Review: `Change your thoughts and you change your world.' Norman Vincent Peale
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 26, 2014
Chrisi Santana is an Integrative Health Coach who arrived at her current status through a personal trial by fire. She opens this brief but informative book by relating her own history - migraines since childhood, massive weight gain, fear of flying because of her size, and ultimately a debilitating migraine coupled with hives that failed to follow the usual course and resulted in her visiting a physician who prescribed analgesics, then a neurologist who performed MRIs, a biofeedback attempt, and a physical therapist and finally a registered dietician - her Valhalla at age 40.The dietician discovered strong food sensitivities to dairy and corn: immediately cutting these out of her diet gave instantaneous relief - and no migraines or hives since! Further guidance from the dietician altered Chrisi's eating habits by adding different types of foods each day, searching for foods that would not produce symptoms and that lead to keeping a journal. Results? She lost 70 pounds and now enjoys good health.Chrisi proceeds to inform us of foods other than diary and corn that caused her problems - garlic, aspartane in diet drinks etc. She shares that her learning to read labels on foods in the grocery store (corn is in a lot of processed food) and avoid them has been a solid lesson. In addition she shares that it is important to listen to our bodies, to have the courage to say no to foods that are not healthy for us, to recognize early signs of intolerance to foods, to bask in the good results of eating healthy foods and the side benefits such as improved skin and hair, and to embrace exercise. She recommends the way to deal with going out to eat (tipping the servers who explain ingredients before she orders), and making friends aware of health concerns in a positive way.Part Two of her book is dedicated to coaching  - how Chrisi coaches her clients to gain the positive effects she now enjoys. She goes to the root of the problem, the motives, finding new behaviors to replace negative ones, taking baby steps, avoiding self sabotage, break though barriers and roadblocks (discover what they are and overcome them), etc.Chris ends her book with a true sense of the joy of success and she shares all the things she can do now that she couldn't do when she was obese and closes with 10 motivational tips to reach her clients' goals. This is not a scientific book full of tables and lists, but instead this is a motivational guide offered by a fine writer whose goal is to `spread the wealth'. Grady Harp, January 14