Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Finally, a healthy way of eating that I can follow throughout my lifetime. I've been searching for a program that would allow me to eat nutritional, good tasting food and still lose weight. I've never had a serious weight problem but after a long-term illness I gained about 15 lbs and was really in bad shape physically. I have tried every diet imaginable and still after a whole lot of suffering still didn't lose all the weight or "feel" healthy at all. This diet provides a basic, easy to follow plan that will allow anyone to not only lose weight but start to feel good again. My energy level is skyrocketing! The book recipes are simple, with basic ingredients that you can find at most grocery stores (no special nutrition house trips for some odd form of home-grown barley). The recipes are also very good, my husband can't believe we are eating diet food and who can blame him when we are eating shrimp scampi, spaghetti and meatballs, turkey burgers, french toast, quesadillas, etc... There has been some criticizing of the brand names, but I think that the wonderful addition of actually showing pictures of brand items at the bottom of a lot of the recipes makes shopping for items easier. I just take my book to the store when I'm feeling too lazy to write a list and plan my menus right there.
My husband is losing weight, 6 lbs the first week! I'm losing lbs. and gaining muscle. My daughter is even losing and she was a nutritional nut before starting this program with us. She was already slim but couldn't lose a small amount of fat around her middle and in one week she lost 3 lbs and that middle fat is gone. The best part is that she is eating so much more than she was before and she is feeling good about food again instead of reguarding it as her enemy.
Try the shakes. I usually loathe protein shakes, but these are really good and make me feel full of energy.

I did the challenge back in 2002 and lost 25 lbs, but I had no variety in my diet--all I ate was chicken breast, cottage cheese, brown rice, and salad. Eating for Life takes care of that problem. So far I've tried the following recipes: Baked Chicken Parmesan (pg. 113), Mom's Chicken Enchiladas (pg. 114), Strawberry Cheesecake (pg. 195), Berry Dessert Crepes (pg. 199), Enriched Double Chocolate Pudding (pg. 201), Walnut Brownies (pg. 202), Egg-Cellent Enchiladas (pg. 223), Ham and Egg Sandwich (pg. 224), Denver Omelet (pg. 227), Cool Taco Salad (pg. 257), and the Tuna Salad Wrap (pg. 272). With the exception of the pudding, all of the recipes were great. I made the chicken enchiladas and cheesecake to share with my boyfriend's family and they all raved about both dishes (one tip for the cheesecake, mix the sliced strawberries with lemon juice and Splenda). The only recipe that took me longer than half an hour to prepare was the chicken enchiladas (mainly because I had to poach the chicken and shred it, buying pre-cooked chicken would solve that). Some of the recipes are really silly, like the Breakfast Du Jour (pg. 221) and the Turkey Sandwich (pg. 256), but there are plenty of interesting dishes to try. There is also a section containing 14 different ways to jazz up your nutritional shakes.

This is the best book about nutrition and eating correctly that I have ever purchased in the last 15 years, and I have purchased A LOT of cookbooks. Every recipe I have tried I have loved, and so have my husband and kids(they are normally picky eaters). Eating the recipes from this cookbook you can feel your body returning to equilibrium and a huge reduction in cravings! It is the only cookbook I will cook with for the rest of my life. It's hard to believe eating right can taste so good!

I am a Body For Life success story. I didn't enter their competition, I did it just for me. I lost 55 lbs in 12 weeks, following the Body-For-Life book to the letter. Because of my success, I have promoted the book and program at every opportunity!

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.

One reviewer asked if anyone else is reminded of a used car salesmen when they see Bill Phillips. Well, as a car salesman, I resent that comment. But, as a car salesman, I also must agree. Is he trying to make money? Yes. Is he entitled to? Why not? Four years ago, after reading Body for Life (BFL), I said, "Man, wouldn't it be great if they had a cookbook to make this easier? The 'Nutrition for Life' section of this book needs fleshing out." Never came about but nonetheless, I did the routine and managed to lose a lot of fat and put on a lot of muscle. But year after year passed with no cookbook. Sure the Web site had recipes but they were kinds of cheesy half-assed user-posted recipes. Many of them were redundant and many of them were just plain nasty. One day I said, "I'll bet he's gonna' wait for the popularity of BFL to wane and then make some comeback with a more detailed workout book or nutrition book." Sure enough...here's Eating for Life.

