Eating For Life by Bill Phillips
|
List Price: Our Price: $13.49 You Save: $21.51 (61%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $6.65 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Eating For Life
Book Review: Very well done. Good advice, good cooking
Summary: 5 Stars
Part 1 of the book (74 pages) describes how modern society has trained us to eat incorrectly and how a few simple changes can turn weight gain into weight loss. There are chapters on Myth vs. Fact (that covers common misconceptions), and specifics on the four-part formula for eating right (the right foods, right amounts, the right combos, the right times). The chapter where the author describes his own experiences is the weakest (in spots it contradicts the earlier chapters and it has an overly-conversational style), but it does contain a few additional insights.
I am finding the eating guidelines very effective because they are sustainable--I don't really feel like I am dieting and believe I am adopting new ways of eating that I can use indefinitely. It's much easier to follow than other diet plans that require counting or buying specific foods. I get the sense that as long as I follow the principles, rather than having to be exact, I'll end up with great results without all the stress. I've lost eleven pounds since reading book and following its guidance (3 weeks).
Part 2 contains 248 pages of full color recipes that follow the guidelines of Part 1. It breaks down the recipes by meals with dinners followed by desserts, breakfasts, lunches, midmeals, and nutrition shakes. What really makes this stand out for me is that there are very few recipes I'm not interested in trying. These are practical, mostly easy to make (there are a few exceptions), and very tasty. It has plenty of creative ideas and successfully finds ways to make each dish interesting. The recipes have a few other unique features: each section has a variety of meals that serve differing numbers of people, so it's easy to find a ready-made idea for yourself for lunch or for a family of four for dinner (of course, they can all be adjusted to meet the necessary number of servings). In my experiences so far, the photos with each recipe are faithful to the actual result. Many of the recipes also include a photo of the actual ingredients required, which is an easy way to know at a glance whether everything needed is already on hand. Several of the desserts and most of the nutrition shakes call for Myoplex Lite, the nutrition powder sold by the author's company, but presumably any comparable supplement could be used.
The end of Part 2 includes sample meal plan charts, blank plan charts, and grocery lists. These items can be downloaded from the web site and printed by owners of the book.
The appendix contains stories and photos of people who have had amazing success with the Body for Life program (which this book could be considered an extension of). It's interesting to look over those case studies but some of them are actually a bit frightening. I think most of us are looking for more moderate success. There are also typical sections including a glossary, descriptions and photos of kitchen utensils, and conversion charts.
I have been very pleased with the book and look forward to making many more of the included recipes.
Book Review: This is an Excellent Eating Plan!
Summary: 5 Stars
My husband and I were first introduced to Bill Phillips when we saw an infomercial for Body for Life several years ago. That was an excellent book, but we had a hard time following the eating plan because more room was devoted to the workout, and there weren't a lot of recipes. At the time my husband and I were both obese (I was morbidly obese) and we needed an eating plan foremost.
Fast forward several years....my husband is a 5 year veteran of the Police Department at this point, and I've lost 160 from a gastric bypass. It's been 5 years since my bypass, and my weightloss has really stuck in the mud, especially after giving birth to two children in that time. My husband's weight also ballooned from his shift work and all the fast food consumed while driving around in a car 8 hours a day. When my husband stopped wearing his body armor because he couldn't fit in it, I put my foot down and said enough is enough! But, who do we turn to?
I stumbled (literally!) on Eating for Life when I came to Amazon to research and search for dieting books and cookbooks. I ordered it without reading any reviews...without reading much about it at all because it seemed like the book we wish we had many years ago when we first tried to follow Body for Life.
Since we purchased this book 5 months ago, my husband has dropped 45 pounds, and I have lost 23 pounds. I find the meal plan incredibly easy to follow. We're never hungry, and the cheat day (which is really just a cheat meal for us at this point)has allowed us to stick to the plan because 6 days goes by fast, and on the seventh day, we know we can be bad.
