Book Tour & Review: Stop the Diet, I Want To Get Off! by Lisa Tillinger Johansen

Title: Stop the Diet, I Want To Get Off!

Author: Lisa Tillinger Johansen

Publisher: J. Murray Press

Pages: 350

Genre: Nonfiction/Nutrition/Health

The Paleo.  The Zone.  The Gluten-free.  Another day, another diet.  We’re caught in a never-ending merry-go-round of weight loss plans, fueled by celebrity endorsers, TV doctors and companies angling for a piece of a $60 billion industry.  But do these diets really work?  And how healthy are they? Registered Dietitian Lisa Tillinger Johansen examines dozens of the most wildly popular diets based on medical facts, not hype.  And along the way, she reveals tried-and-true weight loss strategies, relying on her years of hospital experience, weight-loss seminars and community outreach efforts.  With insight and humor, Stop The Diet, I Want To Get Off shows that the best answer is often not a trendy celebrity-endorsed diet, but easy-to-follow guidelines that are best for our health and our waistlines.

Buy links: 

• Stop the Diet, I Want to Get Off! is available at Amazon.
• Pick up your copy at Barnes & Noble.
• Discuss this book at PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads.

Book Excerpt:

The idea for this book began at a wedding.

Who doesn’t love a good wedding? The clothes, the flowers, the romance, the food…

Ah, the food. As we moved into the banquet hall, the culinary feast was on everyone’s minds. It was all anyone seemed talk about. But for some reason, guests weren’t conversing about the dishes being served; they were swapping stories of diets they had heard about from friends, magazine articles, even celebrities on talk shows.

I’m a registered dietitian with a master’s degree in nutritional science and years of clinical and health education experience. I’ve counseled thousands of patients and clients on all of these diets. But hearing the guests only momentarily distracted me from my horrible faux pas of wearing white (gasp!) to a friend’s wedding.

“I’m on the Blood Type Diet,” said a woman with an impossibly high bouffant hairdo. “You’ve heard of that, haven’t you? It’s the one where you choose your foods based on your blood type. I’m an AB, so I’ll be having the fish.”

“Really?” her friend replied. “I swear by the gluten-free diet. I’m on it, my daughter’s on it, and my granddaughter’s on it.”

I happened to know her granddaughter was six and didn’t have a gluten sensitivity or celiac disease.

Then there was the stocky guy who was trying to impress one of the bridesmaids. “I’m a paleo man myself,” he said, piling his plate high with beef kebabs. “It gives me more stamina, know what I mean? It puts me in touch with my inner caveman. There’s a restaurant near my apartment that’s paleo friendly. Maybe we can grab a bite there sometime, or…Hey wait, where are you going?”

And there were three Weight Watchers sisters who typed furiously on their phones and argued over their meals’ point values. Apparently there was some discrepancy between their various apps, and the sisters’ discussion was becoming more heated by the moment.

I’m past the point of being surprised by the wide range of weight-loss strategies—

some worthless, some crazy, some quite reasonable—being tossed around. In the past few years, there has been a tidal wave of diets washing up on the shores of our nutritional consciousness. Celebrities prance across our screens, promoting a variety of weight-loss schemes on talk shows and infomercials. Medical doctors star in their own syndicated television programs, exposing millions to weight-loss techniques, often unsupported by medical research. Other diets get traction on the Internet, racing all over the globe in social media posts, YouTube videos, and annoying spam e-mails. It’s hard to walk past a shopping center vitamin store without being approached by salespeople trying to pitch the latest weight-loss supplements. It seems that everyone wants a piece of the pie; the American diet industry tops $60 billion annually.

It’s classic information overload. You can’t blame people for being confused by all the diets out there, even as crazy as some of them may sound. I didn’t speak up to my fellow wedding guests that day, but it occurred to me they would benefit from some hard facts about the diets they so ardently follow.

So during the toasts, I thought to myself, I should write a book.

I counsel clients on these matters each week, giving them information they need to make the best choices for their health and waistlines. I find that all too often there’s nothing to the diets that are presented to me in my counseling sessions and classes. They just plain don’t work, particularly over the long term. And some of them are harmful, even potentially lethal. But it’s also unhealthy to carry extra weight on our frames. So how do we separate good diets from the bad?

