Weight Watchers Family Power: 5 Simple Rules for a Healthy-Weight Home (Miller-Kovach, Weight Watchers Family Power) [Paperback]

Weight Watchers (Author), Karen Miller-Kovach (Author), Meredith Vieira (Introduction), Marc Jacobson (Foreword)

Book Description

Series: Miller-Kovach, Weight Watchers Family Power | Publication Date: December 5, 2006

For the first time, Family Power provides a revolutionary program that gives you proven, practical solutions for achieving a healthy weight and maintaining it as a family. Filled with the motivational stories of families who have achieved healthy-weight homes as well as expert advice from their coaches, Family Power gets your family up, moving, and improving health together as no other book ever has before.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With refreshing practicality and easy-to-follow instructions, Weight Watchers' chief scientific officer Miller-Kovach shows how a family can take small steps to eliminate childhood weight problems and establish a "healthy-weight home... in which everyone who lives there has a lifestyle that encourages them to be at a weight that is right and healthy for them." The steps in this process are unthreatening lifestyle changes, such as focusing on nutritious foods, including treats; rationing nonhomework TV time; being active one hour or more every day; and having these changes apply to the whole family. Miller-Kovach outlines parents' responsibilities for ensuring a healthful diet for their kids: they must be food role models, food enforcers, activity providers and activity enforcers. Chapters such as "Setting Food Policy" and sections on adult versus child weight loss detail how to take these roles; sidebars called "Coach's Corner" pinpoint problems like "The Reluctant Teen." Portraits show how families made changes like taking walks or drinking nonfat milk to lose weight. In all, the book plainly offers ways to incorporate dietary common sense into a family's routine. Notes on special needs and additional sources complete the book. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

With refreshing practicality and easy-to-follow instructions, Weight Watchers' chief scientific officer Miller-Kovach shows how a family can take small steps to eliminate childhood weight problems and establish a "healthy-weight home... in which everyone who lives there has a lifestyle that encourages them to be at a weight that is right and healthy for them." The steps in this process are unthreatening lifestyle changes, such as focusing on nutritious foods, including treats; rationing nonhomework TV time; being active one hour or more every day; and having these changes apply to the whole family. Miller-Kovach outlines parents' responsibilities for ensuring a healthful diet for their kids: they must be food role models, food enforcers, activity providers and activity enforcers. Chapters such as "Setting Food Policy" and sections on adult versus child weight loss detail how to take these roles; sidebars called "Coach's Corner" pinpoint problems like "The Reluctant Teen." Portraits show how families made changes like taking walks or drinking nonfat milk to lose weight. In all, the book plainly offers ways to incorporate dietary common sense into a family's routine. Notes on special needs and additional sources complete the book. (Jan.) (Publishers Weekly, December 12, 2005) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (December 5, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470051337
• ISBN-13: 978-0470051337
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #617,443 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Directions for a Healthy Weight Family, May 21, 2006

By 

E. Suter "erindipity" (D'Iberville, MS) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Weight Watchers Family Power: 5 Simple Rules for a Healthy-Weight Home (Hardcover)

I wasn't really sure what I was getting when I ordered this book. The book is based on a new program being piloted now by Weight Watchers. The program, in limited areas now teaches parents on how to encourage a "Healthy Weight" home. What surprised me is how different this program is from the one designed by Weight Watchers for adults as part of their nationally available program. For one, they strongly discourage parents from placing all but the most obese of children on a diet and then only with the close supervision of a physician.

The book trains parents on the "5 Simple Rules."
1. Focus on wholesom, nutritious foods.
2. Include treats.
3. Aim to keep nonhomework screen time at two hours (or less) per day.
4. Try to be active an hour per day.
5. The Rules apply to everyone in the home.

While that should tell you all you need to know about the program there is so much more. My daughter 4, does not currently have a weight issue, however as an over obese person since childhood I watch her closely to attempt to prevent her from having the same weight issues I have. I was shocked to learn all of the things I am doing wrong. Everything from what snacks/treats I give her to forcing her to clean her plate, and at least a dozen other things.

One of the things I loved about this book it there was no encouragement to make drastic life altering adjustments to your life. In fact, the book encourages gentler simple steps your family can carry out. It doesn't tell you what order to complete the rules in, but to start with the ones you know you can do. The book offers real life concerns and solutions that even the most out of shape family can take to heart.

The book also discourages you from weighing your children more than when they are at the physician's office or even discussing weight in front of them. If anyone in your house struggles with their weight this book is a must have. I wish it had been available to my parents when I was young, I only hope I can learn enough from it to prevent the same mistakes in my children.

43 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WHAT A HELPFUL BOOK FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY, January 9, 2006

By 

Scott Zitiello "NONSTOP" (ST. AUGUSTINE,FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Weight Watchers Family Power: 5 Simple Rules for a Healthy-Weight Home (Hardcover)

ONCE I STARTED READING THIS BOOK I COULDN'T BELIEVE HOW SIMPLE IT IS TO MAKE SMALL CHANGES THAT MAKE A HUGE POSITIVE INFLUENCE ON MY FAMILY. FAMILY POWER IS AN EASY TO FOLLOW, EYE OPENING, BOOK THAT HAS HELPED ME GET MY FAMILY ON THE RIGHT TRACK FOR ONCE. I DIDN'T REALIZE HOW I HAD MYSELF SO TRAINED TO UNCONSCIOUSLY RAISE A LAZY FAMILY UNTIL I STARTED USING THE STEPS IN THIS BOOK. I AM NOW GOING TO MAKE SURE MY CHILDREN DON'T DEVELOP THE LAZY HABITS THAT GO HAND IN HAND WITH OBESITY. IT'S A GREAT EYE OPENER!!! GOOK LUCK

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very pleased, February 18, 2006

By 

A. Sherrell (Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Weight Watchers Family Power: 5 Simple Rules for a Healthy-Weight Home (Hardcover)

This is a very easy book to read, and the suggestions it offers are real and practical. You don't have to change your entire lifestyle, and that's what I liked about the book. And too, the five steps it recommeds have already been put into use by families, and they've all been proven to work. It definately has helped my family. I've already seen a difference in waist size and attitude.