Sally Symonds: 50 steps to losing 50 kilos

From the back of the book -

In 2002, Sally Symonds was a professional success but a personal failure. Weighing in at 106.5kg and wearing size 24, Sally devised her own easy but highly effective way to lose weight that saw her drop a staggering 45kg in 33 weeks. Unlike many others, Sally not only kept the weight off, she lost even more.
This book follows the step-by-step approach she adopted to transform herself from a food-loving, exercise-loathing workaholic to the happy, healthy and (mostly!) wholesome person she is today.
Refreshingly honest, Sally’s mixture of creative yet practical strategies show you fun and worry-free ways to efficient and effective weight loss.
This book is what everyone needs to follow in Sally’s footsteps.

I’ve been feeling a little unmotivated of late (somewhat of an understatement there), so when I saw this book in my local library I borrowed it hoping to find inspiration. After all, it’s subtitled The inspirational story of how one woman halved her weight and doubled her life.
Unlike many weight loss stories this one isn’t pimping any particular program. In fact, one of the things that attracted me to the book was the author’s statement that, to paraphrase, she hadn’t included a lot of food and exercise information because most serial dieters already know that stuff. I also shared her frustration at the lack of stories from people who are confident and successful in other aspects of their lives but simply couldn’t lose weight. In short I thought I’d finally found a story I could relate to.
That is until page two where she admits to having a 250g chocolate block a day habit. And there she lost me. If anyone goes from eating that much chocolate a day to none at all of course they’ll lose weight, even if they do nothing else at all. That is not to say that she didn’t overhaul her entire lifestyle, because according to her book she did.
Still this wasn’t going to be the book I had hoped for. You know, one for those of us that have a mostly healthy diet and exercise regularly and still struggle to lose or maintain weight.
Much of what she says we’ve all heard before (and on a personal note I’ve done in the past or currently do). So unless you’re taking your first steps there’s nothing new here.
I can’t say that I didn’t get anything from this book but it was more of a refresher course than anything else. Like so many mothers I don’t have the luxury of being able to put myself first but it seems, from this and other stories, that the only way to succeed with weight loss is to make it your top priority.
It’s an attitude (and attendant behaviour) I have to consider very seriously before I apply it.-Lynn

Brian Wansink: Mindless Easting (Why we eat more than we think)

From the back of the book-

What does your favourite comfort food say about you? Can the size of your plate really influence your appetite? Why do you eat more when you dine with friends?

In this much-talked-about book, food psychologist Brian Wansink revolutionizes our awareness of how much, what, and why we’re eating-oftenwithout even realizing it. His findings will astound you….
Director of the Cornell University food and Brand Lab, Wansink uses fun and fiendishly clever experiments-like the “bottomless soup bowl”-to reveal the hidden dynamics behind our dietary habits. Starting today, you can make more mindful, enjoyable and healthy choices at the dinner table, in the supermarket, at the office-even at a vending machine-wherever you satisfy your appetite.

This is a fascinating look at the connection between how our minds perceive food and how our stomach responds to it.
The author presents an interesting array of experiments that show no matter how well educated a person is, or believes they are, they are still at the mercy of this connection and are easily exploited by food manufacture and service industries through it.
He goes on to offers suggestions as to how we can use this connection for our own benefit-to either lose or gain weight.
Interesting, fun and accessible, this isn’t the sort of diet book that makes claims about weight loss but by drawing awareness to the psychology/biology connection aspect of eating provides the reader with information that they may use to make better eating choices.-Lynn

