Book Review - The Serotonin Power Diet

The Serotonin Power Diet by Judith J. Wurtman, PhD. and Nina T. Frusztajer, MD. explains what serotonin is and why it can help you with your food cravings. Serotonin is the substance that makes you not be hungry. It also prevents you from overeating when you are stressed out. This book guides you through a 12 week program.

The first thing in the program is that you have to snack. This is one thing that most diets eliminate. Phase 1 lasts 2 weeks were you have 3 snacks. Phase 2 are weeks 3-8 were you eat two snacks and from week 9 and beyond it is one snack. The snacks are always carbohydrates.
The book guides you through how to eat the right type of carbohydrates by phases. It gives a menu to follow (with choices) so you are not hungry and are not to overeat or eat emotionally. The book also has a chapter on the type of exercise to do to maximize your weight loss and keeping it off.

One of the chapters that I liked the most was how to eat at restaurants. It gives you choices by cuisine. I think most people will find this very useful whether they are on a diet or not. Another chapter is the one where it helps you troubleshoot problems with your weight loss.

Part four of the book is the part that contains recipes you can use. Chapter 12 gives you a list of things to have on hand for a quick meal. Chapter 13 has basic meals and quick kitchen tricks. Chaper 14 has the recipes.

I did the recipe on page 204 Sauteed Scallops. It was easy to do and very tasty. If the rest of the recipes are just as easy this will be a nice (and tasty) diet to follow.

The goal of this diet is to learn how to eat it in moderation as well as to learn the difference between appetite versus being hungry.

About the Authors
Judith J. Wurtman, PhD, discovered the connection between carbohydrate craving, serotonin, and emotional well-being in her MIT clinical studies. Founder of a Harvard University hospital weight-loss facility and co-founder of Adara Weight Management Center, she has written five books, including The Serotonin Solution, and more than 40 peer-reviewed articles for professional publications. She lives in Miami Beach, Florida.

Nina T. Frusztajer, MD, co-founder of Adara Weight Management Services, is a practicing physician and certified professional life coach. She received her Masters degree in Nutrition from Columbia University and her medical degree from George Washington University. She lives in Boston, MA.

Website: http://www.serotoninpowerdiet.com/
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Rodale Books; 1 edition (December 22, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1594869723

ENDED Book Giveaway - How to Never Look Fat Again

The new groundbreaking style-guide from bestseller author Charla Krupp on how to look 10 pounds lighter, 10 years younger and 10 times sexier every day, all year--in summer, winter, at the gym, even in a swimsuit!

You'll never get dressed the same way again once you discover:

• smart, easy ways to hide arm flap, a big bust, a muffin top, back fat, Buddha belly, a big booty, wide hips, thunder thighs, and heavy calves-and that's only half the book.
• which fabrics, colors, and styles make women look fat
• absolutely the best shades, shapes, and brilliant buys to make the pounds invisible
• clever solutions for special fashion situations--workout gear, evening wear, and even swimsuits!*which products, fashions, and services you shouldn't waste your money on
• the top ten tips that will make you look thinner by tonight!

So, if you've ever put on a piece of clothing and asked "Does this make me look fat?"

Finally, here is the book that will answer your question.

Charla krupp has appeared for ten years on the Today show and on more than thirty national TV shows including The Oprah Winfrey Show, The View, Tyra, CBS Early Show, Entertainment Tonight, and Access Hollywood. She is a contributing editor to People: Style Watch, and was formerly beauty director at Glamour, senior editor at InStyle, and contributing editor at More.


Thanks to Hachette for this Giveaway.
Giveaway Rules:

• One entry only - Please comment on why you want this book.
• Leave your email (I cannot contact you without your email)
• Only residents of the US and Canada may enter
• Please no PO Boxes!!!
• The drawing will last till February 28
• Random number generator will be used - 3 copies to give away
• I will post the winners here on March 1
• Winners have 48 hours to reply or a new winner will be selected

WINNERS - edeliz, supertalya, bgcchs

ENDED Audiobook Giveaway - Absolute Power By David Baldacci

Available for the first time Unabridged on CD in an all-new recording by Scott Brick, the first of the blockbuster thrillers by New York Times bestselling author David Baldacci. The book that will change the way you think about Washington - and power - forever.

In a heavily guarded mansion in a posh Virginia suburb, a man and a woman start to make love, trapping a burglar behind a secret wall. Then the passion turns deadly, and the witness is running into the night. Because what he has just seen is a brutal slaying involving the president of the United States.

Luther Whitney is the career break-in artist who's in the wrong place at the wrong time. Alan Richmond is the charming U.S. president with the power to commit any crime. And Jack Graham is the young attorney caught in a vortex between absolute truth and... ABSOLUTE POWER.

David Baldacci lives with his family in Virginia. He and his wife have founded the Wish You Well Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting literacy efforts across America. He invites you to visit him at www.david-baldacci.com and his foundation at www.wishyouwellfoundation.org, and to look into its program to spread books across America at www.FeedingBodyandMind.com.

