Let me tell you a secret. Parenting books are written by parents of docile children. So what about a book on living a totally fit life?
Clicking on the link to the Web site of Thomas Nelson Publishers, the house that published Los Altos resident Don Nava’s “Fit after 40: 3 Keys to Looking Good and Feeling Great” (2006), brings up www.christianbooks.com. While representing a smattering of the usual suspects like Bill Bennett and cliché titles about liberals and Democrats, Nelson, whose origins date back to 18th century Scotland, seems to be a fairly restrained, serious publisher of Bibles and Christian books.
Nava, aka Coach, offers a 6-point approach to total fitness:
Physical – Even the most out-of-shape, unhealthy person can become fitter.
Directional – Pursue your life goals with passion and focus.
Nutritional – Good healthful food = good healthy you.
Emotional – Create more love, joy and peace in your life and the lives of those around you.
Mental – You are what you feed your brain.
Spiritual – Central to Nava’s total fitness program: your relationship with God.
Nava’s book is reinforced by a Web site where people seeking to improve their fitness can form teams of three to encourage each other in 10-week increments. The reasoning is that anyone can commit to 10 weeks, then re-up for another 10.
Intrepid reporter that I am, I tried to sign up my husband, but by page 2 (of 7), I was getting uncomfortable putting so much personal information into cyberspace, so I logged off. If anyone registers for the free month at www.teamof3.com, let me know how it goes.
The book’s content ranges from the simple to the sublime. In the section on directional fitness, Nava writes that he has “no doubt that Hurricane Katrina, 9/11 or any number of other catastrophic events impacted many people’s pursuit of their goals!” I understand what is meant – that when life knocks you off course, you have to get back on the horse or make lemonade or something – but the curmudgeon who took up residence in my head years ago and never pays rent insisted on muttering, “Impacted their goals? Like not dying?”
On the other hand, Nava shines in the chapter on emotional fitness where he draws distinctions between peace and quiet, joy and happiness, and explains that love is a verb. I would add that love is a verb in the active, not passive, voice. He is right about watching not only what we put into our bodies but into our hearts and minds. And Nava is funny when he writes about what happens to menopausal women when they “get a quart or two low on estrogen.” I would have enjoyed seeing more of those flashes of humor.
I liked his focus on natural remedies and natural foods, but I was left guessing when he writes, “You must choose to say no to all chemicals that might alter your state of mind.” Does he include psychiatric drugs that have relieved so much suffering, or is this solely a reference to street drugs? The passage is vague, but the one on alcohol isn’t: No booze in the totally fit life.
When he talks about his faith, Nava is passionate, sincere and well-meaning. But it’s clear that he thinks there is one right way to believe and worship. As someone with less certainty about the knowledge of God and a firm belief that a person’s relationship with God should be a private affair, I was a bit uncomfortable.
By the end of the book, though, I was genuinely surprised how much I had come to like Coach Nava. I accidentally on purpose left my reviewer copy on my husband’s nightstand.
“Fit after 40” can be purchased on www.amazon.com.
