Diet Health Books

I'm a complete beginner when it comes to exotic dance: I've been practicing belly dance for a few years now, and wanted to make it a little more provocative for those special occasions. I had always felt goofy when trying to be sexy, like I had no idea what I was doing and just looked silly. This book is the first instruction of any kind I have had. As the other reviews have stated, this book is really well laid out, though I recommend additional instruction by means of video eventually. There is only so much you can learn from a book. The workout was awesome: it tones in a subtle manner and makes you feel sexy all at once, which is a wonderful alternative to traditional pilates and yoga.

This book doesn't just teach you about pole dancing, it teaches you to love yourself no matter what. This is for you first and then anyone else after. Sensual and empowering!

This is by far one of the *best* books about how to feel sensual, and on moving your body to be seductive and sensual.

Her instructions are easy to understand, and the moves are graceful, feminine, and incredibly beautiful! You can tell she has had an extensive background in ballet and dance, which enhances the elegance and beauty of the moves.

The exercises and warm-ups are equally sensual, and they work as to fitness!! Your body will feel like you have done something. The stretches and poses and gliding from one pose to another are again, elegant, beautiful, and sensuous.

She makes you *love* moving your body and discovering a whole new element of expressing yourself.

Other books and DVD's on stripping look clumsy compared to hers.

This book was uninspiring. Once you thumb though it once, it is enough. Maybe the video is better, if you want to drop $75. I think verbal instruction and music would help. When you head is on the floor, looking up to read what is next, is when I got up and shut the book.

This book is great! Being a full-time student I couldn't afford the DVDs(which are available at sfactor.com), but the book is still amazing. It's not just exercises, but a makeover in a book! It's fun, sexy, with just a bit of wickedness. Before this book, I was the laziest person in the world who lacked motivations, but this book has definitely given me the confidence boost that I needed, not to mention a great body with a touch of femininity. I definitely recommend this book for anyone and everyone that wants to feel sexy.

Full of confusing ideas, all scattered information, guides to nowhere. The auther tries to be witty and funny, but his jokes are nothing but disgusting.

I thought this book was terrific! It opened up a whole new world to me. Sprouting makes me feel like I can take part in growing my own food and can control the quality of the food I eat.

Yes, as one person noted, the humor is sort of out of place. Bad puns throughout. I'm still giving it a 5 because it's the most helpful sprout book I've seen.

Friends of mine recommended it to me - they have an attractive set-up of baskets of sprouts growing in little seed-germinator covered plastic trays. They are thrilled with the book, and we are excited about starting to sprout. We did sprouts years ago in jars, but this system is better.

Though the book could be more condensed, it's still an easy read in a few hours. And where else is this vital information available in such thorough detail? If you are considering sprouting, you will find the information valuable.

This is a great book for a person who is interested in sprouting; it is very detailed and is truly full of very interesting and useful information. The book also helps to nullify a lot of the myth about toxins and hidden dangers in sprouts. The real dangers, in actuality, exist in cooked, processed, adulterated, toyed-with, sprayed, chemicalized, distorted foods (which our grocery shelves are full of). I am now 50 years old. Back in my youthful college days, I used to sprout a great deal, eating living foods exclusively. Though I stayed being a vegetarian, I got back into the cooked food craze... eating food like it was a drug for "taste" only. I work with the multiply handicapped and even though I am a teacher I have to do a lot of lifting (of adults who are not at all feather-weight). My arthritis (which runs in the family) was killing me, despite taking all kinds of natural and man made supplements. Getting back to live food was the answer I needed. Steve's book was inspirational and very helpful. I should have never deviated from what was truly the most nutritious way to eat!
There are many ways of sprouting. I happen to like the sproutpeople.com sprouters best of all. Steve's book is a priceless tool for anyone interested in sprouting... it has all kinds of neat tips and suggestions.
Also, one suggests doing a web search on Dr. Budwig's Diet... as most people are seriously deficient in essential fatty acids of the proper type. I take my oil with a little bit of live yogurt.
Anyway... I would not want Steve's book, including his Kitchen Garden book... missing from my shelves!
As Hippocrates said: "Let your food be your medicine, and your medicine be your food."