Portion Perfect - Amanda Clark

As everyone knows, the Western world is apparently in the midst of an obesity epidemic that threatens to make this generation of children the first to live shorter lives than their parents.
While I have significant issues with this whole concept, and with the increasing correlation of thinness with healthiness and fatness as horrific, with too little attention paid to fitness as a goal in itself rather than a means to weight loss, there is no question that most people have no concept of what constitutes a portion of pretty much anything. I, for example, know that I eat well but entirely too much, and I'm sure I'm not alone
In Portion Perfection: a visual weight control plan, nutritionist Clark aims to change all that. To no little extent a marketing vehicle for her products (a plate and bowl, heavily featured in this glossily photographed book, that are marked with regions for salad/vegies, carbohydrates and protein), there is a lot here that's valuable for the would be dieter, or anyone whose knowledge of portions is shaky.
Clark opens with a discussion of how manufacturers have shifted our perception of what a serving is, comparing the sizes of take away coffee, chocolate bars, flavoured milk and chips now to their counterparts twenty years ago; in most cases the calories have doubled, and for coffee the increase is over 5 times as much. A meal should be 300-500 calories, and a snack 100-200, but all these examples contain far more calories than a snack, and some of them hit up against the far end of a meal size, a frightening thought for any of us who've washed a meal down with 600ml of soft drink (245 calories) or chocolate milk (440). Clarke discusses how this change came about, pointing out that spending more money on food you don't need, regardless of a reduction in the per gram cost, is no saving for your wallet or waist. She also points out that the manufacturer's serving size may widely differ from that of the average consumer, so that a 200g pot of chocolate dessert, though the same size as a serving of yoghurt, contains five servings, even if it can be polished off in a couple of minutes.
I very much liked the meal suggestions that follow - Clark distinguishes between everyday and occasional foods, providing portions for each that stay within the caloric bounds of healthy eating. Each meal has three calorie options - for breakfast that's 300, 400 and 500 calories, while lunch and dinner have 350, 450 and 550 versions. Clearly and lavishly illustrated, there are photos of foods under each category, all around the same calorie equivalency. The everyday snacks, for example, are all roughly 100 calories, and categorised as fruit (6 small apricots, 1.5 cups of strawberries), dairy (variously sized individual tubs of yoghurt, one Paddle Pop, 200ml skim milk with a heaped teaspoon of Milo), nuts and seeds6 macadamias, 2 tablespoons of pepitas) etc. The occasional options have the same average calorie content but are higher in fat and GI. The size of a serving of apple pie (no cream or icecream) is distressingly small, as is the discovery that a 350 calorie lunch is 4 chicken nuggets and 8 hot chips!
And that's the worth of this book - when you can easily see that, for your calories you can have a small sausage roll or 1.5 cups of starchy vegetable soup with a piece of bread and butter, or a generous plate of pasta, ham and salad there's no comparison. And knowing that a single Lindor ball or two chupa chups take the same bite out of a daily allowance as the more filling options of three oatmeal biscuits, a tub of diet chocolate mousse, or a small apple and a small pear means I'm far less likely to mindlessly scoff the former. the plate and bowl may well help, and I think I'll borrow Portion Perfection from the library every few months to refresh myself, but for now just reading the book has been a great help as I gear up for healthier eating. - Alex

Slow Burn: Burn Fat Faster by Exercising Slower - Stu Mittleman

I found this tome, by "a much sought-after fitness educator whose secrets of endurance have helped people from all walks of life" by accident while looking on the fitness shelves of my local library. The cover, front and back, gave me the impression that it was about improving the quality and results of exercise by working out smarter rather than harder - the training program promises to provide information on creating a work out plan that's flexible and comfortable, with nutritional information and advice on finding "your fat-burning zone" so that "the movement - not the outcome - is the reward."
I have never liked exercise but have vowed to this year embrace a more active, less chocolatey lifestyle. I was really drawn to the possibility of finding enjoyment in the exertion as an ends in itself, and the idea of getting better result in the process was an added bonus.
The cover includes a red-hued photo of a woman running, which perhaps should have warned me - Stu's program is about running. His basic premise is that you get better results focusing on how you feel when you run and then tailoring your style to fit the exertion where you feel energised and at one with your environment will get you better results that focusing on moving as quickly as you can.
Listen to your body, says Stu, and it will tell you what it needs. I'm not a runner - the last time I ran anywhere for longer than a couple of seconds I fell and fractured two bones in my dominant hand, a memory that becomes vivid whenever I use my right hand, which is often. I was, however, moving above this dislike of the sport. I could not, sadly, move past Mittleman's advice on how to chose the most energy-giving foods, which involves

Enter[ing] the food into the "circuitry of the system" by holding the food (against the jaw, of over the thymus gland, about where the second button of a shirt would be), tasting, smelling, or even thinking about the food. Place the first two fingers of the tester's free hand around the back of the subject's neck, just off the spine, under the base of the skull. (This asks the body if any system in the body will be stressed by the consumption of this particular food.)
This approach builds on similar bio-feedback testing designed to check if muscles are blocked, if supplements will be useful, which workout shoes are most appropriate, how well a piece of sports equipment suits the athlete, and what kinds of topical applications (from sunscreen to cosmetics) works with the body.

It's also where I decide enough pseudoscience was enough. I will take from Slow Burn the idea of focusing more on how I feel during exercise than on my destination, and aim for that zone of environmental awareness that sounds akin to meditation, but pick my food (and equipment and toiletries) based on non-Mittleman approved approaches. - Alex