OXFORD, Miss. (AP) — Tammy Herod is familiar with challenges and juggling multiple careers and she’s always ready to take on more. As a hairstylist, real estate agent, mentor, organizer and creator, Herod wears many hats. Now she’s adding another to the stack: author.
On Dec. 15, Herod officially launched her book “How I Got My Life Back: A Journal and Cooking Guide to Getting Fit” at the Oasis Church of All Nations amongst family, friends and guests.
However, Herod did not create the book initially to rope more people into a healthier lifestyle, it was because she admired her cooking skills
“What really inspired me to write the book was not my healthy eating journey,” she said. “It was actually taking pictures of my food, I just thought it looked so darn pretty. When I finished making it, I thought, ‘This needs to be in a book.’”
What initially started as a general cookbook, turned into a story about Herod’s journey to getting fit and overcoming tragedy with the help and encouragement of her editor Deidra Jackson.
“She was like, ‘No, you have to write a little bit about your story in there too because people want to hear more about it,’” said Herod. “It adds meaning when you have a story that is attached to it.”
The editing and formatting process was a lot more involved than she realized, but Herod came away from it with more knowledge on publishing that will be useful if she ever writes another book.
“I got my manuscript, I got all my information, so I can just publish it?” she said. “No. You got page numbers, headings and table of contents. You have all these things to do to prepare for a book.”
In the synopsis, Herod summarizes how she battled with food and weight loss for most of her life. She was always larger than her friends and when they went on vacation, shopping was more of a struggle for her than the others.
Things began to look up when she joined a gym and lost 40 pounds in nine months, but the loss of her mother began the battle with food all over again.
It wasn’t until she sat down for lunch with a friend who went through an extraordinary weight loss journey that Herod decided to get back on track with healthy eating and healthy living.
Herod only included 20 of her recipes and she chose ones that would pop on paper and pop on your tongue. From steak and brussel sprouts to crustless pizza, Herod has food that will fit any taste palette.
“What’s beautiful about this book is that it’s healthy food, but it’s food everybody in the house can eat,” she said.
Herod said key points to weight loss is to know where your calories are coming from and portion control.
“The bad part is overeating,” she said. “Of course, the more you eat the more calories it is. All calories are not created. So you say this steak and broccoli is 300 calories but this cheeseburger is too, but the cheeseburger has all these other things in it that’s not good for you.”
Healthy living is all down to your choices, she continued. It’s about making consistently good decisions so you can see better results farther down the line in life.
“It’s not something that’s easy, but I’ve put in the work and got some results and I love the results that I’ve gotten,” Herod said.
For more information on Tammy Herod’s “How I Got My Life Back: A Journal and Cooking Guide to Getting Fit” or how to order it, visit www.tammyherod.com.
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