If you’ve ever been to this site before, then you know that when it comes to getting healthy, we believe it’s about more than just what you eat and how you move—it also has a lot to do with how you talk to yourself and how you treat yourself. So with the title of the new book Think and Grow Thin: The Revolutionary Diet & Weight-Loss System That Will Change Your Life in 88 Days, well, we were on board. Any book that is focused on how our thoughts can influence our ability to live a healthy lifestyle is A-OK with us. But did the content live up to the title? We dove in to see…

First, you should know that this book is written by former President Bill Clinton’s trainer, Charles D’Angelo, which, while there are a lot of celeb trainers out there, not many can say they’ve trained a president. So there’s that. Also, this book is less book and more magazine, which is a nice change of pace. Full of big photos and graphics and pull-quotes with tons of tips and divided up into easier-to-digest sections, it’s kind of like Choose Your Own Adventure, fitness style. And with sections on tools to transform your mind, how to become motivated, designing your destiny and maintaining your weight (so many books skip what happens when you get “there!”), it does a dang good job of giving you a plan on how to harness the power of your brain to get healthy.

The next things you should know about Think and Grow Thin is that Charles isn’t shy about sharing his successes—or his physique. You hear his full inspirational story of going from self-hating and overweight to fit and self-loving—and there is photo after photo of him in the book. Many with his shirt off. With full-on male Glamour Shot pose. Some are full pages. One is shirtless in front of his hot car. So if you’re into that kind of thing (it got old to me), there’s also that. Additionally, and I hate to criticize a book for this because I’d always rather have too much rather than not enough, but there’s so much info and so many tips and steps in the book that I can imagine a newbie being overwhelmed or not knowing where to start.

So my advice? Digest this one slowly. (That way the glamour shots don’t come in as rapid-fire succession, too.) Because really, the advice and the focus is good. —Jenn

Lucy Danziger with her new book, The Drop 10 Diet. Credit: Andrew Walker/Wireimage for Self

This post is written by our NYC contributing writer Margo Donohue, who’s a fitness professional and blogger at Brooklyn Fit Chick. Since Margo lives in the Big Apple, she’ll be helping us cover events every now and again—just like this recent Self magazine event!

Recently, on behalf of Fit Bottomed Girls, I was lucky enough to be invited to a fit and fabulous shindig—The Drop 10 Diet book-launch party hosted by candy diva Dylan Lauren (of Dylan’s Candy Bar) in honor of Self magazine’s Editor-in-Chief Lucy Danziger. The oh-so-chic event was held at The Standard, New York (which is located right next to the glorious Highline on Washington Street), where we were treated to a tasty menu created by Chef Dan Silverman of The Standard Grille.

It was a jammed-pack night of great-looking people in high heels and tight black dresses nibbling on yummy treats featured in the book. The Drop 10 Diet: Add to Your Plate to Lose the Weight was written by Lucy, along with her top-notch editors, and features the 30 superfoods you need to eat to keep fit and healthy, as well as dozens of easy-to-follow recipes and sample workouts to help zap calories and manage stress.

Somehow I was lucky enough to chat with Lucy herself (she was really busy greeting well-wishers). During our chat, she told me that she was inspired to write The Drop 10 Diet after her own (post NYC-marathon, mind you) 25-pound weight loss. After keeping the weight off for over five years (and without deprivation), she decided to share her well-earned knowledge about living a healthier life with all us.

Dylan Lauren, Lucy Danziger and Kelly Choi at The Drop 10 Diet launch. Credit: Andrew Walker/Wireimage for Self

I asked her of all of the “superfoods” identified in the plan (that includes salmon, lentils, olive oil and kiwi) what is her all-time favorite, and the quick response was almonds. They bring “instant energy!” she enthuses.

Being the editor-in-chief of Self magazine, I knew she would have an interesting reply to the question: “What is your favorite workout?” Lucy stated “intervals,” adding that if you need to blast calories fast and get toned, too—getting in some intervals to your workouts will bring quick results. The one question I wanted to ask but did not get the chance to was whose design Lucy was wearing. (I fell in love with her cute outfit. See above!)

