Body by God by Dr. Ben Lerner (2003, Hardcover)

I read this book while attending a "Body By God" group session last year. The course includes mostly short term habits that create long term healthy habits in eating, exercise, time management, and spiritual life.

The doctor who wrote this book is a former trainer for U.S. Olympic athletes. This first made me think it was a short term way to get in shape and lose weight since the Olympics only happen every four years. On the contrary, this book starts by stating what is not good for the human body and to continue eating it as long as you add something that is good. Once you get into the program, the book even includes "vacation meals" that you take while still eating healthy. The theory is that your body will see the benefits of the good food and will naturally crave it- and to my surprise, it really works.

The book goes into great detail of why each food that it states is not good for the body is really harmful. Some of the harmful reasons of the foods are surprising.

The book also includes how to start including healthy exercise in you life.
The book also goes into time management (which is essential in reducing stress levels, increasing energy, and making time for exercise), and the book shows the importance of a spiritual life.

The real negative of this book I found is that although it does great things for implementing good, healthy long term habits into daily life, it still is a health program, and health programs are proven to have greatest success when started in groups. The book does not include a way to get in contact with others starting this same program, so you'll have to find people on your own who want to start this program. Sometimes, local churches do have an abridged version of the program once a year lasting about two months.


The far greatest thing about this book is that I went to a program that ended in February 2006 and I still have kept several of the healthy habits stated in this book to include greatly reducing my intake of sweets, coffee and sodas and cutting pork completely from my diet (the book explains why pork is not a good food to eat).

All in all, I would recommend reading and having this book on hand because contrary to the many fad diets out their with theories about food, this book tells you all the information about the food and why it is good or harmful. The book is very thorough in explaining itself and is very easy to understand. It goes more into creating habits to live a healthier life rather than taking off a couple of pounds just to gain it back a month later.