In the chapters to come, we’ll take a good, hard look at the various weight-loss plans out there. I’ll pull no punches in my professional evaluation of some of the most wildly popular diets, both bad and good, of the past few years. And along the way, I’ll explore tried-and-true strategies for losing weight, based on my years of hospital experience, weight-loss seminars, and community outreach efforts. More often than not, the best answer is not a trendy celebrity-endorsed diet, but instead a few easy-to-follow guidelines that I’ve seen work in literally thousands of cases.

Enough is enough. It’s time for the madness—and the diets—to stop.

I'm now in my 30s. I swear something happened and all that great and easier way of weight loss went out the door with my 20s. My hubby and I both have struggled the weight loss boogie. It sucks. I have to say this book gave me a great, refreshing view of this ongoing concern. The book is easy to read and glean new ideas for even the most battle weary person on weight loss. The author, Lisa, is a Registered Dietitian. Highly recommended to anyone sick of trying diet fads and needing some common sense rules, tricks, and facts to follow. The book doesn't blame the reader or harp on constant weakness- it addresses what the reader needs to focus on and what to drop in the weight loss fads. Jump on the merry-go-round and find the right stop to stop on. :)

Note: I received a paperback copy of this book in return for an honest review. 

LISA TILLINGER JOHANSEN, MS, RD is a Registered Dietitian who counsels clients on a wide range of health issues. Her debut nutrition book, Fast Food Vindication, received the Discovery Award (sponsored by USA Today, Kirkus and The Huffington Post).  She lives in Southern California.
 Her latest book is the nonfiction/nutrition/health book, Stop the Diet, I Want To Get Off!For More Information

• Visit Lisa Tillinger Johansen’s websites – Stop the Diet, Consult the Dietitian and Fast Food Vindication.

• Connect with Lisa on Facebook and Twitter.

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Book Tour: Depression and Your Child: A Guide for Parents and Caregivers by Deborah Serani

Title: Depression and Your Child: A Guide for Parents and Caregivers
Author: Deborah Serani
Publisher: Rowman and Littlefield 
Pages: 232
Genre: Self-Help/Psychology, Parenting
Format: Hardback/Paperback/Kindle

Buy:
 AMAZON
 Goodreads

Seeing your child suffer in any way is a harrowing experience for any parent. Mental illness in children can be particularly draining due to the mystery surrounding it, and the issue of diagnosis at such a tender age. Depression and Your Child is an award-winning book that gives parents and caregivers a uniquely textured understanding of pediatric depression, its causes, its symptoms, and its treatments. Author Deborah Serani weaves her own personal experiences of being a depressed child along with her clinical experiences as a psychologist treating depressed children.2013 Gold Medal Book of the Year Award – IndieFab (Psychology Category)https://www.forewordreviews.com/reviews/depression-and-your-child/ 2014 Silver Medal Book of the Year Award – Independent Publishing (Parenting Category)http://www.independentpublisher.com/article.php?page=1791

Book Excerpt

When you held your child for the very first time, you were likely brimming with pride and joy. Your heart swelling with enormous love, you’re swept away with streams of thoughts for what your child needs in this immediate moment – as well as plans and dreams for the future. You expect there to be wondrous adventures your child will experience, as well as bumps in the road along the way. And that’s okay you say, because you know that life isn’t always an easy journey.           

But one thing you probably never considered was how an illness like depression could take hold of your child. And why would you? Up until recently, it was never believed that children could experience depression. Long ago, studies suggested that children and teenagers didn’t have the emotional capacity or cognitive development to experience the hopelessness and helplessness of depression.                                                                                                     

Today, we know that children, even babies, experience depression. The clinical term is called Pediatric Depression, and rates are higher now than ever before. In the United States alone, evidence suggests that 4% of preschool aged children, 5% of school-aged children and 11% percent of adolescents meet the criteria for major depression.