Steve Meyerowitz, a.k.a. Sproutman has been sprouting since the 1970s, and owns a company selling sprouting equipment and seeds. I've read several of his books and chatted with him in person about sprouting. Sproutman knows his stuff, and IMO, anything he writes about sprouting is worth reading. I have grown magnificent sunflower sprouts by using a Sproutman Sprouthouse (a bamboo basket in a plastic house) and following Sproutman's instructions. If you have good sprouting seeds and follow the instructions in this book, I suspect you too will grow awesome sprouts.

Unfortunately, the book is not that well organized and the instructions for sprouting, a fairly simple process, are unnecessarily confusing. There are many methods of growing sprouts, such as baskets, sprouting bags, glass jars, open-ended glass tubes with screens on both ends, trays, etc. This book gives instructions for only 3 methods: baskets, bags, and trays. Sproutman doesn't explain that upfront, however. If you want to use one of those 3 methods, the instructions are knowledgeable and detailed. BUT: I suggest that when you choose one of these methods, you read through the entire chapter first, because if you try to follow along step-by-step, it's easy to mess up.

For example, in the chapter titled, "The Technique", Sproutman launches into instructions for using a sprouting basket, without first explaining that this technique just ONE of many sprouting methods. For this technique he says to soak 5 rounded tablespoons of seeds. He doesn't explain until 7 pages later that you use 5 tablespoons of seed for an 8 inch basket, 6 to 7 tablespoons of seed for a 9 inch basket, and 2 to 3 tablespoons of seed for a 6 inch basket. A beginning basket sprouter who tries to follow his instructions without reading the entire chapter first, could easily make the mistake of using the wrong amount of seeds for the basket size.

In the next chapter, Sproutman gives instructions for how to use a sprout bag, a different technique. The first thing I would want to know about this is, what are the best seeds for growing in a sprout bag? That information is there, along with days 'til maturity-in the middle of the chapter.

Another thing that's important to a good sprout book is information about seeds. What are the varities, the days until harvest, the uses and tastes, etc? There's chart near the end of the book which gives this information, but the seed varities are not in alphabetical order. I can't figure out any logic to the way the chart is sorted, so if you want to look up a seed variety, you have to read down the entire list. Also, there are some types of fairly popular sprouting seeds missing from the chart, for example, broccoli sprouts.

Although I think most of Sproutman's information is excellent, albeit a bit disorganized, one thing I take issue with are his frequent sermons about why sprouting jars should not be used. I first used a sprouting jar in 1984, and my jar sprouts have always turned out just fine, without all those immature yellow sprouts Sproutman warns of. If you are careful not to use too many seeds and to shake your sprouts back and forth so they drain well and lay the jar on its side, your jar-sprouted sprouts will turn out just fine. Also Sproutman says a jar requires cheesecloth, screens and rubberbands. Back in 1984, a decade prior to the book's publication, I used a lid which was a plastic screen and have never had to hassle with cheesecloth, screens and rubberbands. In addition, he says automatic sprouters sell in the range of $450 to $1000. It's somewhat possible that information was accurate in the 1990s, but in the 2000s, one can find new automatic sprouters for a lot less than $450.

Some of the book's strengths include the chapter discussing which type of water to use on sprouts, the nutritional information scattered throughout the books, and the presence of an index. I personally think the book's dumb puns are a strength, but I'm sure the majority of readers will not. :-)

Despite my qualms with this book, Sproutman is outstanding in his field, and I still recommend it to anyone who wants to sprout via vertical sprouter (basket), bag, or tray, or learn about sprouting in general. If you're using either a vertical sprouter or a bag, I suggest first reading the succinct review of instructions on page 173 for the vertical sprouter and p. 175 for the sproutbag.

