Brookline Booksmith's setup invites plenty of browsingBrookline Booksmith contacted me a few weeks ago to help promote some parenting and food-related author events. First of all, if you have any independent book sellers in your community, please please support them! It's hard enough for the big booksellers to stay alive (e.g., still mourning the death of Borders) so I worry about the little guys. Sure you have to take the extra drive or T connections to get to a bookstore but it's not just about getting your book, it's about the experience of getting lost in another world while browsing. It's also being part of community. Kudos to Brookline Booksmith, which has been around for 50 years and is consistently voted best Boston bookstore. It has a pretty active lineup of free author events.
I was most excited to see the upcoming appearance of a weight loss book for women over 50 written by Dr. Suzanne Koven, a primary care physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and faculty member at Harvard Medical School. Attempting successful weight loss can feel like a 90 degree uphill climb; being a female over the age of 50 and dealing with hormonal changes related to menopause is like climbing that hill with shoes that have lost their tread. I frequently counsel women for weight loss in this life phase and feel their exasperation. What do I know, really? I'm not in that age group so how could I possibly understand the complexities of their struggles. I recall a few patients who almost spat words at me not believing I could help them (though I'll note I'm not as young as people often assume).
Dr. Koven's book Chicken Soup for the Soul: Say Hello to a Better Body! Weight Loss and Fitness for Women Over 50 will refresh, reassure, and revitalize. She's been there, not only with menopause but dealing with a lifelong struggle with weight control. She speaks to the reader not in technical mumbo jumbo as many MD-authored diet books do but as a whole person. Weight loss is sometimes mandatory for health reasons but truly successful weight loss brings wellness to the spirit as well. Dr. Koven's book provides a comprehensive collection of practical, scientifically based nutrition and fitness guidelines interspersed with personal wisdom. She explains that commercial or prescribed diet plans don't work in the long run because of our natural human desire to be independent, making us ultimately rebel against these plans. Instead, if we devise our own diet and fitness plan tailored to fit our lifestyle and tastes, we'll be more likely to stick with it. In addition to the know-how, a most powerful tool is hearing about others' journeys. She introduces each chapter's topic with medical information and insightful tips, followed by contributing authors' essays related to that topic. Those essays are gems that will make you smile—widely—like most Chicken Soup collections do. I had some questions for Dr. Koven after reading her book that she eloquently answered:
Q: What is the first thing you would say to encourage a woman going through menopause who has gained much weight, has not been able to lose it and wonders if she should just accept it...and therefore is completely miserable?
A: No question, the first step is: Stop beating yourself up! I can't tell you how many of my patients bring up this topic by saying, "I hate myself." This is not a starting point for positive change. Recognize that your weight gain is about hormones and stress and the availability of tasty food 24/7 and not about your personal failings. So have some compassion for yourself. But compassion isn't complacency. That weight gain poses some real health risks. I like to say to my patients: Try being a scientist instead of a judge. Rather than figuring out how you can be "less bad," figure out what works for you. When, during the day, are you most likely to overeat? What kinds of exercise would you enjoy most? Women this age tend to be pretty skilled and experienced problem solvers. So stop yelling at yourself, and start strategizing.
Q: Which is a favorite of your contributing author excerpts in the book?
A: I couldn't pick one story! But I'll tell you the theme I like best: Over and over in the stories women were successful in losing weight and getting fit when their efforts were tied to a more meaningful goal, usually deepening a relationship, with themselves or someone else. This is not to say that they lost weight to impress or please someone else. The couple who has gone for a walk after dinner every evening for decades, the mother and daughter who began cooking vegan meals together, the lonely woman who started walking with a neighbor in her new town, the woman who regained her self-confidence after a divorce by learning to tango—for all of these women the weight loss actually became incidental to a larger purpose.
Dr. Koven will be at Brookline Booksmith in Coolidge Corner on Saturday May 12 at 4pm for a reading and tea reception introducing this must-have book. Don't miss it! The book will be available for sale at the event, with official widespread release on May 22.
Thursday, May 10, 2012 at 04:50PM 
