You: On A Diet: The Owner's Manual for Waist Management.

Book review by Jane
Remember the boring facts you learned in health class at school? Prepare for a different approach to health and dieting in general. This book is written by two doctors, which gives credibility the premise that you can eat healthy and lose weight. But more than that, it is a comical trip down your body’s functions. Far from being insulting, the jokes help to meld the information you are taking in. The doctors use other tools besides comedy to teach. There are fun quizzes, like the fat facts; and “Factoids”, which are key points to remember, such as there is no such thing as spot reduction through exercise, as the body will lose where it wants. The doctors go through processing foods and the body functions, which really made me want to eat better foods. The doctors talk about an omentum, which I had never heard of before and is not in the spell check for that matter, which is a storage of fat inside the body. This amount of fat is accessible by the stomach and liver, and can cause health problems such as raising cholesterol and blood sugar.

The book gives great tips about certain foods that trigger weight loss and have health benefits. It made me want to rush out to the store and grocery shop (not my favorite chore).

The doctors also discuss an exercise program that allows for the loss of weight. Without exercise, they say, the dieting is a slower process. The exercise, of course, speeds up the metabolism. The main exercise is to walk thirty minutes a day, then flexible stretching. Then, there is a three day a week workout for strength. There is a recommended workout, but I use a strength machine. It is quite a bit of activity for me, as I sit in front of a computer most days. But it is paying off, as I feel really good after four weeks, and have lost some weight, too. I look forward to exercising. There is also some cardiovascular, which I am working on at a lower than recommended level—but the strength exercises are allowed to count towards some cardiovascular.

The doctors provided tasty recipes in the book, as well as a shopping list and sample schedules. These really were helpful, because they helped put into reality a schedule of my own, following the guidelines, of course.

The doctors talk about pros and cons of alternative methods of losing weight when diet and exercise fail, including drugs and surgery, in an appendix. This book covers what is necessary for people who just have a few pounds to lose, or quite a bit of weight. Anyone could benefit from this healthful information—anyone who wants to take better care of themselves.