I am a Chinese Singaporean but here in Singapore, our study and work language is English. Thus far, I've been hearing about the concepts of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) from the older, Chinese-speaking generation and could never fully grasp what it was all about. Even my regular tui na (accupressure) masseuse, who is schooled in the Chinese language but speaks a fair bit of English, could not explain certain terms. This book explains clearly the reasoning, concepts and beliefs of TCM in relation to healthy eating. If you think you've heard it all before, it would likely have been from the western point of view. This gives you the TCM point of view. For example, it tells why, contrary to western ideals, it is better to eat cooked vegetables instead of raw vegetables (as in salad), it is better to have a warm rather than a cold drink with your meal, and why ice-cream is a dietary disaster. The concepts are interesting and they do make sense. I'm practising them now because I finally understand the reasoning behind them.

I recommend this book for all my patients. I keep a copy in my waiting room. Diet alone can often solve many health problems. Major topics covered include food allergies, candida and obesity. The author explains the meaning of Chinese medical terminology such as Liver Qi, Stomach Heat, and Kidney Yin deficiency with easy to understand metaphors.

Bob Flaws is one of the most prolific American authors on Chinese medicine. In this book he nails the age old argument between cooked vs. raw food for once and for all. Chinese dietary therapy can lengthen your life!

I received my purchase very quickly and the book was new. I am very happy!

In this world of fluff and sound bites, this book says it all without sacrificing space. For those that need the big picture in order to grasp a concept, this is your "in" into Chinese dietary rules, as well as being the answer to most of what ails us. This is the book you read BEFORE you go see an accupuncturist, and the one that keeps you going back to measure your progress.

It takes quite a book to knock my socks off, and this one left me standing naked. This is the book that I want to put the in the hands of all those people who get on the Atkins diet and within a year later hit a wall, from the excess of cold and damp foods. This book stresses the importance of balance and the problems that excess or lack of restraint can cause to health. Even though there's not a recipe in the book, it's the important book that brings understand to the quality of the energy of food, that's perhaps of greater value even than it's carb or protein content. After reading this book, I immediately took all the other Chinese books out of the bookcase combing them for recipes. With my internal lights switched on, the importance of various foods stood out and made sense as they never had before.

As Chinese medicine dictates, each food and emotion enters a channel in the body, not unlike a river. And like salmon that swim out to sea for years only to return to an exact spawning ground located in a tiny freshwater creek, so do our foods and emotions nourish our bodies in very specific and necessary ways. Excessive use of cooling foods is brought home in his section on Spleen Vacuity and dampness. For those dealing with long term food allergies, candida, and obesity (that should cover about 4 out of 5 people, if the current polls mean anything), there's salvation in this book. The quality of the food in creating a energy in the body is far more important to healing, than it's perhaps it's protein values. Reading on you'll find that even reducing protein due to inabsorbtion is probably lifesaving.

My big epiphany came as I realized that what The Tao of Healthy Eating suggests, is a heart happy diet. In fact, all that is suggested to reduce spleen dampness in Chinese remedial therapy, is exactly what produces a happy heart. And as I thumbed through the now famous by Ophrah's endorsement Perricone Promise, a book on Beauty and Longevity by an expensive MD, I had to laugh to myself. All the dietary recommendations of the Perricone diet, can be found within this tiny book of Bob Flaws, the Tao of Healthy Eating! I even renamed Perricone's book, the Happy Spleen diet book, with a new label that I made and taped to the cover. Because for those that chase beauty creams and wonder herbs, the shortest way to tighter, firmer wrinkle free skin, is simply this: Reduce stress and take care of your spleen. Nothing ages you faster than our fast food, modern, highly cooling and phlegm producing diets in solidifying and packing on the inches of girth. If truth matters as much as beauty, then learn the Tao of Healthy Eating and change your life, and your appearance too!

My journey into Chinese Medicine began with acupuncture. Soon I gravitated towards herbs and TCM in general. Now this book has introduced me to the importance of diet in medicine. Sadly, this aspect is atrociously neglected in western medical science. I had already started incorporating elements of diet therapy into my practice, with success. I then started looking for more instructional material on the subject. I purchased Bob Flaws' book and it has helped me learn new material and reinforce my own personal observations regarding diet. Not only do I heartily recommend this volume, I bought one for a patient of mine who is into organic farming!

