So, it turns out that of the 5 of us hefty fellows that are in our “Biggest Loser” competition, 3 of our wives have bought us a copy of “Eat This Not That 2010”. I’ve read it – it is a remarkably easy read, the book is basically loaded with many high-calorie and high-fat pictures – and it is, in a word, frightening. Perhaps frightening is the wrong word – shocking is the right word.
This book will put the fear of trans fat into you. Really. You will read it and start saying words like “miracle food” and “low energy density”. You will begin to count out how many almonds you eat. Or at least, I did. My carb intake has dropped like a stone, and I’m taking salads to work, for pity’s sake. It is truly crazy.
I’ve become an annoyance in my house as I have to read every food label. Worse, I understand them now. Not that they are written in Greek or Outer Mongolian or some other delightful exotic language, but before I didn’t CARE. I think this is the difference. It’s not that I didn’t want to watch what I ate, or that I enjoyed fatty foods too much – it is simply that I didn’t CARE about what I was eating before. Now, I do. Now, I have cut back drastically on foods I love – bagels, peanut butter, and bread – and am eating way more veggies, fresh fruit and drinking more water.
Yay, and good for me, right? Well, while it is all part of my weight loss and fitness plan, the truth is that I don’t know that I would have done it so drastically had it not been for reading this book. At first I admit I thought it was simple-minded, with it’s bright shocking colours, the 270 8×10 colour glossy photographs with the pictures and arrows and a paragraph under each one explaining the calories and trans-fats (blind justice!), and the truly simple shouting of the text while you read it. But really, maybe I needed to be yelled at. This book will scare you when you think of the things that you’ve eaten that are on the “Not That” list.
Well worth the read!
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