Your Whole Life: The 3D Plan for Eating Right, Living Well, Loving God

In the 1970s, Showalter founded the 3D movement, one of the first major Christian diet programs in the nation, to help people focus on diet, discipline and discipleship. Here she teams up with nutritionist Davis to offer readers a religious foundation for the 3D program. What’s refreshing is that Showalter doesn’t just give lip service to Christian faith or slap a few Bible verses on an otherwise secular health book. She is serious about the “discipleship” part of the 3D program and provides meaty daily devotions to that end. The book presents a comprehensive 12-week plan that encourages healthy eating and exercise as well as deep attention to God and spiritual development. Showalter and Davis sound out a sensible middle ground in a weight-obsessed culture, emphasizing that healthy habits are important, but that God loves us no matter what the scale might say. An early chapter on the history of the 3D program might have been better suited to an appendix, but the book is otherwise marvelously organized and surprisingly substantive. In the devotions, Showalter tackles difficult topics like obedience, will, emotions, truth and discipleship. Dieters who tire of empty promises of quick fixes should check out this spiritual guide to health and the whole person. (Jan.)