46 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good advice, but nothing new or revolutionary, December 23, 2008
This review is from: Joy's LIFE Diet: Four Steps to Thin Forever (Hardcover)
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This diet book is full of the advice you already know, while all true, I felt it was redundant. There are many diets out there that have the same script: eat this, don't eat that, here is a daily menu to chose from, cut out sweets, don't eat fat, the first few weeks are limited choices -- all this is the basis for weight watchers, south beach, etc. I liked the testimonies and I am sure the plan works because it is all the common sense that a plethora of diets before it have touted.
I am not saying it is a bad book, it just doesn't really contribute anything new to the guidelines of how to live at a healthy weight. The cover and description acts like all this info is ground-breaking. It IS a book full of good advice and guidelines, a revolutionary diet that will blow your mind and make dieting obsolete it is not.
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25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Just okay, January 5, 2009
This review is from: Joy's LIFE Diet: Four Steps to Thin Forever (Hardcover)
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I was really looking forward to this book because as a Self magazine subscriber I enjoy the Food and Diet Q&A she does on that site. Because of this, I had pretty high expectations and unfortunately it fell short.
The biggest downfall with this book is that while the content is presented nicely and approachably, none of it is groundbreaking. If you are embarking on a diet for the first time this isn't an issue, but if you read health magazines or have read other diet and wellness books you'll find yourself thinking that you've heard this before. Despite that, I don't think this book is without its merits. Dieting is largely a personal thing and I think you have to pick what works for you and by that token some people will find it to be the perfect approach for them while others will not.
The Pros:
-Joy does a good job of making losing weight approachable. She breaks the process down into 4 steps, shares success stories, and has a friendly approach, all of which can go a long way if you are intimidated.
-Her book is straight to the point. If you're not interested in the science behind losing weight and want a "Do this, not that." approach you are likely to enjoy this. There is very little grey area, no calculating, etc. She gives you meal plans for each step so you don't have to think about what will be acceptable at each stage in the diet.
-There is some flexibility. While the diet is based around the meals she suggests you are allowed to swap components out in each meal if there is something you don't enjoy. For example, if you don't like the protein on the list you can swap it out for another acceptable protein. Same goes with vegetables and fruits. You can also repeat the meals as many times as you like. She also provides you with acceptable meals when eating out which is great if you travel a lot. Once you are further along in the process you can even use frozen meals so long as they meet her guidelines.
-The diet focuses primarily on whole foods. I really appreciated this since many diets praise low fat, sugar free, and low calorie foods at the expense of nutrition and health. This diet is really based around a lot of fruits and vegetables.
The cons:
-The downside of not having a points system or counting calories is that the diet is based around primarly cooking the meal plans in the book. Because there are as many meal plans as there are days in each step (and some meals are repeated) there wasn't as much variety as I would have liked. She also doesn't make it easy to swap in another meal of your choice. She gives a directions if you want to swap in a frozen meal in the later steps, but not homemade meals. Because of this, the diet seems more geared for people who prefer convenience than those who like cooking. This is certainly NOT a bad thing as I know many people that fall into this camp, but would love if the book were more flexible to those with varying perspectives. Also, the meals themselves are rather bland and limited or obvious. There are a lot of sandwiches for lunch and twists on American classics. This was quite disapointing to me having cooked from great healthy cookbooks like:
The Eating Well Cookbook: Favorite Recipes from Eating Well, the Magazine of Food & Health,
Canyon Ranch Cooks: More Than 200 Delicious, Innovative Recipes from America's Leading Health Resort,
Conscious Cuisine: A New Style of Cooking from the Kitchens of Chef Cary Neff,
Small Changes, Big Results: A 12-Week Action Plan to a Better Life, and more. Meals from those books don't scream "diet food," but to me the food in this book does.
-The book is thin on nutritional knowledge and statistics. It is clearly meant for someone who just wants the steps without the background info of why they are important. A lot of the background information I have seen in other diet and nutrition books was simply missing here. I especially would have liked the section on maintenance to be more detailed because as someone who has been through this before, that is the most challenging part. She also suggests that once you are in maintenance mode you should lighten up favorite recipes, but doesn't give suggestions about how to do so! Yes some of them might be obvious, but there are also a lot of tricks I've picked up along the way that are worth mentioning. I would have also expected some information in the opening section about how to choose a goal weight that is appropriate to you, but this wasn't included.
-This diet would be a challenge for a vegetarian. Granted, this is true on many diets, but since this diet is based around her meal plan it is especially so. Few meals are inherently vegetarian and while you can substitute tofu and other acceptable vegetarian proteins for the meat/fish/poultry in recipes a lot of them would be very bland due to the naturally subtle flavor of tofu.
Overall this book was just okay. There were a lot of aspects about it that do not fit with my personal lifestyle and philosophy about food. However, I am still giving it 3-stars because I imagine that while it does not fit my lifestyle, others will find it just what they've been looking for. A diet book is as much about whether or not you can actually stick with it as it is about the content and while this is not a program I could stick with, I imagine it will be doable for others. It is definitely geared towards someone who is new to the world of dieting and nutrition or someone who would like a straight forward, uncomplicated diet. It is not as good for someone who already knows a lot about nutrition or who enjoys more flexibility in what meals they make. If you fall into the latter camp I highly recommend
Small Changes, Big Results: A 12-Week Action Plan to a Better Life. It's very approachable and doesn't assume a high level of prior knowledge about nutrition. It also is informative and has EXCELLENT recipes that prove that you can eat food that is good for you, but that is also very flavorful. I hope others find this a better fit than I did.
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent book and sound plan that works!, December 30, 2008
This review is from: Joy's LIFE Diet: Four Steps to Thin Forever (Hardcover)
I was a diet coach during the pilot phase of this plan and can vouch that the LIFE diet really works. I am a Registered Dietitian and work daily with clients struggling to lose weight. I was looking forward to the release of this book so that I can recommend it to clients that I see. It is sound, based on science, healthy, tasty (I've taste-tested most of the meals and they are dee-lish) and what's best about it is that it's adaptable and simple. You have the option to follow a meal plan, or to use the allowable foods to create a plan of your own, using your own foods. You will relearn how to eat within your preferences and can individualize this program to work for YOU. I think this is the element lacking in most diet programs. I reviewed this diet before choosing to coach my parents on it. If this were a "diet," in the restrictive, unrealistic and harmful sense of the word, I would not have recommended this to people who I knew would both not enjoy "dieting" and people who I would not want to undergo harm, discomfort, or rebound weight gain. My parents have successfully lost 55 lbs together on this plan over the course of 6 months, and they were not significantly overweight to begin with. They both have a new sense of confidence, health, and vitality that I can say I have never witnessed during my life as their daughter. I can say with confidence, both professionally and personally, that if you are looking for a book that won't give you false hopes and disappoint you, this is an excellent pick. Here's to 2009 and the opportunity for healthy, steady weight loss from a true expert.
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