The individual book excerpts are found on each of our other blogs. The schedule for each is:

(1) Answers by Email has creativity, core (basic), and health books under Books tag.

(2) Changemaker Groups has personal development books under Books tag.

(3) Changemaker Library has spiritual direction books under Books tag.

(4) Healing For You has meditation, peace of mind, and stress reduction books under Books tag.

(5) High Energy Life Plan has exercise and food books under Books tag.

For the Changemaker Library, we will be including the basic features of some books you may want to use. All of the books used are the choices of Changemaker without solicitation from any author or publisher. At the beginning of the post, we have listed the name of the book, the author, the ISBN number, and a link where you can order the book if you choose. The rest of the post includes actual content from that book for you to better be able to determine if this is a book for you.

I keep my special books together and use them frequently. I call them my textbooks as I seek direction time and time again from them. The Changemaker Library presently has 50+ books that we are recommending. This library can be acquired gradually either for your individual work or resources for the Changemaker Groups that you begin.

All the books are listed on Changemaker: Change Your Life and have an Amazon link to buy the book

These books are incorporated in our Changemaker Library. All of the books used are the choices of Changemaker without solicitation from any author or publisher. We include the title of the book, the author, the ISBN number, and an Amazon link if you choose to order the books yourself.

The following books are about exercise:

8 Minutes in the Morning

Jorge Cruise

ISBN 0-06-050538-9

Amazon link

Complete Guide to Pilates, Yoga, Meditation Stress Relief

Parragon Publishing

ISBN 1-4542-216-5

Amazon link

Escape Your Shape: How to Work Out Smarter, Not Harder

Edward Jackowski

ISBN 0-7432-1144-8

Amazon link

Essential Stretch: Gentle Movements for Stress Relief, Flexability and Overall Well-Being

Michelle LeMay

ISBN 0-300-52893-8

Amazon link

Healthy Woman: Walk Off the Weight

Prevention/Rodale

ISBN—none listed—call 1-800-848-4735 for Rodale products

Move Your Body Tone Your Mood

Kate F. Hayes

ISBN 1-57224-275-2

Amazon link

Shape Walking: Six Easy Steps to Your Best Body

Marilyn Bach and Lorie Schleck

ISBN 1-56731-647-6

Buy this book

Workouts for Dummies

Tamilee Webb

ISBN 0-7645-5124-8

Amazon link

The World’s Fittest You: Harness the Power of Interval Training-and Get On the Road to Fitness in Just One Month

Joe Decker

ISBN 0-451-21401-3

Amazon link

Yoga for Weight-Loss: The Effective 4-Week Slimming Plan for Body, Mind and Spirit

Celia Hawe

ISBN 0-7607-5454-3

Amazon link

Yoga: Three in One: Three Complete Home Workout Programs

Hinkler Books

ISBN 1-7415-7416-1

Amazon link

The High Energy Life Plan integrates all the tools for living a healthy, balanced life. Many times busy people will see or read something that they would love to integrate into their lives. They also lack the time to plan and execute a total health plan. The Life Plan includes food/diet choices, exercise choices, and emotional/mental techniques for stress reduction. All the pre-tests, measurements, references for each of the three categories (diet, exercise, and emotional/mental tools) are given.

We have spent 30 years researching, enjoying, and implementing self-help, exercise, diet, nutrition, spiritual, emotional, mental, psychology and addiction books. Our central focus is on holistic healing—mind, body and soul. So the High Energy Life Plan includes the books we have found to have become our “textbooks”. These books are incorporated in our Changemaker Library.

On the High Energy Life Plan password-protected blog, we have included the exact page numbers for different techniques offered in the High Energy Diet. All of the books used are the choices of Changemaker without solicitation from any author or publisher. We include the title of the book, the author, the ISBN number, and an Amazon link if you choose to order the books yourself.

Our goal is that each person using the High Energy Life Plan can create and continually change her/his health plan. Health takes effort to maintain. Each of us needs to know what we need to attain our highest level of health.

Four of these books are used as the core books for the High Energy Life Plan. These books are included with an Amazon link:

Complete Guide to Pilates, Yoga, Meditation Stress Relief

Parragon Publishing

ISBN 1-4542-216-5

Amazon link

New Choices in Natural Healing for Women: Drug Free Remedies from the World of Alternative Medicine

Prevention Magazine

ISBN 0-87596-387-0

Amazon link

The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook

Martha Davis, Elizabeth Eshelman, Matthew McKay

ISBN 1-57224-214-0

Amazon link

Stress Control for Peace of Mind

Linda Wasmer Andrews

ISBN 0-7607-6468-9

Amazon link

Michael F. Roizen and Mehmet C. Oz

ISBN 0-06-076531-3

Amazon link

Having read so many books over the years of a similar subject matter as this popular book, I was prepared to be under-whelmed. To my delight, this book is easy and enjoyable to read. I especially liked the crib sheets that they included. The crib sheets organize and simplify the subjects in the book.

