Joy’s LIFE Diet: Four Steps to Thin Forever
Joy’s LIFE Diet: Four Steps to Thin Forever
Book Description
Forget low-carb, no-carb, low-fat, high-misery diets. How about a diet that’s just no-gimmick and low-fuss?
Each week, millions tune into Today for the Joy Fit Club, a celebration of ordinary people from around the country who have lost at least 100 pounds each through diet and exercise alone. Since Today nutrition and health expert Joy Bauer launched the segment last year, thousands of inspired viewers have written to Joy and declared, “I am ready to lose the weight. Can you help me?”
Joy’s LIFE Diet is her answer to all those viewers. But Joy’s LIFE Diet isn’t just about weight. L.I.F.E. stands for Look Incredible, Feel Extraordinary. So not only will you shed pounds, but you’ll wake up each morning feeling more energized and more enthusiastic. The secret is in following these four steps:
- Release: A single intensive week that focuses on stripping away negative eating habits.
- Relearn: Two weeks that will help you to reprogram your appetite and discover the joys of healthy eating.
- Reshape: An easy-to-follow eating plan that can be integrated into any lifestyle and lasts until you reach your goal weight.
- Reveal: Designed to help you find your maintenance groove. It’s time to celebrate your weight-loss success! Welcome to your LIFEstyle!
With flexible and inclusive plans that can be tailored to your needs, Joy’s LIFE Diet is a revolutionary weight-loss book that will keep you feeling your best and teach you to love healthy and delicious food.
A Note to Amazon Readers from Joy Bauer
Deciding to take action towards a healthier lifestyle will improve nearly every aspect of your life. I’ve witnessed the effect weight loss can have from personal clients and from Joy’s Fit Club members, those determined dieters who on their own, without my help, took off between 100 and 300 pounds…and kept it off. They went from channel surfing to paddling a kayak, running marathons and triathlons, and hiking across Europe. They feel so healthy and energized that they get remarried on a Caribbean beach, play ball with their kids, discover hidden talents, and even forge new careers. Starting an effective weight loss plan is the best gift you’ll ever give yourself.
I believe that if you are going to expend all that energy, you should get something more than broken promises, disappointment, or a temporary drain of water weight. You deserve to get something spectacular for your efforts. That’s why I created Joy’s LIFE Diet, so you can Look Incredible and Feel Extraordinary. Imagine waking up each morning feeling rested and alert, loving the way your body looks, and enjoying a steady flow of energy and enthusiasm.
It is important that you realize that starting a diet is not an act of defeat. Beginning the LIFE diet is an act of courage and hopefulness and success! It means you haven’t given up on yourself. Your search for the right diet has brought you here, which means you have already done the initial work. Congratulations–you have that passion for action!
Now, if you are willing to invest even a fraction of the energy you’ve already given to all the other diets you’ve probably tried, you can Look Incredible and Feel Extraordinary. LIFE–it is my personal code, and it can be yours, too.
LIFE Dark Chocolate Cherry Muffins
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon real maple syrup
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
3/4 cup fat-free milk
1 tablespoon strong coffee
3 large egg whites
3/4 cup fat-free vanilla yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2/3 cup dried cherries
Heat oven to 325°F. Prepare muffin pan with muffin liners and spray with nonstick spray. Combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the wet ingredients: maple syrup, apple sauce, milk, coffee, vanilla, egg whites, and yogurt. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir well to combine. Stir in the cherries. Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full with batter. Bake at 325°F for 20 to 25 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. The muffins can be frozen in an air-tight container, sealed freezer bag, or individually wrapped for up to 2 months. For best results, freeze muffins immediately after baking and cooling to room temperature. Makes 12 muffins.
Millions tune into Today for Joy’s Fit Club, a celebration of ordinary people who have lost at least 100 pounds each through diet and exercise alone. Thousands of inspired viewers have written to Joy and declared, “I am ready to lose the weight. Can you help me?”
Joy’s LIFE Diet is her answer to all those viewers. L.I.F.E. stands for Look Incredible, Feel Extraordinary, so not only will you shed pounds, but you’ll wake up each morning feeling more energized and more enthusiastic. The secret is in following these four steps:
1. Release: A single intensive week that focuses on stripping away negative eating habits.
2. Relearn: Two weeks when you reprogram your appetite and discover the joys of healthy eating.
3. Reshape: An easy-to-follow eating plan that can be integrated into any diet and lasts until you reach your goal weight.
4. Reveal: Designed to help you find your maintenance groove. It’s time to celebrate your weight-loss success! Welcome to your LIFEstyle!
