The Best Life Diet (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

From the bestselling author of Get With the Program! and Bob Greene's Total Body Makeover comes The Best Life Diet, a lifetime plan for losing weight and keeping it off. Bob Greene helped Oprah achieve her dramatic weight loss, and he can help you too. You'll eat the same delicious food that Oprah enjoys, and, just like Oprah, you'll have Bob to encourage you at every step. Unlike a celebrity, however, you don't need to hire a staff of experts to aid and advise you, because Bob's plan, easily tailored to an array of tastes, lifestyles, and activity levels, acts as your personal trainer and private nutritionist. Just open the book and let Bob help you get started down the path toward your best possible life.

What sets Bob apart from all the other experts who claim to have plans that work is that he admits that weight loss is difficult: seventeen years of watching people struggle to lose weight on a seemingly endless string of trendy crash diets, only to backslide and regain the pounds they've shed, have taught him that dropping pounds is not simply a numbers game. By acknowledging that it is not simple laziness but a complicated web of social rituals, cultural expectations, and habits that drives people to gain weight, Greene is able to attack the problem of weight loss realistically and offer not a short-lived, quick-fix formula, but a long-term program that accounts for the challenges and constraints of the real world.

Divided into three phases, The Best Life Diet gives you the tools you need to change your life. In each phase, you'll be asked to reexamine the decisions you make on a daily basis and gradually alter your habits to achieve lasting results. The book also includes easy-to-follow meal plans that make it simple to meet your daily energy and nutrient requirements, whether you are on the run and breakfast means a quick smoothie or you have time to shop for fresh produce and make something special.

You'll watch the weight disappear as you learn to prepare festive and flavorful dishes like Fire-Roasted Tomato-Shrimp Veracruz, Chicken Sausage Jambalaya, or Flank Steak with Chimichurri Topping and indulge in desserts like Roasted Peaches with Ricotta and Almonds or Apple Rhubarb Walnut Crisp. And for each delicious recipe, there is a detailed nutritional analysis, so you know exactly what you are eating and how it fits into your personal eating plan.

Most important, Bob's plan doesn't end once you've lost the weight. Instead, it gives you the tools you need to make living your best life second nature, because for Greene, a diet is not something you go "on" or "off" but a set of guidelines that will help you claim the life you deserve.

About the Author

Bob Greene is an exercise physiologist and certified personal trainer specializing in fitness, metabolism, and weight loss. He holds a master's degree from the University of Arizona and is a member of the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Council on Exercise. For the past seventeen years he has worked with clients and consulted on the design and management of fitness, spa, and sports medicine programs. Bob has been a guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show. He is also a contributing writer and editor for O the Oprah magazine, and writes articles on health and fitness for Oprah.com. Greene is the bestselling author of The Best Life Diet Cookbook, The Best Life Diet, Revised and Updated, The Best Life Diet, The Best Life Diet Daily Journal, The Total Body Makeover, Get With the Program!, The Get With the Program! Daily Journal, The Get With the Program! Guide to Good Eating, and Make the Connection.

John J. Merendino Jr., M.D. is a graduate of Yale Medical School. He did his internship and residency at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School and his endocrine training at the National Institutes of Health.  Dr. Merendino is board-certified in endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism, is an Assistant Clinical Professor at the George Washington Univeristy School of Medicine, has published scientific papers in major medical journals, and has 20 years of experience in caring for people with diabetes. 

Janis Jibrin, M.S., R.D., is the lead nutritionist for thebestlife.com, Bob Greene's weight loss and fitness website.  She is also a contributing editor for Self Magazine and freelances for other national magazines. Her latest books are The Supermarket Diet and The Supermarket Diet Cookbook.  In her private practice, she specializes in weight loss and eating disorders.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (December 26, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416540660
• ISBN-13: 978-1416540663
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (140 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #91,471 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

337 of 346 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I'd say this is a solid 4 1/2 star book..., December 28, 2006

By	K. Walters "Lover of fitness, politics, readi... (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If I could have ranked this book 4 1/2 stars, I would have. It contains solid information that would certainly benefit anyone and lead to slow and steady weight loss, but I would take off 1/2 a star since none of this information is groundbreaking or innovative. What I do like about this book, compared to Bob Greene's previously released Total Body Makeover book, is that this program is more doable by someone who has a life outside the gym, which is extremely important, since many Americans go on diets, but very few stay on them.

The program is divided into 3 phases. The first phase is basically designed to ease you into a program of healthier eating habits (focused more on the habits, like snacking, not eating within a few hours before bedtime, etc., rather than on limiting foods) and increased movement. Nothing extreme here - I like this aspect of this phase, as for most people, starting right up with a perfectly clean diet and an hour or more of exercise each day is too much (hence my problem with Greene's Total Body Makeover). The second phase is the real weight-loss phase with increased emphasis on "clean eating" by eliminating 6 empty or problem foods from your diet. Again, I like this approach because it makes it much more doable than cutting out all of your bad habits (I'm assuming that most of us have more than 6 - I certainly do) cold turkey. Increased activity is also an important aspect of phase 2. Finally, phase 3 is the "lifestyle" phase of the diet, which is more a lifetime fitness and eating plan than a diet. Recommended daily eating plans (including a 7-day diet diary of Oprah), and some tasty recipes (with lovely photos) are also included.

