The Self-Care Cookbook: Easy Healing Plant-Based Recipes

 I don't normally read cookbooks, at least from cover to cover (well, I admit, I didn't actually read all the details of the recipes in this one, either).  But I made an exception for Gemma Ogston's The Self-Care Cookbook: Easy Healing Plant-Based Recipes because the book is only maybe half recipes.  The rest is all helpful hints and tips to help you feel better.  The book is kind of like a hug written from Ogston to you, helping you prioritize your own needs.  

The Self-Care Cookbook is organized into different sections, depending on what you need.  They cover the whole gamut of self-care topics, from restoring, reflecting, and rebalancing, all the way to TLC for when you just need help getting through the day.  The recipes are put into this same structure, with recipes that are good for say restoring your energy all in one place.  While I liked this organization in terms of the topics, I found it makes the cookbook a lot harder to flip through for recipe purposes, especially if you're just trying to find say an appetizer or a salad, because they're scattered throughout the book. I'm honestly not sure if I'm going to try the recipes, as I don't really remember what is where now.  It does have an index, but I didn't find that particularly helpful either because it covers all the topics of the book, and there really aren't a ton of recipes here.  Perhaps a separate recipe index would have been more helpful?

While I found that to be a shame, the rest of the book is honestly a delight.  Ogston has wonderful tips to help you, no matter how you're feeling.  Her writing style is also very engaging and welcoming, contributing to that feeling of this book being a hug to anyone who needs it.

The Self-Care Cookbook is a cute and helpful read for anyone who is looking for some self-care tips.  But if you're more interested in new recipes, you might want to look elsewhere.

Make Your Own Rules Diet

I saw Tara Stiles' Make Your Own Rules Diet at work as part of a used book sale.  I was intrigued by the title and the little bit of the book that I skimmed through so I decided to get it.  I mean, how does a diet work if you make your own rules? 

According to Stiles, when people diet they are following someone else's rules. She advocates for you getting in touch with your own body and doing what feels right to you.  She does have a caveat though: she wants you to meditate and do yoga so you are active and more in touch with your body.  Stiles is a yoga teacher, so I kind of feel like that might be a big part of her push towards yoga - in a book called Make Your Own Rules Diet, I feel like you should decide on the activity that makes you happy, right?

So anyway, the book is split into a couple of sections.  The first one introduces you to the ideas of making your own rules.  I felt like this was the core of the book but it kind of got the least attention unfortunately.  Stiles shows you what her current rules are and gives you an exercise to look at your day and get ideas from that.  But then that's it, she moves onto other sections and never revisits building your own rules in detail again.

The second section is an introduction to doing yoga, doing meditation, and cooking for yourself in your kitchen.  I thought the introductions for everything were pretty solid.  Part three goes into more detail: Stiles gives you several yoga routines to follow along with, she explains different ways of meditating, then she provides a whole bunch of her favourite vegetarian recipes. The final part gives you a seven day plan to follow and a thirty day plan, in case you aren't quite ready to start making your own rules.

I will say that I enjoyed reading the book.  Stiles was fun and inspiring; she always has your best interests in heart (which is to reconnect with yourself and do what you need to do).  But for a book titles Make Your Own Rules Diet, it kind of felt like a misnomer because there were a fair amount of rules, both spoken and unspoken, in the book (meditate, do yoga, and eat vegetarian - all the recipes were vegetarian).  That being said, I thought it was overall an inspiring book to read (and I will give some of her recipes a try, even though I'm not a fan of spice the way she is)!