52 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great book for those just starting out, April 21, 2004
This review is from: 8 Minutes in the Morning for Extra-Easy Weight Loss: Guaranteed to shed 2 pounds a week (No equipment required, No calories counting, No deprivation) (Paperback)
By following the techniques in this book, I shed 15 pounds in one month and my daughter lost 20 pounds!! This book is for those who have not exercised or dieted for quite some time. Jorge gives the reader great diet tips combined with exercises that will get the reader's metabolism moving again. This book is highly recommended for those who want the weight loss but can only do minimum exercises.
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158 of 180 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
The more I read, the more disgusted I got, August 7, 2004
This review is from: 8 Minutes in the Morning for Extra-Easy Weight Loss: Guaranteed to shed 2 pounds a week (No equipment required, No calories counting, No deprivation) (Paperback)
Remember those Looney Tunes cartoons where a particularly gullible character would momentarily appear to morph into a giant sucker (lollipop)? I think that must have happened to me as I walked by this book on the store shelf....
I'll start with what I hated about this book.
* Jorge Cruise's Cruise Down Plate (R). This consists of the following: "Mentally divide the plate in half. Fill the upper half with vegetables. Then again mentally split the bottom half of the plate into two equal parts. Fill the left side with a high-protein food and the right side with a carbohydrate food. Finally, add 1 teaspoon of fat.... If you ... eat everything on your plate - and you're still hungry - you may dish yourself up another plate of vegetables.... And that's really all you need to know to use my Cruise Down Plate (R) to achieve weight-loss success." Well, no, it's really not. You have to read another 14 pages to get to the bottom of it, which actually turns out to be just another low-calorie diet. The plate gimmick barely enters into it. YAWN.
* "Visit www.JorgeCruise.com...." I was perplexed to find that there is apparently NO content on this website that doesn't require you to pay $3 a week. The one exception I found was a link to My Virtual Body, which is free. One section of the book tells you to go to www.JorgeCruise.com/localclubs to see a list of weight-loss clubs meeting in your area. Unfortunately, nothing exists at that web address. At another part of the book, Jorge encourages you to "share your story" and invites you to weekly online meetings by joining the "online club" at www.JorgeCruise.com. He doesn't mention there's a fee for this extra support. The most irritating one yet was "You can even go to www.JorgeCruise.com/music to hear selections from my personal picks of the most inspiring and moving music." What actually happens when you go to this URL is you find a "Welcome to a JorgeCruise.com Active Link!" page with a "Click here" link. When you click on the link, it takes you to www.JorgeCruise.com/shopping/videos.php. Yes, it's an online store for Jorge's $39.95 VHS tape, or one of his audio kits and books, "Jorge's favorite" exercise tools, and some nutritional supplements. No music whatsoever. While we're on the website, let me point out what the FAQ says about the books:
"Can I use Jorge's 8 minute books in combination with this online plan? Although the books are excellent resources of information -- the plan presented here online is Jorge's NEWEST and might not follow the book's exercise or eating plan exactly. In order to avoid confusion, follow the online plan 100%. NOTE: We are updating all of Jorge's books to match all new materials offered here online." So now that I've purchased the book (which includes online support as part of its weight-loss plan), it's already obsolete? What was it, just an expensive advertisement for the website? Infuriating.
* Jorge's smiling face. I was getting tired of seeing it before I was halfway through the book. Every few pages there's a little sidebar with a Jorge quote, topped by a 2-inch-square photo of the man. By the end, I had difficulty resisting the urge to take up a black Magic Marker and eradicate every one of them. Whose idea WAS that?
* The exercises. Come on - soup can bicep curls and tricep kickbacks? What, have I been lying on the couch doing no heavier lifting than a can of beer for the past few years? I have 15-month-old twins, each of whom weighs about 25 lb. I carry them around ALL the TIME. Lifting one-pound soup cans for strength training is ludicrous. And how about the "lift hold" - sit in front of a table, put your palms under the tabletop and push up on the underside of the table as hard as you can. Well, I don't own a solid marble table, so if I tried this I'd have the table flipped over off its feet before any real benefits accrued to my strength. If you're 70 years old or just have not lifted anything heavier than your purse for the past several years - and I'm not knocking you if that's the case - these exercises might be useful. For me, they're laughable. And I'm not THAT strong.
There's more, but those are the major points.
So what made me give this book 2 stars? Strictly this: It's packed with all kinds of motivational tools. This is something I'd never seen to this extent in a weight-loss book, and I think they might actually help me (with the glaring exception of his online support "club," as I refuse to shell out the bucks for it). There are journaling tips, lists of empowering books, weight-loss websites, motivational magazines, etc. So I think I might actually be able to adapt some of it for myself. It might even be worth what I paid for it, if I can get past my annoyance with the rest of it....
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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Solid Information for New Cruisers, February 7, 2005
This review is from: 8 Minutes in the Morning for Extra-Easy Weight Loss: Guaranteed to shed 2 pounds a week (No equipment required, No calories counting, No deprivation) (Paperback)
1-The eating plan: simple and easy to follow. I think most
nutritionists would support the Cruise Down Plate method.
2-The exercise: very simple. If you are already an exerciser you
may find these strength training moves too simple and will need
to do some alternative moves (if you have already been
exercising I suggest you might want to use the website instead
of the book).
3-The book itself: it is colorful, well written and easy to
follow. The advise is sound.
The results: I lost 3 pounds in 1 week. Then 2. Then "that time of the month" and I maintained (which was a miracle). Week four I gained one pound but I only did the exercise and was way off on my eating for my own emotional issues.
I am starting week five and I know I will continue to live healthier. I strongly suggest this book for beginners and the Jorge's website is a good resource to develop a support community. I know, for myself, that talking to people face to face about my weight is stressful but online is a godsend.
Good luck!
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