'How to eat loads and stay slim' Book Review

I know there are many of you out there that are just like me, always wanting to be slimmer, jumping from one fad diet to the next, starting the latest exercise craze but never actually achieving the overall goal of losing the weight and maintaining it!!!

I was recently approached to review a book called How to Eat Loads and Stay Slim, well of course I want to eat loads (who doesn't) and the idea that I can bet slimmer at the same time definitely intrigued me.

The book is written by Peter Jones and Della Galton. It contains a mixture of hard science, pyschological techniques, simple recipes, quick cheats and very clever strategies.

I have been reading and mostly following this book for four weeks now so I thought it was about time that I let all you lovely readers know what I thought about it all.

The book starts with seven principles :

* Eat Loads

* Stay Slim

* Diets don't work

* You have to change

* Make lots of small changes

* Healthy eating most of the time is good enough

* If you fail to plan you plan to fail

Each principle is explained and when you sit and think about what it is written it all starts to make sense, I found myself sitting there nodding and thinking why had I not thought of this myself.

The book is set out in quite a clever way. Broken down into chapters and at the end of each chapter there is an "Action Point" and a chance to earn stars. The action point is when you stop and really take note of what you have just read in that chapter and actually go and do it because as we all know most of the time we tend to read it and then without meaning to, ignore it. Once you have put the words into actions you earn yourself a star. This star is imaginary but trust me when I tell you, you feel a bit proud of yourself as it feels like a small achievement has been made, each action point completed is a step further to the ultimate goal of eating loads and staying slim.

I don't want to ruin the whole book because I do think you should go and take a look yourself but here is a quick break down of the content of most of the chapters :

* Hunger explained - you learn exactly why hunger occurs and what you should do about it.

* What is good to eat for breakfast - here's one tip for you, a high protein breakfast really does help.

* Ideas on snacks to consume.

* Swapping ingredients - healthier alternatives but still getting to eat the same kind of meal.

* Planning ahead - means you aren't tempted to grab that pot noodle when you can't be bothered.

* Add herbs and spices - you enjoy food more when lots of flavours are involved.

* Retrain your brain - something you thought you didn't like, with added flavour because something you do like.

* Focus - write a food diary, keep in mind that a varied menu is good for you.

* Myths

Throughout the book they keep telling you this isn't a diet and I have to say that I believe them. I haven't felt the need to drastically change my diet, infact I feel more relaxed over what I eat, no panic or guilt from me if I decided to something a tad more calorific than the usual foods. 

It has actually made food more fun because I have made more of an effort to vary what we eat rather than the same meals week in week out. I have a little collection of pots of herbs and spices growing in my cupboard too.

I personally haven't lost loads of weight but I don't really have a lot to lose, I do however feel better in myself, making small changes in my diet, I don't get bloated all the time and I feel like I have more energy. I would recommend people to have a look at this book. However don't go expecting miracles, you can't just read it and expect the weight to fall off, some effort needs to be put in. 

What is really nice is that both Della and Peter tell us in the books about what their personal way of eating loads to stay slim is and exactly how many star points they generally manage to achieve. I reached 34 points out of 50, not bad in my opinion.

This book can be purchased from Amazon. Priced at £1.99 on kindle or £5.57 in paperback form, it won't break the bank and might just leave you feeling happier with yourself and you can't really put a price on that.

xxxx

Disclaimer : This book was sent to me free of charge for reviewing purposes however all thoughts and opinions are my own.