Customer Reviews

Thin for Life Daybook: A Journal of Personal Progress

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This journal is one of the best I have seen. I am a Personal fitness trainer and I give each one of my clients a copy of this to help them while they reach their fitness goals. I have looked at alot of different journals and this one is the best I have seen yet. Everyone of my clients love the inspirational quotes from the people who have lost weight and been able to keep it off. My business is called Motivations- Natural Health & Fitness Training so you can see why I really was impressed with how motivational this journal really is.

After reading the reviews for this journal, I placed it on my wishlist and received it in the mail today. I am very disappointed with it.

There are many good points about the book: It has a complete year in one book, the quotations/inspirations, the recipes. However, the space to record your daily intake is way too small. There is no room to write your daily weight, the date, the calories, fat, protein or carb grams....or points, if you're doing Weight Watchers as I am.

The book is broken down by weeks. The first page for the week is Weekly Wisdom. It's great. Very motivational, informative, and excellent for a journal. This section is reminisce of the author's wonderful book, Thin for Life. The next page is Weekly Forecasts. It has a section for Goal(s) for this week, Anticipated Obstacles, Possible Solutions, Exercise Plan and finally Try this for Supper. That all takes up one page. Then The next two pages are the journal for the week. The first page of the journal has room for Monday through Thursday, with each broken down into Morning, Afternoon and Evening What I Ate sections. The bottom of each section is Exercise/Accomplishments. This is where the journal goes bad, because there is such inadequate space to write here. I'm sure I will be writing outside of the margins to include weight, date, water, and vitamin. Finally, the second page has Friday through Sunday, and at the bottom of the second page of the journal, there is a What Really Helped This Week section. I think this could be very useful; however, I'd much rather have that extra space for my journal entries.

Overall this is a well-organized, thought-provoking journal. It's just not something to use if you write big, can't see small print, and do many calculations regarding calories or points.

If they could possibly enlarge the food journaling section, this would be an excellent choice.

I bought this diary to monitor my food intake when I was "recovering" from yo-yo dieting. The beginning of the diary is helpful, as each week starts with a page that you fill out to see if you are on the right track as far as weight loss efforts go, for example a page about what you like and dislike to do when you are trying to lose weight, and then an analysis to see if a commericial diet plan, a do-it-yourself or a guided weightloss is best for you. But this kind of pages doesn't last for the entire diary and after being used to them for some weeks you get a feeling that the diary is no longer helping you to taylor your regimen to your needs and goals. Instead, the first page of the month becomes a weekly suggestion about modifications you can apport to your routine, that won't actually fit all lifestyles/people. The suggestions are from the high-carbohydrate/low-fat diet current, one that didn't and doesn't work for me personally, as I am sugar sensitive, so I was not very eager to read the weekly suggestions anymore.

The next page in each weekly "space" is my favorite, the one for which I gave it 3 stars. A space to record your goal(s) for the week, any interference you expect happening and any remedies so that you can get back on track in case those interference do hinder you getting to your weekly goal(s). Then a space for you to establish an exercise schedule for the coming week. This page was the most helpful part because I could predict things better and therefore control them better, and also preparing an exercise schedule was fun and it helped me keep exercise regular.

The next 2 pages of each week are for the daily food intake and daily accomplishments. Definitely too little space on each day to track the food in a way that it could easily be referred to later (food diaries are mostly used to define patterns in your food intake and your allergy symptoms/weight gain/craving/etc., so you need to have the food intake clearly written down in order for the diary to serve its purpose). I would have preferred the diary to last 6 months instead of 1 year, or even 3 months, but have more space for the daily food intake and accomplishments, so that the info recorded could be tidy and useful for later, too.

All in all, not a bad product, but also not as good as it could have been.

I am a Weight Watcher member and lost 80 pounds on their program. I have been incredibly worried about my ability to keep the weight off. The Thin for Life Daybook is just the help I need. I have had no trouble keeping my food journal in the space provided. I appreciate being able to see an entire week on the same page. In Weight Watchers, I learned to plan my eating. I like to plan my meals for the entire week and use that to prepare my shopping list. This books makes it easy for me to do that. The Weekly Wisdom section keeps the wisdom of the Masters fresh on my mind, and keeps my motivation high. I will never be without a copy!

