Mariel Hemingway's Healthy Living from the Inside Out

January 1, 2007
It's the rare celebrity whose daily routine is an example of sane, healthy living, but the semi-famous author of this self-help volume offers up her own life as a testament to the powers of wholesome food, moderate exercise and peace and quiet. Hemingway laudably encourages readers to take time for themselves, pay attention to their own wants and prioritize relaxation over work every once in a while. She writes convincingly of the benefits of home-cooked meals and yoga, and for every lapse into pyschobabble (the author confesses to being "a classic case of a person who falls into behavioral patterns"), there's a nugget of hard-won wisdom ("It's taken me four decades to see the obvious," she writes, "I must take care of myself first"). Though some readers may have a hard time sympathizing with Hemingway's past hardships-trying to maintain a Hollywood "thin," for instance-much of her advice is easy to implement and should provide healthy returns.