Finally, as with all of Bob Greene's books, there is direction for focusing in on your reasons for overeating, being overweight, and eating the wrong foods, i.e., the "emotional eating" aspect of weight problems. I particularly agree with Greene's assertion early in the book that in order to address your weight, you must first address your life. I know from my own experience, that when I find myself eating poorly, or eating in excess, or not exercising consistently, it is because of what is going on in my head, and not what is going on in my body.

Ultimately, I think this book is a great addition to one's health and fitness library. In my opinion, it takes the best of Bob Greene's earlier books and puts them into one, concise and doable program, which will provide weight loss and weight management that lasts and not merely a quick and temporary fix.

153 of 155 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Bob's Laughing All The Way To The Bank, January 31, 2007

By	Princess - See all my reviews

After reading The Best Life Diet, I felt one of it's main purposes was to drive the reader to Bob's pay-for-information website. At his website, for $19.95 per month, you can get the "great array" of tips he doesn't give you in his book. I was disappointed on page 48 under STRATEGIES FOR INCREASING YOUR ACTIVITY, Bob writes "These are some basic guidelines for bumping up your activity level. To tap into a great array of strength-training exercises, cardio-workout ideas, and motivating tips, check out the complete exercise library at [...]."

I checked out his website, as much as I could without paying. You get very little information unless you join & pay: one short page of information under each topic such as Diet, Fitness, Recipes. Bob Green doesn't even give you the full sample recipe on his website--he only lists the ingredients. You have to pay for the directions to make the sample recipe! It says, "Sign up for the full recipe and many others." Yes, sign up and pay $19.95 a month.

This book gets you totally amped at the beginning, then let's you down by repeatedly mentioning the website as another tool for the diet. I'm disappointed that The Best Life Diet is really not that different from his other books. I think the main difference is now he's trying to milk you for extra money by joining his Pay Only website to get all the "great array" of tips he didn't include in his book.

A book I'd recommend instead is "YOU: On a Diet" by Dr. Roizen & Dr. Oz. The two gentleman who wrote it seem genuinely interested in teaching you how to lose weight, packing the book full of great health & exercise information, plus recipes. "YOU: On a Diet" has been much more helpful to me much more than Bob's book.

545 of 597 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A few good ideas, but a whole lot of disappointment, too, January 8, 2007

By	Gabriela Perez "Oy! So many books. . . ." (San Antonio, TX) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Before I say anything else, let me say I'm not typically someone who really looks forward to Bob Greene's writings and viewpoints. It's not a matter of dislike or anything; rather, it's more a matter of not finding his material particulary fresh or appealing.

But I was really anxious to read this book. I'd read reviews of it, read a few pages of it at the local superstore, and wanted to get a copy for myself, so I ordered it from Amazon and eagerly awaited its arrival.

I do very much like his attitude toward dieting and changing eating habits. He is honest but not uncompassionate. It's clear he wants his readers to make strong changes in their lives and to build new relationships with food and exercise. I enjoyed the first part of the book and the very realistic approach it takes to making those changes and building those new relationships. In fact, the first pages of his book motivated me to get moving on a more consistent basis. That's always a good thing!

There are some things, however, in this book that make me want to throw it against a wall. Some of them, you may find, are upsetting only to me because of my own food prejudices. I'll tell you about them anyway, and you can dismiss them as you see fit. :-)

For one, when I look at the menus and some of the recipes, I'm appalled by the fact that some of the companies Mr. Greene "hooks up with" (as in, specifically refers to and encourages people to buy products from; in fact, some of these companies will now have his formal seal of approval) are companies that routinely produce foods whose ingredients have recently come under fire. Example: high fructose corn syrup, which has started getting a whole lot of negative press, is an ingredient commonly found in Yoplait yogurts. In fact, that HFCS is the main reason I no longer buy Yoplait. I don't buy ANYthing with HFCS in it. Ditto aspartame, which is in select Yoplait yogurts, too, unless they've recently changed their formulations. With all the negative press aspartame has been getting for a while now, I'm finding it tough to stomach the idea that this particular yogurt brand is getting plugged when there are other brands who seem more committed to using healthier ingredients. (This is my "hangup," and it's a "bad" one; I admit that it made me cringe to see Mr. Greene plugging this yogurt and including coffee creamer--also notorious for its less than healthy ingredients--in at least one of the recipes.)

I must admit to really disliking it when an author chooses to "plug" different companies, then chooses those companies without regard to what their products contain.

Also, the recipes not only contain specific brands for consumers to buy, but they aren't particularly different or intriguing recipes to begin with. In other words, I didn't see much that was new or innovative in these recipes; the recipe section of the book is pretty big, so that's a large chunk of this particular book that was a waste for me.

Overall, I'd say that I like Mr. Greene's positive and caring attitude (as it relates to weight and our struggle to come to terms with the food/emotion connection), but I don't think I'll be counting on him for any food recommendations.