Thanks to Hachette for this Giveaway.

Giveaway Rules:

• One entry only - Please comment on why you want this book.
• Leave your email (I cannot contact you without your email)
• Only residents of the US and Canada may enter
• Please no PO Boxes!!!
• The drawing will last till February 27
• Random number generator will be used - 3 copies to give away
• I will post the winners here on February 28
• Winners have 48 hours to reply or a new winner will be selected

WINNERS - msboatgal, kmkuka, wmknox

ENDED AudioBook Giveaway - The Unnamed By Joshua Ferris

Joshua Ferris' debut novel Then We Came to the End was both heralded by critics and a New York Times bestseller, and marked the arrival of a startlingly talented young writer. With THE UNNAMED, Ferris imagines the collision between one man's free will and the forces of nature that are bigger than any of us.

Tim Farnsworth walks. He walks out of meetings and out of bed. He walks in sweltering heat and numbing cold. He will walk without stopping until he falls asleep, wherever he is. This curious affliction has baffled medical experts around the globe--and come perilously close to ruining what should be a happy life. Tim has a loving family, a successful law career and a beautiful suburban home, all of which he maintains spectacularly well until his feet start moving again.

What drives a man to stay in a marriage, in a job? What forces him away? Is love or conscience enough to overcome the darker, stronger urges of the natural world? THE UNNAMED is a deeply felt, luminous novel about modern life, ancient yearnings, and the power of human understanding.

Joshua Ferris received an MFA from UC Irvine. His work has appeared in the New Yorker, New Stories from the South, Best New American Voices, Prairie Schooner, GQ, and the New York Times. He lives in upstate New York.

Thanks to Hachette for this Giveaway.

Giveaway Rules:

• One entry only - Please comment on why you want this book.
• Leave your email (I cannot contact you without your email)
• Only residents of the US and Canada may enter
• Please no PO Boxes!!!
• The drawing will last till February 26
• Random number generator will be used - 3 copies to give away
• I will post the winners here on February 27
• Winners have 48 hours to reply or a new winner will be selected

WINNERS - gwknox, spynaert, amt

ENDED Audiobook Giveaway - I Am Ozzy By Ozzy Osbourne, Chris Ayres

They've said some crazy things about me over the years. I mean, okay: 'He bit the head off a bat.' Yes. 'He bit the head off a dove.' Yes. But then you hear things like, 'Ozzy went to the show last night, but he wouldn't perform until he'd killed fifteen puppies . . .' Now me, kill fifteen puppies? I love puppies. I've got eighteen of the f**king things at home. I've killed a few cows in my time, mind you. And the chickens. I shot the chickens in my house that night.


It haunts me, all this crazy stuff. Every day of my life has been an event. I took lethal combinations of booze and drugs for thirty f**king years. I survived a direct hit by a plane, suicidal overdoses, STDs. I've been accused of attempted murder. Then I almost died while riding over a bump on a quad bike at f**king two miles per hour.


People ask me how come I'm still alive, and I don't know what to say. When I was growing up, if you'd have put me up against a wall with the other kids from my street and asked me which one of us was gonna make it to the age of sixty, which one of us would end up with five kids and four grandkids and houses in Buckinghamshire and Beverly Hills, I wouldn't have put money on me, no f**king way. But here I am: ready to tell my story, in my own words, for the first time.


A lot of it ain't gonna be pretty. I've done some bad things in my time. I've always been drawn to the dark side, me. But I ain't the devil. I'm just John Osbourne: a working-class kid from Aston, who quit his job in the factory and went looking for a good time.


Ozzy Osbourne was born in Aston, Birmingham, in 1948. He has sold over a hundred million records both with Black Sabbath and as an award-winning solo artist. He has five children and lives with his wife, Sharon, in California and Buckinghamshire.


Thanks to Hachette for this Giveaway.

Giveaway Rules:

• One entry only - Please comment on why you want this book.
• Leave your email (I cannot contact you without your email)
• Only residents of the US and Canada may enter
• Please no PO Boxes!!!
• The drawing will last till February 20
• Random number generator will be used - 3 copies to give away
• I will post the winners here on February 21
• Winners have 48 hours to reply or a new winner will be selected

WINNERS - hockeygalnc, ppiotto, Jaleigh78

ENDED Audiobook Giveaway - The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova

Psychiatrist Andrew Marlowe has a perfectly ordered life--solitary, perhaps, but full of devotion to his profession and the painting hobby he loves. This order is destroyed when renowned painter Robert Oliver attacks a canvas in the National Gallery of Art and becomes his patient. In response, Marlowe finds himself going beyond his own legal and ethical boundaries to understand the secret that torments this genius, a journey that will lead him into the lives of the women closest to Robert Oliver and toward a tragedy at the heart of French Impressionism.

Ranging from American museums to the coast of Normandy, from the late nineteenth century to the late twentieth, from young love to last love, THE SWAN THIEVES is a story of obsession, the losses of history, and the power of art to preserve human hope.
 Thanks to Hachette for this Giveaway.

