Eating for Life: Your Guide to Great Health, Fat Loss and Increased Energy! (Hardcover)

But...the guy is entitled to make money so why complain? So what if he waited for book sales of BFL to die off before releasing this (which basically just expounds upon the Nutrition for Life section of the BFL book)? That's smart business. He'll sell 4 million of these and another 2 million of his first book. Who's better than him? I say stop your whining. Bill Phillips does give a lot to charity. And even if it is just for favorable tax status, the money does a lot of good. And of course his fitness ideas (while nothing new) have changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people--including myself. All my life I'd read Muscle & Fitness, watched Bodyshaping, accumulated nutritional articles and knowledge...for naught. I was probably eating Twinkies while doing all that reading. BFL was the only book (which regurgitated all the basic concepts I had been bombarded with over the years) to challenge me and inspire me. And I got in shape. So what if the guy was out to enrich himself with that book as he is with this book? Enron execs and televangelists gave nothing back to the people who enriched them. At least Bill Phillips sells knowledge. Frankly, I was more suspicious of his motives when I bought BFL than I was buying this book. At the time he was owner of the nutritional supplement company EAS. Whenever he mentioned "Myoplex shakes" (their biggest seller) in that book, I felt like I had purchased a 200-page commercial and was being brainwashed into buying more of his stuff. On the plus side, I sent away for the kit to enter his yearly BFL Challenge and got tons of free stuff. Three free videos, the book on audiocassette and more. So I felt like less of a rube when buying my Myoplex--I guess I had been brainwashed :-)

So anyway, my review. Great book. Just what I had dreamed of all those years. This is a must have if you own BFL. It makes things so much easier. It's not a piece of crap like his "Body for Life Success Journal" was. I mentioned above that it just expounds on the Nutrition for Life chapter in BFL. While that's true, it's definitely a chapter that needed to be made into a book so get this one. It has helped me get back on track (as my healthy eating has leaned toward the unhealthy side of the spectrum over the years). It has appetizing, colorful pictures and they all taste good...so far. Way to go Bill. You may an opportunist as well as being cocky and narcissistic (just read the "interview" in Jan 04 Muscle Media magazine. It sounds like Bill is the interviewer as well as the interviewee. The questions and answers are so phony and contrived as to be laughable) but you provide the spark that so many people need. And for $35 minus 30% right here on Amazon.com, I'm willing to buy that spark. I'm sure in 4 years when things start to get slow again we'll see "Workout for Life" with more exercises, sport-specific routines, stretching regimens, etc. And you know what? I'll buy it.

So, when I saw Eating For Life, I was excited until I picked it up. It smacks of pure commercialism. The photographs of the recipes all include pictures of the specific brand name items called for. It's just an advertisement book.

There is not one bit of nutrition information... which makes sense when you see things in it like French Toast and syrup. The book is full of recipes that the Body For Life program would never recommend. In comparison, I checked half a dozen nearby recipe books when I looked at Eating For Life. Every other book I looked at, whether it was succulent chocolate desserts all the way to low-fat diet books, had complete nutrition information. So why not this one? Because Bill Phillips knew that these recipes would not withstand public scrutiny of the nutrition information.

Get Better Homes and Gardens New Dieter's Cookbook instead. I did. It is full of great recipes, beautiful presentation photos, and complete nutrition information.

And along with the BHG book. Get Body For Life. Skip Eating For Life.

MY FEEDBACK:
1) If you can't eat dairy then this cookbook isn't for you. 90% or greater of the recipes require skim milk, cottage cheese or some other dairy product as a primary ingredient...especially the desserts.

2) The preperation time for many of the meals is 45min+. Not many quick meals here.

3) In general, nice pictures of the meals. Some aren't very flattering to the dish and thus doesn't make me want to make it

4) Interspersed are pictures of the ingredients used...I thought this was very helpful especially for some "unfamiliar" ingredients (i.e. special soy products, etc)

5) Recipes are nicley written out and easy to follow

OVERALL: It is a good book that I found sparked ideas that could be prepared quicker and just as loaded with protein, carbs and low fat. If you don't want any quess work and you can have dairy as a main staple of your diet and you have the time to prepare the meals...then this book is for you.