Joy is amazing. I love following her on facebook, her tips and recipes are always so helpful and insightful.
Anyway, I read the book tonight, while I ran at the Y. I expected it to be good, based on Joy and her approach to health and wellness, but I honestly did not expect it to blow me away like it did.
So my preface is that lately it seems like weight loss success stories that I have read in media (People's Half Their Size issue this year, for example) have focused on people who have used approaches to weight loss that I am really not a fan of. I don't find them to be realistically sustainable or helpful in the long term (there is a reason why 80% of people that lose 30lbs or more gain it back, and only 20% of people who lose 30lbs or more keep it off more than a year) and that is b/c they do not achieve their weight loss with methods that can be sustained long term.
So to me, featuring people in People magazine or other magazines etc who have had gastric bypass (ONLY effective if you change your habits and lifestyle...which if you do that in the first place, you will not need surgery...if you don't change, you will maybe lose an initial amount of weight, but you will stall, or gain it back, it's not magic), or use extreme fad diets (cutting out a macronutrient completely like carbs, or going to extreme measures like HCG or supplements etc) is not inspiring. It is not motivational. It is not helpful. All it says to me is "let me be suckered in by some company trying to make money off my 48th desperate attempt to lose weight". Not. A. Fan.
This book though...is freaking AMAZING because EVERY SINGLE PERSON in this book lost over 100lbs (and some 200-300lbs, OMFG!) 30 people, with absolutely NOTHING more than "Eat Less, Move More". Good old-fashioned, change what/how you eat and MOVE YOUR BODY.
For everyone in the book, this looks different. Why? B/c there really is, unfortunately, no magic answer. Depending on the cause of your obesity (common thread in all of the stories in the book, emotional eating started at a young age...), depending on what works for you for the long term, what exercise you connect with-it's not a formulated do this and lose 100lbs.
Joy presents some great tips for success, that ARE a common theme running through all of the stories, and sound foundational principles for implementing a lifestyle change that will last for the rest of your life.
She uses their favorite healthy recipes to make up a great 3 week meal plan, that my husband and I started 2 weeks ago, and I have lost 5lbs and he has lost 8lbs already!
These stories are all real people-of all ages, from 20s all the way to 60s, who lose weight by changing what they ate, not depriving themselves, not going to extremes, not even Biggest Loser-ing it (ie living in the gym). Instead, they all made small changes that slowly added up to amazing results that they can sustain forever.
I am so ridiculously inspired by reading in-depth the stories from the Joy Fit Club members, and I know you all will be too-whether you have only a few pounds to lose, or have a long road to travel like they did. Or even if you just want some new healthy amazing recipes!
I love that everyone is represented here-people that have changed themselves from all walks of life-so there are NO excuses. NONE. College students, wives, husbands, grandmas, grandpas, busy people that worked long days as doctors to stay at home mamas trying to manage little ones and a house and husband and everything in between-NO EXCUSES. They all did it. They all GOT IT DONE, because one day they made up their minds, for whatever reason, and figured out what they had to do, to become the person they'd always wanted to be. Nothing extreme. Nothing fad. No surgery (except excess skin surgery for some after the fact). No living in the gym for 20 hours a day. No 800 calorie diets.
I love it. I love the reality, the inspiration, the motivation that this book brings. If 30 people from all walks of life, gender, socio-economic statuses, etc, can do it-So you can you! There are no excuses, this book showcases 30 people with all the excuses in the world, who one day decided they were tired of they excuses, and they shut up and ate less and moved more.
So check out this book, again, esp if you are someone who has asked "what is their secret?"-and there have been countless that ask! There is no secret-but this book will really motivate, inspire and give some great foundational tools for setting yourself up for lifestyle change success for the long-term! And the food is easy to make and really delicious-our kids LOVE it!
