Carrots 'N' Cake: Healthy Living One Carrot and Cupcake at a Time aims show readers how to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight with a lifestyle of balance rather than extremism. I love the notion of this and feel that far too many diet books fall in the camp of preaching unrealistic, unsustainable diets that focus on weight loss over health so I was looking forward to this book. Unfortunately, the execution for me was sorely lacking.
In the book Haupert, author of the healthy living blog Carrots N' Cake tries to show us what a balanced lifestyle looks like using a day in the life approach, similar to the style she takes on her blog. Unfortunately, this approach was not at all successful for me. It meant that the book didn't really flow at all and often seemed to be dragging on without purpose. And without the abundance of photos on her blog and the interaction from readers, the writing fell flat. Her description was often bland and generic, failing to bring the story to life. Many of the anecdotes in the book failed to make a point and almost felt like they had been included for filler to stretch out page count. There were many times when reading this book when I wondered why she was telling me a particular story. Even odder it included some 'behind the scenes' content of her blog. To me this just felt unnecessary for something billed as a book about healthy living. It seemed like the kind of content that might be interesting to a hardcore fan, but has little appeal for anyone else.
I'd be willing to overlook the blandness of the narrative if the tips were good, but I often felt they reflected the fact that Haupert is not credentialed. Most felt generic, like what you can read in a health or women's service magazine or were redundant from chapter to chapter. Also, some of the content seemed random and unsubstantiated. In the book she referred to 'super foods' quite a few time but gave no reason as to why she felt these foods qualified. At times it just felt like a short hand for foods the author likes. I do think there were a couple of good tips here and there. However, to me there just isn't enough rich information for someone looking to embark on a weight loss journey.
And then there are the recipes. Many of the inclusions were just odd to me. There were a lot of full fat/calories/sugar recipes, which I get emphasizes the 'cake' end of her lifestyle. However when I'm looking at healthy living books I'm generally looking for lighter recipes. It's not that I don't make "regular" recipes, but they are everywhere. In particular, many of the ones here seemed to be nothing new. I also seriously questioned whether the recipes would turn out when I saw one that described caramelized onions but didn't call for cooking them anywhere near long enough for the onions to truly caramelize. To some it might seem like a small thing, but it made me question the author's cooking expertise and wonder whether any of the recipes had actually been tested prior to printing the book.
In short, much as I tried, I struggled to find anything redeeming in this author's book. It wasn't entertaining enough to be read purely as a success story, didn't have enough sound and credible information to provide true healthy living tips, and had recipes that seemed fundamentally flawed. In a way I don't blame the author because it was her first book but am seriously shocked as to why any editors would decide to print. Personally, I find there are so many more credible books on healthy living like
Small Changes, Big Results: A 12-Week Action Plan to a Better Life. If you are a hardcore follower of her blog you may find some of the behind the scenes content interesting but if you haven't read her blog before I'd recommend passing on this one.