           

“Depression and Your Child” grew out of my experience of being a clinician who specializes in the treatment of Pediatric Depression. I wanted to write a parenting book to raise awareness about depressive disorders in children, teach parents how to find treatment, offer tips for creating a healthy living environment and highlight important adult parenting matters such as self-care, romance and well-being.                                                                                                    

I also wrote this book because I have lived with depression since I was a child. As is the case with pediatric depression, my own depression didn’t hit with lightening like speed. It was more of a slow burn, taking its toll in gnaws and bites before hollowing me out completely. After a suicide attempt as a college sophomore, I found help that finally reduced my depression. Until then, I accepted the sadness, despair and overwhelming fatigue “as the way my life just was.” I never realized, nor did my parents or any other adults, that I had a clinical disorder. I’ve since turned the wounds from my childhood into wisdom and believe that sharing the textures of my experiences will help parents realize what their own depressed child is going through.                     

More than anything else, I want this book to offer hope. As a clinician, proper diagnosis and treatment can be life changing and life-saving. As a person living with depression, I have found successful ways to lead a full and meaningful life. I want parents and children who struggle with depression to feel this hope too – and in these pages, that’s what you’ll find.

           

I’m a teacher at heart. Just about everything I do in my personal and professional life has some aspect of nurturance to it. When writing, I want readers to be able to take what’s in these pages and apply them to their life. The chapters herein will give you all the necessary requirements needed to parent you child with depression with confidence and success.                              

You’ll learn about the normative patterns and stages of child development, from physical, verbal, cognitive, emotional, and social development. I’ll teach you how to observe your child, how to spot potential concerns and give you the insight needed to help diagnose depression. As you read further, I not only outline traditional treatments for pediatric depression, I delve deeply into holistic methods too. I’m a great believer that there’s more than one way to treat illness – and finding what works for you and your child will be vital. In the pages of this book you’ll also find how to tap school resources for additional support and what kinds of specialists you need to advocate for your depressed child. I discuss the scariest subject matter related to depression, suicide and self- harm, in a manner that is candid and frank, yet hopeful. I want parents to know what to expect from medication if it’s needed, from hospitalization if it’s necessary and what kinds of realistic expectations to have regarding what psychotherapy can and can’t do when it comes to depression.                                                                                          

A significant emphasis in “Depression and Your Child” is making sure you, as a parent, carve out time for yourself and time for your love life. Chapters include tips for intact families, single parents and co-parenting arrangements, as well as caregivers who may need to plan for future caregiving for their depressed child. And because stigma features strongly in the life of anyone who lives with mental illness, a section of myths, facts and ways to address such stigma is featured. Furthermore, a list of almost 400 high profile people, from athletes, actors, musicians, scientists and world leaders, will help you and your depressed child see that people who have depression can lead meaningful lives.          

           

To broaden the understanding of what’s covered in this book, I’ve included a case study at the end of each chapter. Though the names and other identifying information have been changed to keep confidentiality, reading the stories of these selected cases will help you understand theories, treatments and techniques.                                                                                 

Finally, worldwide resources to advocacy websites, mental health organizations, parenting associations, suicide hotlines and pharmacology agencies round out “Depression and Your Child,” making this truly a guide book for parents.  

Wow! Talk about a fantastic book dealing with a sensitive subject. I am a licensed social worker and work with kiddos of all ages. This book was extremely helpful in helping me to understand the origin of diagnosing depression in pediatrics, the different types, and the plethitude of treatments open to children and their families. She gives great case examples at the end of each chapter. The reader does not need to be a professional and have any experience regarding depression or its related symptoms and treatments. The book is explicitly written for parents and caregivers of children with depression. The author does an excellent job of breaking the subject down into multiple chapters that build on each other. She is honest, concise in her facts, and has a lot of common sense and scientific back up. I highly, highly recommend this for parents, caregivers, or professionals who deal with any aspect or have a relationship with a kiddo suffering from/suspect suffering from depression. 

Dr. Deborah Serani the author of the award-winning books “Living with Depression” and “Depression and Your Child: A Guide for Parents and Caregivers.” She is also a go-to media expert on a variety of psychological issues. Her interviews can be found in ABC News, Newsday, Women’s Health & Fitness, The Chicago Tribune, The Daily Beast, The Associated Press, and radio station programs at CBS and NPR, just to name a few. She writes for Psychology Today, helms the "Ask the Therapist" column for Esperanza Magazine and has worked as a technical advisor for the NBC television show Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. A psychologist in practice twenty five years, Dr. Serani is also a professor at Adelphi University.

