You know with a foreword by Cindy Crawford, BODY FOR LIFE is going to catch a number of women’s attention.  Who among us wouldn’t love to be as fit and shapely as a supermodel?  While it is nice to hear that Cindy struggles to keep her weight down, I also have one minor issue—not everyone has access to the money needed in order to follow the exercise portion found within BODY FOR LIFE.

Dr. Pamela Peeke offers a twelve-week program to losing weight, shaping your body and feeling better about yourself.  The program is geared to women of all ages, focusing particularly on what stage of life you are in:  menstruation to pregnancy, reproductive years, perimenopause or menopause.  It is a widely accepted fact that as a woman ages, it is much easier for her to gain weight.  The BODY FOR LIFE program focuses on those issues.

There are definite advantages and disadvantages to this book.  First, the book is flooded with before, after and years after pictures.  In many cases, I didn’t see much of a difference between the before and after pictures other than the fact that the woman had been oiled up and photographed by a professional for the after pictures.  And also in many, you could tell in the after pictures that the woman was sucking her gut, as compared to the before pictures where it was plain that she was told to extend her abdomen.  So for me, the truth didn’t lie in the photographs.  I also found the list of equipment that you “need” to have for the exercise portion to be pretty expensive:  a set of dumbbells ($20 to $40), a weight bench ($50 plus), an exercise mat ($20), a stability ball ($12 to $25), resistance tubing ($30), training shoes, mirror, chair, and music.  So taking the latter items out, the list of “necessities” still comes to $150 or more.

What I did like to this book was the list of foods that you should focus on and why.  I loved that section of the book and also appreciated the sample daily menus to help with meal planning.  There is also a handy Q&A section that pinpoints common issues that women of all ages are having with diet and exercise.