The subject titles in the book are: your body, your home: super health; the beat goes on: your heart and arteries; do you mind; your brain and nervous system; motion control: your bones, joints and muscles; to a lung and healthy life: your lungs; gut feelings: your digestive system; sex marks the spot: your sexual organs; common sense: your sensory organs; sick sense: your immune system; this gland is your gland: your hormones; hell cells: cancer; and the owner’s manual diet.

A sample of one of the crib sheets is the owner’s manual diet activity plan.

Walking 30 minutes every day (or other general physical

like swimming, if you cannot walk)

Stamina training 3 times a week, at a rate at which you are

(biking, swimming) sweating for 20 minutes or are out of breath

by the end

Resistance training 3 times per week, 10 minutes a day

Stretching or yoga Every day, after walking

Deep breathing Take 10 deep breaths every morning and night

using abdominal technique

Sleep Plan time for 7-8 hours daily

Kate F. Hayes

ISBN 1-57224-275-2

Amazon link

Kate Hays has created what she called “the workout therapy wookbook”. In the introduction she requests that you adopt two actions from the beginning: 1) thinking of yourself as an investigator or searcher for truth, and 2) making a commitment to one form of sedentary activity—wring out your thoughts.

The table of contents reveals what this book suggests:

“But I thought therapy was all talk.” How exercise can be your

therapy

1) Starting on your path

2) Why exercise is good for your head as well as your heart

3) “What’s in it for me? Getting started doing exercise

4) Designing your exercise plan

How to be therapeutic to yourself through exercise

5) Stress busing and mind calming

6) Getting up when you’re feeling down: overcoming inertia and

And changing your mood

7) Feeling strong and capable: self-esteem and competence

The poetry of the sunrise: clear and creative thinking

“Now what?” Maintaining your gains

9) Keeping going….and getting going again

10)“But it felt so good!”: Overcoming exercise

11)Is food eating you?

12)Being female, being active

Taking a “fearless inventory”: review and reflection

13)When exercise isn’t enough: exercise and therapy

14)A final exercise

Michelle LeMay

ISBN 0-300-52893-8

Amazon link

Essential Stretch by Michelle LeMay with the ISBN 0-399-52893-8 is featured in this post. Michelle has spent years developing and teaching her stretch techniques. The table of contacts includes the basics, the blessings, the techniques (oscillations, breath, heart activation, meditation and centering), the stretches (full body, lower body and upper body), and five different routines depending on the user’s skill level.

The five routines are: (1) full body routine for getting started, (2) full body routine for the seasoned stretcher, (3) short and sweet routines, (4) daily stretches, and (5) mind your mind

Her centering process includes several helpful techniques. Centering is the ability to “tune out” inner and external stress and get in touch with your quietness inside you. We each have this center but this technique needs to be strengthened in order to lower our stress level. Remember it is our reaction to stress that uses the most useless energy. We want to bombard our stressor. But the centering process helps to use our energy the only place that we can make a difference—on ourselves.

The techniques for centering that she includes are: (1) increase your self-awareness, (2) quiet your mind, (3) focus inward, and (4) create a positive shift. The positive shift uses clarity, letting go of burdens, self-love, peace, mind/body connection, and being happy statements to be included with your stretch.

Excerpt from the book:

“Essential Stretch is a simple movement technique. Anyone can do it—no matter what your age or fitness level—and everyone can benefit from it, even super-fit athletes and dancers. Unfortunately, when it comes to exercise programs, stretch has been placed on the back burner, or related to the category of exercise for the elderly. But research reveals that stretching is often the missing link in successful exercise programs, As you will see, it is becoming apparent that it may be the missing link in our lives.”

Jorge Cruise

ISBN 0-06-050538-9

Amazon link

Jorge Cruise tells how his weight loss plan works:

“Follow my 8 minutes in the Morning program and you will see amazing weight-loss results in just 28 days. But it doesn’t stop there. I will also give you the tools you need to stay lean for the rest of your life. You will be working on three things every day:”

“Your emotional fitness. Before 8 minutes in the morning routine, I will help you build your own motivation with my daily Wake-Up Talk. It will give you the emotional advantage you need to move beyond self-sabotaging thinking and motivate yourself to love your new fit lifestyle.”

