For the reading crowd...

I've always been a big reader. Unfortunately graduate school makes reading for pleasure tough, because every time I pick up a book, I feel like I should read one of my physics papers instead. Over this past winter break though, I decided that it was only going to be "fun" reading (even though some of my physics papers are pretty fun!) and so I started and finished a book and read several magazines. Most of the books I get are on fitness and food or dog training because those are two passions that I enjoy spending the most time on. Since this is not a dog training blog (although I hope to be starting one of those in the future!), I will focus on the foodie/fitness books and magazines I read.


Book: Integrative Nutrition
Author: Joshua Rosenthal

Summary:

This nutrition book goes over ideas and some details of a lot of popular diets as well as different cultural diets and ancient habits of eating. It is pretty comprehensive in the nutrition theories it covers and I liked the brief summary of each of them in which pros and cons were examined. It is more than a diet book in the sense that it goes over various eating models, but also delves into a lot about nutrition as a lifestyle. It talks about "primary" food which isn't really food but aspects of life that can be used to make your life more full and happy so that "secondary" food (aka actual food) is needed less as cravings to fulfill empty voids in your life. The author is a big fan of clean eating in the sense that the closer to the natural state a food is, the better it is for you. He talks a lot about the energy of food and where it comes from and concludes the book by detailing the benefits of cooking ones own food and a whole chapter on recipes.

Not my cup of tea, but contains interesting ideas.

Pros:

• Good background on various types of diets
• Interesting theory on why we crave foods
• Some scientific evidence presented
• Solid idea that everyone's body is different (bioindividuality) and therefor there is no one right diet for everyone.

Cons:

• Book has a lot of pretty "out there" ideas. Some things like how people tend to look like the food they consume which is called "transference", suggesting tarot card reading, and a mention of vitamin "L" where L stands for the love the food was prepared with and how this makes it better for you. Didn't back up any of these claims with scientific evidence, just anecdotal stories
• Lots of stories, not so much science
• Terrible editing (which really bothers me)
• A bit full of himself and his "inclusive" theory.

Magazine: Fitness Rx for Women (Feb.)

Cover Model: Jamie Eason!!! (she's my favourite fitness model :-) )

Summary: 

2013 New Year's edition has just as much great info packed into its pages as it usually does. I really love this magazine. It gives a good (yet still quite air-brushed) perspective on how being fit and sexy can look. The girls have a lot of muscle, even though they still have low BF, but what I loved most about this edition is that Jamie Eason was on the cover! Jamie has been a big inspiration of mine ever since I started lifting. Admittedly, I was one of "those girls" who was afraid of "getting bulky" and basically looking like an IFBB Figure athlete during competition. I didn't realize what was involved in actually accomplishing this look, but this was the picture I had in my mind as I refused to weight train seriously and loaded up on the cardio. Jamie was the first model that I looked at and was like "Damn, that girl is really fit, feminine, and doesn't look bulky". (As you can see below). This issue is filled with many good foodie tips and workout routines. I love all of their science-based snippets. If you haven't had a chance to pick up this issue yet, I highly recommend it!

Yay Jamie!

What are your favourite fitness books and magazines?