The Vibrant Life

Lots of recipes using fresh ingredients, all gluten and dairy free. Beautiful photos of many of the dishes. What I liked more was that beyond being a cookbook, this is a guide on how to have your best life and includes lots of sections addressing other aspects of physical and mental health and well-being. The yoga and exercise sections have photos and steps, and the meditation section explains how to do it. Good book for those looking to be better versions of themselves.
I received an ebook ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Amanda's motto, "Eat well, be well" is explicit and feels right! This book, introduction included, I believe, is a must have if you want to improve your health. Amanda shares her experience and explains how she started to feel alive and vibrant again. She selects important ideas such as being weary of known irritants which create inflammation (chronic inflammation actually). She shares her advice about food (organic, natural sweeteners...), her recipes, and guides us to a better health.
A must have reference book which we can turn to whenever in doubt.

Beautifully written, I gained knowledge to a few things i could change in my daily life.
Will continue to look back and take more notes. my head is still zooming with so many things.

This book is filled with fresh recipes, workouts and ideas on how to live a vibrant life. It really focuses on a holistic approach as topics such as talk therapy, sex, meditation and acupuncture are discussed, in addition to eating healthy and working out. I enjoyed the mixture of topics and the beautiful images.

I LOVE this book! The combination of recipes, essays, information on nutrition and exercise is a perfect roadmap for the kind of life I'm trying to lead. I'm already pretty healthy, but I'm trying to do even better. This summer my resolution is to drink more water. It sounds simple but it's not (for me, anyway) - however, I can already see the benefits in the skin on my face. If I manage to succeed at that resolution (and I'm hopeful) I'll be using this book to help me figure out what my fall resolution might be. I'm thinking it might be the simple yoga practice in this book.

When I first saw this book, I expected a typical cookbook with a few little blurbs here and there about healthy dietary, preparation or ingredient choices. I was well off the mark, but pleasantly surprised.

There are recipes, very appealing ones in fact. The recipes use mostly accessible ingredients, with the few potentially harder to find ones being optional and easily omitted or substituted. For example, pine nuts, fresh fingerroot or sheep’s milk feta. She also discusses ingredient choices & kitchen tool recommendations, which would be a great help for someone just starting out in the kitchen and home food prep. The recipes are all from-scratch and dairy & gluten-free, but not particularly complicated. Most recipes are actually quite easy and are even entertaining friendly. I found quite a few recipes that I look forward to trying.

But the bulk of the book is a discussion of ways to improve your general well-being and quality of life, with the author referencing, interviewing or sharing guidance she received from a variety of specialists and sources along her personal journey. She covers a variety of topics including, but not limited to: Yoga, massage, strength training, sexual health, laughter, meditation, skin care and even some more unusual topics like cryotherapy.

Despite its healthy living focus, the author’s writing style is refreshingly non-dogmatic and encouraging in its approach. More like a friend enthusiastically telling you in detail about what they learned from some class or new fitness program they tried over coffee and recommending you try it too.

Overall, I was very pleased with “Vibrant Life” and would definitely recommend it. I’m on my own personal quest to improve my general health and well-being and found quite a few inspirational and intriguing tidbits through out the book. It provides a lot to think about and to look further into. I even intend to buy a print copy to add to my shelf, as well as am adding it to my Christmas shopping list as gifts for a few family members I know would enjoy it as well.

* I received a digital copy of this book to review on #netgalley

** Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with the digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review **
Es mas que un libro de cocina, en primer lugar porque no tiene solo recetas, sino ejercicios y diversas recomendaciones relacionadas al estilo de vida, como son masajes, terapias, etc. Da la sensación de que fuera una amiga o una persona contándote lo que hace en su vida diaria y aconsejándote, no se siente como un libro estricto de cocina.
Esta bueno que plantee una lista de ingredientes imprescindibles al principio, ya que sabemos que teniendo eso, podemos llevar adelante cualquier propuesta del libro, detalle nada menor, que contribuye aun mas a que no se sienta como un libro de recetas lejanas e imposibles de implementar a la vida diaria.

So viel mehr als nur ein Kochbuch:
Neben Rezepten gibt es Tipps und Tricks rund um den gesunden Lebensstil. In einem lockeren Erzählstil wird der Leser fast wie nebenbei in allen Bereichen des Lebens aufgeschlaut und mit den aktuellsten Lebensweisheiten vertraut gemacht. Teils subjektiv, aber auch objektive Fakten sprechen für sich.

