Monday, January 25, 2010

enLIGHTened


enLIGHTened: How I Lost 40 Pounds with a Yoga Mat, Fresh Pineapples, and a Beagle-Pointer by Jessica Berger Gross

A quick look at the author photo and the author's own admission that she is currently a size 4 made the premise of this book hard to latch on to. Gross apparently has struggled with her weight her entire life, but when she learns the basic principles of yoga while studying abroad in Nepal as an undergraduate and consequently loses 40 pounds, she claims that her life is forever changed. I thought the book would be more about yoga, but the majority focuses on healthy eating (including the merits of being a vegetarian!) and she includes some of her tried and true recipes. She does include photos and instructions for several core yoga poses and she shares a bit of the philosophy behind yoga, focusing on how the meditation and self-awareness of the practice can help create a happier and healthier life. Frankly, it was a fairly boring book about a woman losing weight in my opinion. And looking at her tiny frame in that photo, I'm still skeptical that she ever weighed 40 pounds more than that!

No comments: