November 23rd, 2008 — Book Review
This book is considered to be one of the most controversial diet books on the market and it certainly raises a lot of interesting issues that are normally avoided in the diet industry. Although a lot of people believe that metabolism and genetic predisposition can lead to weight problems, the author of this book believes that eating the wrong foods for your blood type may be the root of a weight problem. This is an interesting concept and unfortunately, there is not a lot of evidence around to support these claims.
The author does state that research was performed to come up with this plan, but facts are never cited and this research is never shared. This raises some major red flags right from the start. It's one thing to say that a diet can do something, but if it can't be proven, it's just irresponsible to make these kind of claims. While there are thousands that swear by this diet, there is a general lack of clinical proof in place to back up the author's claims and that is quite frankly, not good.
The book does not focus on lifestyle changes or the quest to get not only fit but also healthy. Instead, it claims that your blood type determines what kind of foods you can eat. For example, those with a type A blood type will need to avoid meat, dairy, tomatoes and peppers from their diet. This is no easy task and will take a huge level of long term commitment to keep weight off. The other blood types have similar restrictions, but they do vary a bit. For example, O Types are allowed to eat meat, but no carbs or dairy. The diets are just so extreme that they make even Atkins look easy.
The only real good thing that we can say is that the book makes it pretty clear what you can and cannot eat. Some people may find this refreshing since it really removes any question about grey areas. However, it is just not healthy to completely remove whole food groups from your diet. For example, if you completely stop eating both meat and cheese, you're going to be missing a significant amount of protein from your diet. Your body needs protein to function properly and without it, you can have some serious health problems.
In order to lose weight the healthy way, it's best to find the right balance of carbs, protein and fats. All are essential and should never be completely eliminated from a diet. When you do that, you end up feeling deprived and the cravings can be very intense since your body is trying to tell you that it is drastically low on protein or carbs.
We simply cannot recommend this book due to the fact that there is no research available to back up the author's claims. The suggestions are not healthy and adherents could be physically harming themselves by following this diet.
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November 10th, 2008 — Weight Loss Journal, diet, food, goals, motivation
The diet industry is a multi-billion dollar machine that keeps churning out new diets, new hope and new hype every single year. If diets were so effective, there would be no need to keep coming up with new methods and new diet plans, but the sad truth is, the vast majority of diets fail. Why is this and what can you do to change this truth? Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why diets fail.
Lifestyle changes are not addressed. This is possibly the biggest issue for dieters. If you are not eating the right foods all the time, and making that commitment to change, chances are, as soon as you do see results from your diet, you’re going to fall back on old habits. It is not easy to completely overhaul your life, but in many cases, if you want to lose weight, and keep it off, that is exactly what you’re going to have to do.
The diet does not offer enough variety. Whether it’s the soup diet, the juice diet, or even some of the more popular diet plans, a lack of variety can be a major reason for failure. It’s simply too difficult for many people to eat the same things, day in and day out. Even if you go into a diet plan like this enjoying a certain kind of food, after two weeks of eating nothing but, chances are you won’t feel the same way. Variety is the spice of life, and that is very true with food.
The diet plan does not include any exercise. Plain and simple, if you want to burn fat more efficiently, you’re going to have to get up and move around. Thousands of books come out every year promoting new ways of eating, but many of them fail to add the important component of exercise.
The diet plan focuses solely on water weight. This is a very common issue that affects dieters. When you first start on these plans it seems like weight just magically falls off of you. Then, you go back to eating normally and whoosh – it comes right back. These diets are disheartening at best, and dangerous at worst.
The diet is unsafe. There are many fad diets out there that are simply too extreme to stick to. Whether you’re fasting, or drastically cutting back calories, this results in a lack of energy, and you may simply just feel awful. We all need a certain amount of calories every day for our bodies to function properly. If you’re not getting enough, you will end up feeling lousy and you may even throw off your metabolism.
If you don’t want your diet to fail, remember that lifestyle changes are necessary and exercise should not be avoided. Simply eating better food and moving around more will help you lose weight – and keep it off – and you’ll find that it is much easier to keep going, even though the results may be a little slower.
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August 1st, 2008 — Book Review, diet, fad diets, healthy eating, motivation
This is an incredible book by Judith Beck, the daughter of a famed researcher that revolutionized the mental health industry. Like father, like daughter, Beck is poised to make some big changes in the diet industry, using the same techniques. Beck's philosophy focuses on Cognitive Behavior Therapy or CBT. This is a term that means literally, changing the way you think and training your brain to produce certain results.
This method is incredibly powerful when applied to mental concerns, and has the potential to really change the way that most people think about dieting. If you're sick of trying fad diets, or you think that you will never be thin - this book needs to be read and put in a place of honor on your shelves. Our big thing is really lifestyle changes, and how powerful they can be. This book takes it to the next level and goes further into how to get your brain to work with you instead of against you.
The main premise of the book is that people who need to lose weight, or even those that have already lost weight and are trying to keep it off, do not think like thin people. Thin people don't beat themselves up over their food choices, they know when they're full, and they don't create vicious cycles that doom their diets to failure. In fact, they don't diet, because their brains are trained to control their appetites and their cravings.
This book will show you how to start thinking like a thin person and literally retrain your brain. Since hunger is only partially associated with your stomach, the brain is what you really need to be targeting, before you lose a pound. This book will put you on the path towards becoming thin, even if your body hasn't caught up yet. However, once you put the advice into action, it won't take long to get there.
By focusing on behavior that leads dieters into a vicious circle, Beck shows them how to break free. Willpower is rarely enough and it is all too easy to slide, especially when your body is so insistent. But, according to Beck, it's not really your body making those demands, it's your brain. Teach your brain to shut up, and you've got it made. That's really oversimplifying it, but that is the basic reason why so many diets fail. Our brains force them to fail by over thinking, triggering bad behaviors and sabotaging our best efforts.
We highly recommend this book to anyone that is looking to lose weight the healthy way. If you're stuck on fad diets, this will literally change your life and show you that there is a better way. Even if you're already thin but worried you might slip, this book will show you how to stay thin for the rest of your life and still get a lot of enjoyment out of your life.
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July 3rd, 2008 — Book Review
Tomorrow is a holiday, which is why you are reading a book review today. I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend. Enjoy the fireworks and BBQs!
Dr. Shapiro's book The Guide to Picture Perfect Weight Loss combines several interesting factors into one plan to help readers lose weight. While you may not agree with some of his advice or suggestions, it certainly is an interesting read and a book that dieter's should at least consider. The author really focused on healthy lifestyle changes, so that earned him points right off the bat.
When it comes to losing weight, it's not about those initial quick results. If you're not making whole life changes, it's all too easy to fall back into bad habits and immediately your progress was for naught. We always appreciate it when authors step away from the fad diet craze and start focusing on ways that everyone, regardless of their current weight, can get healthy and stay that way.
Dr. Shapiro was hired to help the Fire Department in New York City lose weight and it's easy to see why he is well renowned in the diet industry. This book focuses on using pictures to help readers make smart food choices. It's all about replacing bad foods and developing those healthy eating habits that will keep you slim for the rest of your life. We really appreciated the fact that he illustrated proper serving sizes visually since many of us have a hard time picturing what a "serving" actually is.
The best part of the book lies in the suggestions for replacements for unhealthy foods. At times, it was pretty shocking to see exactly what you could eat instead of fast food. The sheer volume of healthy but tasty food compared with the small serving of fast food was remarkable and no one could ever claim that this was a diet that left them feeling hungry.
Since total deprivation does not work when it comes to losing weight, this book offered hundreds of alternatives that readers can immediately put into action so that they feel full and fulfilled. It may be tough at first to implement a few of these changes, particularly since fast food and unhealthy food as a whole tastes so good, but the author really did his job when it came to finding alternatives that are completely comparable. If you can break your addiction to fast food, you'll be surprised at just how much healthy food you could be eating.
It was virtually impossible to come up with any criticism for this book. It's well written, well thought out and most importantly, provided a new way to look at dieting. So many diet books are all the same and so many leave reader's feeling empty or worse, ripped off. By visually representing food changes, the author really took diet books to a whole new level and we can hope that the industry will follow suit.
Overall, this is a book that belongs on any dieter's bookshelf. Even those who are already at their goal weight can learn a lot from this book and walk away with a new appreciation of eating healthy.
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