Diet Simple: 192 Mental Tricks, Substitutions, Habits & Inspirations [Paperback]

Katherine Tallmadge (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 23, 2003

Did you know that if you add salad to your lunch and dinner you could lose 36 pounds a year? Or that eating four frozen dinners a week could result in an 18-pound loss? When it comes to dieting, time is on your side. Studies have shown that it's the small, easy changes you make in eating that have the most dramatic and lasting results. For instance, make one or two minor changes in your eating or life-style habits, and over the course of three months, you will begin to see significant weight drop. Katherine Tallmadge, MA, RD, a leading nutritionist, has compiled 154 easy tips, substitutions, mental tricks, strategies, and inspirations that have helped her clients shed from 10 to 50 pounds a year-effortlessly and without feeling deprived. Including 26 Fast and Delicious 'Batch Recipes' from world-renowned chefs such as Jacques Pepin and Roberto Donna, 'Diet Simple' teaches you how to permanently lose weight and change your life for the better while balancing the needs of health, career and family. During her twenty years as a weight-loss and nutrition counselor in Washington, D.C., Tallmadge has discovered that modifying small habits is easy and the most common way to lose weight without even trying. Over time, the extra calories saved or burned add up to staggering weight loss. This is the Diet Simple approach.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

“Tons of fun ways to slash stealth calories from your everyday diet for dramatic, lasting results. The ultimate girlfriends’ guide to shaking those Velcro pounds.”
—Shape Magazine

“Tallmadge’s latest offering in the fickle world of weight loss is a standout.”
—e-diets.com

“Dieting: It’s not about denial anymore....The recipes in Tallmadge’s book—from heavyweight chefs like Jacques Pépin—are a far cry from rabbit food.”
—New York Post

“Invaluable: lifelong lessons on how to lose weight healthfully.”
—Washington Post

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Katherine Tallmadge, MA, RD, is internationally recognized and respected in the nutrition and weight loss field. She is also prized and sought after by the media for her expertise. National Spokesperson for The American Dietetic Association, she regularly appears on CNN and FOX News, and major network news programs such as ABC’s Good Morning America, 20/20, and ABC Nightly News, NBC’s Today Show and Evening News, and CBS’s Good Morning and CBS Nightly News. She has been featured on Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show, The Emeril Lagasse Show, and PBS’s Talk of the Nation. She is quoted in USA Today, Newsweek, the New York Times, Good Housekeeping, Martha Stewart, and others. She is an award-winning journalist and has written columns for The Washington Post, Shape Magazine, Vegetarian Times, and Restaurants & Institutions. She regularly contributes to Politico, Eating Well Magazine and others. She has been named “Best Nutritionist” by The Washington Post and Harpers’ Bazaar. Katherine is passionate about helping people transform their health and their lives. She has been sharing her insights through counseling, corporate wellness programs, speaking engagements, and media appearances for more than twenty years.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Lifeline Press; Rev Exp edition (December 23, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0895260700
• ISBN-13: 978-0895260703
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #935,197 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

116 of 129 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Simple tips to lose weight but....., April 14, 2002

By 

Lee Mellott "Skin Care For Wrinkles" (Frederick, Maryland) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Diet Simple (Hardcover)

If you are a traditional dieter you may enjoy Tallmadge's book, "Diet Simple". In the book Tallmadge gives a number of tips on how to fit in exercise and eat less calories. However, most of the tips will be ones you already know. And many of the tips are repeated in the book in a slightly different manner.
For example one tip suggests you walk a dog, another tip says you lead a conga line at work for 5 minutes each hour of the business day, and yet another tip suggests you walk more.

Other Tallmadge tips include eating less calories by making substitutions. She suggests in one tip that you give up ice cream or at least eat less. And another tips suggests you eat fruit with chocolate syrup instead of ice cream - more repetition.

Very few of the ideas add anything new to what most women's magazines or diet books will tell you. Drink more water to feel fuller, eat salad so you don't eat something else, find less caloric substitutes for chocolate cravings.
The one twist Katherine adds to the book is she guesses at how many calories (and thus pounds) you might lose in a year if you follow the suggestion given.

As I stated earlier the book is geared to the traditional eat less, exercise more mode of weight loss. If you are following a low carb diet, for example, many of the suggestions will not work for you. In one tip she recommends coating your berries with chocolate syrup. 2 tablespoons of chocolate syrup contain 24 grams of carbs which would not be beneficial to a low carber!

At the back of the book she gives batch recipes. Many are geared to a batch for 4 or 6. So they not as suitable for families as they are for couples. The recipes involve wholesome foods and clear directions are given.

I think because of the duplication of the tips throughout the book and the fact that most are repeats of what we already know the book is more of a little kick in the pants to remind us to drink our water, eat more veggies etc.
To me though the lack of new information does not merit the price of the hardcover version.

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Diet Simple, November 8, 2002

By 

Philip Mudd (Bethesda MD) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Diet Simple (Hardcover)

Katherine Tallmadge's book, Diet Simple,to me is slightly reminiscent of the "Big Book" of Alcoholics Anonomous. Not that it recommends a 12 step program for people who overeat or who have spent a lifetime battling weight and eating disorders, rather it offers those of us who strugle with these issues some experiance, strength and hope.
In the introduction Ms. Tallmadge briefly touches on the behavioral patterns and problems related to eating of three generations of her own family. Fortunately this is up frount in the book because her discussion of her own struggle with over eating, and her cycle of gaining and loosing weight pulled me in and was something I could relate to, the classic "yo yo" pattern as she puts it.
Some of the information in this book is stuff that I have read somewhere maybe in a woman's magazine, drink more water, exercise, eat less, etc. However after doing a Google search under the authors name I found that she had written many of these articals. Ms Tallamdge approch has talked me down from the ledge of these carb addict diet books and has me eating oatmeal for breakfast! I have never had more energy for my morning work outs than I do with this suggestion. I was on a protein regime that I though was helping me but I was stuck. These Diet Simple suggestions are balanced and not harsh. In the two months since I picked up the book I have lost 15 lbs.
The author's experiance as a practicing nutritionist shows in the many suggestions, mental tricks, substitions, habits and inspirations she anecdotally atributes to from work she has done with her clients over the years. My suggestion is that you skip the nutritionist, come to a place where you are ready to change, use this book as a tool and spend the money you save on new clothes.
I should mention that the recipes in the back are tasty and easy for a bachelor with few culinary skills to prepair. It shows us how to make the food we eat health yet exciting. With all this said I have to admit that I bought the book because I saw the jacket photo of the author before I read the title. She is very cute. Sadly there are no pictures inside the book.

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Common sense with results, January 16, 2002

By 

Jennifer Elliott (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Diet Simple (Hardcover)

Katherine Tallmadge's approach is simple and motivating--I've found it easy to follow and by making very small changes to my daily habits I have managed to lose 40 pounds. The best part of her method is that it's genuine lifestyle change --something I feel confident I can do forever.