I am a self-admitted, self-help and diet/nutrition book junkie. At times I am reading 2 or more books and the acquisition of my Kindle seems to have fueled my addiction.

For years I have thought this addiction was not such a bad thing…in the scheme of things…well it’s at best educational. This week, however, I have started to rethink this. I am reading two books on dieting that totally contradict each other and well it has almost made me want to give up on my educational habit and maybe just start reading Harlequin Romance novels… well maybe not…

Let me explain, I am currently reading Eat To Live: The Amazing Nutrient-rich Program for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss by Joel Fuhrman and also The Perricone Weight-Loss Diet: A Simple 3 Part Plan to Lose the Fat, the Wrinkles and the Years by Nicholas Perricone M.D.

Here’s why I feel defeated (and let me be the first to admit I am total over simplifying each of these book’s premises)… but here it goes anyway.

So Joel Fuhrman believes that you should make up your diet of primarily plant-based foods (fruits and vegetables with some nuts and seeds and limit or totally eliminate your intake of animal-based proteins, and fats (even the ones we have been told are “good” – i.e. olive oil) and, of course, cut out all the processed junk food that is so prevalent in the U.S. diet.

Dr. Perricone on the other hand believes in relying heavily on the what most of us think of as “good fats” and (mostly fish) proteins.

So who do you believe and what do you do? Fish…no fish…olive oils…fish oil…absolutely no oils. By the time I finished both books… I wasn’t feeling “educated”, I was feeling “exasperated”.

When the scientific community and “experts” seem to be saying so many contradictory things, it sure is easy to feel defeated… like nothing you do will be right…but then what I was left with after finishing both of these books…is what I am always sure about when the day is done…

#1 I will continue to be a self-help and diet/nutrition book junkie.
#2 When I center myself around my yoga practice, I know that is always right and good and that meditation and yoga will always be the RIGHT thing for me.

Now I have to figure out what to eat…