What's Holding You Back?

A Woman's Beginning Guide to Fitness by Michele Batz, B.S., Certified Trainer

Book Review by Chris Dunmire

"Michele is energetic, empowering, encouraging and knowledgeable. ... [She is] a living example of good health and fitness ... she has the right attitude and now you can learn the skills needed to get fit, too!" — Stefani Kauffman, Manager of Support Central/Conference Coordination eDiets.com, Inc.

How many times have you set out with good intentions to eat healthier, exercise more, drink more water, and take better care of yourself — only to find that after a few days you’re back to your old habits again? If you’re like me, probably more times than you care to admit.

Why is it so hard to stick with it?

One reason we give up so easily is because we want instant results that are easy to attain. And through a daily stream of TV, radio, and Internet ads promoting quick fixes to everything that ails us, including too much weight, we start to believe it’s possible. How many people do you know, even after becoming educated, still put stock in extreme diets, meals-in-a-can, and yet another pill that “makes fat fall right off?”

Let’s face it: For long-term success, we know that fad diets and metabo-pills aren’t the healthiest means to an end. And we know that when it comes to exercise, we need to exert ourselves for more than five minutes several times a week to benefit the most from getting our muscles moving, lungs breathing, and heart pumping.

Still with me? Good. So, short of hiring a personal trainer to encourage us along on our treadmills, how can we motivate ourselves to follow through with more exercise in our lives? Michele Batz, columnist for eFitness.com and eDiets.com has an answer: It’s all in our attitude.

A New Attitude: 21 Days that WILL Change Your Life

If you are serious about incorporating healthier habits into your life, and enjoy journaling as a tool to self-discovery and measuring progress, you’ll appreciate the approach Batz takes in her new book, What’s Holding You Back? A Woman’s Beginning Guide to Fitness (Nightengale Press, $14.95).

This back-to-the-basics book isn’t about the latest workout techniques or philosophies touted on late-night infomercials. Nor is it an unmotivating work that you’ll soon want to tuck away with your other books full of “good intentions.” No, this is a doing workbook that you can begin at any time, at any fitness level.

Drawing upon 25 years of sports education and personal training, Batz strives to empower other women towards a healthier lifestyle by incorporating her own successes, sports training, and energetic enthusiasm into a guide that helps beginner fitness seekers to establish new, healthy attitudes towards their long-term fitness goals.

The 261-page book is divided into four parts: Your Fitness Foundation (getting in touch with yourself), Ready for Action (setting goals), Building the No-Boundaries Body (mining for motivation), and Your Daily Journal (daily workout log and food journal). The first three parts lead up to a three-week commitment to exercise and healthy eating. By following through 21 days of daily activity, Batz assures, that through practice, “You will be able to incorporate fitness into your life permanently. It will become your daily habit to workout — like brushing your teeth.”

Some people say that ‘old habits are hard to break.’ Batz responds by demonstrating that you can establish new, healthy habits and develop a positive attitude towards reaching your fitness goals. And through the pages of her first book, you'll believe that she is right there at your side coaching you along.

What’s Holding You Back? A Woman's Beginning Guide to Fitness is available through Amazon.com. • 08/07/04