Having adopted the approach of 'Eat right for your blood type' this book is proving an asset in making informed choices for meals. At my age I didn't want to change my cooking but the recipes contained are interesting and well explained so it has enthused me to continue.

I am quite pleased with the easy to follow information in this book.
Really love the fact that they have menus and recipes also. This makes following this life style ALOT easier for me. My husband and I both are impressed with our new eating regimes and although we are not the SAME blood type I am not having any difficulty making meals we can both share and enjoy. And we have both lost weight already after just two weeks on it, and don't feel we are suffering from the change of food we have omitted from our diets.

If you are looking to follow eating right for your blood type THIS IS THE BOOK to get in order to do that......it has everything in it you need to know, as far as I am concerned.

If you want to follow "Eat Right 4 your Blood Type" this book offers appropriate recipes and could actually be used to better understand some of the concepts presented in "Eat Right..."

Originally, my chiropractor turned me on to this way of eating. I read all the reference materials and thought I would give it a try, but it didn't work for my lifestyle. Although I do not plan to continue this program, the cookbook had wonderful recipes in it that were easily created using things in my pantry and refrigerator, as well as ingredients found at Wal-Mart and our local health food store. I recently gave this cookbook to my chiropractor and know he will make good use of it. He even makes "healthy" muffins and serves with individually brewed (regular OR decaf) cups of coffee on Monday mornings, so I'm sure there are things in the cookbook that he can prepare to help market the diet plan and the cookbook.

Good additional book that teaches you how to cook for your bloodtype, especially if you are cooking for more than one blood type in your home.

I thought this book was wonderful. It had a breakdown of exactly what foods had what vitamins/ minerals and proteins. When you are a vegetarian you are always bombarded with questions like what are you eating to get this or that. So it's nice to be able to answer

I think this book has great intentions.
Its not the kind thats bores you, its a quick and easy read.
Especially, good when you want to reference back.
I am not saying it covers everything, but finding a book that covers everything would be overwhelming, and I'd prob. not pick it up unless its organized exceptionally well.
Anyway, this book is a 4/5 for me because I think it could have covered a little bit more.
It is a book that I would recommend to a vegetarian, because I have not found a good book on vegetarian nutrition.
Plus what I like is that it does not OVER EMPHASIZE SOY, which I can't stand eating. Most vegetarian books tend to do that, and its very frustrating.
I also like parts where it compares apgar scores, nutrition profiles etc of meat eating vs. vegetarian etc..Its reassuring for some people I bet.

This is a really re-assuring read for any vegetarian thinking about pregnancy, and as a bonus it arms you to deal with all the questions the non-vego rellies will ask!

I used this book through both of my pregnancies. I really liked it, especially that it was specifically for us vegetarians. It's not expensive, so if you are a vegetarian and pregnant (or want to get pregnant) you can't go wrong with this book.

I bought this book hoping that it would tell me some things I didn't know about eating healthy as a vegetarian while pregnant. When I got it, I found that it wasn't helpful at all. It spends a great deal of time talking about other pregnancy issues that have nothing to do with nutrition or being vegetarian. I wouldn't recommend it.

I bought this book (along withe Randy Wilson's "I-Can't-Chew Cookbook") because I suffer from severe TMJ and have been placed on a soft food diet by my doctor. Both books were disappointing; this one slightly less so than the Wilson. There is still too much canned, condensed soup for my taste here--but this may be because Weihofen is writing for the over-70 crowd. Really, though, the emphasis on jello (including a truly frightening dish made with a crushed pretzel crust, sugar-free strawberry jello, sweetened strawberries, loads of cream cheese and Cool Whip) and "creamy noodle bakes" is a bit depressing. I just want to eat, not feel like I checked into a nursing home. (We'll all be there soon enough--no need to hurry the process along!).

That said, this book has more "fresh food" options than the Wilson, along with a mind-numbingly complete introduction to all the problems one can have eating and swallowing. Some of the vegetable and side dish options look good (Apple and Butternut Squash Bake, Glazed Carrots) but aren't particularly original.

