44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Perfect Plan, October 18, 2001
This review is from: Lose your Love Handles: A 3 Step Program to Streamline your Waist in 30 Days (Paperback)
Mr. Shilstone's three steps can be summarized as follows: (1) shift your eating habits permanently, in a minimally restrictive way, guided by the glycemic index, (2) accomplish a full hour of aerobic exercise at a good intensity every day, (3) perform a serious but short core strengthening routine every day. That's the program.
The dietary portion of the program (certainly not a conventional "diet") is minimally restrictive both of the sort of foods you might be allowed to eat and the quantity of food you might be allowed to eat. You could eat like a lumberjack (if you wanted to do that) and still be well within the program. The key observation is "glycemic index," which Mr. Shilstone explains in more detail and more correctly than I could here. This is an important and very healthy suggestion, which was new to me. It is, in a sense, the natural and appropriate correction for most of the diets that are usually suggested, even the low-fat diets suggested by physicians for heart patients. More scientific basis of this is explained in Dr. Schwartzbein's books (The Schwarzbein Principle and her cookbooks), and related information appears in Cheryle Hart's book on Insulin-Resistance. This is a very good idea that I found in Mr. Shilstone's book first. My only criticism is that more information is really required than Mr. Shilstone has room to include in this small book.
The section on aerobic exercise for your hour a day is excellent. While power walking will certainly suffice, you are in no way limited. Very good and useful information is given for you to substitute any number of activities that might suit your changing interests. He gives detailed information here about the time of day when you can most usefully exercise (late afternoon, an hour and a half before going to supper) and what criteria must be fulfilled for your body to be able to burn fat (you only start burning fat well after a half hour of exercise). These insightful details will help a lot in monitoring your own effectiveness easily and without worry. He gives you that extra knowledge to know when you're done.
The core strength workout is given in two forms. Either form, when learned, can be accomplished in some time ranging between fifteen and thirty minutes. The simpler routine uses only a weight, something like a medicine ball (although a middle sized rock would do the same job). The more advanced routine requires a Swiss ball and some tubing. Both are efficient and well constructed routines.
The bottom line to a book like this is simply whether it works or not. My situation is not like every person's. I'm reasonably active, a little more active than the usual "weekend warrior," neither a total couch potato nor actually in good physical shape. I've carried between 10 and 14 pounds of extra weight that I couldn't lose for more than 10 years' time. I've tried a lot of ways to make it go, including bicycling and some moderately serious running (two miles after supper every night). Nothing has worked. Now, I don't do the cooking or the shopping in our house. According to the guidelines, our eating habits are neither exemplary nor totally wrong. So, as I count it, I am simply non-compliant with his step 1). From the start, I have been totally compliant and vigorous in step 2) via power walking. I am learning his step 3) slowly and integrating it into my routine (the bigger step) slowly. So, I would consider myself about half compliant with step 3) at this stage. So, according to my guesses, I am about half way doing his program. Happily, in this half-way mode, I'm systematically losing both inches and pounds. Now, if I said that I am losing about a pound every ten days or so, that would not be in the spirit of the book. Mr. Shilstone doesn't recommend the use of scales to monitor your progress. He asks you to use the tape measurement of your waist. So, I should say that I am losing something very roughly like an inch a month on the waist. (My estimate is rough since I am non-compliant and prefer to use a scale.)
My congratulations to Mr. Shilstone. I think this is a uniquely useful book and one that most people I know could usefully read. There is no question that this is a very good and completely adequate program to manage the "love handle" problem. The cost of this is the work of integrating the suggestions into daily life. Not everyone will want to do that (it costs about an hour and a half a day, and whatever trouble it takes to changing your cooking and eating habits). The results are a significant boost to good health, vigor, and a sense of well being. Not everyone will choose that. My suggestion is that you should only buy the book if you intend to do the routines systematically. While a useful outline, it is not really the best entertainment reading. I gave it only four stars because I consider it incomplete in the nutritional section. I still need to buy other cookbooks to help me become "fully compliant".
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27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Real Deal, May 16, 2001
This review is from: Lose your Love Handles: A 3 Step Program to Streamline your Waist in 30 Days (Paperback)
I just discoverd that I was a type-2 diabetic.My doctor told me that if I loss some weight(I was 320)I could control the diabetes without medication.I went on what I thought was a fat and sugar free diet and loss some weight quickly but that I bottomed out at 316.I stubeled upon a book signing(I hardly ever go to book stores)and bought the book.I tried theories in the book the same day and discoverd that I was reading the wrong part of the food label.Not only am I never hungry but I am loosing inches and weight.The most importnat thing is that I am just about off of all medications,blood pressure,colesteral,glucophage and completly off of glyburide.My doctor is amazed at the results in this short period of time.My lawyer got the book and his blood sugar droped 100 points in two days. This book works.....
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very informative!, August 20, 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Lose your Love Handles: A 3 Step Program to Streamline your Waist in 30 Days (Paperback)
I bought this book for my husband who refused to read it. I read it and learned a lot about metabolism and combining a healthy diet plan with exercise. Any male with a family history of heart disease, diabetes, stroke or cancer should definitely read this book before its too late!
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