Skip the calorie counting—this gentle guide to post-pregnancy weight loss empowers new moms to make lifestyle changes that naturally lead to improved health and happiness After giving birth, even the most confident, fit, and spiritually centered women can feel depressed, overwhelmed by the responsibilities of motherhood, and disheartened by their postpartum bodies. Erin Cox knows exactly how they feel. She wrote One Hot Mama as a comprehensive guide to support, nurture, and steer women through a fun and completely doable process to lose unwanted pregnancy pounds and create an exceptional life. Erin understands that weight loss is an emotional process, and new mothers need to feel empowered and supported to make healthy lifestyle changes. New moms don’t have the time or energy to count calories, but rather need guidelines and easy-to-implement suggestions on how to improve their diet and exercise routines. Using a realistic approach that has proven to be effective, mothers will be encouraged to make positive life changes that will encourage weight loss, positive thinking, and self-love. Women who read this book will not only feel empowered and invigorated to get their bodies back in shape, but the positive changes will impact every single aspect of life—allowing them to live a joyous and fulfilled life as a woman and mother, even emerging happier and healthier than before getting pregnant.

Authors, moms, and fitness enthusiasts Kara Douglass Thom and Laurie Kocanda work to balance motherhood and fitness. They know other moms struggle to make exercise a priority in their lives because they speak with similarly minded women at seminars and on their blogs. It was from these conversations--and the interest in them--that the idea for Hot (Sweaty) Mamas was born. This book is perfect for every mom or mom-to-be thinking about starting an exercise program, as well as moms already pursuing their fitness goals. Hot (Sweaty) Mamas reaches a wider audience than other fitness books that merely focus on "getting your prebaby body back" by presenting advice on how to pursue fitness despite a busy schedule, how to carve out time with or without kids to work out, and how to get the support needed to pursue fitness goals. Moms who find it difficult to start or stick with an exercise program will learn how to reframe their thinking. Women who continue to work out and struggle with the guilt sometimes associated with taking "me time" will be reassured. Mothers-to-be will feel better prepared to pass a legacy of health and fitness to their children and make fitness and motherhood coexist. Thom and Kocanda reveal the secrets to being a fit mom inside Hot (Sweaty) Mamas.

Argues that expectations for mothering include a new core principle of “body work.” The requirements of “good” motherhood used to primarily involve the care of children, but now contemporary mothers are also pressured to become bikini-ready immediately postpartum. Lynn O’Brien Hallstein analyzes celebrity mom profiles to determine the various ways that they encourage all mothers to engage in body work as the energizing solution to solve any work-life balance struggles they might experience. Bikini-Ready Moms also considers the ways that maternal body work erases any evidence of mothers’ contributions both at home and in professional contexts. Hallstein theorizes possible ways to fuel a necessary mothers’ revolution, while also pointing to initial strategies of resistance. “Bikini-Ready Moms contributes a great deal to understanding both the obsession with celebrity mom profiles and the pressure that mothers are under to conform to and perform intensive mothering as it shifts into another gear to control women.” — Fiona Joy Green, author of Practicing Feminist Mothering

What every mother needs to know about pregnancy and childbirth You know Jillian Michaels as the world’s leading fitness expert and a renowned nutritionist, but she’s also a proud mother of two. In Yeah Baby!, Jillian, along with her team of top-notch experts, will change everything you think you know about pregnancy, arming you with the most cutting-edge information available, so you can make the right choices for you and your little one. They will help you navigate the hidden dangers in your immediate environment; understand the check-ups, tests, and treatments your doctor recommends; and provide powerful solutions for all your issues, from heartburn and swollen feet to more serious medical concerns. Also learn how to optimize every facet of your child’s development, from IQ and long-term earning potential to future level of physical fitness and even taste preferences! Yeah Baby! also features a complete meal plan with delicious, nutrition-packed recipes, and a one-of-a-kind, trimester-specific fitness program, to ensure you bounce back stronger and better than ever. Expert Dream Team: • Suzanne Gilberg-Lenz, MD, is an Ob-Gyn, a Clinical Ayurvedic Specialist, and board certified in Integrative and Holistic Medicine. • Andrea Orbeck is a PregnancyFitness Specialist who holds an advanced degree in Kinesiology and Intracellular Physiology. • Katja VanHerle, MD, is one of America’s Top Physicians in Endocrinology as named by Consumer Research Council of America. • Cheryl Forberg, RD, is an award-winning registered dietitian, chef, and New York Times bestselling author. • Jay Gordon, MD, FAAP, is a pediatrician who specializes in infant nutrition and breastfeeding.

Dear Mom is a real story of a woman who was struggling with schizophrenia after her marriage. The story represents the ups and downs of her life. Just because she wasn’t taking medicines, she had to go through a lot. Finally, she met an uninvited situation – a brain haemorrhage. The author realized that he has to say many things to his mom before anything worse happened to her, and especially a word, ‘sorry.’ Sorry for the trouble he had given his mom without understanding her disease. Sorry for not supporting his mom when she actually needed support. The story starts from admitting his mom to the hospital. The author waits for his mom to be conscious and talk to her as much as he could. Her journey of 21 days in the hospital makes him realize how important she was to him.

Contemporary popular culture has created a slew of stereotypical roles for girls and women to (willingly or not) play throughout their lives: The Princess, the Nymphette, the Diva, the Single Girl, the Bridezilla, the Tiger Mother, the M.I.L.F, the Cougar, and more. In this book Ames and Burcon investigate the role of cultural texts in gender socialization at specific pre-scripted stages of a woman's life (from girls to the "golden girls") and how that instruction compounds over time. By studying various texts (toys, magazines, blogs, tweets, television shows, Hollywood films, novels, and self-help books) they argue that popular culture exists as a type of funhouse mirror constantly distorting the real world conditions that exist for women, magnifying the gendered expectations they face. Despite the many problematic, conflicting messages women receive throughout their lives, this book also showcases the ways such messages are resisted, allowing women to move past the blurry reality they broadcast and toward, hopefully, gender equality.

A New Hope: A New Nightmare Nothing is as it seems in New Hope, Indiana—the land of curly-haired designer dogs, bunco nights, and impeccably manicured lawns. Where the good kids from good families live. Except... it has a dark side. "Back to Before" takes you on a gripping journey through the dark underbelly of the seemingly idyllic New Hope, Indiana. This heart-wrenching tale will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last page. Holly Simon's perfect suburban life shatters when her son falls victim to a prescription drug overdose. Faced with the daunting challenges of addiction and treatment, she embarks on a desperate quest to uncover the truth. Secrets and lies lurk behind every corner, threatening to tear apart everything she holds dear. Experience the strength and resilience of a mother's love as Holly navigates through a treacherous maze of darkness. Will she be able to save her son and herself, or will she be consumed by the nightmares that haunt New Hope? Find out in "Back to Before," a best-selling contemporary women's fiction novel that will touch your heart and leave you inspired. For fans of Kristin Hannah, Sherryl Woods, Barbara O’Neal, Mary Kay Andrews, Jennifer Weiner, Emily Giffin, Pamela Kelley, Mary Ellen Taylor and Colleen Hoover. This best selling contemporary women's fiction novel features lovable characters over 40 in the prime of midlife.