[.ca] Eight Weeks to Optimum Health (ISBN 0679451668)

From Amazon.com:
"Health," Dr. Andrew Weil writes, "is a dynamic and temporary state of equilibrium destined to break down as conditions change." In other words, there's no such thing as the type of health that allows you to feel equally great every day of your life. Instead, Weil suggests, your goal should be to improve your resilience to disease, and while you're at it, feel more joy and strength. As to how you should gain this strength, joy, and resilience, Weil doesn't come on with a hard sell to give up every bad habit or all of the foods you enjoy. Instead, he suggests gradual changes: clean your pantry of whatever cooking oils you have there, except olive oil; start taking vitamin C three times a day; walk a few minutes a day; eat some fish and broccoli. The program is so simple and sensible that anyone trying it probably will feel better in a week. The program then gets progressively more involved--more supplements; more of a shift toward a diet based on whole grains, fruits, and vegetables; more exercise. Besides these steady changes, each week's program has a focus: In week 2, you start drinking bottled or filtered water; week 3 focuses on organic produce; week 4, on sleep; week 5, using a steam bath or sauna; week 6, trying a "universal tonic" like ginseng; week 7, volunteering in your community; and finally, in week 8, figuring out how to integrate permanently the elements of the program into your life. Even those who don't go for the entire program will probably find something here to like--the recipes, maybe, or the suggestion that you cut back on strenuous types of exercise like running and competitive sports in favor of brisk walks. It's perfectly useful either way: as a total lifestyle overhaul, or a series of suggestions, any one or two of which will probably help you feel better. --Lou Schuler

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Read these reviews closely!:
Everyone, please pay close attention to the reviews posted for this book. The negative reviews are full of typos, anger and poorly constructed thoughts. This book advocates healthy, compassionate eating. Eat wisely and live lightly on the earth. While some of the ideas put forth by Dr. Weil may be slightly unconventional or to some, even extreme... you certainly do not need to implement them all. Just a handful could change your life. Just give it a try!

Health plans for different age groups:
"8 Weeks to Optimum Health" is an excellent informative book with sensible ideas. One of the points that he brings up is keeping the body at homeostasis, the purest and most healthiest period of one's life. It is hard to believe that in eight weeks one can bring his body back to a healthy state. And with Weil's suggestions for mental and physical well being you can continue to improve. Though going through your pantry or fridge and throwing out probably most of what is in it may be hard, it is the first and hardest step to achieving good health. It is also shocking to learn how bad oils and fats are for you. Another very surprising part of the book is about the ways water is bad for you. Clean water is essential for healthy living. One adjustment that may be very hard to make is replacing meat with soy foods, which Weil claims to be healthier. There are many healthy atlernatives to everyday diets and the book is filled with useful information. The most useful, and probably easiest to adjust to is the customized plans that Weil lays out for different genders and age groups. Weil also doesn't just preach healthy living but he gives excellent recipes at the end of the book to help one adjust and start being healthy. It is a good read and a good resource to refer to when your health is in question.

8 weeks to optimum health- Menlo college:
8 weeks to optimum health is an excellent book to read, in order to learn more about how to tune up your dieting, and exercising habits. Along with reaching optimum physical health through this 8 week process, Weil also wants you to reach optimum mental health through a series of exercises that offer you suggestions on coping with stress, anger and expressing your feelings. This proves to be a good book for begginers, like myself, who want to get started on a good path to healthy living. I myself have not yet tried Weil's 8 week steps and methods, but just reading about them invigorates and motivates me to start developing healthy habits and mental stability, as well as being more intouch and connected with nature. Along with being a very inspiring book it is to great extent a very informative book. It describes some conditions and diseases that the human body develops, and how to avoid them. Diseases that concern people of all ages, and how to take certain measures in your day to day habits that will greatly benefit you at an older age. Weil tells you to appreciate and love yourself and others, and to accept and embrace forgiveness. He offers you a small paragraph of lines to read as an exercise to love and liberate yourself, these types of exercises can be seen in several parts of the book. Along with these emotional exercises Weil also offers breathing exercises to both relax you and speed you up, to get you ready for your day. In fact these types of exercises I did have the chance to try along with some of my friends, and they did in fact have an impact on all of us, expecially the breathing exercises that give you very noticeable and real physical feelings. This book is filled with many recipes to improve your health and physical appearance, further more it gives you recipes and tells you about certain roots, mushrooms and extracts that will improve your emotional conditions. These herbal extracts have many components that I did not know about like immune-enhancing, anti-cancer, and anti-viral properties that can be found in such mushrooms as the Japanese Maitake mushrooms. There is an entire section dedicated to a variety of muchrooms and extratcs that can be found in your local super market that offer many beneficial side effects for your overall mental and physical health. Besides Weil's extensive and detailed 8 week program for reaching optimum health, he also focuses on projects to improve mental anbd physical conditions targeted at certain groups. He targets portions of his book on how to aid the frequent traveler, the overweight, certain age groups, for men, for woman, for those at risk of cancer and many more. This was my first book I ever read by Andrew Weil, I enjoyed his syle of writing and his ability to reach the reader on several levels. I am looking forward to implement many of his methods and suggestions in the future, and I highly recommed this book to anyone who is interested on improving and perfecting both their physical and mental conditions. It is an overall excellent book to have around the house.

a credibility problem:
My daughter purchased this book for me about 6 months ago. I know Dr. Weil is an educated man, but I'm sorry. I just cannot take seriously a man this overweight lecturing on optimum health. Look at the size of this guy. Either he is slipping in triple cheeseburgers and double malteds when no one is looking, or salmon and seaweed are VERY fattening. I would say its probably the former. I kept looking for "after" photos but, alas, there are none. This is how he looks.

Weil is Way Ahead of the Curve:
Several years before the tipping point occurred and Americans were alerted in significant numbers to the dangers of trans fats (also known as hydrogenated oils), Weil, in 8 Weeks to Optimum Health, sensibly and clearly laid out the dangers of these kinds of processed fats and warned us of their dangers so emphatically that he made the elimination of them from our diet the first step in his 8-step plan. Weil uses credible science to backup his assertions, never offers fads or extremes, and best of all, he writes in an intelligent, personal voice, using phrases like "I'd like you to . . ." which give the book an intimate feel, as if you were consulting with a personal nutritionist. Further, he has the wisdom to see that improving our health is not based on micromanagement, tweaking one thing or another, but rather is a holistic approach requiring daily walks, bringing beauty into our lives with something as simple as having fresh flowers on the table, and meditating or doing yoga. While I don't embrace everything Weil suggests, I have embraced the gist of his message and, more specifically, have radically changed my diet. No longer eating refined sugar and hydrogenated oils, I have lost 40 pounds in the last five months. A great companion book that is compatible with Weil's philosophy on many levels and which has also helped me is The Philosopher's Diet by Richard Watson.