I also had a chance to briefly chat with Dylan Lauren, the impossibly charming and beautiful owner of Dylan’s Candy Bar in New York. She not only hosted the party but also provided the chocolates in the goodie bags. Of course, she was surrounded by admirers all evening, but I did get to quickly ask what her favorite candy is right now and her favorite workout. Turns out Dylan loves Cadbury Creme Eggs (I agree!) and weight training. Dylan insists you can get more results in less time by introducing strength training into your workouts. (Again, agree!)

It was a fun evening of good food, a party atmosphere plus an appearance by the insanely pretty Kelly Choi of Top Chef Masters who has a pair of legs up to HERE! Can’t wait to go undercover at the next chic get-together on behalf of Fit Bottomed Girls, but I must say, this one will be hard to top!

Are you interested in The Drop 10 Diet? Lucy’s sane and livable healthy living advice? Craving a Cadbury Egg? Let’s talk amongst ourselves, shall we? —Margo

When a book has an endorsement from Parker Posey, Kelly Ripa and Demi Moore (that woman looks more fit every day year, I swear), you have to wonder what Kool-Aid they’re all drinking that makes them look so fabulous. Apparently, Physique 57 is the beverage of choice, and it goes down with highly targeted moves and a clean diet that isn’t joking around. While we sent Raquel to a Physique 57 class a few month ago and we reviewed the Physique 57 DVDs back in 2009, we decided it was high-time we review the popular workout’s book: The Physique 57 Solution: The Groundbreaking 2-Week Plan for a Lean, Beautiful Body.

Let me first say that Physique 57 creators Tanya Becker and Jennifer Maanavi wrote a darn good book. So often fitness books seem repetitive or simply state the obvious over and over in slightly different ways. But this book? Well, it does have many of the basics, but it goes much further into the science than you usually get in a book. And it does it in an easy-to-understand way. No easy feat. The two explain how they developed the Physique 57 moves and workouts, and go into a good amount of detail as to how and why it affects the body. (People, there are words like actin and myosin—and all kinds of muscle-building knowledge!) If you’re not into that stuff like I am, you can easily skip past those sections of the book, but I think it’s worthy of your eyeballs—even if they slightly gloss over when they start talking about Physique’s 57′s Interval Overload.

After giving you the whys and hows of the Physique 57 way of working out, they dive right into the moves. Needing just your bodyweight, a chair and some light weights (they think up to 8-pound dumbbells are “heavy,” but I beg to differ—hehe), they have photos, good descriptions, modifications and tips on how to do everything from push-ups to tricep pressbacks to thigh dancing with a ball (it is as awesome as it sounds). The moves are then put together for two 57-minute Physique 57 workouts. Because the weights are lighter, know that the rep count is higher than usual weight lifting. Numbers in the 20s and 30s aren’t uncommon.

The book wraps up with eating guidelines, snack and meal ideas/plans, recipes and a kick-ass index. (I think every book should have an index, for the record. They’re underrated!) Now, the two-week diet plan—with combined with the workout plans promises to deliver up to a 10-inch weight-loss—is intense and restrictive. No dairy, no wheat, no soy, no corn, no added sugar, no alcohol—no processed foods. Yes, it’s how we should eat, but it requires a lot of planning, cooking and vegetable eating. (And this is coming from the girl who’s obsessed with kale.) So just know what you’re getting into before expecting big results.

Overall though, this is a solid read. I think the workouts are well laid out, I love the science side of it, and it’s well written. I wish the diet had a bit more wiggle room and detailed healthy eating guidelines that were more inclusive of a permanent lifestyle change (because I need wine in my long-term healthy life plan), but besides that, it’s like getting the Physique 57 treatment in book form. Which is pretty cool. Whether it’ll make you look like Demi remains to be seen…

Have you read The Physique 57 Solution Book? Done a Physique 57 workout? Tell us about it! —Jenn

Making huge changes to your diet and lifestyle can be exciting, but, more often than not, it’s daunting and, unfortunately, unsustainable. Of course it seems like a great idea to announce you’re cutting all sugar (and dairy! and caffeine! and also alcohol!) out of your life entirely, but making so many huge changes at once is a lot to handle, both in terms of your body and your mind.

