Customer Reviews

Body by God: The Owner's Manual for Maximized Living

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is not just another diet book! In fact it's an "un-diet".
It offers practical and achievable ways to radically transform your life (at any stage) one step at a time.
Not just a food and fitness guide but a guide to maximize your life through time management, stress management as well as weight loss, food and exercises.
Dr. Lerner's sense of humor is encouraging and entertaining along the way. In just a short time I have increased my energy and lowered my stress and I am looking forward to more results as I continue this program.

A Great Book!! "Body by God" is a must read if you plan on living a healthy, happy, and organized life. Dr. Ben has helped me organize my life since reading this powerful and moving book. How, you might ask??? One example is that I have FINALLY found the balance in life that I was seeking between family(I'm married with 5 kids),work, and personal training thanks to this book. The "un-diet" is great and I loved the passages from scripture. This book is a must read and one that you will find yourself going back to time and time again.

Dr. Michael L. Johnson author of "What Do You Do When the Medications Don't Work--A Non-Drug Treatment of Dizziness, Migraine Headaches, Fibromyalgia, and Other Chronic Conditions".

Finally a book about how to get healthy and stay healthy!!! Every other book on the market seems to be about some gimac on how to lose weight fast. We all know that these never work in the long term. All that ends up happening from books like the South Beach Diet or Atkins is that you end up dying thinner. You never learn how to improve your overall level of health. Body by God is different. It is an awesome owner's manual teaching you how to improve your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health. It teaches you how to eat,exercise and manage stress properly. The way God intended you to do it. I've already lost 15 lbs and I feel better than I have in years!The plan is a 40 day transformation which is easy to follow and allows you to improve 40% in 40 days. It is an easy read and quite humerous. This is absolutely, hands down, the best book I have ever read on health and I'm giving it to everyone I know this Christmas. The author Dr. Ben Lerner is definately someone to watch for the future. If this is his first book I can't wait to see what will be next!

In today's marketplace of fad diets and "magic bullet" cures, this book is right on time. I think everyone knows that dieting doesn't work and you can't get ripped abs in three minutes per day. What keeps healthy people healthy is their entire lifestyle. That's what this book is about and more. It takes into account how God made the body and how to live in accordance with that design. Rather than listening to the "educated" about what it takes to be healthy, it makes much more sense to listen to the Divine. I have always believed that health comes from the inside-out, and this is a step-by-step instruction on how to live that way.

Summary: read this book if you're a beginner looking to get started, but seasoned natural health veterans would be better off reading Dr. Mercola.

(Note: I'm only halfway through the book, the diet and exercise sections; I will come back and update this review if the second half significantly changes my opinion.)

I fervently agree with all of Dr. Lerner's major tenets: a high regard for God's natural design, living healthy as an act of obedience, service, and gratitude to God, using common sense, and not living in the unhealthy manner in which the world lives. I particularly liked his Food by God vs. Food by Man section. He also hits most of the major important components to living healthy in a toxic modern world. If you're new to holistic health, this book will inspire you to get started and make positive changes in your life, and I believe lead you to better health and a better life.

However, the devil is in the details. This book is woefully short on both scriptural and scientific justification for much of his advice. I don't know if Dr. Lerner went out of his way to make an entry-level book, but if you're looking for expert tips you will be sorely disappointed. For example, I have no idea where he gets his material on food combinations or eating more smaller meals instead of fewer larger ones, he just states these things with almost no scriptural or scientific evidence. His entire exercise section was very disappointing to me. I guess I was expecting some kind of "return to nature" / functional strength info comprised of calisthenics, kettle-bells, medicine balls, and whatnot. But what I found instead were mostly the same old basic gym routines you might find anywhere.

There are also a few rather glaring omissions, I think. He says almost nothing about getting adequate sunlight, which is extremely important, and has an obvious connection to God's natural design. He talks about running, but has nothing to say about barefoot running. Most vexing of all, he says not a word about fasting, despite tons of Biblical support (even commands!) for fasting, and scientific evidence that fasting can help the body purify and heal itself.

