SIMPLE, INEXPENSIVE, AND PAINLESS WEIGHT LOSS

I DID IT AND YOU CAN DO IT! MY PERSONAL WEIGHT LOSS STORY

by Mike Sasser ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 23, 2015

A safety trainer and manager shares the 60-day eating and activity plan he created to shed unwanted pounds in this debut health guide.

Sasser (The Good Hand, 2016) says that he tried many ways to lose weight, including hormone injections, but the pounds just wouldn’t stay off. He then realized that “in order to make any real change, I had to find a balance of diet—meaning the foods I ate—and exercise (I didn’t even like the word) that would be sustainable.” In this book, Sasser details the plan he created that allowed him to drop from 223.8 to 194.4 pounds in 60 days. He focuses specifically on his use of a “Food and Activity Tracker,” a grid-oriented tool he developed to capture and chart progress (or lack thereof). He emphasizes the “Nutrition Math” of making better food choices, controlling portions, and limiting sodium and sugar intake. He also prescribes doing at least 30 minutes of physical activity daily, but notes that it doesn’t have to be at a gym: it could be done by walking, dancing, or doing other common activities. He says that he uses the word “activity” instead of “exercise” intentionally for this reason, much as he used the term “incident” instead of “accident” in his safety career. Other elements of his plan (and tracker) urge readers to record weight before having a breakfast of 300 to 500 calories, and to have two low-calorie snacks in addition to regular meals; he also suggests that readers list any daily alcohol intake in a separate column, in order to be fully aware of their extra calories. Overall, Sasser is an appealing, relatable guide to handling the challenges of exercising and eating, particularly when he acknowledges his own fluctuations and missteps, such as an instance in which he quaffed eight light beers in one day, while hanging out at a pool. However, the author’s own, filled-in trackers with accompanying commentary take up too much of this slim book, and readers may sometimes find them wearying. Still, by providing such “evidence,” Sasser does effectively support his contention that “You didn’t put on all the unwanted weight in a day or week, and you are not going to lose all of the unwanted weight in a day or week.”

A real-world approach to achieving sustainable weight loss.

Pub Date: July 23, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-4575-3788-2

Page Count: 100

Publisher: Dog Ear

Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2017

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION