Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Mind Your Own Wellness: Turning Thoughts into Reality

Mind Your Own Wellness:
Turning Thoughts into Reality
by Alex Ong
Foreword by Russell L. Blaylock, M.D.
OCL Publishing
Paperback, $14.95
188 pages
ISBN: 978-0-9801556-6-2

Book Review by Kam Williams

“Most of us are fortunate to be born healthy. It is what we have learned and have chosen to put into our mouths that drove our bodies crazy. The goal of this book is to help you better understand that what you are just about to put into your mouth will affect how you feel and look. Like it or not, that is the way it is…
Mind Your Wellness is not about asking you to stop eating your favorite unhealthy food. Its goal is to give you a deeper understanding about what could be the causes of your overeating or poor eating habits…
With this book in hand, you have the choice to be in total control of your thoughts and your health. Decide what you want and stick with it until you see the results... Be patient, be persistent, and your life and health will change for the better.”

- Excerpted from the Introduction and the Conclusion (pgs. 25 & 171)

For most folks, the end of the holiday eating season stretching from Thanksgiving to Christmas marks the time when we make another New Year’s resolution to shed a few pounds. If you’re serious about winning the battle of the bulge, may I heartily recommend Mind Your Own Wellness: Turning Thoughts into Reality.
The reason I appreciate this highly-informative, how-to tome so much is that it’s not your typical diet book suggesting some supposedly easy method of merely counting calories that will only work temporarily. No, author Alex Ong talks tough love, here, explaining that the real road to reduced weight requires a combination of serious self control and a more comprehensive understanding of the content of what we’re choosing to eat.
The author knows what he’s talking about because he’s writing about the regimen he adopted after being obese for 20 years. In fact, he recounts how much he hated having the nickname “Fatty Boy” throughout childhood, although he didn’t how to slim down successfully.
However, Alex lost his father to heart disease on September 1, 2006, a day which proved to be a turning point in his life. For he himself was likely facing a similar fate in the absence of intervention, since he was already suffering from high cholesterol and high blood pressure. It was at that critical moment that he decided to stop eating junk food and to put an end to yo-yo dieting, and to adopt a nutritious path which would restore his health.
In Mind Your Own Wellness, Mr. Ong goes to great lengths to explain why such staples of the American diet as salt, sugar, nitrites, MSG, caffeine, BHT and BHA are bad for you. Meanwhile, he simultaneously offers an array of great tips for avoiding those chemical and calorie-laden, coronary disease and cancer-inducing ingredients.
Part pep talk, part educational, part precise step-by-step guide, Mind Your Own Wellness could very well be the best investment anyone concerned about their weight might make in 2011. After all, if you have your health, you have your first million dollars.

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