Life changing!! The book is incredibly easy to read, relevant and easy to apply to your life. I really enjoy how dr. ben uses real life situations to make the points about change. I have seen incredible results. Highly recommend!!

This work applies Biblical principles to such things as diet, exercise, stress-management, time-management, and much more. Since most previous reviewers have focused on diet, I emphasize seldom-mentioned issues raised in this book.

For one, the author elaborates on contentment. Citing Biblical examples, he concludes: "To continue to create peace, you must learn to become both ambitious and content. Set goals and always strive to have more, but be happy with what you already possess. Have wants, but also be WANTLESS." (pp. 243-244; emphasis his). A lack of contentment can come from unrealistic expectations. For example, a teacher may feel compelled to reach every child, when in reality some children may be extremely difficult or impossible to reach.

Man's ways have robbed us of God. Lerner comments: "Western society often looks at other cultures that live in poverty or who exist without videos, cell phones, Internet, movie theaters, nice houses, cars, restaurants, and all the other `modern' essentials of an `advanced' civilization and wonder how they do it. On the contrary, people in many less `advanced' cultures look at our `modern' society and wonder how we do it. They wonder how people could live in cities with all the noise, distractions, and without as much real evidence of the presence of God. Modern society is a loud concrete jungle...This `modern' and `advanced' living allows for no quiet, peaceful time in nature. This makes it very difficult to really hear, see, and especially FEEL the presence of God." (p. 327 emphasis his).

This book is unique and well written. I am sure anyone who reads it will be amazed at the useful information Ben writes. If you are looking for something different and exciting to get you fired up for the new year approaching this book will do it. Good luck on your journey to health, read, be inspired, and live your dreams.

I have mixed feelings about this book. It motivates people to exercise yet lacks in functional application of exercise to teach the reader how to exercise. The euphemisms referring to God as the motivating factor for everything that a person choses to do are very misleading. The real motivating factor behind most of the examples given in this book is ego, not God. Ego is man made and is the culprit behind most of the insane things we do as human beings. A good case in point was the authors need to run a marathon in spite of not being physically capable of performing the running activity for 26.2 miles. God wasn't responsible for that, it was the author's ego.

When we are born, we are all given a body to live our life in. This body is given to us by God and along with the privilege of ownership comes the responsibility of taking care of it for our entire lives. Our body needs to be directed by us in everything that we do. In order to effectively do this we need to learn how our body functions and how to control it. It is our ego that insists that we can run marathons, bungee jump, mountain climb, sky dive and the other crazy things people do. The reality is that if we aren't specifically directing how our body functions, then our body is operating out of control and we are doing "our version" of what we think is correct. Human bio-mechanical function is not automatic. The only autonomic functions we have as humans are breathing, heart function and digestion. Every thing else comes under our conscious control and direction comes from the inside out. This is why God gave us such large brains that we only use 10 percent of. The other 90 percent is for controlling the body.

Having said all this, the book Body by God, does give some insight into better eating, organizing your life and motivation for exercise. Unfortunately, the scriptures quoted lead the reader to believe that God will somehow direct our body in how it functions which is not the case. We as human beings have what is called "free will" which is the precursor to ego and all the insanity that comes with it. The pictures showing the author performing various exercises are good examples of improper spine, neck and head placement which I find unusual considering the author is a DC. These are dangerous for the reader to mimic and should be avoided.

Douglas Splittgerber, co-author; Your Body, Your Responsibility (including bonus DVD: Total Body Stretching)

The information is great! It all makes sense; but the realistic view is, who can really afford it? Ideally, yes, eat all of the food God intended you to, but look in the grocery stores and realize that you will be paying twice your normal grocery bill! The variety that God has provided is vast; however you realize how restrained it is when our menus rely so heavily on sauces, frostings and rich gravies; they are gone in this realm. You do feel better, but today's market makes it hard to live the way God wants you to. Another point well made is our need to do exercise - at least a little per day. It is a shame that in our society we are so overloaded with time constraints and responsibilities that it is hard to fit it all in. Overall, a very informative book, but will you stick with it?