One thing I will say...the recipes are excellent, and I've made almost all of them. I'm also a very fussy eater, and I haven't been disappointed at all! Some of the recipes were even a nice surprise because the picture didn't look all that great (sorry, Bill!)but the taste was fantastic! Even on our cheat days, we will often eat recipes from the book because we love them so much. Breakfast Burritos are a staple in our house and a great, healthy alternative to the eggs and bacon and hash browns we used to eat! We make fajita's all the time now, and can't believe we're "dieting" when we eat them! And Bill is correct...his Mom makes delicious enchilada's...again, we can't believe we're losing weight eating some of this stuff...but we are!
This book has also been helpful because, occasionally, I forget to make my husbands lunch, or I get too busy and he needs to buy dinner. Bill provided healthy alternatives for some well known fast food chains, and my husband has been able to stay on the program on those rare occasions, even while having to "eat out" with the guys.
We have coupled this book with the Abs Diet workout CD, and we feel better than we have in years. We are losing weight at a slower pace than some fad diets, but I really believe that we're doing it healthy and for keeps. I can't say enough wonderful things about this book.
Book Review: Puts Atkins to Bed
Summary: 5 Stars
In this wonderful book, Bill Philips presents an overview of exactly what your body needs to be perfectly balanced and healthy, and then provides the recipes and eating schedule to achieve that result.What I particularly love about this book is that it flies straight in the face of the Atkins craze, picking it apart point by point. The fact is that humans were designed to eat carbohydrates - lots of them in fact. If your end result is losing weight, then Atkins will work just fine. But if you want to lose fat, actually *look good*, feel good and keep your muscle mass, then forget Atkins and buy this book today. The problem with Atkins that most people don't realize is that the catch word of the month - ketosis - is flowery talk for "starvation." Ketosis is what happens when your body starts eating itself - fat, muscle, even DNA breakdown in extreme cases. I've known people who have lost forty pounds on Atkins but actually increased their body fat percentage in the process. The weight they lost was muscle. These people were also miserable, not thinking clearly and completely lacking in energy.
Eating For Life will give you the opposite. In the short time I've been abiding by the eating program I've been eating more than I ever have, enjoying eating as much as I ever have, and have lost weight. The most impressive results are the increased energy and clarity of thought from eating a balanced diet. These latter results were really my goal in buying the book - I'm not after severe weight loss. But if weight loss *is* your goal, Phillips provides you with many inspiring personal experiences of readers who have had success with his books. There are many full-color before and after pictures of amazing transformations, folks who were over 250 lbs. who ended up exactly in their target weights and looking amazing. (You might lose that weight with Atkins, but you will be a ball of weak, muscle-less flab when all is said and done.) Along with the pictures are the stories of these individuals, including a sample menu of what they ate before Eating for Life and what they eat now. The point is you can find someone who seems similar to your age and build and then model your weight loss after them.
For healthy eating, this is the book to have. This is not some weird recipe book of organic foods, soy-whatever nonsense. It simply a program for eating great food, showing you what to eat, how to cook it, when to eat it, and why you should. If you take nothing else from this review, take the fact that Atkins is a marketing ploy based on terrible science. Yes it does produce weight loss, but at great expense. On Atkins you'll lose more muscle than fat, you'll be weaker than you've ever been, and you'll have as much energy as a piece of wood. It's a marketing scheme that works for all the wrong reasons. Don't buy into it.
Book Review: Highly Recommend !!!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been doing the BFL plan, and lost over 30 pounds. The problem I had was finding ways to have variety with my eating plan. The food list is small, but after a while you ran out of ideas for meals.
This book is perfect, and I'm so happy he put it out. I really enjoy this cookbook. The title of the book says it all. Eating for LIFE. This is NOT a diet, but a way of life. Diets do not work, they are temporary solutions, and you don?t want a temporary solution, but a lifestyle solution. If you want to win the battle of the bulge, this book with the BFL book is the perfect lifestyle solution. If you exercise and eat the recipes from this book you will lose weight. You can?t do one without the other. Exercise and proper eating go hand in hand, and Bill stresses that. "Eating for life takes the guess work out of eating right.", and it really does.
