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A review by jahuszar
21-Day Weight Loss Kickstart: Boost Metabolism, Lower Cholesterol, and Dramatically Improve Your Health by Neal D. Barnard
4.0
I would recommend this book to anyone curious about vegan diets, looking to make a healthy lifestyle change and lose some weight, as well as to novice vegans who maybe want to understand their choices more fully. This program works. Period. I did it, and I have no intention of going back to my former diet.
I went vegan about six months ago using the KickStart program online. I consider myself a novice vegan, still learning the ropes. This book provided me with a deeper understanding of how eating a plant based diet positively affects my health and helped me tweak areas of my diet that were a little lacking.
Dr. Barnard describes the changes in cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar that occur very rapidly on a plant based diet. There are numerous studies cited throughout the book detailing the many health benefits of a vegetarian diet. There are also a number of celebrities that offer their words of advice throughout the book.
This book is set up in three parts. The first goes in depth about the benefits of a vegan diet for health, weight loss, and a variety of chronic diseases. It helps prepare you for the starting the program, with meal planning, trying new foods out, and getting into the right mindset to be successful. The second part of the book is the 21-day plan. Each day offers advice, encouragement, and goes a more in depth on a subject, like heart benefits, the glycemic index, and environmental benefits of a plant based diet. The third section has menus, recipes, a glossary of foods, and cooking techniques to use during the program.
I tried out quite a few of the recipes. I particularly enjoyed the soups, especially the Curried Red Lentil soup, and the wraps and sandwiches. I didn't love every recipe, but they were all good. Quite a few are now part of my regular meal rotation. I even tried some of the fake meat that I had been shying away from because I didn't know how to work with it and I was a little scared of the taste. I was pleasantly surprised and have been using the meat substitutes a lot more regularly.
Does the program work for weight loss? Absolutely. When I started the program, I was a healthy body weight, but I knew I wasn't at my body's ideal weight. I lost seven pounds, bringing my weight back to where I was in my early twenties. After three kids, I thought I'd never see that number on the scale again. I have easily maintained the weight for the last six months without feeling hungry. My energy level has increased. My skin glows. Best of all, I have a new relationship with food. I don't worry about how much I'm eating or count calories. I don't find myself planning how much longer I need to exercise to burn off a fatty meal, or skipping meals when I'm planning on eating too much later in the day at a party or over the holidays. I eat when I'm hungry. I stop when I'm full. And I don't worry about it. I know I'm eating healthy and my weight is stable.
There are parts of the book that are a little dry, but it is well written and the program well worth a try.
I went vegan about six months ago using the KickStart program online. I consider myself a novice vegan, still learning the ropes. This book provided me with a deeper understanding of how eating a plant based diet positively affects my health and helped me tweak areas of my diet that were a little lacking.
Dr. Barnard describes the changes in cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar that occur very rapidly on a plant based diet. There are numerous studies cited throughout the book detailing the many health benefits of a vegetarian diet. There are also a number of celebrities that offer their words of advice throughout the book.
This book is set up in three parts. The first goes in depth about the benefits of a vegan diet for health, weight loss, and a variety of chronic diseases. It helps prepare you for the starting the program, with meal planning, trying new foods out, and getting into the right mindset to be successful. The second part of the book is the 21-day plan. Each day offers advice, encouragement, and goes a more in depth on a subject, like heart benefits, the glycemic index, and environmental benefits of a plant based diet. The third section has menus, recipes, a glossary of foods, and cooking techniques to use during the program.
I tried out quite a few of the recipes. I particularly enjoyed the soups, especially the Curried Red Lentil soup, and the wraps and sandwiches. I didn't love every recipe, but they were all good. Quite a few are now part of my regular meal rotation. I even tried some of the fake meat that I had been shying away from because I didn't know how to work with it and I was a little scared of the taste. I was pleasantly surprised and have been using the meat substitutes a lot more regularly.
Does the program work for weight loss? Absolutely. When I started the program, I was a healthy body weight, but I knew I wasn't at my body's ideal weight. I lost seven pounds, bringing my weight back to where I was in my early twenties. After three kids, I thought I'd never see that number on the scale again. I have easily maintained the weight for the last six months without feeling hungry. My energy level has increased. My skin glows. Best of all, I have a new relationship with food. I don't worry about how much I'm eating or count calories. I don't find myself planning how much longer I need to exercise to burn off a fatty meal, or skipping meals when I'm planning on eating too much later in the day at a party or over the holidays. I eat when I'm hungry. I stop when I'm full. And I don't worry about it. I know I'm eating healthy and my weight is stable.
There are parts of the book that are a little dry, but it is well written and the program well worth a try.