Kathy Freston, a two-time New York Times bestselling author (whom you might have seen on Oprah, challenging the staff to go vegan), has just (as in today) come out with a new book designed to help you make sweeping lifestyle changes in a gentle, almost automatic way. The Lean: A Revolutionary (and Simple!) 30-Day Plan for Healthy, Lasting Weight Loss takes you through 30 days of small (and a few not-so-small) changes.

Some are really simple, like Day 1: “Drink water. Lots of water,” and Day 19: “Have a little fun.” I mean, who can’t handle that, right? Others, like Day 18: “Take animals off the dinner plate,” and Day 21: “Connect the dots about where your food comes from” will pose a bit more of a challenge to those who are used to chicken or steak taking up much of their dinner-plate real estate. In fact, even though I don’t eat meat (but still eat seafood, dairy and eggs), those are toughies for me, but I have to say, I’m totally inspired to give it a go. Freston is kind of persuasive like that.

Each of these daily tips build upon one another, so by the end of 30 days, you have 30 new healthy habits, which, of course, is far easier than deciding to do it all in one day. Another way Freston aims to make this lifestyle upgrade easier? She doesn’t take things away without giving you a very reasonable alternative. For example, when she tells you to take animals off the dinner plate on the 18th day, she also explains why protein is important for weight loss and gives you the lowdown on lots of other forms of protein to add. Plus, the book has an 88-page “What to Eat” appendix filled with recipes, sample menus and helpful resources.

Freston’s goal is to help people “lean” into a healthier lifestyle, and I’ve got to say, I think she’s onto something. If you’ve been contemplating going vegan or are just interested in how to live a healthier life while incorporating more vegan foods into your diet, I encourage you to pick up a copy.

Oh, and you know how changing your diet and adopting a healthy lifestyle is so much easier when you have support? Freston has taken that into account as well. There are badges for all the steps (found right here) that you can post on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. And you don’t have to follow the diet to do it—if you support these steps in your daily life, brag about it. Know someone who’s trying to follow the steps? Send them a badge as encouragement! Use that social network of yours for good!

Have you ever considered going vegan? Or eating fewer animal products? Tell us about it! — Kristen

Grab that e-cookbook and get to making dinner! Credit: mccun934

I’m far from being a foodie. I’m the kind of gal who worships Rachael Ray for giving the world 30-minute meals. I’m lazy in the kitchen, and I get really frustrated when a recipe calls for a hoity toity ingredient that can only be found in Timbuktu. Luckily, the kitchen gods took pity on me and sent me three new cookbooks—and all digital at that! With the all-powerful internet, I was able to download the different e-cookbooks to my eReader and start cooking up a storm.

I chose one recipe each from The 50 Best Superfood Recipes, The 50 Best Salad Recipes and The 50 Best Rice Cooker Recipes e-cookbooks. Each one was super-duper easy and scrumdiddlyumptious. I swear I got major sugar-free brownie points from the fella for cooking like a legit big kid.

Today’s post is a part of FBG’s second-annual Love Yo’Self Week. After all, what better way is there to love yo’self than by becoming your very own coach who pumps you up to be healthier?

I already understand the power of a good life and wellness coach. So a book that promises to help you actually coach yourself to be healthier (the word “thin” in the title does make my butt twitch a bit, but I’ll chalk it up to book marketing)? Well, I was pretty intrigued. Coach Yourself Thin: Five Steps to Retrain Your Mind, Reclaim Your Power, and Lose the Weight for Good is a six-part book that shows you how to find and harness your inner weight-loss and wellness coach.

Part 1 includes a quick intro and then the usual stuff you’re used to reading in weight-loss books: why we as a nation have gotten heavy and why quick fixes don’t work. Then Part 2—”Seven Undermining Obstacles to Weight Loss”—gets to the good stuff. With a very similar-to-FBG mindset, authors Greg Hottinger and Michael Scholtz (who have helped create the Biggest Loser Club and the Flat Belly Diet! Online) dive into how to stop the obsession with the scale, ditch the all-or-nothing thinking and become more in tune with your body. Part 3 then shows you how to set yourself up for success by selecting the right environment, believing in yourself and even awakening your own intuition (Oh, how the hippity-dippity in me rejoiced at this one!). Parts 4 and 5 tackle tips on healthy eating and exercise, respectively. The information on nutrition and workouts isn’t anything you’ve never heard before, but it’s solid information.