There are some really easy and very satisfying recipes in this book. My favorites:
1. Taco pasta salad
2. Turkey Rueben
3. BLT wrap (I especially enjoy the mustard/mayo spread I make from another BLT wrap recipe!!!)
4. Zesty Italian Chicken
5. Grilled Salmon
6. Spaghetti and Meatballs
7. Balsamic Salmon Salad
8. Baked Chicken Parmesan
9. Sloppy Joes
10. Spicy buffalo chicken sandwich
11. chicken noodle soup
12. chicken tenders
13. strawberry cheesecake
14. berry parfait
15. Spanish omelet
16. ham & Egg sandwich (I don?t eat ham, so I use turkey)
17. Turkey bacon melt (this is simply delicious and easy!!!)18. eggs Florentine
19. turkey sandwich
20. chicken Caesar
21. chicken pita pizza
22. cilantro burrito
23. chicken quesadillas
24. mile high baked potato
25. turkey burgers
26. BBQ chicken pita pizza (I love this pizza, healthy and very tasty!!!!)
As you can see my list is long, and I just love this book. You can find something different to eat daily if you plan, and shop for everything you need.
I?ve noticed some people complain that the recipes are bland. I have not tested any of the dessert recipes mainly because I eat fruit when I want something sweet. But for a lot of the meals I use my own special touches by adding spices to snazzy up my recipes. You can do some amazing things with basil, oregano, and other spices. For instance I added more pepper to the spread used for the BLT wrap, and it came out excellent! This is a great addition if you are following the Body 4 life fitness plan, but at a loss of meals to eat. This book has a lot of variety, so if you try something new you will never run out of meal ideas.
Book Review: The best companion for Body for Life
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been reading over the reviews and have to admit the frustration I feel from those that give this book a bad review.
First, Bill Phillips wants everyone to succeed and his workout plans and eating plans do work! But you must follow exactly or you will get different results! How can anyone second guess the thousands of breathtaking transformations that he is responsible for?
He stresses simplicity in the body-for-life book. Nothing needs to be harder or made harder than it is. This is how people get themselves into trouble and not see the dramatic fat loss results. And this book is no exception.
If it weren't for this book, I would not be as excited as I am in doing this program and taking time out to eat. Note: it is not a "diet." Nutritional information may be importrant to some, but I believe most people care about quick, simple, and not boring.
If you are concerned about if you are eating enough or not enough, there is one easy thing you can do provided you are doing the BFL program to the letter.
Six balanced meals/day= eating close to every 2 1/2 - 3 hrs. If you notice that you are getting hungry after only an hour and a half - two hours, eat just a bit more of your protein and carbs. If you are not hungry at hour 3 then lowere your intake just a bit. It works. Once you find your proper portions, it is a snap!
Nutritional information is not in the book because it is not needed for simplicity reasons. You can go to the body-for-life.com to get this info. This is what makes it a no brainer and easy for people to follow.
In regards to those who don't like the idea of artificial sweeteners, fat free or processed foods etc..., then find another recipe or omit it. Just because it is in the recipe doesn't mean you "have" to eat it. I believe that this is for anyone (and most people)from getting bored with their meals from lack of taste.
Vary these recipes if need be and enjoy them. If we followed strict "can't have this or that", then no one would be as successful as the thousands of body for lifers out there. This is what keeps me from the boredom of meals. It is common sense and Bill would never put anything in a book that he didn't truly believe in.
I believe in him and his years of experience. He doesn't look the way he does for nothing. Kudos Bill. My husband did this program a few years back and lost 35 lbs in 12 weeks using this exact book. We have started the body-for-life and eating-for-life once again and LOVE it.
Take all the negative reviews with a grain of salt. This is a very good book. Good luck to all.