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The Betty Body Review: Back-of-Book Description
Women are not little men, but that’s how we treat our bodies.
In The Betty Body, Dr. Stephanie Estima provides a step-by-step guide to caring for your feminine body, teaching you:
- How to go from treating your period as an archenemy to celebrating its arrival every month
- The different types of orgasms you should be having and why they’re so important for female health
- How to eat in a way that honors your menstrual cycle, through menopause and beyond
- How morning routines are sexist, and how you can structure one that honors your unique biology
- How to build beautiful, lean muscle based on your menstrual cycle, even in menopause
- Why fats and carbohydrates are not evil, and how to use them strategically to your metabolic advantage
Whether you want to lose weight, balance your hormones, or just stop hating your period, The Betty Body is your blueprint for your best feminine health.
The Betty Body Review: My Thoughts
For the life of me, I cannot remember where I first heard of this book or the author. It’s possible she was on a podcast I listened to or something.
In any case, I remember quickly finding The Betty Body: A Geeky Goddess’ Guide to Intuitive Eating, Balanced Hormones, and Transformative Sex on Amazon right away. It didn’t sit long on my bookshelf either – with some summer traveling coming up I feel really motivated to look and feel my best, so when I felt ready for a nonfiction, this seemed like the perfect choice.
Sometimes I think these “diet culture” books are a total sham and not worth my time. But I really liked that this one centered around the idea of women working with their periods instead of against them. I think women spend so much of their lives dreading and complaining about their cycle – but what if you embraced it and modeled your life in a way that took advantage of it? Doesn’t that sound better?
Well to me it does! And so I found this book really interesting. It seemed like a fresh approach to diet and wellness. But don’t worry – she didn’t talk about periods the whole time. She also discusses posture, fitness, the idea that you should exercise your mind to prevent dementia, etc.
I actually already incorporated one thing she talked about by switching to a smaller pillow. She pointed out that if you work at a computer or are on your phone a lot, your neck is probably angled down – with your chin towards your chest – for a majority of the day. And if you are sleeping on a thick pillow….that’s 8 more hours of the same, tilted posture and it could be ruining your neck muscles. I had never thought about that before!
Honestly, I just really like the emphasis and importance she places on sleep in general – I think it’s really important for people to remember. She had other interesting ideas that I might try out as well, such as eating one way for part of the month, and a different way for the other parts.
She does talk about getting blood work and labs done a lot, which for some people might be out of reach financially. But for others, it might be a really good idea.
I will note that this is not a ‘lose weight quickly’ book. Everything she talks about takes time, and attention, and doesn’t even necessarily revolve around weight loss. It’s a method for getting to know your body better and has overall improved health for the long term.
Favorite Quotes from The Betty Body
“Every time you eat and exercise, you are making a short-term investment in how you feel, a medium-term investment in how you look, and a long-term investment in how you perform.”
“While there are some general patterns to this, understand you are a unique individual with unique life experiences, genetics, and lifestyle. The best thing you can do is get to know yourself better through your menstrual cycle.”
“You are worth the investment of time.”
“It’s easy for us to forget where we start, making it nearly impossible to evaluate how much progress we’ve made!”
“If you do not sleep well, you cannot live well.”
“Your sleep must come first. It doesn’t matter how clean your diet is or how rock solid your exercise and training are. Sleep is the first domino for us Bettys. You simply cannot green smoothie and exercise your way out of bad sleep.”
“…if you focus on improvement, improvement is what you will gain.”
“Start from a place of love and gratitude for all that your body has done, it’s wildly magical capabilities, and know that, you, the eternal student, can improve how you function, look, and feel.”
The Betty Body Review: In Conclusion
I think overall I will say 4 stars. The Betty Body is well written, and she seems to have done a lot of research. I like the unique approach to women’s health, that takes our menstrual cycles into consideration and tries to work with them, instead of against them. But as with any diet or wellness book, there are things that should be taken with a grain of salt. Any method of weight loss or overall wellness has a certain amount of research supporting it, whether that’s keto or low fat or intermittent fasting – you can find something that backs it up.
That being said – I do think she offers a lot of great insights and some practical advice for women. And for some, following her whole plan could be really beneficial! So I would encourage all women of any age to at least look into it and see what she has to say. I’ve already recommended it to a few friends.
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