My main complaint is with the entree section, where the choices are uninspired. I don't need a cookbook to tell me how to make angel hair pasta with garlic and oil (which, by the way, I can't even chew). Very few of the entree recipes are truly what I would call "easy to chew" (maybe they're more for the dysphagia crowd). Her tactic seems to be to include traditional recipes--beef stroganoff, stews with cubed chicken, etc.--and then encourage us to blend them to kingdom come. Ugh. Meat puree: not my cup of tea.

But if you're truly in trouble and your own cookbooks (and the internet's recipe search function) aren't doing anything for you, you may find something here for you. As for me, I'm returning both of these books and sticking with my own cookbook collection.

This book is great. My husband has throat cancer, and was having trouble eating, expecially with the treatments. This book is a lifesaver. I have tried four recipes, and they were all delicious, I would use this book, even if my husband didn't have a problem swallowing. Thank you again for writing this book.

Very pleased with this book. Not only does it have tasty, easy to prepare recipes but the information contained in Part One should be compulsory reading for all involved with any friend or loved one who has a problem with swallowing as a result of certain medical conditions.Also the nutritional information given at the bottom of each recipe is particularly helpful when counting calories to maintain/gain weight.

This book has great tips for cooking for someone with dysphagia. I highly recommend it.

I was looking for recipes for my father who has difficulty swallowing due to advanced Alzheimer's. While I found the explanations, introductions and tips useful, the recipes were not of much use in our own situation. I would think that this book would be good for somebody who has difficulty CHEWING. For those with Alzheimer's, however, I'm not so sure. Many of the recipes could have been found in my "normal" cookbooks. Recipes that contain any opposites (broth with solids or hard/soft foods together) really aren't much use to us at this point.

thought this book would provide some inside into type of protein and recommendations, instead it is just pages up pages of protein listing. Can get that online and must more updated

This is an excellent resource for anyone who has had bariatric surgery. It is well organized and items are easy to find. It's a big help!

At first blush this thick paperback made me think every food in the world must be in it! And a lot of food is (after all, where could you find the nutrition count of muskrat?!). I love the listings of chicken, for example, by the part or by the weight. And there is nutrition information for a lot of fast food and other dining places, too, which is great. I also love that the nutrition counts just don't focus on protein, but give other nutrients, and also calories.

But just the day after I got the book I discovered two omissions that I think are rather significant: only one or two Boca products are listed (this is a textured soy protein). I wanted to make chili with Boca crumbles and to see what the protein counts were on other Boca products and most were not available. (Yes, I know I can look at the label after I purchase the product. Or stand in the store and compare.)

Another omission was anything from Red Lobster. It seems like it would be easy to obtain the information (from any major restaurant chain) and include it. I wanted to be prepared before I dined there, so I would know what some good choices were. Again, I can obtain the information by going to their website (I hope), but that defeats the purpose of having the book!

I have found The Protein Counter very helpfull. I had a gastric bypass and need to get my protein in. I refer to this book all the time.

My husband needs to control the amount of protein he eats a day. This book is excellent for this purpose. It's easy to use and very complete. It also includes the calories and fat grams for all the items listed as well as brand name items and restaurant chain foods.

This book completely changed the way I looked at nutrition for the brain. It really makes you re-think your view on your personal self and lets you know that you are capable of so much more than what you're doing. Dr. Goldman did an outstanding job relating his personal goals and the goals of other prominent people is society. He brings to life the realities of "famous people are just like ordinary people." This book definitely changed the way I look at growing old. Age is inevitable, but aging is not.

As more and more research suggests, there are ways that, by altering your lifestyle and intake, as well as your basic brain activity, you can possibly curtail what we traditionally think of as an "inevitable" aging process of the brain and its function. Dr. Goldman reviews many of these tools available, a number of which in fact, (despite other reviewer comments to the contrary), DO have peer-reviewed scientific studies to back them up. May I suggest "The Care and Feeding of Your Brain" as a companion guide to Goldman's book to provide another perspective on how you can affect brain aging, and for a more general view of brain optimization right now, before aging...My congratulations to Dr. Goldman and colleagues on a book well done and easy to read!...All the best...Kenneth Giuffre'MD, author, "The Care and Feeding of Your Brain"

This book has value. It will test your IQ. If you accept it as authoritative on cognition and memory, then you may need cognitive enhancement. It appears to be more for ego enhancement. Look for the authror's contributions to the field in peer-reviewed journals.

