Wednesday, April 21, 2010

New Book


I got this book on Monday, and I read it Monday night.  I read it very fast. Not because it was so riveting, but because there was so much I skipped over. This is a hard book to review, because it's usefulness depends so strongly on who the reader is.

As someone who has always been overweight, and as someone with a lot of experience with diet and exercise... this was a bit too basic for me.
However, if you're just starting out, I feel like this book is a great place to start.

Jackie's fundamental beliefs about diet largely mirror my own.  She is a big proponent of eating clean and organic.  She believes in 'medicating' your body with healthfulness.  The first few sections of the book focus on the hormones that "make you fat" and how to balance those out. I was excited about learning that portion. But, although it was interesting to read the whys of it all, I was disappointed (albeit, smugly!) to find that the cures for all these things are all things I do already.

This book was confirmation for my lifestyle and diet choices... which I appreciate.  But I admit I was looking for something new to me.

Here's my quick points :

GOOD
• Solid, non-controversial stance on diet and exercise
• Easily adaptable into the average lifestyle (she follows a 5 day on/2 day off program. Clean, perfect eating 5 days a week, leniency on the weekends. Although in theory I love that practice.. for me personally, it didn't work). She suggests only 20 min of cardio a day.
• Easy to read, conversational style
• Fabulous index of exercises (with pictures!) in the back
• Great focus on lifestyle change, vs. fad diet
• Look at her ABS!

BAD
• This book is specifically for women. The cover does not indicate that.
• Opinionated. It's like she tries to present "The Facts" to us, with research and anecdotal stories. However, they come across as ranty opinions at times. Like her VERY strong stance against sugar. (which I agree with to an extent, it's just the way its presented that is not nice)
• Too basic for seasoned dieters

2 refreshing comments:

Melissa Whittaker said...

its got to be the angle of your photo, but she looks freaky tall and gangly. kinda manly.

but good book review!

laura said...

great review! lol, she does look kinda freaky.

i am far and away the winner of the blog posting failure award. i need to catch up!