The Diet Secrets

Reality is a word that gets tossed around a lot.  It carries a deep meaning, after all, and probably resonates with a lot of people.  It’s also a word that may carry some significance to unsuccessful dieters who find the demands of typical diets a little too difficult to digest, pun intended.

The Reality Diet is an eating system that’s largely free from the trappings of many diet programs.  It’s neither low on carbs nor low on fat and doesn’t make unusual demands on those looking to lose weight.

The Diet

High fiber is the order of the day for the Reality Diet.  Fiber keeps you full much longer, removing hunger pangs throughout the day.  The book teaches dieters how to identify food choices rich in fiber, such as wheat and grains, along with how to integrate them into your meals.

According to the author, Dr. Steven Schnur, calorie counting and other trappings involved in fad diets make them difficult for ordinary individuals to employ.  While many can do them for a week or two, the pressures of reality kick in eventually, and they just give up on the diet and return to their old habits.

The Reality Diet looks to remedy this by being easy to follow and allowing for concessions.  Meals are very forgiving and allow enough “good stuff” to keep you from developing cravings.  Weight loss is facilitated by portion control and a focus on filling low-calorie food choices.

The System

Beyond meals, the book includes tips on how to eat healthy when dining out, along with other situations that might make losing weight more difficult. Dr. Schnur also cautions against diet programs that doesn’t include an exercise routine.  Exercise is the easiest way to raise your metabolism so there’s no excuse not to engage in it.  In his book, Dr. Schnur recommends aerobic exercises designed to raise heart rate and burn fat.

To be thin for life is pretty much every dieter’s dream.  Unfortunately, most people only have it as a fantasy and nothing more.Ann Fletcher’s book, Thin For Life, claims its possible.  This time, we check her tome to see how she proposes to do it.

Instead of a simple book outlining a diet, Thin For Life features Ann Fletcher’s 6-week weight control system, a 10-point weight loss guide and notes from 200 successful dieters (she calls them “diet masters”) to truly bring the lessons to the fore.  Combining nutrition science with motivation and practical, real-life advice, this book just might live up to its name…or not.

As we all know, having a good diet guide is one thing but implementing it is another matter entirely.  Free from gimmicks, however, this book might just be the kick that you need to finally get your weight loss goals in order.

The six-week diet plan in the book is sound and very well done.  In fact, it’s one diet that can probably work for beginner and intermediate dieters alike.  Based on the Food Guide Pyramid, dieters will be trained in healthy eating by incorporating one aspect of the pyramid into their meals every week.  It also includes recipes as well as often-brilliant advice about ways to lessen calories in the food you eat.

What really makes it shine for me, though, are the featured advice from many successful dieters who have used the six-week program, as well as other diet systems, to achieve their goals.  Motivational and inspiring, you will likely see bits and pieces of yourself among the persons interviewed.

The 5-Factor Fitness is a high-profile diet book from renowned trainer Harley Pasternak.  Known as the official trainer to stars like Halle Barry, Orlando Bloom and Eva Mendes, he condenses his years of experience into this book, which aims to retool dieters into the proper ways of achieving and maintaining a healthy body.

Dieting Is Hard

The book works on the premise that people leave diets and revert to their unhealthy lifestyles due to the unrealistic restrictions most diets require.  With stringent requirements on fat, carbs and other common food choices, keeping up a diet while trying to balance your social and work life can turn into a complicated exercise in diplomacy and self-restraint.  As a result, most dieters look forward to ending the diet and resuming their normal lives instead of staying healthy.

An Easier Way

Pasternak offers an easier way on 5-Factor Fitness, with a fitness regime that takes only 25 minutes a day and a diet plan that entails frequent meals to help you maintain a consistent blood sugar level.  The eventual goal is to have a diet and exercise plan that you can fit into your day without causing strain to any other part of your life.

The diet consists of small but healthy meal choices that focus on high fiber food choices, complex carbs, lean protein, good fats and whole grains.Recipes featured in the book are all easy to make, with most requiring no more than a 5-minute prep time.

Where the book really sets itself apart are the sections on how to maintain your diet even in difficult situations.  Everything from how to choose meals when dining out to emotional eating situations to enjoying yourself during parties get discussed, with sensible advice on the exact things you need to do to keep your diet in order.

All in all, 5-Factor Fitness offers a sensible diet and exercise program, along with very useful advice that you can use even when you decide to follow a different diet or fitness regime.

The Daily Fix: Your Guide To Healthy Habits For Good Nutrition is a fitness book that looks to fill busy women’s needs for proper nutrition despite their hectic schedules. Offering tips, advice and recommendations for staying healthy while looking to advance in the world, author Alexa Fishback gives real-world solutions you can apply to your life daily.

Office life presents modern challenges to the problem of weight loss and fitness. That’s the premise behind this tome which proceeds to spend its succeeding pages dispensing the ways in which those challenges can be overcome.

For instance, she acknowledges the difficulty of keeping a workout schedule while working long hours. To compensate, she details various times of the day you can sneak it brief workouts. If those times aren’t available, she gives further advice on how to make them so, such as turning down lunch meeting invitations so you can use the break to hit the gym.

She details techniques you can use that utilize current technology, such as how to keep a food journal on your mobile gadgets and setting workout reminders on your Blackberry, among others. Catered office lunches get special treatment and Alexa shows how you can deconstruct typical food items to make them healthier. She also expounds on the caloric implications of various comfort foods and beverages, from coffee to chai lattes.

This is not a hardcore fitness book with difficult science and steadfast rules. Instead, it’s an easy read, much like a magazine. You can read it in one sitting, taking careful notes of all the bits and pieces you find useful or you can open it to a new section everyday to find something you want to incorporate into your lifestyle. She hammers many points with real-life examples where she helps solves clients’ specific needs.

It’s a great book with plenty of sensible advice. Of course, it’s another story implementing them. That one will be up to you.