The author needs to determine who his audience is. The book seems to be aimed at young people seeking to achieve and maintain 'super mind power'. The title (anti-aging) appeals to those of us who are experiencing 'brain fog' and want it to stop. While the tests will confirm or rebut our suspicions that something is wrong, the author suggests only the same-old home remedies - diet, vitamins and herbs, destress - that I have been using for years already. The mental excersizes are a bad joke - things I used to love doing when my mind was functional are now proposed as excersizes - which I couldn't do if my life depended upon it. There is nothing suggested in the way of medical treatment or what to tell a doctor to convince them that 'something is wrong'. Many things I have read about, found to be helpful and consider somewhat more cutting-edge - like oxygen therapy or the debate regarding the danger in dental fillings - are not even mentioned. Human growth hormone is dismissed in one sentance. If I believed this book, I would give up all hope.

The book quality is somewhat erratic from chapter to chapter. But, there is a lot of valuable information in it. This is especially true regarding all the micro nutrients, vitamins, herbal supplements that are good to maintain your cognitive skills. Through the years I find myself referring to this book very often. Although the book was written a few years ago, it appears very current.

There are 29 of us (of a hatha yoga class) reading and reviewing this book together this summer (2008) as a summer read project. We have begun about 3 weeks ago, implementing the suggestions to diet, lifestyle, eating patterns. We meet weekly and share ideas and cover new chapter(s)in the book. Difficult to predict what will happen by the end of the summer, but one participant has already completed the book, implemented the practices recommendations and another participant has already lost 4 pounds. Our main target is not weight loss though, but improving overall health. I would recommend this book as a good study group book, an introduction into Ayurveda, it is delivered in western terms without all the Indian words and terms so that the average westerner who is not necessarily not on spiritual path (per se) can grasp the velevance a improve their daily health regimen. We are starting very soon to cook in the sessions, learning to make ghee, buying Indian dal and mung bean in gross and dividing it up, etc. learning a different approach to food prep and healthy nutuition rich foods and eating.

This is a fantastic book on nutrition and health. I recommend it to all. While reading this book, I was able to pinpoint my eating behaviors that led to my cravings, and make changes to my diet to end them.

Excellent book with a lot of common sense lifestyle suggestions (that are easy to follow) and a big picture overview of why his guidelines are so important to your overall health and well-being. Would recommend it to anyone!

For any author on nutrition to suggest that we start our day (and our metabolisms!) with little or nothing for breakfast automatically brings into question everything else in the book, unfortunately. The list of optimal foods per season is probably very good, but I was put off by the lack of metabolic common sense from the get-go.

The teachings of ayurveda have been around for 5,000 years and in this book Douillard brilliantly some of these lessons to light for those of us in the Western world. Although some of his ideas fly in the face of traditional American dietary advice (but what is that anyway), the results of following his program are undeniable. I have been on the health and nutrition bandwagon for a long time and this book has helped me reach my weight loss goals better than anything else I have tried. I have lost 35 pounds in 3 months and feel great. It truly is a lifestyle change and re-education, not just another one of the countless fad diets that are out there. His program makes a lot of sense once you are willing to get past your own ego and the "logic" of the dietary advice that we have been misled with in this country for so long. Buy this book, check your ego at the door, and be read to lose weight and feel great!

I highly recommend getting the book with the DVD because it really helps to see how the exercises are supposed to be done. I first got the book without the DVD and it was taking me over an hour to do the 45 minute workout. Now I see that it can actually be done in 45 minutes.

I'm only on day 4 of the plan and so far so good - I've already lost 3 pounds. I find that I am spending a lot of time preparing meals but I rarely cook so it may not be bad for someone who cooks most of their meals. The exercise requirement is tough but I'm looking at it as my personal 2 week boot camp.

that's all. good luck.