For More Information Visit Deborah Serani’s website. Connect with Deborah on Facebook and Twitter. Find out more about Deborah at Goodreads. Visit Deborah’s blog. More books by Deborah Serani. Contact Deborah.

Book Review: Motherhood Smotherhood by JJ Keith

Motherhood Smotherhood By JJ Keith


Genre: Nonfiction, Parenting Book

Synopsis: What's the first thing a woman does when she thinks she might be pregnant? She Googles. And it goes downhill from there. While the internet is full of calming and cheerily supportive articles, it's also littered with hyper-judgmental message boards and heaps of contradictory and scolding information. Motherhood Smotherhood takes parents through the trenches of new parenting, warning readers of the pleasures and perils of mommy blogs, new parent groups, self-described "lactivists," sleep fascists, incessant trend pieces on working versus non-working mothers, and the place where free time and self-esteem goes to die: Pinterest (back away from the hand-made flower headbands for baby!) JJ Keith interweaves discussions of what "it takes a village" really means (hint: a lot of unwanted advice from elderly strangers who may have grown up in actual villages) and a take-down of the rising "make your own baby food" movement (just mush a banana with a fork!) with laugh-out-loud observations about the many mistakes she made as a frantic new mother with too much access to high speed internet and a lot of questions. Keith cuts to the truth--whether it's about "perfect" births, parenting gurus, the growing tide of vaccine rejecters, the joy of blanketing Facebook with baby pics, or germophobia--to move conversations about parenting away from experts espousing blanket truths to amateurs relishing in what a big, messy pile of delight and trauma having a baby is.

This book was completely hilarious and pretty much spot on from the experience I've had raising a child in the BabyCenter-Internet-OMG-WhatTheCrap stage of this era. I remember having to stop reading parenting and mothering blogs and websites due to the overwhelming amount of information, good and bad, just to survive until the next feeding of my newborn. The author has very staunch opinions on things that some may not agree with, but I appreciate her opinion and lack of who gives a crap attitude. I eventually learned that, just like all subjects in life, we all takes bits of pieces of everything we learn and apply them. Even to parenting and trying to survive the newborn years. This was a very fun and fist pumping read to combat the "perfect mother" syndrome that is plaguing our mommy groups. I totally appreciated being able to laugh out loud and snort with the author's experiences and opinions, and am pleased she mentioned giving husbands/fathers some more credit. If you need a break from the baby mania crazy or thinking you may go insane over one more pinterest craft, send some downtime reading this book. (Note: I received a copy of this book in return for an honest review during the book tour. This did not influence my review in the least.)

J Keith has written about being a crappy attachment parent for Salon, explored the disturbing undertones of Thomas the Tank Engine for TheRumpus.net, come out as pro-vaccine for The Huffington Post, interviewed Samantha Irby for Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture, differentiated being judgmental and having an opinion for Role/Reboot, admitted to a bare knuckled brawl with a dude for The Nervous Breakdown, examined the phenomenon of "don't touch the bump" t-shirts for Babble, and explained what new moms have in common with teenage boys for The Hairpin.
Her writing has been syndicated in the Sydney Morning Herald, iVillage Australia, Mamamia, and Alternet, and she's taken her work to the stage with The Moth, Happy Hour Story Experiment, Write Club, and Expressing Motherhood and spoken about parenting issues with APM's Marketplace, HuffPost Live, and on a panel at the 2013 LA Times Festival of Books. Her micro-memoir won a $2,500 prize from Reader's Digest and was anthologized in The Best Life Stories: 150 Real-life Tales of Resilience, Joy, and Hope-All 150 Words or Less! She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and her two children.

Links:

https://www.facebook.com/jjkeithwriter
https://twitter.com/jj_keith
http://jjkeith.net
http://amzn.to/ZmPdm

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20578632-motherhood-smotherhood