog entries I’m going to share my latest Upper and Lower Body Workout Routines.

Eat Move Sleep

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The Tom Rath book Eat Move Sleep has to be the best health book I’ve ever read.

The other 2 books I recommend are How to Be Well and The New Rules of Aging Well by Frank Lipman, M.D.

In Eat Move Sleep Rath asserts that sitting in a chair without getting up to move frequently is thought to be as unhealthy as smoking.

Not only is “sitting the new smoking” the reality is that loneliness is as harmful as smoking too.

Not getting enough sleep is often the root of modern-day ailments as well.

I would say if you read only one health book make it Eat Move Sleep. It’s a short book that can be read in two or three days depending on how long you read it for each day.

According to Rath most common diseases can be prevented with lifestyle changes like the ones recommended in the book.

No one should be popping Xanax as a rule or taking Ambien to fall asleep.

That said fitness should not be a “blame game” played against people who don’t exercise and eat right.

If you ask me what happens to a lot of people is “the luck of the draw.”

We cannot hold others responsible for their ill health. Not when they have a genetic mutation for cancer. Or develop leukemia when they’re 65 like a friend of mine.

Yes I firmly believe that lifestyle choices are under our control. Only so much of what happens is not within our reach to prevent.

Lastly I will say that it’s my contention that a person should take The Long View.

Not exercising for a week or two doesn’t matter. Getting back into exercising is what counts.

Hitting a plateau or having a fallow period in your life with your goals or with any kind of mental physical or emotional setback is to be expected.

I will remind readers that I might have talked in this blog about my “little bites” philosophy of not biting off more than you can chew. Of being consistent.

The beauty of following the Eat Move Sleep plan is that small changes can make a big difference.

Expecting or wanting quick-and-easy dramatic results is foolish and dangerous.

We all of us have our whole lives to live.

Giving up hope is a mistake. Having a concrete plan with clear specific SMART goals is the solution.

Come to think of it as I’m typing this I think it’s time to devote a blog entry to setting long-term goals.

So this will be coming up after I talk about The Myth of Buying Organic Food.

Bruni’s Atomic Habits

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About seven months ago I read the book Atomic Habits. I recommend that readers buy a copy. The author lists simple small effective ways to create new positive habits in your life.

Come to think of it this might have been round about when I changed one thing:

In April 2019 I ditched having Purely Elizabeth’s ancient grains mush for breakfast.

Pour granola in bowl; add milk; eat in three minutes. Repeat. Every morning.

That had been my strategy for breakfast for too long.

In April I paid $395 for the services of a Health Coach. She zoomed in on this breakfast choice as one possible root for my lack of energy.

It’s January 2020. And 9 months later I’m happy to report that things turned around.

That April I changed one tiny thing: buying organic ingredients for my morning meal.

Scrambling two Handsome Brook Farms organic eggs with organic diced yellow red and orange peppers, tiny organic broccoli florets, and sliced organic mushrooms.

One month after this eggs-cellent food makeover I changed something else out of the blue.

One morning in May I decided to exercise at 7:00 a.m. Since then I exercise at home in the morning and early afternoon 2x/per week.

On Labor Day I bought the self-cleaning oven. Since this splurge I’ve been cooking my own dinners on most nights.

In November I started using the treadmill 1x/per week–another goal.

This is proof that slow-and-steady wins the race. Because our lives aren’t a race to the finish line–you know where that leads.

I’m not a fan of trying to execute numerous goals all at once.

This is contrary to the fact that a magazine recently touted that new research claims making four or five changes all at once is possible and effective.

I’ll stick to the Atomic Habits guidelines and to the Changeology action plan.

You simply don’t know what’s possible until you try.

My metal Michael Jordan quote paperweight is inscribed thus:

Don’t be afraid to fail. Be afraid not to try.

Changing one or two things at a time has worked for me.

The funny thing is, after executing these new habits, I can say that I have more energy and confidence, and my body is fitter and stronger too. Plus I lost 12 pounds without trying to : )

Not too shabby for a person who will turn 55 in the spring.

I’ll end here by telling readers not to write the ending of your story before you’ve started the first page.

Expecting the worst–that you “can’t” do something or “won’t” be able to do something is a mistake.

I had no idea the direction my life would turn when out of nowhere out of the blue on a Friday morning in May I decided I had to exercise at 7:00 a.m.

This is the reason that planning things down to every minute detail can backfire. This is why telling yourself you need to see results quickly will derail your success.

In coming blog entries I’ll give recipes for healthful snacks. I’ll talk a little about my own “food plan” which has also become a habit recently.