Title: YOU: The Owner's Manual
Author: Michael Roizen, MD; Mehmet C Oz, MD
Publisher: Collins
Did you know your body is just like a house? Even the Bible called it a "temple". You take care of it just like you would a house just with different tools.
It's hard to know how to care for something if you don't know what it's made of, how it works and what makes it tick. This is a fun book for the average person to get more acquainted with the structure and inner workings of you body and what the essentials are needed to keep if functioning at it's best.
I have a short attention span for boring and blah and this is one of the first books I've read on "health" that I enjoyed reading and actually stuck through until the end. It's hard to read about what I'm doing and not doing to my body and not want to work harder at caring for it.
I had no idea the extra 15 lbs I put on have added an extra 105 lbs of weight to my knees. At this rate I'll need knee replacements by 60. I'm only 155 now, but heck that's a killer on my knees. Especially if I don't start using them.
The most amazing thing to learn was that it doesn't take much to change the body and make it healthier and able to live longer. No crazy diets, outrageous work out plans, brain melds, or trips into space are required. It's simple changes that make the difference. Do a crossword puzzle each day, take a 10 minute walk 3 times a week, add fiber and fruit to your diet, know your blood pressure (115 over 70 is ideal) and your cholesterol levels. Simple things make a huge difference.
For smokers and fat addicts (yes you the "whole milk or die" freak) there are even plans to help you break both of these habits.
I recommend this to anyone ... period! If you have a human body, read it. Get started on a younger life.
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NOTE: There has been much controversy to this book because it's known James Frey fabricated much of the story. HOWEVER...regardless if "fact" or "fiction", for anyone who has battled addiction or any seeming insurmountable problem, this is still a story of triumph and hopefully it can still bring a little hope for those still struggling.
Title: A Million Little Pieces
Author: James Frey
Publisher: Random House
The truth can set you free and redemption can come to anyone. There is nothing said and nothing done except suicide, that can not be redeemed. James Frey's brutally honest account of his personal reality with drugs, alcohol and rehabilitation shows that no matter how low you go.. you can always climb back up.
James Frey was a twenty three year old alcholoic that was also addicted to every major (and minor) drug you can think of. Meth, crack, weed, even glue to name a few. He was half dead and couldn't remember the last time actually being awake for an entire day. The book begins when he wakes up on an airplane with no recollection of how he got there and no idea where he's going. He's filthy, covered in sweat, vomit, urine, blood and dirt. He's missing four teeth, has a hole in one cheek, a broken nose and eye socket. At this point he doesn't even remember or know he's wanted in three states.
Two weeks prior he passed out and fell face down a fire escape. After a friend convices the authorities to let him contact James' parents he puts him on a plane for Chicago where they are waiting for him. Once he gets off the plane they travel to a rehab facility and check him in.
What follows is a detailed account of the two months he spent at the facility. He recounts with unparallelled honesty his battle to control his addiction (without the help of 12 steps), face dental surgery (without anesthesia) and regain control of his life. We meet friends he gets to know during his stay, like Leonard the Mobster, Miles the Judge, and Lilly the Broken. Each one suffers from chemical addiction but each deals with it differently and we feel for each one of them. Hating to see them fall, crying when they cry and cheering when they succeed.
It's about choices. Not the ones other people make for you but the ones you make for yourself. Everything in life is a matter of choice. How you wake up in the morning, go to bed at night, live your life, treat yourself and other people.. it's all about choice. We can be our own worst enemies or our own best friends.
Although I have never gotten involved in drugs, alcohol or addiction myself this book shows much more than how to recover from these demons. It shows the power of the human spirit and that no matter how deep the hole you fell into is... a ladder is always there waiting to show you the way out. All you have to do is be willing to reach out and grab it. You can't sit and wait for someone else to come along and rescue you. The climb is yours and yours alone to make. You have to want it.. you have to reach. James Frey reached for the ladder and he made his climb and when he got out of his hole he just kept climbing. He realized the ladder just keeps on going and where you stop and get off is up to each and everyone of us. You have to climb... hold on and climb.
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A Million Little Pieces - Publishers Page
Offical Website