And then there’s Part 6. Titled “Discovering Your Positive Inner Coach,” this was the section that really made the book stand apart from others on the market. Yes, the other sections are good, but this is really the meat of the book, in my opinion. This part includes eight chapters that take you through the process of being your own wellness coach. From creating your wellness vision (I loved doing that!) to setting goals and preventing setbacks like emotional eating, it’s basically a step-by-step guide or workbook to use to get you from where you are now to where you want to be. There are exercises that help you to visualize your dreams, create affirmations and even help you to rebalance if you fall off track. So much of it was the process I used with my wellness coach, so it was cool to have it all written down in an easy-to-follow way for myself.

For a book that promises to turn you into your own coach, I think it pretty well gets the job done. Of course, you have to actually have the discipline and motivation to follow the plan and check in with yourself. Part of the greatness of having someone else coach you is that you have to be accountable to another human being. Also, a properly trained wellness coach can be there to help talk you through any setbacks and brainstorm ideas to work around sticky situations. I can’t tell you how many times my wellness coach suggested solutions that were pretty obvious yet I never considered. Sometimes when you’re so involved with living your own life, it’s hard to get an outside perspective. The fit bottomed line? While the book is as good as you can do without hiring a wellness coach, I still recommend getting a coach if you can afford it and are serious about change.

Want to read Coach Yourself Thin? Leave a comment with what goal you’d like to coach yourself to reach, and we’ll select one lucky U.S. reader to win in about a week. The winner will be randomly selected and will be contacted via email and in the comments. G’luck future self-coaches! —Jenn

When it comes to cooking, there’s hardly a person who isn’t wooed by the words “quick” and “easy.” Which is why the new The Biggest Loser Quick and Easy Cookbook is a no-brainer in the kitchen. With more than 75 healthy meals you can prepare in 20 minutes or less and six chapters of recipes for any occasion—Breakfast on the Double, Apps & Snacks Pronto, Speedy Soups & Sandwiches, Throw-Together Salads & Sides, Mains in Minutes, Lickety-Split Sweet Bites—you’re pretty much covered no matter what food you’re craving. With recipes like Easy-Breezy BBQ Pot Roast Dinner, Chocolate Pomegranate Protein Oatmeal, Olive Chicken Salad Pita, “Fried” Mushroom Parmesan Bake and Chocolate Raspberry Dreamers, hungry bellies looking to eat healthy are set.

Another recipe from the new Biggest Loser cookbook that we love? The one below for Sweet Potato No-Skins. The whole sweet-potato recipe that creates a healthier version of traditional fatty potato skins serves four and has 141 calories, 7 grams of protein, 21 grams of carbohydrates (6 grams of sugar), 3 grams of fat, 1 gram of saturated fat, 7 milligrams of cholesterol, 4 grams of fiber and 283 milligrams of sodium in each serving. We can vouch that this sweet-potato recipe is as good for you as it is dee-licious!

You know how they say, “Don’t judge a book by its cover”? Well, we’d like to add, “Don’t judge a book by its size,” too. Because this little-bitty book—The Little Book of Diet Help by Kimberly Willis—is seriously a girl’s best healthy eating/losing-weight friend. Especially if said girl is hippity-dippity in the slightest.

About 175 pages of little nuggets of information that are helpful for losing weight and finding the motivation to eat right and work out, The Little Book of Diet Help is truly a book of facts, tips and tricks. While there’s no actual diet or workout plan, this book is written by a life coach and hypnotherapist who gets that, most of the time, we have trouble living a healthy lifestyle because of what’s going on between our ears. With chapters on overcoming emotional eating, looking after your liver (take good care of it—it detoxifies your body!), using the power of your mind, the wonders of exercise and achieving your goal, Willis covers everything from fighting cravings to improving your mood.

