A Girl’s Guidebook for the Body and Soul
by Nikki Goldstein
ages: it’s meant for teenage girls, but can go as young as 9/10
Review copy sent to me by the publisher
When this book came in the mail, it was snatched out of the pile almost immediately. My two oldest daughters — M, age 12, and C, age 9 — read through it, and were enthralled with the ideas in it. It’s not only a personality quiz, which are always fun, but a program to help teen girls get a handle on their busy life. Even though they’re both slightly younger than the audience Goldstein probably had in mind, they decided to embark upon a program to see if the ideas that Goldstein put out really worked. I noticed them often pouring over the book, writing things down, trying different foods (and beauty concoctions), and exercising more frequently than they used to. I sat down with them, a month into their project, to chat about the book.
There are three body/personality types: Earth, Fire and Air. What are each of you?
M: I’m an Air… kind of a eccentric personality, everywhere at once, impatient, enthusiastic and quick to learn. It’s a petit, slim, small body type with out of control hair.
C: I’m a Fire…I’m open to other people’s ideas, but I like to put my ideas out first. A born leader, passionate, outgoing, confident, and competitive. It’s a medium size, athletic, strong body type. Fire’s usually have blonde or red hair, and brunettes are pretty rare. I’ve got dark hair.
I came out as an Earth; between the three of us, we’ve got the entire book covered. What I want to know is if you think the description fits you?
M: It’s actually one of those quizzes that are fairly right. Even though I’m more a fire skin type, with the red hair and fair skin, the Air type fits me really well.
C: I kind of have a bit of Earth in me — my skin and hair are more Earth — but yeah, I’m mostly fire.
M: Everybody has a little bit of everything. It’s just focusing on your dominant energy.
Tell me a bit about the program in the book.
C: Goldstein tells you more about yourself, and getting used to people around you. It helps you become a bit more confident, and makes you a better you.
M: It’s a journey to self-love using different eating habits and exercise plans to help you become healthy and fit, and to help you be happy with who you are.
How about specifics?
M: She has lists of food that are better for your body types. There’s a stress management plan.
C: There are exercise recommendations for each body types, as well as yoga poses for each body type.
M: There are schedules you can follow if you need helping coming up with your plan.
C: It’s there to help you become a better you.
M: It’s suggestions rather than recommendations. She does this in a way that makes you actually want to try this program.
Tell me what you’ve learned about yourself from the book.
M: I’ve learned a lot about exercise and eating, habits and the actual method that she uses — an ancient medical system of India called Ayurveda — that’s really neat. It says that, “everyone has a unique Body Type made up of the elements Air, Fire and Earth and when you tap into the elemental-energies that dominate your bod and mind you’ll be destined for a happy, healthy and balanced life.”
C: Yeah, I agree. I learned many tips about colors that will look best on me, and ways to take care of my skin. It was all very interesting.
You two have been following the ideas put out in the book for about a month now. Has anything in your life changed?
M: We really haven’t been doing everything for a month, and we haven’t tried a lot of the things the book mentions because we don’t have all the supplies, but what we have tried we’ve liked. It has helped me manage my stress more, and stopped me from eating chocolate 24/7. Which is good.
C: For me, I’ve learned more about my eating; I need to have less condiments than I used to. I need to also lower my amount of chocolate, too. Because chocolate isn’t as good for me as other things that are sweet but have less sugar.
M: I haven’t been able to try the exercise recommendations, because it’s been cold out and Airs aren’t supposed to be out in the cold.
C: I’ve been able to do some of my exercise recommendations, like jogging and biking, and I’ve liked them. But I haven’t been able to go swimming yet.
Any thing else you’ve learned from the book?
M: It’s helped me appreciate nature more.
C: It’s helped me be less stressed, and helped me try new things that I didn’t think I liked to do.
Has it helped you think about yourself better?
M: Goldstein’s given me the direction I need to figure out things about myself. She starts you on the path, and lets you find your own way. She’s very open that way. I do think about myself better than I did before.
C: I did think less of myself than I do now. Whenever I looked at myself before, I would think that I need to stop and put on makeup to be pretty. I also thought that I was a little fat. Now, I know it’s just my body type. I seem to be more open to other people’s types and ideas now, too.
M: Goldstein tells you to read all of the types so you can get a picture of each type. And because of that, she helped me understand C better, so it helped with our relationship.
So, are you going to keep trying the program she sets out in the book? Why?
M: Yes: because it’s helped me balance my life more, as she’s promised, and it’s fun.
C: I agree; also, it’s helped me enjoy many different things in my life.
Will you recommend this book to others?
M: It’s designed for teen girls, but any girl would probably benefit from this.
C: Yeah. It’s for older kids, because it talks about a lot of things for older kids, but I’ve enjoyed doing it, too, even though I’m younger than the age she wrote the book for.
by Brandon Sanderson
The Book Nut 