Eating For Life
by Bill Phillips
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Book Reviews of Eating For Life
Book Review: finally!
Summary: 5 Stars
Finally, a healthy way of eating that I can follow throughout my lifetime. I've been searching for a program that would allow me to eat nutritional, good tasting food and still lose weight. I've never had a serious weight problem but after a long-term illness I gained about 15 lbs and was really in bad shape physically. I have tried every diet imaginable and still after a whole lot of suffering still didn't lose all the weight or "feel" healthy at all. This diet provides a basic, easy to follow plan that will allow anyone to not only lose weight but start to feel good again. My energy level is skyrocketing! The book recipes are simple, with basic ingredients that you can find at most grocery stores (no special nutrition house trips for some odd form of home-grown barley). The recipes are also very good, my husband can't believe we are eating diet food and who can blame him when we are eating shrimp scampi, spaghetti and meatballs, turkey burgers, french toast, quesadillas, etc... There has been some criticizing of the brand names, but I think that the wonderful addition of actually showing pictures of brand items at the bottom of a lot of the recipes makes shopping for items easier. I just take my book to the store when I'm feeling too lazy to write a list and plan my menus right there. My husband is losing weight, 6 lbs the first week! I'm losing lbs. and gaining muscle. My daughter is even losing and she was a nutritional nut before starting this program with us. She was already slim but couldn't lose a small amount of fat around her middle and in one week she lost 3 lbs and that middle fat is gone. The best part is that she is eating so much more than she was before and she is feeling good about food again instead of reguarding it as her enemy.
Try the shakes. I usually loathe protein shakes, but these are really good and make me feel full of energy.
Book Review: Fantastic supplement to Body For Life
Summary: 5 Stars
For those on the Body For Life program, this is an excellent book. Some people complain that there are less-than-creative meals in the book... such as blueberry yogurt with cottage cheese or the various Myoplex shakes. While this is true, I feel that the other recipes included make it worth the price. Specifically, I love the turkey bacon quiche, asian beef stirfry, turkey meatloaf, chicken enchilladas, and carrot cake muffins. These few recipes, with a few additional ones have made it worthwhile for me to buy the book!
A lot of the reviewers complain about the inclusion of processed foods in the book. Yes, the recipes often call for Splenda, non-fat cooking spray, low-fat cheeses (cottage, cream, shredded), whole grain breads, and canned items. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a mainstream cookbook that didn't include processed foods in the recipes. The choice is yours to make.
Finally, reviewers complain about the lack of nutritional information. The basic calories, fat, protein, and carb counts are on the book's website. Everything else is not. I would imagine part of this stems from how the Body For Life program measures "portion sizes," which would make it difficult to accurately calculate nutritional information.
Personally, I think the downfalls are pretty minor. I love the fact that this book offers tasty recipes for eating the Body For Life way. I have found some of my new favorite recipes in this book. If you're not really experienced at cooking (which I'm not) or don't have time to create fabulous meals, and you're following the Body For Life lifestyle, then this book is for you. It's simple, colorful, and better than eating meal after meal of plain chicken breasts with Mrs. Dash on a whole wheat bun... which was what I was doing prior to finding this book.
Book Review: tasty, easy, balanced!
Summary: 5 Stars
As a married woman in college, I have found this book to be very helpful in many respects. It helps me plan our dinners in advance, shopping on Sunday and having everything available for the week's dinners. Next, it has encouraged balanced, relatively healthy eating habits at home. Some criticize the brand images of food in the recipe section, but it is helpful in getting the correct product and making sure you have everything you need before you start cooking (BP also said in the book that he does not get money from the companies whose products show up in the book). My husband and I usually have some leftovers during the week that makes a great quick lunch with no effort. It has helped me stay on-budget during grocery purchases. Because I have such detailed lists, I don't buy food that looks tasty but I toss it because I don't getting around to using it. I also save money because I know a delicious meal is a few min. away, and we do eat out as a last resort. It is not an extreme diet by saying only raw or organic food is good for you. It is a great way to take control of your diet because it makes planning so easy. I just use the book consistently for dinners and I don't follow the entire plan, but all the recipes in lunch, breakfast, and snack are good so far. I have noticed my life has one less stress now that my husband and I know we don't need to worry about dinner. I don't have kids, but I think it would be a great way to teach kids about cooking and getting them to eat new foods, because they are easy to prepare and delicious. We have also become more adventurous in what we prepare at home, because we no longer stick to the "good old standbys". So, less stress, more money saved, and consistently tasty dinners - all good things I have taken away from the book.Book Review: Great recipes!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have recently bought books from Amazon.com with my gift certificates from the Holidays...I relied heavily on the customer reviews to help me make my decisions on which books to buy...however, I realized that there is one book that I utilize almost everyday for the past year and I have never written a review for others...This is the book, Eating for Life... I have a lot of recipe books but I almost exclusively use this one... We have found only one recipe that we didn't care for in all the dinner recipes and that is amazing when it comes to cookbooks!!..I have done almost all the dinner recipes, some of the lunch recipes, many of the dessert recipes and some of the snack recipes...I admit that I just can't seem to work into my schedule eating 6 times/day, but I use this book for every dinner/dessert and some of the lunch/breakfast/snack recipes we eat.. The taste of each recipe is just super!...not too much spice and it is clear that the foods are very healthy, and filling, for us...The other thing about this book is that EVERY recipe is very easy to make, and they take a minimal amount of time...When I make the dinners I do the whole dinner including the startch and veggies..My husband even mentioned the other day that the "presentation" of the whole meal was wonderful!..I must admit that I don't do all the exercising part of his program; but we have both lost weight just eating our meals according to this book, and we are not hungry..So, for anybody (exercising or not) who wants a wonderful cookbook, this one just can't be beat!!... I know you won't be disappointed; and once you have all the easy,average, not wierd ingredients in the house, you will always have a super easy, wonderful, tasty meal using this cookbook..I can't say enough about it.."Bon appetit!"Book Review: Not what it seems
Summary: 1 Stars
While the idea sounds great -- eat balanced meals and snacks 6 times a day, exercise and lose weight and keep it off for life, the book/plan are not what they are cracked up to be despite the great reviews here. No one mentions that he pretty much recommends that three of the six meals are some form of protein shake or another. And for someone like me who's into a more natural diet based on actual foods that you can chew, it doesn't quite fit the bill. Also many of the recipes for lunches and dinners call for protein powder. Who can eat that stuff three times a day FOR LIFE?
Aside from that, the writing is pretty bad. It's written as if he's holding a direct conversation with the reader, which gets annoying. He also describes his day -- I presume in an effot demonstrate how the plan works on a day-to-day basis -- but it gets a little ridiculous when he starts describing which exercises he does each day of the week depending on which house he happens to be living in that particular week. For me, this fell into the more information than I needed to know category. In some areas of the book he cites scientific research to back his claims. In other areas he denounces scientific studies. In both cases, the citations are pretty boring. There is one rahter lengthy chapter that bashes fast food, as well. No one can dispute that, but does it really take seeing it in black and white to know that fast food burgers and fries are bad for you?
Overall, I was very disappointed with this book. For someone looking to lose weight, I'd recommend saving the $23 and putting it toward registering at Weight Watchers. Or at least picking up one of the Weight Watchers cookbooks if you're just looking for heathy meals that actually contain good old fashioned chewable food.