cover image The Get with the Program! Guide to Good Eating: Great Food for Good Health

The Get with the Program! Guide to Good Eating: Great Food for Good Health

Bob Greene. Simon & Schuster, $24 (240pp) ISBN 978-0-7432-4310-0

Oprah's longtime personal trainer expands his ""Get with the Program"" product line with this calm, supportive guide to healthy eating. Greene reaffirms the tenets of last year's Get With the Program!: Getting Real About Your Weight, Health, and Emotional Well-Being-stay hydrated, exercise aerobically, strength-train and eliminate ""emotional eating""-before turning his attention to good food habits. Eating breakfast is essential, he says, as is establishing a cutoff time at night (try not to eat 3 hours before sleep); numerous small meals and smart food choices round out his four main steps to healthy eating. Greene's recipes, which take up the latter half of the book, are easy and pleasing: Broccoli and Swiss Chard Cannelloni is full of the beta carotene he espouses in an earlier chapter, and Buttermilk Blueberry Pancakes provide ""a healthy shot of antioxidants."" He also presents deceptively healthy recipes for Paella, Wild Mushroom Grits and a delicious Eggplant and Zucchini Poor Boy Sandwich. Greene's tone remains encouraging throughout, and his cool dismissal of fad diets and quick fixes should soothe those who have hyperventilated for diet revolutions in the past: ""Powerful change occurs...by taking small steps...each day of your life.""