Shape Your Life

by Angela Hynes and Barbara Harris

Book Overview

This guide pinpoints the seven goals ? workouts, diet, spirituality, rest, emotions, body image, and work ? that it considers the benchmarks of total fitness. It also provides a custom-designed... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 140190159X
• ISBN13: 9781401901592
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Hay House
• Length: 331 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.3" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Mastering the Seven Elements of Fitness

With the popularity of makeover shows, it is no surprise to find books promoting the idea of "getting in shape fast." It only took my husband asking me if I wanted to go on one of those makeover shows to get me thinking I could probably do this myself without surgery and a "lot" of patience. What I worry about is how discouraged some people might become when four weeks pass and they look at themselves in the mirror and see minimal results. For me, it has taken over 24 weeks of serious working out for about 45 minutes a day, not to mention all the salads I've had to eat to get to a point where I feel that I should have started. I've found that diets don't work, but diet counts. If that makes any sense. But with that aside, I think this book is for people who are between 10-20 lbs overweight. Then, you will probably see dramatic results. For anyone who is trying to lose 50 or more pounds, it is going to take much longer than 4 weeks. So, I would say that this book is more helpful for anyone looking for lifestyle changes on a permanent basis. Toss out the "4-week" idea and think "life plan for getting fit and staying that way." Then, you will enjoy this book and it becomes a starting point for major changes down the road. I would just hate to see anyone toss out the wonderful ideas when they don't see dramatic changes in four weeks. The concepts are amazingly well organized. The Seven Elements each have their own chapters. You explore: your workout, diet, spirituality, rest, emotions, body image, work and finally the last chapter analyzes your results. Throughout the pages you will find "quick tips" and "what you'll learn" pointers. The fitness test is helpful to determine your present strength level. The "walk-run" idea is probably not new to you if you have a treadmill, but might interest you if you have only been walking. The walking program is highly detailed and gives you a schedule for all four weeks, day by day. If you don't have a lot of time to workout, you can try the 20-minute workout. There is a helpful chart for major muscle groups. If you enjoy learning exercises from a book, there are quite a few exercises. I still recommend getting exercise videos to learn how to do Pilates, yoga or any other exercise you want to try. You can refer back to the book to see the pictures, but nothing compares to a one-on-one session with a professional instructor on video/DVD. A video will help you keep the intensity going and an instructor will show you what you might be doing wrong. Chapter two delves into the area of diet. I'm going to say that I agree with Shape's approach to eating right. The shape food pyramid puts vegetables and fruits on the bottom of the pyramid and whole grains on the third level. Water is on the second level. This makes sense and I've lost weight following these ideas. I'm less hungry when I drink enough water and my moods are more constant when I drink enough fluids and exercise almost daily. If you are a vegetar

great

this book does something that many other fitness books dont: it explains to women that they need to be HEALTHY and HAPPY in order to lose weight. Also, it is not strictly a weight loss book- it contains a lot of information about spirtualty (not religion really), peacefullness, and body image. on the down side its actually weight training (ie resistance training exercises) are not all that great. the cardio plan is wonderful though. i really like it a lot. i also like the 20 minute weight resistance thing and i added inner/outer thigh lifts and tricep/calve lifts to it. i actually do the cardio exercise they reccomend plus the 20 minute program each day so i do a little more than they say. this program has little ab work- 15 minutes 4 times a week is good. for some good ab work buy 3 minute abs.the nutrition is wonderful because they dont have silly 1200 calorie diets. the plan is 2000 calories a day and since i was trying to lose weight, i decreased it to 1600 calories a day. the recipes are delicious and the information very good.i would reccomend buying this book along with the body scultping bible for women and 3 minute abs. goodluck!!

My lifestyle bible!

I love this book. It has all the information I've been looking for for the past year. The book gives you plans for everything, not just facts. In the diet section they give you a few weeks worth of menus for healthier eating with some recipes. In the other sections such as work and spirituality they continue to give you stretches and exercise ideas and relate the content back to your body. I would also like to comment on the spirituality chapter. I found it very inspiring.It is not about religion specifically and doesn't push religion at you. It is more about taking a break from our hectic, stressful, materialistic world through helping others, connecting with nature, religion, etc... I found it to be a more Zen approach rather than religious. I liked that they include spirituality because it is a reminder not to get too caught up in focusing on just your body. Overall, I find this to be a very positive book and would recommend it to anyone who wants to be healthier.

Shpe your Life

I have to say this is the first time a bought a book and then felt the need to share my thoughts about it on the internet. I bought this book 3 weeks ago after seeing the advertisement in Shape mag. I love the magazine and find it to be informative, helpful & entertaining. The book is the same. I realized finally at the age of 37 that it isn't just about losing weight. Spirituality, body image, relationships etc.. all need to be in balance. The book offers great ways on how to achieve this. As simple as they are they make sense. I love the 4 week eating plan and I've already tried a couple of recipes that were really good. I would recommend this book highly and if your ready to change the way you think about yourself this is the way to get started.

"Shape" does it again

I have been a loyal subscriber to SHAPE magazine for several years now and, because of this, bought this book immediately upon its release. And I am glad that I did. If you already subscribe to SHAPE you will get the same all around good advice and research as the magazine gives without feeling that deja vu feeling that they have just reproduced bits of the magazines you've already read. There are some bits that are familiar though, I did recognise some of the recipes in the food section. Overall it is a very informative and interesting book that is delivered with the same philosophies of the magazine - there is no quick fix, simply being thin is not going to make you happy, the minds must be in tune with the body, etc. This book focuses on all aspects of the life and includes rresearch on things such as why volunteering is good for us and also has a very uncheesy chapter on body image. Each section (not just chapter, but different sections within the chapters) has a four week plan that is easy to follow in whichever area you choose to work on. Another thing that I found makes this a good book is that it is not necessary to do the 4 week plans. This is not set up like so many books I see where the entire obok is based on trying some plan, but rather makes it easy to incorporate diffent aspects of it's reasearch and philosophy into your every day life. Definitely worth buying.