While you’ve probably heard many of the facts in the book, I can almost guarantee that the tips and tricks Willis shares will be new to you. A decent amount of the book centers around “tapping,” which is a form of accupressure that you can do to yourself by literally tapping different points on your body. In addition, the book suggests doing different affirmations to boost confidence and willpower, and there’s even some self-massage techniques that are recommended. Overall, it’s not the diet book you’re used to, and it can work with any type of workout and healthy eating plan that you’re following. Although it won’t exactly tell you how to lose weight, it does give you some additional tools that can certainly help. There may not be a lot of text in this book, but what’s there is encouraging, motivating and totally handy!

Want to read this book for yourself? Leave a comment telling us why you’d like to win it, and we’ll select one lucky U.S. reader to win a copy of the book in about a week! —Jenn

When I first heard about The Beauty Blueprint: 8 Steps to Building the Life and Look of Your Dreams, I honestly thought it would be a stretch to write about for FBG. Sure, we’re all about building your life so that you feel your best, but beauty? Well, we’re not much into that in the traditional mascara, eyeliner, blush sense. In fact, the closest we really come to “beauty” is a post-gym beauty routine where you do your best to not look like a hot, sweaty mess.

But yet, I went ahead and got a review copy because something about the cover image resonated with me. Just look at that chick. Sure, she’s pretty and has impeccable eye make-up, but she just looks glowy. And oh-so peaceful. I want twinkly stars like that around me, too! So off I went, readyto get my beauty blueprint—and soft glow.

Written by Michelle Phillips, a celebrity make-up artist and life coach, this is a beauty book, but it’s like no other beauty book that you’ve ever read. In fact, there’s not one diagram or drawing on how to pencil your eyebrows. Instead, it’s filled with inspiration, examples and exercises to help you get in touch with the beauty you have within. With chapters that build on each other, it’s a full self-help personal discovery plan that involves everything from positive affirmations to dream boards to setting intentions and to discovering what you really value and want out of life. And then, once you’ve figured all that out (and that takes the majority of the book), you can get your shop and make-up on because you know what style you’re going for because you’ve figured out, in a sense, who you are and who you want to continue being. The “beauty” part of what to wear and how to wear it is almost like the cherry on top of a dessert that was already freakin’ delicious to begin with.

I know you’ve heard the cliches that beauty is really on the inside and that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but, dude, Michelle lays out a comprehensive plan that shows that how we feel about ourselves really is the key to developing and appreciating our outer beauty. She then shows you how to honor that, hone it and make it even more beautiful and awesome. It’s very much like how we at FBG value exercise and eating right as a way to take care of yourself and love yourself, which leads to a happier, more fulfilled and authentic life. The Beauty Blueprint? Well, I’d call it a Life Blueprint.

Do you want to read The Beauty Blueprint? (You should!) Leave a comment below telling us what beauty you see in yourself when you look in the mirror, and we’ll select one random U.S. reader to win a copy. Mirror, mirror, on the wall… —Jenn

I like to cook and all, but some nights I just want to make something that’s healthy, uncomplicated and quick. While many cookbooks claim to do this, a lot of times they require you to bust out about 20+ ingredients or rely on processed foods to make dinner easier to whip up. Heck, half of the annoyance of cooking is getting ingredients out and prepped, and these days I rarely buy anything that comes in a box unless it’s a whole grain. Well, Robin Miller of Food Network celeb chef fame heard my plea and created a new cookbook: Robin Takes 5.

Also a nutritionist, Miller’s new healthy cookbook features 500 delicious and simple recipes that require five ingredients or less (not including olive oil, salt and pepper, of course). Each recipe is also low in sodium and has 500 calories or less. While I wish the cookbook had just a few more color photos (I’m a sucker for pretty photos, I’ll admit), you can’t beat the recipes. Divided into chapters on soups, pizzas, pastas, poultry, beef and pork, seafood, side dishes and desserts, it has so many good ol’ standbys (hello, healthy fried chicken recipe we’re about to share with you) and more foodie flavors like Ham Wraps with Manchego and Figs or Prosciutto Panini with Baby Spinach and Fontina. Not to mention that each recipe clearly lists out its nutritionals, so you know just what goodies you’re putting in your belly!

Read on for Robin’s healthy fried chicken recipe from Robin Takes 5! ‘Cause everyone needs a little fried chicken every now and again…