"The Carb Lovers Diet" by Frances Largeman-Roth

TITLE: "The Carb Lovers Diet"
AUTHOR: Frances Largeman-Roth & Ellen Kunes
DIETY?: somewhat
IE?: somewhat
MY RATING: 4****

First of all, let me say that I didn't read this whole book from cover-to-cover. I mostly skimmed it, reading bits here and there until I got the general gist of things. Reason being, I'm not looking for another "diet", and don't want to fill my head with stuff that might sway me off of my intended path (I'm learning that I tend to chase after too many false leads if I'm not careful).

But, this book is really sound. Sure, you'll still find some diety things inside. But, overall, the authors encourage you to watch your portion sizes, stop eating when you've hit satisfied (not stuffed), and mix-and-match the recipes to suit your tastes and preferences. Not bad, at all.

I liked this one, especially, for two reasons: (1) The recipes that are included all look so very good! For me, I normally find maybe a handful of recipes in "diet" books that I think I might like to try. Everything else either requires me to go out of my way to find the ingredients, or it just seems too far off from what my family and I normally like to eat. This book was different... this one has about 75 recipes, and I think I copied about 30 of them to put in my binder and try at some later date (and, FYI, I've already tried 2 of the recipes since finishing the book yesterday, and they were both yummy!)... And (2) the "success stories" included in this book --complete with pictures-- show women who've lost weight at a realistic pace of only 5-10 pounds in 3 weeks. They aren't super-skinny, and they didn't have drastic results... They are normal women, and their weight loss was slow and steady. That's encouraging, and makes me think that following the advice in this book could truly be a benefit. When the weight comes off more slowly, it is more likely to stay off for good! ;)

The book's main focus is to include more Resistant Starches into your daily eating. There are eleven of them, some of which include: Potatoes (baked or sweet), Peas, Whole Wheat Pasta, Beans & Lentils, Baked Potato Chips!, etc. Yep... you even get to have chips, wine, and chocolate with this one! (I couldn't believe it when I was reading through the sample meal plans and found that one of the snacks was a Reese Peanut Butter Cup! YUM!!!)

The only thing I'm not big on with this book is the fact that you have "phases": Phase 1 is your Kickstart phase where you aim to eat only 1200 calories per day. You would probably have to follow their included 7-day meal plan to get the intended results. And, Phase 2 is your Immersion phase which lasts for 21 days and lets you up your daily calorie intake to 1600 calories. Again, there are 21-days' worth of meal plans included.

You aren't encouraged to give up anything, necessarily -- no food groups are said to be excluded. Mind you, you are technically avoiding "whites" (flour, bread, rice) by CHOOSING to have the whole-wheat versions instead. Very clever of the authors, if you ask me. Not to mention, focusing on the term "Resistant Starch" instead of saying the usual "complex carbs". Tricky-tricky... but effective!

So, yeah. Overall, this is not a bad choice for a plan. Especially if you're a carb-lover, like me! It can easily work with the intuitive-eating method (that I prefer), and just teaches you to make healthier choices, and to cook more of your meals for yourself (note: all of the meals included don't seem to take more than 30-40 minutes to prepare, so there's also the ease-of-use factor to this plan!)