User Ratings and Reviews
2 Stars Bashing Low-Carb Diets While Promoting A High-Carb, Low-Fat One Is Shameful!
We all want to Look Incredible, Feel Extraordinary (LIFE), don’t we? That’s what Today Show nutrition and health expert Joy Bauer wants people to believe can happen for them, but how? Here’s what she says–”Forget low-carb, no-carb, low-fat, high-misery diets. How about a diet that’s just no-gimmick and low-fuss?” Well, Ms. Bauer, what’s so miserable, gimmicky, and fussy about livin’ la vida low-carb that you have to label this wonderful way of eating so many of us enjoy in such a disparaging manner. She offers four secrets to LIFE that all start with the letter “r”: Release, Relearn, Reshape, and Reveal. So, what’s the diet? Although she eschews low-fat diets in that quote from her book I shared above, she admits it is a low toxic-fat diet that is moderately high in carbohydrates from fiber-rich sources. Hmmmm, a low-fat, high-carb diet…that’s not very new at all, Joy! Sure, you allow more fat and less carbs than Ornish, but this is still essentially the same old conventional diet advice we’ve always heard along with mindless exercise that has been proven time and time again to be ineffective over the long-term. If this is LIFE, then I think we need some oxygen!
5 Stars It worked for us
My wife and I both undertook Bauer’s diet to see if it would fit our life style. First, I’ll include my wife’s comments.
“Compared to other diets, Joy’s “Four Steps to Thin Forever” was a reasonable, manageable and easy-to-follow diet and exercise plan. I was able to lose 4 pounds in one month. I especially liked the lists of do’s, don’ts and foods allowed at each step. The recommended menu and recipes were excellent aids. I was surprised that my husband and I didn’t get tired of the LIFE Veggie Soup and found it more filling and satisfying than the LIFE Dinner Salad. My only critique was that I found the use of light blue ink for headings difficult to read.”
Joy’s diet is based on some simple and common sense ideas, such as get your self filled with healthy low cal food before starting dinner. Since I’m a big fan of fruits and vegetables, it was easy to start our dinners with vegetable soup or salad. I never got tired of it. I also lost about 4 pounds so far and have kept the weight off. It remains to be seen how this will progress in the future but Joy’s common sense diet is working for us and is not nearly as complex as other diet plans.
5 Stars It’s worked for us
While other diets I’ve tried have been somewhat successful, I always seemed to have a nagging hunger; Joy’s vegetable soup (especially the Creole version) is outstanding, and we’re still making it and eating it nightly before dinner - no nagging need for an evening snack! My husband often complains he’s too full from soup to need our actual meal (lean protein and non-starchy vegetables). He has never dieted before, but has gone along with me on this and has lost his beer gut at last (but can still have some beer)! I’ve even lost the “need” for a daily piece of chocolate! We’re both almost to our target BMI’s and couldn’t be more pleased. The recipes are terrific (except for the chocolate cherry muffins for some reason - the carrot muffins are fabulous). Many people have asked how I did it - I’m thrilled to share! I’m into my “reserve” closet for the first time in…20 years?? (I only buy classics, so they’re still wear-worthy.) This is a life-changing way of eating for us, even though we’ve always had fresh garden vegetables, so are luckier than most - they can be expensive at the market. But, when you’re not buying junk food, which is way more expensive and less healthy - I think we come out way ahead.
4 Stars Good, solid advice
This is a good “diet” book for reinforcing what you probably already know - what to eat, what not to eat, etc. Nothing really new here, but if diet books all just said to “eat less, exercise more,” there wouldn’t be anything to sell! I give it 4 stars for being a likable reinforcement of solid eating practices.
3 Stars nothing new, but “packaged” well
Weight loss is simple: consume fewer calories than you expend. The basics of this program is 1) make healthier food choices which results in eating fewer calories, and 2) exercise at least 30 minutes per day.
Her program starts with a week of deprivation: 1300 calories a day, no sugar. The rest of the program is about eating healthy, filling foods, and continuing to exercise. Each week has a meal plan, menus, recipes, etc. for that week, and each week allow more flexibility. By the fourth week, you’re on the ‘maintenance plan.’
Having said all that, this book could be very helpful for some. If you’re ready to lose weight, this book makes it a “no-brainer” about what to eat, when. Joy Bauer also has a web-site with on-line weight loss tools… at a price. Personally, I think Weight Watchers on-line program is a better value, and the same basic principles apply.
Filed under: Weight Loss Book Reviews