I thought I was just getting a cookbook but it was so much more! I love the holistic approach to living a healthier life. Sure there are some yummy and easy to follow recipes throughout the book (including gluten free, some vegetarian) but there is also a lot of information about keeping your whole self- mind, body and spirit- fulfilled. She offered information about yoga, meditation, getting outside in nature, exercise, strength training, talk therapy, healthy relationships, self-care and more. Beautifully written, beautiful photos of some of the meals and the yoga and strength training portions have pictures along with instructions on how to do each thing. Highly recommend. Thank you to Netgalley and Chronicle Books for an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Vibrant Life is much more than just a cookbook. It is a resource for living well and living healthy. Besides creative recipes, there is information on exercise, meditation, reducing stress, and how to create a whole new outlook on life and health. The authors also relate the reasons that prompted them to not only change their own lifestyles but also why they decided to write The Vibrant Life. I’m sure this will resonate with many readers.

The format of the book is easy to use and the layout is outstanding. There are many lovely photographs as well as drawings to help the reader understand exercises and yoga positions.

For someone who is interested in making changes in their life, be it large or small ones, this book could prove to be a valuable resource.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book for review.

VIBRANT LIFE by Amanda Haas and Erin Kunkel has good intentions in that it promises to provide recipes "that boost immunity, strengthen memory, lift moods, [and] support digestive health." However, I found the preview quite difficult to read and navigate. Plus, its 240 pages contain only 70 recipes so there is quite a bit of other reading material. That seems to be a trend in recent cookbooks, and that may also be contributing to my rather negative reaction, especially when much of the information provided seems redundant with other works. If you would like a sense of those sections for yourself, see the amazon page for VIBRANT LIFE. The pictures are beautiful – just wish there were more. The recipes are relatively complicated with some unusual ingredients and contain no nutritional information. Haas does offer helpful commentary throughout like "don't forget: where there's turmeric, there should be black pepper. It increases the bioavailability of turmeric by 2000 percent!"

So beautiful, so informative, and so packed with fabulous-sounding recipes. Plenty to help avoid inflammation, with a great deal of FYIs on assorted health issues. A refreshing change from the usual anti-inflammatory/healthy aging books out there, with fresh info and inspired recipes.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a review, and I loved it so much, I bought a print copy to keep.

I've already recommended this book to friends and family. This is a good one!

Amanda Haas's new release The Vibrant Life: Eat Well, Be Well—and Love Your Midlife is an unusual format for a cookbook and a fascinating read.

Her interviews with experts on different techniques to improve health naturally were my favorite aspect of the book. The techniques range from spending time in nature and meditating to using acupuncture and cryotherapy. The discussion focused not only on how these things affect us physically but also emotionally and in our relationships.

One of my favorite quotes: “It’s up to you to figure out the formula for your own well-being , and to fully embrace it whatever your age!”

While I did not agree with some of the advice, particularly that masturbation is emotionally or physically healthy, I learned a lot. I felt that understanding how these aspects of health impact me increased my motivation to adopt these suggestions into my everyday life.

Amanda Haas’s philosophy is that food should not only be good for the body but also needs to taste great. She also advocates listening to your body to notice which foods increase your personal health and energy. I agree with her philosophy. Accordingly I will substitute a couple ingredients in the recipes for my own needs.

I love that the recipes include fresh herbs and other anti inflammatory ingredients. There are at least a dozen dishes from this cookbook I am excited to try. One particularly interesting recipe is Seamus’s Butternut Squash Soup with Garlicky Panko Crumbs which includes a simplified method of preparation and adds fennel, thyme, garlic, and celery. All the recipe pictures look really yummy!

I definitely recommend this if you are seeking to reverse or slow down the aging process or improve your health in general through natural means. The delicious sounding recipes with empowering nutritional info will make you actually want to eat your veggies, make sleep a priority, and exercise!

I received a free copy of this book which in no ways affected my opinion. I look forward to reading more of Amanda Haas’s books in the future for more yummy recipes and health advice.

This book gets me in the healthy self-care feels. It's taken me a while to get it, but I've finally made the connection that our bodies and what we put into them directly correlates to what we get out of them. I have a lot I want to do with this body, and Amanda Haas' Vibrant Life is a testament to everything she wants to do with hers. The book is a lifestyle guide, sure. But for every chapter on sun salutation and the importance of anti-inflammatory diets, there's a really great matcha green tea latte recipe or a hopeful anecdote about how change is possible at any age. Amanda Haas' Vibrant Life might be somewhat typical, but it's also beautiful, simple, and uplifting. I'd suggest it to all my other self-care gurus.