About the Book
Leading dietician Arlene Normand shares her no-nonsense, tough-love approach to dieting. Her 10 Commandments will give you the tools and the motivation to achieve your weight-loss goals.
This is not a fad diet. In fact it’s not a diet – it’s a practical lifestyle plan. With Arlene’s guidance and sensible advice, you can lose weight – and keep it off forever.
The Long Story
While I didn’t see this so much as a ‘tough love’ approach to weight loss, The 10 Commandments starts from a more practical standpoint when it comes to becoming healthy. Rather than setting you up with a plan you have to follow to the letter, she helps guide you to creating a healthier lifestyle.
Using her ten commandments – ‘eat slowly’ and ‘get organized’ among them – you get a solid base and start to sorting out your health life. While she mentioned a lot of things I already knew, it provided a good refresher for getting me refocused on my health.
One annoyance for me is Normand’s approach to sugar. First, it appears that she is fine with sugar and more concerned about fat. Then she later says that ‘lite’ products often have the fat content replaced with sugar, which isn’t good. This sort of back and forth irked me – especially in a book people who are looking for solid guidance might read.
That being said, this book also provided me with a beautiful light bulb moment when I read: “Your worst time for eating is your best time for exercise.” That small section gave me a completely different way at structuring my exercise time to cut off the urge to munch. (For me, this is late afternoon before my husband is home from work.)
Above all, though, I loved how Normand took Australia’s food culture into account and listed tips on what are healthy choices for Chinese, Indian, Thai, Japanese, etc. I found that quick guide very useful.
The Short Story
I highly recommend this book if you are just getting started on getting your healthy life going. And even if you’re not, this book can be a great refresher to get you motivated again.