THE MILKSHAKE DIET

Real estate investor and debut author Sourour makes a case for an effective dieting regimen that focuses primarily on one’s mindset.

The author asserts that he went from 364 pounds to 250 in 10 months, thanks to what he calls a “eye-opening, belly-shrinking, and exercise-free diet” that he created that didn’t require him to abstain from any of his favorite foods, including bacon, french fries, spaghetti, or hamburgers, which are usually forbidden by traditional diets. He writes that he lost 36% of his body weight in less than one year while eating these and other favorites, and he credits this to the fact that he changed his “food perspective.” By implementing the straightforward rules he presents in this book—which include avoiding zero-calorie sweeteners, drinking plenty of water, and avoiding between-meal snacks—he seeks to reestablish the simple idea of the link between the amount of food intake and body weight. (The milkshakes referred to in the title, for which he supplies recipes with fruit and nuts, can help accelerate weight loss when consumed as meals, he says.) This intake-weight link, he says, is one that food companies managed to sever in many people’s minds long ago. “It’s imperative you use the identical tactics as your more experienced, successful and resourceful opponent,” Sourour writes. “Their tactics work so well on us that it stands to reason they’ll work equally well for us.” Sourour employs punchy, friendly prose that offers supportive but no-nonsense advice. Although his stratagems have many straightforward, practical elements—such as weighing oneself once, and only once, per day—he places a refreshingly strong emphasis on what he calls “the obvious mental health challenges” at the heart of a comprehensive weight-loss program. He engagingly stresses that the approach he advocates is much more than simple calorie counting: “Anyone can work a calculator,” he writes. “Weight loss is not nor will ever be a sprint to the finish line.”

An unconventional and thought-provoking weight-loss philosophy.