BOOK REVIEWS

by Marilyn Helton

Building Bridges to Better Health

OK, folks, Here we are... We made it! We've crossed the bridge into the next century. What are your plans? What will you do with this new opportunity for a fresh start on your overall health and diabetes control?

I don't know about you, but I've made the journey into the new millennium by walking very softly, one step at a time, and I'm carrying a very big stick: My new and improved attitude about taking better care of myself!

How many of you type 2s make the same resolve each New Year, say, to do a better job of controlling your weight? Since this is a very special New Year, make a new commitment and make it count. Resolve to get a better grip on your diabetes control and your weight management! You can start as I have done, by reading one of the most interesting and intriguing books I've read recently: "Intuitive Eating--A Recovery Book for the Chronic Dieter," written by Evelyn Tribole, M.S., R.D., and Elyse Resch, M.S., R.D.

I call this a "thinker's" book. It makes sense as you really dig in and give a lot of thought to what the authors have to say. Its thesis is wrapped around 10 basic principles, following chapters on Hitting Diet Bottom and Discovering What Kind of Eater You Are. You'll learn how to reject the diet mentality, make peace with food, cope with your emotions without using food, respect your body, exercise so you feel the difference and honor your health with gentle nutrition.

One of the best sections in the book comes from two paragraphs in the Epilogue: "...becoming an Intuitive Eater requires a highly conscious decision and commitment. It means letting go of the old way of surviving and opening up to a new way of viewing life... There are many tradeoffs in the Eating World. Having the 'willpower' to stay on a diet can give you a temporary sense of power and control, but being an Intuitive Eater gives you a lifelong sense of self-empowerment. The acts of dieting and rebound binging can offer excitement. So does eating forbidden foods. But when excitement no longer comes from food or dieting, other aspects of life are free to be experienced. When you are using food or the obsession that dieting creates to numb yourself or to distract yourself from your feelings the majority of time, you might feel calmer and less stressed, but your life can seem like a blurred, out-of-focus home movie. You know you're alive and racing through life, but you rarely experience its highs, lows, and nuances of sensation. Once you peel off the layers of dieting and overeating numbness, you'll discover a richness in life that for some has been buried for decades."

As diabetics, we certainly know how vital good nutrition is for our health and diabetes control. Consider this book as an excellent introduction to your attitude toward weight loss and maintenance. It's definitely a worthwhile investment and highly recommended. Intuitive Eating, by Evelyn Tribole & Elyse Resch, published 1995, St. Martin's Press, ISBN 0-312-13097-X.

As long as we're talking about attitude, here's a book that comes at exactly the right time for most who get a midlife diagnosis of diabetes.

Suzanne Willis Zoglio, Ph.D., has written a book about making the "next half" of your life the "best half." "Create A Life That Tickles Your Soul--Finding Peace, Passion and Purpose at Midlife" provides powerful insights on how to reinvent your life in the second half.

Since the majority of type 2 diabetics are diagnosed at midlife, it's possible to apply some of the strategies described in Dr. Zoglio's book to dealing with chronic illness. After going through the grieving process for life as we knew it (before diabetes), some who receive the diagnosis are able to look inward.

In using the suggestions in Dr. Zoglio's book, for example, you can use your diagnosis as a turning point by letting go of the past and taking charge of your present; you can learn how to shift negative mindsets and change self-sabotaging behaviors; you can even learn how to pay more attention to your life by embracing it and even celebrating it! According to Dr. Zoglio, "...the need to accumulate material things becomes less significant than the need for time to enjoy what we have... the need to be seen is superseded by the need to really see ourselves...," and both are vital elements of being able to live successfully with a chronic illness.

"Create A Life That Tickles Your Soul" is not a diabetes-recovery book. It's a book about how to achieve and enjoy emotional well-being, and a wonderful guide for helping you to recognize purpose in your life and the motivation for achieving it. You'll really learn how to live from the inside out! A truly inspirational book. "Create A Life That Tickles Your Soul," by Suzanne Willis Zoglio, Ph.D., published 1999, Tower Hill Press, ISBN 0-941668-09-6.

Fifty-five percent of our adult population (97 million Americans) are overweight. As a result, type 2 diabetes is considered to be an epidemic. A combination information system and personal workbook, "The Diabetes Weight Loss System" is a very thorough book for a very specific population--overweight people who have diabetes. Presented in consecutive stages which precede behavioral change: The Contemplation Stage; The Preparation Stage; The Action Stage and The Maintenance Stage, there are good subsections in each area. These include Diabetes and Overweight, Changing Behavior Patterns, Stress and Eating, Understanding and Using Food Labels, Controlling Your Food Intake, Beginning to Increase Your Daily Activity, Getting Ready for Aerobic Exercise, Implementation of Your Personal Exercise and Diet Plans, Relapse Prevention and Lifetime Weight Maintenance.

There are two main types of diabetes: type 1 and type 2. Approximately 90% of the diabetic population in the U.S. has type 2 diabetes. The most powerful risk factor for type 2 diabetes is overweight. And, although overweight is not an initial causative factor in type 1 diabetes, as people with type 1 advance in age, they may become overweight, and have greater difficulty controlling the disease.

"The Diabetes Weight Loss System," by Walter Bortz, MD, Sharon Bortz, MS, RD and Patricia Mathis, RN, CDE of the Diabetes Research and Wellness Foundation, is the most complete, step-by-step publication I have ever seen which builds such a justifiable foundation for weight loss and maintenance for ALL diabetics. It's insightful, clearly written, and teaches the reader that he doesn't have to go through life feeing that who he is, is beyond his control. It's made abundantly clear that if you have diabetes and miss the message for taking the best possible care of yourself and your health, it's your life that's at stake.

As stated in the introduction, "There are no magic bullets, potions, or pills that can produce desirable health outcomes. There is only you, your courage, and your determination to do the required work... (and) the required work includes taking a penetrating look at yourself, not just in the mirror, but through your mind and spirit as well. This is a workbook."

I will be using this workbook as my "bible" for the coming year; giving it ample time, thought and effort in my determination to resolve my on again-off again, diabetes control. I highly recommend this book; treat it as your friend and guide in your quest for better health and diabetes control in the new millennium. "Diabetes Weight Loss System," by W. Bortz, S. Bortz, and P. Mathis, published 1999 by Diabetes Research and Wellness Foundation, ISBN 0-9670465-0-5.

NOTE: Marilyn Helton is the editor of Cinnamon Hearts--The Art of Living A Winning Diabetic Lifestyle, a positive-power newsletter for diabetics and their families. Visit the Cinnamon Hearts website at http://members.xoom.com/cinnhearts for timely articles, resources and diabetic recipes.