Great Focus on Health!

Kathy Smith is the "every woman's" health/fitness coach. It is very refreshing to work out with someone who's focus is FIRST health instead of body image. Always encouraging and friendly, not intimidating, her beauty comes from her personal training work, not as a star or beauty-image queen. Great and simple workout that can be used for ladies at all levels of fitness and especially those experiencing the challenges of midlife. Great information as well as extras including yoga and pilates. Highly recommended.

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A Reassuring Voice

Kathy Smith has always conveyed that a healthy lifestyle includes very few quick fixes. It takes small steps that accumulate to form a healthier body and psyche. Her chapters on exercise are, as always, filled with great pictures and instructions. None of them require that you bend yourself into a pretzel or replicate moves you made in gym class thirty years ago. And her nutrition information is obviously carefully researched. Plus she takes into account "cheating." A kind and gentle approach to menopause from a kind and gentle lady.

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A HELPFUL BOOK FOR A TRYING TIME

The authors' have done an excellent job of pointing out the importance of maintaining physical, emotional and spiritual health through this trying time in a woman's life. I particularly liked the suggestions of using herbs as an alternate to hormone therapy. Hormone therapy is an individual affair that should be discussed with one's one physician and there are extreme pros and cons of hormone therapy - it is not for every woman. Herbs, if selecting the right ones in the right amounts can be an alternative but I would suggest readers consult a qualified herbologist first, rather than experimenting themselves. Some herbs, like any medication, do not mix well.

This book does contain some helpful exercises and self-assessment tests, though I did not find the tests to be terribly beneficial. The book is complete in that it covers all aspects of a woman's menopausal years; however, my personal preference on this subject is still "The Wisdom of Menopause" by Dr. Christiane Northrup. Kathy Smith's book appears to be written from personal experience, whereby Northrup's is based on qualified medical advice. Readers will need to decide for themselves which avenue they wish to follow, personal experience or medical expertise.

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