I read Thin for Life, the book that this journal is based on, in the fall of 2003 when I was still new to healthy eating. It remains the most powerful and helpful book I have ever read on weight loss and weight maintenance. I bought myself the Thin for Life Daybook for Christmas 2003 so that I could start journalling January 1, 2004. I used the Daybook the entire year and asked for another one for Christmas 2004 so that I could continue in 2005, which I've done.

I love that the Daybook provides not only a place to journal your food, but that it has a weekly exercise planner where I plan out what my exercise will be each week. Making this commitment to writing down my exercise plan each week has been instrumental in keeping me regular with exercise (I worked out 6 days a week for most of 2004 but have scaled back to 5 days a week since late 2004). When my workout alarm goes off at 5-5:30 a.m., and I feel like turning it off and going back to sleep, I picture the exercise planner page in my Daybook and having to write a DASH next to it (my symbol for when I did not do my planned exercise), it motivates me to give more of an effort. Does it ALWAYS get me out of bed when I don't feel like exercising? Nope. But it does help a lot! I also love that the journal provides a place to log your goals for the week and to anticipate what obstacles you might face (Christmas party, etc.) and plan ahead on how to get through them. The tips and mini worksheets at the beginning of each week are helpful to help you address areas where you may need to improve.

What I don't love about the Daybook is that the space for what I call "feelings journalling" (i.e., jotting down how you felt this week, what your challenges were, what your victories were, etc.) is really inadequate. I would LOVE to see more space.

All in all, it is a GREAT journal and I highly recommend it.

I have lost 77 pounds (and maintained it for over 6 months) using the Thin for Life Daybook as a journal to complement the commercial weight loss program that I am following.

Unlike many of the other journals I have used I feel that the Daybook has adequate space to record all of the necessary information that I use. It is too large to carry in my purse, but I usually leave it on the dining room table and journal immediately before and after supper. (I carry a scrap of paper in my pocket for the rest of the day). In fact, I feel that its size is one of its many great qualities. I didn't misplace it and it was always in easy view on my table!

I especially enjoyed the weekly wisdom and the sections to outline goals for the week. I also like having the whole week available to view at a glance on facing pages. At the bottom of each section is a "What really helped this week" section that I use to total my Points and to make good comments to myself (such as "I made it through the family wedding without going over my POINTS!!!!").

I emailed the author with a question and a comment a few months ago and she responded almost immediately. She was friendly and really appreciates that she is helping other people through her writings.

I would definately recommend this book to anyone trying to lose weight! Journaling and being accountable for the food and exercise is the best way to succeed at weight loss. I would recommend this book to beginners and masters alike!

This is a truly motivation book. It is well organized. I found the weekly recipes helpful and tips from the "masters" inspirational. The weekly wrap up and plan for the upcoming week have been critical in helping me organize my week for weight loss. There is one serious problem, however. This journal is much too large to carry around during the day. It's important to document what you eat as close as possible to the time of ingestion, otherwise your memory may get conveniently foggy.

Given that it is too large for my purse, I treat it as a desk journal. I would have appreciated more space to write what I ate, how I felt when I ate it, calories, etc. All in all, I find this journal extremely useful and highly recommend it.

I love food, I always blame it on my husband feeding me and the hectic days I work so I don't work out. This little journal makes you write everything down, what you ate, any obstacles ( like dinner with the in-lawas who make you get dessert all of the time), what your goals to work out are, and how many times you actually worked out. The inspirational stories in the beginning of each week really help. If I cooked I'm sure I would of loved the recepes too. I's nice to have handy, when you go out to eat with your friends because you feel so guilty writting in " had 4 peices of pepporoni pizza" It sits in your purse lying heavy on your mind. Really helps.

This is a great journal for anyone who is managing their weight. I am a registered dietitian and we use this book for our weight management program. The author, a registered dietitian, inspires the reader to be successful and provides tools that help the user to make it through each week for a whole year.

The only reason that this book didn't get a "5" star rating is due to the part that you record what you eat on a daily basis is small with no space to record calories and fat grams.