Want to lose weight and get back in shape?

NewBooks, originally uploaded by tgolamb.

Sue and I just picked up two new books. Both of these are products of Men's Health magazine and I personally think they are well done.
Living in an area where it not all that easy to pursue other outdoor activities, we have allowed ourselves to get soft. We are a shade over the weight we want to be, and even though we are regularly hitting the gym and watching what we eat more carefully, it's obvious we need a little more help. It was only a few years back when I was in the best personal shape of my life and I want to get back to that.

<>I found that these two books are a couple of the best I've seen in a while. If you find you want to make changes in your life and your health, this might be a great place to start.

"The Abs Diet" has diet information that most people (with a little of discipline and dedication) can live with. You can eat what you still like (within reason), and still lose weight. It's interesting though... they start you on a program, and if you haven't exercised much, you don't have to start right away. It's more about putting your metabolism in the right condition to turn that - conditioning corner. It also gives you the sort of exercises you need to begin putting your body in the shape you can be pleased with. You and your mirror could become friends again. The diet part isn't chock-full of revelations. However, this is the first time I've seen the kind of statistics, diet assistance with supporting evidence, and the no bull story on how to pull it all together all in one package. It's informative, entertaining, and adds some motivational commentary that some might find encouraging. The exercises themselves are worth the price of admission, and you don't have to buy a gym membership to do them.

To help Sue's English pronunciation skills, we are reading this one out loud. This serves a couple of basic ends, but it also gives us a chance to chat about what we both heard as we plan our program together. It's actually kind of fun.

The "Home Workout Bible" is a manual sized book, chock full of exercises... more than 400. There is no talk of food in this book, just a total focus on muscles and how to get the most from them. Most of the book gives you exercises you can do at home without a big personal investment, running to the gym. It also covers machine exercises, but not extensively. The book breaks down exercises into beginning, intermediate and advanced, and provides some training logs and sample workouts to help you keep your progress on track.

I hate sounding like a book review, but as both Sue and I have gotten older, and the importance of eating right and exercising has smacked us in the face (as well as made us take a critical look in the mirror). There is no reason why we can't still look good, and be happy. And as they point out in the book, everything we do in this area reduces our susceptibility for injury and disease, which is the part I like. I can tell you from our efforts in the aerobic and Taebo classes, we have a long way to go. However, we are having fun and already feel great about our improvement.