NonFiction Review: The 4-Week Fast Metabolism Diet Plan

The 4-Week Fast Metabolism Diet Plan by April Murray, RD
The 4-Week Fast Metabolism Diet Plan
by April Murray, RDLeila Page, RD

4 out of 5 stars on GoodReads


This book gives a well-rounded plan for dieting and resetting your metabolism to have a healthy body.

The first section talks about lifestyle changes like moderate exercise and eating healthy foods, but also places a strong emphasis on sleep as a way to lose weight because it balances your hormones and allows your body to rejuvenate itself while you rest. This section also explains how the metabolism functions and why it is such a factor in our weight.

I really loved how this chapter includes herbs and spices that you can include in your food, like turmeric to reduce inflammation, green tea to help lower blood sugar, reishi mushrooms to balance hormone levels. And there are vegetables and meats that help to boost the metabolism like beets, broccoli, salmon, eggs, and lentils. Continue reading

Non-Fiction Book Review: The Rabbit Effect

The Rabbit Effect by Kelli Harding
The Rabbit Effect: Live Longer, Happier, and Healthier with the Groundbreaking Science of Kindness 
by Kelli Harding

3 out of 5 stars on GoodReads


This book explains many of the hidden factors to health and disease that modern medicine doesn’t routinely cover: social environment, easy access to nutritious food, work satisfaction and safety, family bonds, and environmental trauma. Kindness really can heal disease and prevent infections.

I liked how the information in this book was organized. The chapters have some good examples of real-life cases and scientific studies that prove how each component in a person’s life strongly affects their health.

However, the author has a very leftist viewpoint, and holds up government-controlled health care as a desirable and efficient situation, even hinting that it apparently worked out so well for the British. And yet Britain is well-known for having a terrible health-care system.
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Comforting Books

The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett

I recently had a couple of weeks of illness which left me often depressed and sleepless at three in the morning. What do I turn to for comfort and help? Not a bottle of pills. A Book!
The best help in times of trouble is, of course, the Bible; but there are many other books I include in my collection of healing words. In just a few chapters, I can feel my muscles relaxing, and my stomach settling down. My headache is forgotten, and my heart is soothed. Then sweetly I am drifting to sleep with lovely thoughts in my head. Here are a few of those magical comforting books: Continue reading