“Your physical fitness. My proven”two superquick moves” are the center of the program. They take 8 minutes a day, but the results are tremendous. Each day, I will give you two new strength-training moves specifically designed to help you speed up your metabolism, get firm, and burn fat as effeciently as possible.”

“Your eating habits. My Eat Fat to Get Fit nutrition program is simple to follow and will never leave you feeling deprived. You won’t have to count calories or cut out your favorite foods.”

“Finally, 8 minutes in the Morning connects you to a community of your peers. I invite you to visit my web site at www.jorgecruise.com

to get more advice from me and to chat with the millions of others who, like me, are well on their way to achieving new health and happiness.”

I visited the above site on July 28, 2007 and found ads for Jorge and contact for him. He started a blog in June, 2007, but I found no efidence of a community online. There are several really good weight loss communities which we have listed on a separate post.

Celia Hawe

ISBN 0-7607-5454-3

Amazon link

In the introduction, Celia Hawe writes this short overview of the book:

“My Yoga for Weight-Loss program will help you to lose fat effortlessly and permanently.

All you have to do is:

1) Learn a few easy postures

2) Challenge your present thinking

3) Follow an easy detox eating plan

It works because:

1) It alters your way of thinking

2) It identifies areas of your life that needs to “lose weight”

3) The eating plan is practical, easy-to-follow, and guarantees results”

She has the following chapter topics:

1) What is Yoga?

2) Guidelines for successful practice

3) Let’s begin: the essential warm-up

4) Success: the choice is yours

5) Think big!

6) Learning to love and forgive

7) Believe in yourself

Positive communication

9) Feeling fulfilled

10) Letting go

11) Eat to energize

12) The 28-day detox and eating plan

Power-boosting tips

Frequently asked questions

Points to ponder

Resources

The postures: a quick-reference guide

Yoga for Weight-Loss (ISBN 0-7607-5454-3) This book by Celia Hawe is a 4 week plan. We recommend our readers implement her core program of yoga exercises to the Changemaker Plan because yoga teaches us physical, mental, and spiritual techniques. She has offered a 28-day detox and eating plan. Also is included a basic shopping list for the foods she recommends as well as recipes. If you prefer to start with this plan and then adopt the Changemaker Plan, you will receive benefits from both.

Move Your Body Tone Your Mood (ISBN 1-57224-275-2) is a scientifically proven program to help you ease anxiety, life depression, manage stress, and enjoy your body. Kate Hays teaches that exercise can be your therapy. She also helps you to design your exercise plan as well as building self-esteem, clear and creative thinking, and overcoming inertia and changing your mood.

8 Minutes in the Morning (ISBN 0-06-050538-9)is advertised as a simple way to shed up to 2 pounds a week guaranteed. Jorge Cruise also includes a four-week plan to using his program into action. He introduces powerwalking which would be a great cardiovascular exercise. He has a food list, suggests using fat to get fit. His plan uses a fit eating card system.

The World’s Fittest You (ISBN 0-06-050538-9) by Joe Decker. He has a fitness plan that harnesses the power of interval training that helps you get on the road in one month. He includes the FIT equation, the power of positive eating, cardio activities, strength-training activites, and stretching exercise.

Escape Your Shape: How to Work Out Smarter, Not Harder (ISBN 0-7432-1144-8)

The author, Edward Jackowski, has a company, Exude Fitness, which is the largest one-on-one motivational fitness company in the country. It is also the only body type and fitness center.

You may choose to use all the books, as I do. They each serve as my textbooks for my physical health and exercise plan.

Edward Jackowski

ISBN 0-7432-1144-8

Amazon link

In Escape Your Shape, Edward Jackowski, the author, uses the following profiles for each of the four body types. The types are:

1) The hourglass body type means that you tend to carry weight in both upper and lower body with a slender spot around the waist. Your measurements will be different for all three areas of your body.

2) The spoon body type tends to carry most of the body weight in hips, thighs, and buttocks. The top of the body is more slender than the bottom.

3) The ruler body type is more straight up and down with little difference in the measurements of the chest, waist, and hips which weight centered in the midsection.

4) The cone body type tends to carry most of the weight in the back, chest, arms, and stomach being more slender from the hips down.

Jackowski includes exercises for each of the four body types. He is the owner of Exude Fitness, in New York City, which is the largest one-on-one motivational fitness in the United States.

The exercise tools that he recommends are: (1) one piece of aerobic equipment, preferably a stationary bike; (2) a jump robe; (3) a firm exercise mat; (4) a folding 4-pound aerobic bar; and (5) a 10, 15, or 20 pound curl or straight bar.

He recommends using his fitness workout program for your body type 3 times per week that should take you 60 minutes to complete. The ISBN number for this book is 0-743-1144-8.