November 16, 2009
Forever Young and Vibrant:
In the Beginning…there was wellness, Volume 2
Debi Waldeck
Aviva Publishing (2009)
ISBN: 9781890427535
Learn How to Change Your Lifestyle to Live the Life You Deserve
Debi Waldeck continues her informative and fascinating In the Beginning…there was wellness series with this second volume, Forever Young and Vibrant, and it is just as interesting and useful as the first volume.
After telling her personal story in the first book of her and her children’s health issues, Debi uses this second book to talk less about the biology and nutritional needs of our bodies and more about how we can reach optimal health by changing our lifestyle and what we can do to improve the process of giving our bodies what they actually need.
In Forever Young and Vibrant, Debi Waldeck discusses the current lifestyle of Americans, particularly poor nutritional practices, that are leading to cancer, migraine headaches, stomach complaints, and other ailments. Debi offers practical advice and information from cutting edge research on whether to supplement our diets with additional vitamins—the recommended daily allowances are far lower than what would give us desired wellness in her opinion. She discusses fats, trans-fats, radical agents, the importance of our pH balance, how our body creates insulin, and why we must love our livers. The information provided goes far beyond simple dieting and nutrition to make us understand how our bodies work in relation to what we eat. In some respects, the research on the effects of our current nutrition is frightening, but by following Debi Waldeck’s advice, we can improve our diets, strengthen our immune systems, and enjoy a healthier lifestyle.
I can’t imagine any reader will not take away something of value from this book. I learned enormous amounts of information about diet. I had already heard about the value of understanding the body’s pH, but Waldeck goes into great detail about how to stabilize pH values and what foods create acid or alkaline responses in our bodies. After years of suffering from stomach complaints, I found the chapter on pH alone is worth ten times the book’s cover price. Anyone with a family history of diabetes, cancer or even obesity will find information here that can improve if not prolong or even save his or her life.
As with all the books in this series, Debi also includes several practical tips for the reader in her “Laughter, Lifestyle or Leverage Principles.” These principles are summaries in one sentence of what to remember from her discussion. A few of my favorites include:
Lifestyle Principle #21
Eat 75% foods that are alkaline and only 25% that are acid forming—unless you supplement heavily with minerals and greens
Laughter Principle #27
Motivation comes when the pain of your current situation is greater than the pain of changing it
Laughter Principle #28
Laughter and progress come easier when you trust yourself
Leverage Principle #1
100% of the money you have depends on how you think about money, rather than on your education, your family or your luck
These are just a few examples from this second volume, but all the principles in all the books contain wonderful advice.
Debi Waldeck also ends each chapter of each book with the “Debi’s Dialogue” section—a section that was inspired by her never-ending quest for answers to her questions. In this section she provides answers to some of her questions while also asking new ones. Here is one of my favorites examples of “Debi’s Dialogue” from the second book:
Why do we resist change?
As Marianne Williamson said, “We are afraid of our own power.”
Why?
Because change gives you an opportunity to know yourself and people are afraid to see themselves.
Why?
Because people see themselves through the eyes of all who have come before and judged them. People do not look at themselves through God’s eyes. If they did, they would stare all day long.
Why?
Because people do not know God. Very few people know God.
How can we come to know God?
You start to know God when you learn to love yourself. To know God means you choose to love yourself exactly the way you are now—male, female, black, white, yellow, red, fat, skinny, ugly, pretty. The problem is that people seek man’s approval before and above God’s approval.
Why?
Because people have no faith. Faith is the opposite of fear. People are in fear and the cycle begins again.
Okay, everyone knows that faith is not fear. We know what it isn’t, so what is faith?
Finally, in all three books, including this volume, Debi Waldeck includes a concise glossary of every term she uses in that individual book. In Forever Young and Vibrant, the glossary includes terms ranging from Fructo-oligosaccharides to Methionine to Serotonin. If you don’t know what these terms mean, you need to. This book will help you achieve the wellness that should have always been yours. Remember that knowledge is power. This book will be your start to knowing legitimately, rather than using some fad diet, how to improve your health for the long run.
In this review, I can only just begin to summarize the many valuable discussions provided in Forever Young and Vibrant in theIn the Beginning…there was wellness series. Grab your copy today—it’s like an instruction manual to live your life by so you can start to feel as good as you have always deserved—as good as God intended from the beginning for you to feel.
For more information about Debi Waldeck and her books, visit www.debiwaldeck.com .
— Tyler R. Tichelaar, Ph.D., and author of the award-winning Narrow Lives