I have had to begin at the preparation stage of this program because I am not in the best physical shape. I am not over weight, I just have not done any sport activity in some time.

But, upon beginning the preparation stage, after only one week I have noticed a bit of improvement in my strength. I am therefore quite hopeful that upon continuing Mr Kirsch's program I can only improve.

Since I am living where weights are measured in kilos, I have elected to begin with the one kilo weights. I found 1.5 kilo weights to be too heavy. (I am also a musician and did not want to take any chances on damaging my arms or fingers). The weight I selected is working quite well.

I've been on the low carb lifestyle diet for years now (lost about 70 pounds total and kept it off for 8 years now!) and was eager to learn about this low carb program which combined diet and exercise. I've been doing various exercise programs at my town and work gyms but was looking for something I could do at home when I couldn't get to the gym. I'm happy to say that this exercise program is great! I don't follow the exercise or diet program strictly: I do eat egg yolks and don't use whey protein shakes (they're tasty but the whey protein (and dairy) makes my skin break out). Also, I don't exercise as much and as often as recommended in the book, but I am pretty strict about restricting my carbs and exercising using both the DVD and cardio on most days. While my weight hasn't really changed after 3 weeks, I have noticed my measurements have gotten smaller and I am getting more toned even though I "seriously cheated" on my diet several times. This is the first time that I've used a stability ball and a medicine ball and I love working out with them! I'm not able to do the "boy" pushups yet, but am hopeful! I think the DVD exercises are great. The only suggestion would be to have the warm-ups as a separate menu choice. (Right now they're part of the cardio-whole body workout.) He doesn't go too fast or too slow in the DVD - seems just right after getting familiar with the exercises. And I feel WONDERFUL when I'm done - ready to start the day with lots of energy! I'd recommend this diet and exercise program to anyone. I really am a believer in the low carb lifestyle/cardio and strength training exercises! I have lots of energy and I don't drink diet sodas, alcohol, caffeine, tea or juices - only water. I'm not planning on introducing many carbs into my diet over time - maybe some healthy carb vegetables and lower carb fruits so I'm going to stay pretty strict, but may do his later phase cheat meal once a week. One thing I like to cook with is ground chicken (he likes ground turkey) (making a beanless chili with low carb vegetables and canned tomatoes) and I like tofu (which David doesn't like much) and I also came up with using canned pumpkin with cinnamon too, sometimes mixing it with firm tofu. Another treat I've added is that I also sometimes mix cocoa powder with cold water for a chocolate treat. He recommends almonds, which I LOVE, but they're a trigger food for me and are hard to stop eating, so I try to eat them only on rare occasions. Dairy is also a trigger food for me, so I probably won't introduce it either except for an occasional cheat meal. I like the concept of a cheat meal once per week in the later phase; it helps to prevent boredom and should help prevent binging/going off the diet completely. I really like the way he used the ABCDEF term for the initial phase- avoiding alcohol, bread, caffeine, dairy, extra fats and fruit - easy to remember and keep in mind. So while I really, really like his diet plan, I have modified it slightly to fit my lifestyle/body better. This is NOT an easy diet/exercise program, but it is very effective! I'm a LOW CARB and exercise fanatic! In short: I highly recommend this book, his program and the DVD!!! Thank you so much, David!

The book was fine, but I found the diet unrealistic. There were too many things to buy and cook. If I had a personal chef, it would have been great! I found it a total waste of my money.

If you are really determined, disciplined, focused and motivated you will be able to loose 3 - 5 kgs in 2 weeks. I have been through a lot of diets and this one is by far the most effective and healthy. Although its for 2 weeks I did it for 4 weeks and lost 5kgs. No kidding! And remarkably it stays that way. Of course you can go on eating like a pig after but that's the beauty of this diet, you wouldn't want to. Combining with heart pounding sometimes torture routine and good food plan, its the way to go for ultimate weight lost. You will feel totally changed. You will feel your stamina improve, yoru complexion better and your muscles starting to develop. Most importantly your body mass will drop. Excellent way to loose weight on a long term basis.