 |
||
 |
|
||
|
This book is divided up into two main components...cleaning out your kitchen of all the foods that WON'T help you achieve your goals and then restocking it with foods that WILL. Plus, there is an advanced-level bonus section detailing Mike's 23 day nutrition, supplementation and training program that allowed him to drop almost 4% bodyfat in that time. Let's rip through each section here...
The authors have done a nice job of singling out some really sneaky foods here...stuff that a lot of people may not even consider as being on a list like this. Overall, we would tend to agree with most of these selections. Each category (and there are 10 chapters devoted to this kitchen cleaning) is well researched and backed up with ample facts. And honestly, though there may be a few things in this section that you may not have realized are "bad", for the most part, if you've got good knowledge of dietary principles, there aren't too many big surprises here. The real value of this section lies in the explanations and research used to back up the rationale for getting rid of this stuff from your kitchen. And here's the thing...nobody expects you to be perfect and never eat a cookie again for the rest of your life. That's not what this book is all about. It's about getting the knowledge to make overall better food choices and understanding the pros and cons of the foods you're eating on a regular basis. In that context, this section is really effective. It gives you the information you need to make those informed choices and not just believe what gets put in front of you by TV and newspapers. You may decide you like your white pasta, Frosted Flakes and tofu energy bars...that's up to you :)
The authors, as you will be able to tell when you read this book, are BIG proponents of ogranic foods and focusing on eating foods that are as close to their natural state as possible. And this is a very sound overall approach. This section of the book goes into great detail in terms of WHAT natural foods you want to choose for your kitchen and WHY you want to choose them. Again, this is good information...we don't disagree with anything on this list as being good selections for a fat burning diet. Speaking in practical terms, however, you may find that not all of these foods are readily available or affordable to you. But this book isn't a book about how to eat perfectly on a tight budget...it's basically an "ideal situation" to shoot for, according to the authors. It's going to be tough to put EVERY tip in this book to work in your own kitchen. But the information is definitely VERY useful in terms of deciding what to keep and what not to keep around. This section on stocking your kitchen will give you some great ideas and provides excellent background reasoning behind including each particular food in your kitchen. These foods will definitely support your fat-loss efforts.
If you're a more advanced trainer, your ears should perk up with this section. Mike (one of the authors) details the exact training and eating plan he used to go from 10.2% bodyfat to 6.9% bodyfat in just 23 days. This is an excellent section...and, as Mike puts it: "There is nothing overly “extreme” or “dangerous” about any of these techniques… they are still very healthy eating habits (but just “amped up” a bit), and I didn’t use any stimulant-based dangerous fat burner pills at all. Everything I did during this 23-day fat-burning blast was mostly natural whole foods, a few natural supplements, and a few other tricks here and there with spices, teas, etc… along with a strategic training program that was elevated slightly above my normal training levels." So basically, you're NOT going to get some "Hollywood Diet, Biggest Loser" type of BS that sucks the water out of you and starves you. The training is good and, here's what REALLY caught my eye...there is NO big focus on cardio. The training is primarily about challenging resistance training with big exercises to get your heart pumping and your metabolism cranked up. There is some HIIT (high intensity interval training) but it's not the main focus of the training. No slogging it out on a treadmill for an hour and you can STILL get excellent results. Good message there. The supplement advice is very focused on nutrients and not on "fat burners", which is another positive thing. Overall, very good info here and very good advice.
Right up front, if you have a strong background in nutrition, you'll probably be familiar with a lot of the information you'll find in this book. But if you've ever had any questions about what you should or shouldn't be eating, this book is going to answer a LOT, if not ALL of those questions for you. It's not all 100% practical but MOST of it is and it's definitely got good standards to strive for as best you can. And I'll be honest with you...we don't hit that 100% natural end of the spectrum either here. It's all about doing what you can and making informed choices about what you put into yourself. This book will definitely help you do that. If you decide you want that triple-chocolate cake, at least now you'll know why it ended up on your gut....mystery solved :) The best part is...right now (until Friday, Oct 2nd at midnight at least), you can get this book for just under 20 bucks. Good price for some good info.
|
|
||||||||
|
|||||||||
Training Product Reviews 
