The Book:
If you need to shed pounds fast and in a safe, effective, and lasting way, this is the book for you! Unlike many diet programs that starve you down to size, Dr. Mike Moreno’s 17 Day Diet relies on proven methods to help you take weight off and keep it off for good—whether you’ve got 10 pounds to lose or 100. His revolutionary program adjusts your body metabolically so that you burn fat day in and day out. The program is structured around four 17 day cycles:
Accelerate—the rapid weight loss portion that helps flush sugar and fat storage from your system
Activate—the metabolic restart portion with alternating low and high calorie days to help shed body fat
Achieve—this phase is about learning to control portions and introducing new fitness routines
Arrive—a combination of the first three cycles to keep good habits up for good. On weekends, enjoy your favorite foods!
Each cycle changes your calorie count and the food that you’re eating. The variation that Dr. Mike calls ‘body confusion’ keeps your metabolism guessing; this means that you can expect big changes in the first 17 days alone!
This is not a diet that relies on a tiny list of approved foods, grueling exercise routines, or unrealistic calorie counts that leave you hungry and unfulfilled. Moderation and proper portions are key factors in the 17 Day Diet—the trick is to figure out the foods and routines that work best with your real lifestyle. That’s why the book is filled with tips for how to avoid the usual food pitfalls like holidays, eating out, or even just a tempting candy jar. Along with a comprehensive explanation of how each segment works, every phase comes with an extensive list of foods, recipes, and sample meal plans to help make grocery shopping a breeze. Because of the diversity that you are allowed from the very beginning of the program, there is a way to make this diet work with almost any food allergies you might have or what cuisine you’re used to eating.
The 17 Day Diet is a simple plan that gets big, long-lasting results if you stick with it and let Dr. Mike help you along the way. Whether this is your first attempt at dieting or your fiftieth, you must believe that you can do this. What matters now is focusing on your goals, identifying what you need to get there, and taking action to begin the process. Your health and happiness are important, so stand strong, believe in yourself, and let your 17 Day Diet begin now!
Source: Simon and Schuster
The View:
I don’t read self-help books because I don’t believe in them. Not because I think they are baseless but because I am not one of those who can read a book and remain motivated by it for a long time. I read a book, finish it, even underline or make notes but forget about it when I move to the next book or the one after. Diet books have the same effect on me, but I am now opening up my narrow room of reading to wider choices. When I saw “The 17 Day Diet” I said why not? Only 17 days – I can do this… I lost half my motivation when I realized that the book should have been titled “The 17 Day Cycle Diet”.
Here is my checklist:
Did the book manage to motivate me? Yes
Did it help me align myself towards my weight loss goals better? Yes
Did it give me the right information needed to lose weight regarding the type of food, portions etc? Yes almost (I think)
Did I follow the first cycle of 17 day diet? The million dollar question isn’t it – Well, I did not.
Reasoning you ask? While I am a meat eater but am not a full-fledged one. Ok, let me explain Mister P (My dear better half) is a vegetarian so I do not cook meat/fish at home. Neither do we eat out as much. We consume a lot of vegetables and rice (read carbohydrates) so the first 17 day cycle did not work for me (I preferred the sample menu to building my own with all the information provided). To be totally fair, I will break the information.
The sample breakfast menus worked great for me, so much so that I will follow it for the rest of my life. Breakfast is now the best meal of my day and I enjoy it tremendously. I used to consume a lot of green tea about 2 years back and I don’t exactly recall when I left it, but am back again and loving every cup of it. The lunch and dinner were no where close to what I could stick too (given my food choices). So it failed miserably. Also the no carbohydrate after 2 PM did more damage than good after the first 2 days. I found myself craving for my bowl of rice .. just please hand it over to me. But on the bright side I can now differentiate between good carbs and bad carbs which would mean that I have a brighter future (when it comes to changing my diet).
The information in the book is helfpul and will definitely serve as a base towards building and maintaining a healthy diet. Without following the 17 day diet and using the additional knowledge I received from this book I reduced 3lbs over a period of 15 days. Overall the specified diet may have worked for meat eaters. For vegetarians specially Asians it is just yet another book on diets.
I received a complimentary copy by Free Press in exchange for my honest review.
Filed under: 100+ Reading Challenge, Challenges 2011, Reviews 2011 | Tagged: Mike Moreno, The 17 Day Diet | 5 Comments »
Reading between Pages.. 