The Book "You On A Diet" -- Lost 65 Pounds In 18 Months

by Ericka Morais

I started picking up weight as an adult, along with an "inherited" fat gene. I've tried all of the popular diets -- from Atkins to Weight Watchers - which failed due to boredom (and the fact that I'm a foodie -- as well as being a degreed winemaker).

Thus, due to my love of good food and wine, I moved on to the Sonoma and Mediterranean diets -- which ultimately failed because I had no grasp of the exercise = burning calories concept.

Finally, YOU ON A DIET came along. Having gone through nutrition/physiology classes in college, as I read, I started to really "get" the connection with the way my body processed food as fuel.

The book is well written and easy to read - quirky illustrations and nice use of text fonts to keep me entertained (LOL), and it doesn't delve too deeply into the hardcore physiology that many other diet books do.

I feel that this is where so many other diet books lose people -- all the calculating and fine print make it just too overwhelming.

In YOU ON A DIET there was nothing crazy or outlandish that I had to do. It was easy to start putting the connection together that my body had to move (exercise) and utilize the food (fuel) that I was putting into it.

To me, YOU ON A DIET is the most sensible -- nothing was extreme. Chapter by chapter, it lays out the steps necessary to make lifestyle changes and retrain a person into (hopefully) better lifelong patterns.

And, I didn't have to go out and buy any crazy ingredients, or measure (other than eyeball my portions), or carry baggies of certain ingredients in my purse, into restaurants, if I was dining out.

The book showed me how to make better choices given any situation; basically choosing smaller portions, lean cuts, limiting carbs, adding protein, etc.

But the most integral part -- and why it worked for me -- was stressing the importance of exercise.

I chose to get involved in a "Bootcamp" style workout group 3x a week, and then utilizing YOU ON A DIET as my healthy diet "bible" as an adjunct whenever I needed some guidance.

It's an awesome book to have as a handy reference guide, and I still refer to it often. I've lost 65# in 18 months and feel better than ever!