Customer Reviews

Diet Simple: 192 Mental Tricks, Substitutions, Habits & Inspirations

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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.

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.

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.

Great book for those of us who know we need to eat well and exercise, but just need a little more. She is easy to read and understand. I love the way she layed out each tip with what to do, why, and how much you'll lose over a year by doing this. It's so easy to find simple things that you can do to help lose weight from her long list of things to try. And it works, I lost weight right away just by doing a couple of new things. I highly recommend this book!

I read this book straight through and loved it. I still refer to it on a regular basis because the layout has easy to read headings with advice that sounds like common sense, but most people just don't think about how effective the little things can be at controlling your weight. It's not fasting, it's not junk science -- it's little strategies to get through everyday and not-so-everyday life (like cocktail parties, air travel, holidays).

In addition to the simple strategies, there's a section of recipes to make for eating during the week. Nothing fancy here, just good, tasty alternatives to pizza, burgers, etc. The recipes are easy to make, delicious, and two are from two of my favorite DC restaurants (Galileo's and Nora).

This is a great book! The ideas and suggestions in the book are easy to understand, highly practical, and seem very easy to implement. I also really like the fact that the book makes losing weight seem much more achievable, by presenting individual steps to take and easy, specific changes to make. The idea that there is a "payoff" in weight loss associated with each change in my behavior has already helped me feel more motivated!

I can't believe I've lost 8 lbs. already. I've only implemented 2 of her tips so far, numbers #4 and #43. And it is was easy. I don't even realize that I'm dieting -- it's that simple. I love all the tips in this book, especially the ones for emotional eating.

This book is very easy to read. I'm a busy mother of two 3 year olds and it is one of the few books that you can just pick up and read a page or two and come away with something to implement. I would receommend this book for anyone trying to lose weight and who doesn't want to change their whole household and whole lifestyle at once. You can ease into it gradually!!

I just love Katherine's tips. They are so easy and make so much sense. Anyone can pick a few and lose weight over time and keep it off. She gives us great suggestions for handling any situation that might sabotage healthy eating. Traveling, parties, staying home, food pushing people... There's a tip for any roadblock.

You can turn to any page and read it without having to read what came before or after. It's fun to just open the book to a random page and follow that tip for a day. The conversational style is fun and motivating.

The recipes are *super*. It's such a welcome change from the "eat yogurt and celery sticks" boredom. The Hot and Sour Soup recipe is especially good.

Diet Simple provides what all of us lumbering Baby Boomers need: a completely practical guidebook to gradually and painlessly lose weight without completely overhauling our lives. I lost 15 pounds over a few months by trying Katherine's suggestions to substitute fruit for Snickers bars, eating grilled chicken rather than fried chicken, and cooking her great gourmet meals on the weekends and bringing them into work. This book is solid, practical and concrete. Everyone should read it.

When I came to amazon this spring to buy a cookbook by one of my favorite Food Network hosts, amazon pitched Diet Simple in one of its "If you buy this, you can get this for only this much." promotions. Being authored by a nutritionist, I figured it was worth a shot for a few bucks more. Um, not really.

The book is a series of "diet" tips. I found the format annoying and not easy to refer back to something I'd read. Unless you are just about to start your very first diet, you won't likely come away with much new information. Granted, I've been around the diet block a number of times and have read quite a lot of diet/nutrition-related books over the years, so it wasn't like I expected that anything in this little book of tips would be earth-shattering news to me. Still, I didn't come away feeling like I'd gained much from reading the book.

Though stress eating is not a major problem for me, I know a lot of people who struggle with it. I did feel that her chapter on stress eating was quite good and helpful.

If you are just starting a diet or launching a healthy eating for life journey, you may find the book helpful in that you may be able to focus on just those tips that will give you the most "bang for your buck."

However if, like me, you've been around the diet block a few times, I would recommend "Thin for Life" by Anne Fletcher.