One of the most precious pieces of advice you’ll ever receive concerning weight loss, is to change your lifestyle – exercise regularly, and eat right. While the first part is pretty obvious as you can choose to pick one or a few out of the many cardio options out there, what happens when you apply the same rule to food – good old food! Not so easy, right?
Sometimes when you think you are eating what is healthy, or what the marketers want you to beleive it is healthy for you, you really aren’t.
The No-Diet Weight Loss Solution by David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding
You go to the super market and you find a gazillion products sitting on the shelves. You have little time and so many choices. Which packaged foods are the healthiest (or should I say, the least bad) for you and your family? You wonder, is Regular Cheerios better than Smart Start? How do Del Monte pear halves compare to Del Monte sliced pears?
How Does “Eat This Not That” Work?
"Eat This Not That" works by meshing a cup of convenience with a dash of good health. The authors/compilers simply want to help you pick the most healthy, nutritional options on every supermarket shelf carrying every packaged edible. Think leaner cuts of meat among all the packaged brands, the most nutritional cereal for the cholesterol struck aficionados, and so on.
This Supermarket Survival Guide can really help you mend your ways. It’ll tell you if, for instance, picking a chocolate bran muffin is a healthier option than a sugar-free slab of chocolate…
Look at the charts, see the verdict, make a dash for some healthier options, and then start losing unhealthy weight, down the line.
Does “Eat This Not That” Work?
Depends on what you want out of a supermarket survival guide.
It works if you want to know what to pick up and what to ignore. Julie, a mother of one, in Florida, will tell you that the book is like a reference manual; “ever item on every page is readily accessible”; all you have to do is to pick and pay.
It doesn’t work if you are looking for some education, too. Two folks, Allan and Collins, for instance, are uncomfortable about the information overload and how things are presented. They’re particularly weary about random foods (they say) being pitched against each other. They would rather have a comparison between different brands of Raisin Bran, than being told that a given Raisin Brain option wins over Cheerios.
Will You Lose Weight?
Darlene, an Amazon customer, thinks you absolutely will. After all, she has her new weight to show for it. By simply changing her food consumption habits – within the semi-processed and processed foods categories – she managed to bring her scale readings down, a whopping 35 lbs in a year! Now, that’s about the healthiest weight loss you can imagine, and if her new habits stick, things are only looking up for her now.
Pros
- The book is designed to suit your fast-paced life. If you’re a working mom, you’ll probably want to keep this one handy at all times.
- It is presented in tabular form, which means that you don’t have to waste time hunting for the right paragraphs.
Cons
- This book seems to promote indulgence in processed foods. Fresh fruits, vegetables and meat simply don’t fall within its scope.
- It does not encourage the art of cooking because if you’re made to believe you’re making all the healthy choices while at the supermarket, why would you bother cooking at home?
Problems and Complaints
Hickman, in Orlando, loves what this book stands for: he can lose weight while still consuming foods he likes. But more health-conscious people – you know, those who love to dig deeper – continue to put question marks:
- Angie can’t understand, for instance, why one brand of pasta comes suggested and another doesn’t, while they both have exactly the same nutrition charts stamped on. “Are they being paid by some brands?” is what she wants to explore!
- The book doesn’t take it into account taste comparisons, so if you’re a sucker for good cuisine, hold your horses, this one isn’t for you!
- The book will help you save on calories but will not always help you appreciate the more nutritional alternatives.
Suggestion
For me, this last criticism holds good weight. My suggestion? Go for the book because however much you try, you will be visiting the supermarket weekly, if not more frequently. You might as well grab the better options of the lot. BUT, you must also make a conscious effort to introduce a good deal of natural, unprocessed foods into your eating patterns.
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