THE PLANET FRIENDLY DIET
Your 21-Day Guide to Sustainable Weight Loss and Optimal Health
by Cat SmileyOK, for the good stuff. It is a user-friendly book. Truly, there is nothing new in this book. Yes, it fits a busy lifestyle, as well as food choices (diabetic, kosher, vegan, halal dietary choices). The book is simply laid out, and if you stick to it for the 21 days, it will give you a chance to change your diet and eating patterns. I think it takes a lot longer to change one's eating habits, but this is something we all have to wrestle with. This is only a start.
What I like about the book are the menus, and the shopping lists, that will simplify those living a busy life. Personally, our lifestyle is pretty slow and simple, being retired, but I'm sure young people would like this plan.
What I've learned about living, habits, lifestyle and nutrition, is simple: get good nutrition, simple foods, less meat, more plants; exercise, get outdoors; change up your menu every four days. What isn't simple is finding the motivation, the self-control for new habits.
I have a couple of problems with this book. Let me begin with the title. The use of hyphens for compound adjectives is sadly lacking, generally. This book title perpetuates this love for bucking the rules. Secondly, we capitalize titles in English. It shows the importance, reveals the blood, sweat and tears that goes into a book.
With so many self-publishing, it would seem that they are ignoring the rules of written English. I want a self-help book that show that the author has credibility. This means that they are educated, and have listened to their teachers, or at least understand that there is a standard English. If you cut corners on accepted practices, where else are you ignorant? I presume she has done her research on nutrition, but she runs a fitness retreat.
Also, let me get this off my chest, this trend towards anti-gluten is driving me nuts. So many have specific allergies or food intolerances, and all of these recipes and eating guides are not based in facts, but the current trends by foodies. Vegan is a choice, and one I understand, yet there are many of us who like to eat meat. With hubby unable to eat yeast, dairy or eggs, it severely limits our menus. To further add veganism, non-gluten, et al, means we are missing something out in our diet. Already managing his cancer issues, we must balance proper nutrition.
The book includes all single-portion recipes and every meal shares the following benchmarks:
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About the Author
Cat Smiley, is an award-winning body transformation specialist and owner of Canada's popular weight-loss retreat for women, Whistler Fitness Vacations (The Planet Friendly Diet is the official nutrition plan for her retreat). A former world-class skier, Cat has been named as Canada's top trainer three times by the International Sport Science Association, and is a renowned body transformation specialist.
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New Society Publishers January 2016 $29.95 US / CAN Original Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-0-86571-811-1 |
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14 comments:
I enjoyed your review of this book. I am very interested in nutrition and eating healthier and posts like these point me in a good direction. Thank you :)
Yo, teach! You gave me a smile of understanding.
I get annoyed with the food trend of the day as well. You know it is a fad when labels on foods that never had gluten shout out, "Gluten Free!" Let's trick the masses into thinking potato chips are now a healthy food because they are gluten free.
Celiac disease is a serious condition, and I have utmost respect for the time consuming care people with that condition must take with their diets. I don't know much about it, but I would imagine there is a continuum for severity. What i don't understand is why seemingly healthy people volunteer for the condition because a Hollywood celebrity says so.
I think the cover is meant to look friendly. Thus the lower case and lack of hyphen. I know what you mean about gluten, but truly we eat too much wheat. It is a filler in things as ridiculous as yogurt. Getting off so much wheat and dairy is a good thing as long as it doesn't become a fetish.
The lack of proper grammar/punctuation would bug me too. My daughter was diagnosed gluten intolerant after months of debilitating nausea. She reluctantly went on a gluten free diet and we can't understand why anyone would do this by choice as gluten free food is often more unhealthy with more fat and sugar and worse taste. Still, thanks to the fad, it is easier to find food for her so I can't complain. It is a pain cooking gluten free so I'm looking for more recipes, thanks!
I see the author is a " body transformation specialist" is this a fancy term for a nutritionist?? Your words make excellent sense. Take care in your cold,another scorcher of well over 30C here today is forecast.
Diet books are quite popular as each one arouses new hopes for some magic diet. Actually, there's nothing new. We all know , more or less, the basic rules. What we have to find out is what works for us as individuals, and then we can each write our own diet book.
I'd been on a diet some 15 years ago, a calorie counting diet. It was successful. I achived with no difficulty my goal of loosing weight. However, since three years later I became ill, I wondered if it had anything to do with the diet. I don't know to this day, but I feel reluctant to start it again.
My inner editor would be bugged by that too.
As a single person, I appreciate recipes that are designed for one-two people, so I may check this out. I don't mind the lack of hyphens, though I do prefer that the books I read be grammatically correct.
As for the gluten thing, it is trendy, but as Patti said, we consume too much gluten these days, more than people used to. I recently had to change my diet because of Fatty Liver Disease, and I went partially gluten free as well as switching to organic produce. After 8 1/2 months of a healthier diet, my liver results are again normal, so I won't be knocking gluten free, though it's far from a fetish for me.
Well and good if it gets you on a healthy eating pattern.
i have read in several other posts about these 21 day weight loss/healthy eating kickstarts!! i enjoyed this review for the book!!!!
Interesting. I need a "winter diet" as I'm a complete couch potato then but very active in Minnesota's other three seasons...:)
I guess I'm a bit jaded when it comes to this type of book because the ones I've looked at have been grossly misleading. Hopefully that isn't the case with this book. Thanks for the review!
I love the sound of recipes that can be prepared in less than 20 min! I haven't paid much attention to how much wheat I'm eating. I'm going to monitor that. I'm curious now. Oh, and I used to be much more picky about grammar; texts and emails have desensitized me. ;) Thank you for reviewing, Jenn!
You are right, Ogla. Hubby has several clients who claim to have this or other allergies. It makes Meals on Wheels difficult to prepare! I'm sure they haven't been tested, either.
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