How the way we perceive our bodies plays a critical role in the way we perceive ourselves: stories of phantom limbs, rubber hands, anorexia, and other phenomena. The body is central to our sense of identity. It can be a canvas for self-expression, decorated with clothing, jewelry, cosmetics, tattoos, and piercings. But the body is more than that. Bodily awareness, says scientist-writer Moheb Costandi, is key to self-consciousness. In Body Am I, Costandi examines how the brain perceives the body, how that perception translates into our conscious experience of the body, and how that experience contributes to our sense of self. Along the way, he explores what can happen when the mechanisms of bodily awareness are disturbed, leading to such phenomena as phantom limbs, alien hands, and amputee fetishes. Costandi explains that the brain generates maps and models of the body that guide how we perceive and use it, and that these maps and models are repeatedly modified and reconstructed. Drawing on recent bodily awareness research, the new science of self-consciousness, and historical milestones in neurology, he describes a range of psychiatric and neurological disorders that result when body and brain are out of sync, including not only the well-known phantom limb syndrome but also phantom breast and phantom penis syndromes; body integrity identity disorder, which compels a person to disown and then amputate a healthy arm or leg; and such eating disorders as anorexia. Wide-ranging and meticulously researched, Body Am I (the title comes from Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra) offers new insight into self-consciousness by describing it in terms of bodily awareness.

Our predominant experience is that we have a body, with which we work, eat, dance, make love, have pleasure. But sometimes when we are sick, tired, or in pain, our perception changes; then we experience that we are our bodies. That is the experience which Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel explores in this unique book.

I Am the Boss of My Body explains to children exactly as the title suggests - that they are the boss of their bodies! It explains to children what they should do if someone touches their body. More importantly, it explains what children should do if someone touches their private skin. I Am the Boss of My Body is an interactive book. Children are encouraged to repeat important phrases and are instructed to draw their own pictures to assist in bringing meaning and value to the messaging within the book. I Am the Boss of My Body is a non-threatening way to educate children about threatening situations.

Mention the name Bill Phillips to any of the people he's helped transform and you will see their faces light up with appreciation and respect. These people include: Hundreds of thousands of men and women who read his magazine for guidance and straightforward information about exercise, nutrition, and living with strength. Elite professional athletes, among them John Elway, Karl Malone, Mike Piazza, and Terrell Davis ?ho have turned to Phillips for clear–cut information to enhance their energy and performance. People once plagued by obesity, alcoholism, and life–threatening ailments who accepted a personal challenge from Bill Phillips and, with his help, have regained control of their bodies and their lives. When you begin to apply the information in this book, you will be proving to yourself that astounding changes are within your grasp too. And, you will discover Body–for–LIFE is much more than a book about physical fitness ?t's a gateway to a new and better life, a life of rewarding and fulfilling moments, perhaps more spectacular than you've ever dared to dream before. Within 12 weeks, you too are going to know ?ot believe, but know : that the transformation you've created with your body is merely an example of the power you have to transform everything else in your world. In language that is vivid and down–to–earth, Bill Phillips guides you, step by step, through the integrated Body–for–LIFE Program, which reveals: How to lose fat and increase your strength by exercising less, not more; How to tap into an endless source of energy by living with the Power MindsetTM; How to create more time for everything meaningful in your life; How to trade hours of aerobics for minutes of weight training ?ith dramatic results; How to make continual progress by using the High–Point TechniqueTM; How to feed your muscles while starving fat with the Nutrition–for–LIFE MethodTM; How thousands of ordinary people have now become extraordinary and how you can, too; How to gain control of your body and life, once and for all. The principles of the Body–for–LIFE Program are surprisingly simple but remarkably powerful. So allow yourself to experience the force of the information in this book, allow yourself to take your mind, your body, your life to a higher point than you may have ever dreamed you could. All in as little as 12 weeks.

Fat isn't the problem. Dieting is the problem. A society that rejects anyone whose body shape or size doesn't match an impossible ideal is the problem. A medical establishment that equates "thin" with "healthy" is the problem. The solution? Health at Every Size. Tune in to your body's expert guidance. Find the joy in movement. Eat what you want, when you want, choosing pleasurable foods that help you to feel good. You too can feel great in your body right now—and Health at Every Size will show you how. Health at Every Size has been scientifically proven to boost health and self-esteem. The program was evaluated in a government-funded academic study, its data published in well-respected scientific journals. Updated with the latest scientific research and even more powerful messages, Health at Every Size is not a diet book, and after reading it, you will be convinced the best way to win the war against fat is to give up the fight.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A must-read owner’s manual for every body. Take a head-to-toe tour of the marvel that is the human body in this “delightful, anecdote-propelled read” (The Boston Globe) from the author of A Short History of Nearly Everything. With a new Afterword. “You will marvel at the brilliance and vast weirdness of your design." —The Washington Post Bill Bryson once again proves himself to be an incomparable companion as he guides us through the human body—how it functions, its remarkable ability to heal itself, and (unfortunately) the ways it can fail. Full of extraordinary facts (your body made a million red blood cells since you started reading this) and irresistible Brysonesque anecdotes, The Body will lead you to a deeper understanding of the miracle that is life in general and you in particular. As Bill Bryson writes, “We pass our existence within this wobble of flesh and yet take it almost entirely for granted.” The Body will cure that indifference with generous doses of wondrous, compulsively readable facts and information. As addictive as it is comprehensive, this is Bryson at his very best.

Mainstream health science has let you down. Weight loss is not the key to health, diet and exercise are not effective weight-loss strategies and fatness is not a death sentence. You've heard it before: there's a global health crisis, and, unless we make some changes, we're in trouble. That much is true—but the epidemic is NOT obesity. The real crisis lies in the toxic stigma placed on certain bodies and the impact of living with inequality—not the numbers on a scale. In a mad dash to shrink our bodies, many of us get so caught up in searching for the perfect diet, exercise program, or surgical technique that we lose sight of our original goal: improved health and well-being. Popular methods for weight loss don't get us there and lead many people to feel like failures when they can't match unattainable body standards. It's time for a cease-fire in the war against obesity. Dr. Linda Bacon and Dr. Lucy Aphramor's Body Respect debunks common myths about weight, including the misconceptions that BMI can accurately measure health, that fatness necessarily leads to disease, and that dieting will improve health. They also help make sense of how poverty and oppression—such as racism, homophobia, and classism—affect life opportunity, self-worth, and even influence metabolism. Body insecurity is rampant, and it doesn't have to be. It's time to overcome our culture's shame and distress about weight, to get real about inequalities and health, and to show every body respect.