Lightness of Body and Mind
"Inspiring and compassionate."
Publisher's Weekly
Lightness of Body and Mind:
A Radical Approach to Weight and Wellness
By Sarah Hays Coomer
Forget every tactic you’ve ever tried to lose weight and feel better. Put down your weapons once and for all, and step out of the field of battle. Despite how it may seem, your brain and body are not unsupportive beasts bent on undermining your fitness goals. They just want some chips and dip, that’s all. They aren’t the problem. The way you’re trying to manipulate them is.
In Lightness of Body and Mind: A Radical Approach to Weight and Wellness, personal trainer Sarah Hays Coomer offers a different approach. She proposes that you will never be able to achieve a body you love by doing things that you hate, that deprivation and limitation will never set you free, and that punishing workouts and strict diets are dead-end roads. The way to a body that works is by doing more of what you authentically love.
Through memoir and intimate client stories, this book encourages you to dance with your demons, to choose and cherish the ones you have no intention of giving up, and to build a solid infrastructure, dedicated to good health, in which wellness and indulgence spring from the same source.
You don’t need more control. You just need functional knowledge of how habits are formed; a reverent, dizzy appreciation for falling apart when necessary; and laser focus on what brings you to life.
Published by Rowman & Littlefield, June 2016
Audiobook Sample
Reviews
"Reading Lightness of Body and Mind was revelatory for me. Sarah Hays Coomer will heal many broken spirits and burdened bodies with this book. The approach to healthy living and weight loss is practical, holistic, and accessible to anyone. More like a guide to a life well-lived rather than a diet book, Lightness of Body and Mind inspired me to embrace forward motion and endless possibility."
Emily Saliers, Indigo Girls
“Lightness of Body and Mind connects on a life level. Coomer’s insight is startling, and her approach is gentle but effective. She turns the entire pursuit of wellness upside down to make it not only manageable but genuinely enjoyable.”
Nikki Reed, Actor/Producer, Sleepy Hollow, Twilight,Thirteen Ambassador for Thrive Market
“One of the most powerful, insightful, relatable, and inspiring books I’ve ever read. Lightness of Body and Mind is for anyone who has ever struggled with food addiction, workaholism, depression, or chronic pain. With ferocious honesty about her own struggles and those of her clients, Sarah Hays Coomer teaches us how to summon our own tour-de-force to initiate and maintain change.”
Tracy Jackson, MD, FIPP, Vanderbilt University, Director of Multidisciplinary Pain Medicine Fellowship Director of Resident Education in Chronic Pain
“Funny, engaging, and full of important insights and science, Lightness of Body and Mind can help people who struggle with body-related negativity learn how to be more kind, positive, and proactive in their approach to well-being and weight.”
Michelle Segar, Ph.D., Author of award-winning No Sweat:
How the Simple Science of Motivation Can Bring You a Lifetime of Fitness
“Finally someone is speaking my language! Health and weight loss shouldn’t feel like punishment. Sarah helps us see how destructive guilt is, and that if we want to lighten up physically we have to do it mentally too.”
Katie Cook, CMT Host
“Listening is one of my greatest challenges and passions. Coomer’s Lightness of Body and Mind prizes listening to my own body and intuition, rather than unattainable cultural standards of beauty or proscribed, rigid diets. Her method feels right on time and a huge relief.”
Ann Imig, Founder of ListenToYourMotherShow.com
Editor of LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER: What She Said Then, What We're Saying Now
“An essential handbook on how to access your best life. Sarah lifts us all to not only a healthier body but a truly uplifted heart as well.”
Melanie Salvatore-August, Author
Kitchen Yoga: Simple Home Practices to Transform Mind Body and Life Creator, Fierce Kindness
“From the very first chapter, I started thinking about food differently. Sarah Hays Coomer shows us that the true answer is to treat our bodies with love and nourishment right now so that we can transform into the strongest, healthiest versions of ourselves possible.”
Abigail S. Caudle, MD, MS, FACS, Breast Cancer Surgeon