Be Empowered! Eat Chocolate with Breakfast

by Jan Bethancourt (Artist)

Overview

Be Empowered! Eat Chocolate with Breakfast began as short e-mail messages from a mother to her daughter who was away at college. So captivated by her mother's words Sarah Bethancourt encouraged her mom, Jan, to share her simple yet significant insight with women everywhere. Uniquely personal, yet universal, the sayings encourage readers to take a closer look at life and living; to meet life's daily struggle and celebrates its joys. Using chocolate as a metaphor, Bethancourt gently urges readers to embrace the empowering qualities of confidence, courage and compassion. The author's own soothing watercolor images add to the calming effect created by words that nourish body, mind and spirit.The title, Be Empowered! Eat Chocolate with Breakfast was inspired by a childhood memory of a chocolate Easter bunny and the author's mother saying, You can't eat chocolate before breakfast. Never quite recovering from that early disappointment, Jan Bethancourt later discovered that, metaphorically, chocolate with breakfast is an empowering way to start each day.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780981522913
Publisher:	Janbeth Designs LLC
Publication date:	02/01/2009
Pages:	96
Product dimensions:	7.10(w) x 5.20(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	13 Years

About the Author

Jan Bethancourt received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Southwestern Louisiana and studied fine arts extensively at the Glassell School of Art, Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas. The first generation of Be Empowered! Eat Chocolate with Breakfast was created using a computer and Epson printer. Community enthusiasm let to commercial publishing of the title and speaking engagements on the substance of her book. In 2010 her home was destroyed by fire, and the second book in the Be Empowered! series is therefore aptly titled—Be Empowered! Don't Let Life Melt Your Chocolate.

Editorial Reviews

Endorsements — "Be Empowered! Eat Chocolate with Breakfast is delightful and delicious… without the calories. Read it for a renewal of your sould and a reminder of what’s important." Yvonne Lemmon, National Sales Director, Mary Kay, Inc. 

"Be Empowered! Eat Chocolate with Breakfast is chock-full of pearls of wisdom and inspiration. Through her creative handling of stresses of everyday life, Jan (Bethancourt) offers a refreshingly simple approach to re-framing the complicated." Jane Mahoney, PhD., RN, PMHCS-BS, Director of Nursing Practices and Research, Menninger Clinic, Houston, TX

Be Empowered! Eat Chocolate with Breakfast by Jan Bethancourt is a delightful little book that is best shared with others. It is not the type of book that you need to sit down and read in order. Flip to any page and you will find something not only relevant to your day but also uplifting and inspirational. So what is Be Empowered! Eat Chocolate with Breakfast? It is a collection of original sayings and watercolors that are designed to make women feel empowered, confident and happy. Lots of smiles in this book. It was started as email messages that Bethancourt sent to her daughter while she was in college. All were designed to make the daughter feel worthy and encouraged.
The entire book is built around the metaphor of chocolate (alas she is not really advocating the eating of real chocolate for breakfast… but this reader is! :)) Chocolate is Bethancourt’s metaphor for confidence, courage, and compassion. It is not really clear why she choose chocolate to serve as those ideas but it fits this collection. It is cute and delicious. The metaphor of chocolate comes up often with beautiful little sayings and every once in a while a cute little watercolor heart jumps into the conversation to visually remind you that you are loved.
I am not sure if the book “unleashed my inner self worth” but it did make me smile. As I mentioned earlier in this review this is a book that means more when it is shared. Since I cannot share the entire book with my reading audience (here though I encourage you to run out and buy or download your own copy) I want to share a few of my favorite tidbits…

“You do not always have the luxury of choosing your journey. You do have the freedom to choose your path.”

“What if?” won’t change your past. “What now?” will change your future.

“Appreciate where you have been. It takes you where you are going”

This book would be appreciated by readers who are women, readers who want a little smile and readers who want to appreciate simplicity. Smile dear readers and eat some chocolate with your breakfast!

By: Amanda Carroll, Reviewer Amanda’s Weekly Zen Published November 2, 2011 on www.amandasweklyzen.com

From the Publisher