Giveaway Rules:

• One entry only - Please comment on why you want this book.
• Leave your email (I cannot contact you without your email)
• Only residents of the US and Canada may enter
• Please no PO Boxes!!!
• The drawing will last till February 19
• Random number generator will be used - 3 copies to give away
• I will post the winners here on February 20
• Winners have 48 hours to reply or a new winner will be selected

WINNERS - greenlancer, mcapel4444, hsemonick

ENDED Audiobook Giveaway - Marriage and Other Acts of Charity By Kate Braestrup

Kate Braestrup has been married and widowed, betrayed and betrothed, her personal spirituality constantly evolving along the way. How do God and love figure in our everyday lives and bonds with others? In MARRIAGE, AND OTHER ACTS OF CHARITY, she tackles these big questions with stories from her own relationships--romantic and familial, platonic and professional--much as Anne Lamott weaves her spirituality through her tales of parenthood.

With the same compassion and warmth that made Here If You Need Me a New York Times bestseller, Braestrup engages readers fully, regardless of their path in life. She tells us about teaching sex education for her daughter's eighth-grade class, and the welcome embrace extended toward her adopted nephew from Africa. She introduces the essential concept that charity--the key to all relationships--is a whole-hearted selfless emotion, which is but a hint of God's immense devotion. Kate Braestrup's very human outlook gives anyone seeking to understand human relationships a fresh perspective on what it is to love and be loved.

Kate Braestrup is the author of the memoir Here If You Need Me and the novel Onion. She has written for the New York Times Magazine, Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, O, Mademoiselle, More, Ms., and Law and Order and lives in Maine with her husband and children.

Thanks to Hachette for this Giveaway.

Giveaway Rules:

• One entry only - Please comment on why you want this book.
• Leave your email (I cannot contact you without your email)
• Only residents of the US and Canada may enter
• Please no PO Boxes!!!
• The drawing will last till February 14
• Random number generator will be used - 3 copies to give away
• I will post the winners here on February 15
• Winners have 48 hours to reply or a new winner will be selected

WINNERS - ZESTYWONDERLAND, cardshark42, theyyyguy

ENDED Giveaway - Skin MD Natural Valentines Day Giveaway

The MD Natural people have a great giveaway for St. Valentines. It is a very nice basket with their products and, the most wonderful food in the world -- Chocolate.

The prize basket is valued at $100 and contains the following:

• Bottle of Skin MD Natural shielding lotion
• Bottle of Skin MD Natural + SPF 15 shielding lotion
• One pound of See's dark assorted chocolates
• Pack of Starbucks VIA Ready brew coffee pouches
• Kiss Me coffee mug
• A Cuddly teddy bear
• Lollipop Bouquet

For entry into the giveaway visit the MD Natural entrypage, by Feburary 8, 2010, http://www.skinmdnatural.com/forms/valentines-giveaway.php and enter in your name and email address. Lots of luck!!

ENDED Product Giveaway - Skin MD Natural

I am so excited to announced that I am teaming up with Skin MD Natural and they are going to give away one of their products to one lucky reader.

Skin MD Natural is a shielding lotion that helps the skin restore its integrity and enhance its protective functions so that the skin is able to heal naturally and regain its youthful appearance. Skin MD Natural works by bonding with cells of the skin's outermost layer to form an invisible shield. This layer of protection prevents environmental irritants and pollutants from penetrating the skin, while locking in the skin's own natural oils and moisture, helping heal dry skin, leaving skin feeling silky and smooth.It is dermatologist recommended and hypo-allergenic. It is also fragrance, colorant and paraben free, so it is safe to use for the whole family.

A shielding lotion is unlike any other conventional, artificial moisturizers because it works with the skin to naturally moisturize and heal. Most conventional, artificial moisturizers only add moisture to the surface ofthe skin, but do little to repair the skin's natural barrier against moisture robbing irritants. Continued use of artificial moisturizers can cause the skin to actually begin producing less of its own natural oils, thinking that the skin has enough moisture. This can cause skin to form a dependence on the moisturizer for hydration. Skin MD Natural breaks the dry skin cycle by working to help restore skin's natural protective abilities bybonding to the outer layer of skin, strengthening skins natural barrieragainst toxins and irritants that can dry the skin, while locking in the skin's natural oils.

This product is made in the US using high quality natural ingredients making it over 90% all natural. All ingredients are considered to be of food grade and are also on the FDA's most safe list. It is free of harmful fragrances, parabens, and colorants making it hypoallergenic. They also don't participate in animal testing nor does the lotion contain any animal products.

Giveaway Rules:

• One entry only - Please comment on why you want this book.
• Leave your email (I cannot contact you without your email)
• Only residents of the US may enter
• Please no PO Boxes!!!
• The drawing will last till January 30
• Random number generator will be used - 1 bottle to give away
• I will post the winner here on January 31
• Winner has 48 hours to reply or a new winner will be selected

WINNER - wmknox