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.

Rating System:
1 star = abysmal; some books deserve to be forgotten
2 star = poor; a total waste of time
3 star = good; worth the effort
4 star = very good; what writing should be
5 star = fantastic; must own it and share it with others

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.

I have just reached the desperation point in trying to create a healthy eating plan for myself. This book is everything I have been looking for. Every page of this book is in color and every recipe has a color mouthwatering photograph. And, all the food is healthy, filling and tastes good. Bill and his sister sat down and wrote the book that everyone needs. Period. But it was page 59 that took my breath away. I had never seen this photograph in any of Bill's other books or materials. My heart was still. Page 59 is the photograph that made me believe I CAN really do this. Bill knows what he is talking about. And, he's just like me (except I'm a girl.) At the very least, I hope I look more like him (except a little prettier) after planning my day's eating based on the recipes in this book. I hope I impress myself as much as page 59 made an impression on me.

And for others like me, searching for healthy, easy to prepare recipes that taste good -- this book is everything you've been looking for! Good luck.

I got this book for my birthday from my family, since they knew that I occasionally dabbled in the Body-for-Life stuff (not too much to show for it yet, but that's mostly my fault -- not eating 6 times a day, having to miss a week of workouts, not enjoying Myoplex, etc.)

This book helps eliminate one of my excuses...the food. To help motivate me to get back in the routine, I started making some of the recipes...and haven't hit a bad one yet! Now, this is not super-gourmet stuff, but that's all the better...they're relatively quick meals, very nutritious (your body can feel it) but still very tasty!

To respond to dalepres' review ("Pure Commercialism..."), I HIGHLY doubt that Philips went to every food manufacturer that he has a picture of in the book to strike up some "advertising" deal. The purpose of the pictures, in my opinion, is to prove to the reader how simple and easily obtainable the ingredients are. And they work...when a recipe lists 8 ingredients, and samples are pictured, I can't usually say "I couldn't find it" in the grocery store.

In this wonderful book, Bill Philips presents an overview of exactly what your body needs to be perfectly balanced and healthy, and then provides the recipes and eating schedule to achieve that result.

What I particularly love about this book is that it flies straight in the face of the Atkins craze, picking it apart point by point. The fact is that humans were designed to eat carbohydrates - lots of them in fact. If your end result is losing weight, then Atkins will work just fine. But if you want to lose fat, actually *look good*, feel good and keep your muscle mass, then forget Atkins and buy this book today. The problem with Atkins that most people don't realize is that the catch word of the month - ketosis - is flowery talk for "starvation." Ketosis is what happens when your body starts eating itself - fat, muscle, even DNA breakdown in extreme cases. I've known people who have lost forty pounds on Atkins but actually increased their body fat percentage in the process. The weight they lost was muscle. These people were also miserable, not thinking clearly and completely lacking in energy.

Eating For Life will give you the opposite. In the short time I've been abiding by the eating program I've been eating more than I ever have, enjoying eating as much as I ever have, and have lost weight. The most impressive results are the increased energy and clarity of thought from eating a balanced diet. These latter results were really my goal in buying the book - I'm not after severe weight loss. But if weight loss *is* your goal, Phillips provides you with many inspiring personal experiences of readers who have had success with his books. There are many full-color before and after pictures of amazing transformations, folks who were over 250 lbs. who ended up exactly in their target weights and looking amazing. (You might lose that weight with Atkins, but you will be a ball of weak, muscle-less flab when all is said and done.) Along with the pictures are the stories of these individuals, including a sample menu of what they ate before Eating for Life and what they eat now. The point is you can find someone who seems similar to your age and build and then model your weight loss after them.

For healthy eating, this is the book to have. This is not some weird recipe book of organic foods, soy-whatever nonsense. It simply a program for eating great food, showing you what to eat, how to cook it, when to eat it, and why you should. If you take nothing else from this review, take the fact that Atkins is a marketing ploy based on terrible science. Yes it does produce weight loss, but at great expense. On Atkins you'll lose more muscle than fat, you'll be weaker than you've ever been, and you'll have as much energy as a piece of wood. It's a marketing scheme that works for all the wrong reasons. Don't buy into it.

I was overall quite happy with this book. Bill Philips explains the BFL program/philosophy and includes quite a number of nutritious and tasty recipes. A great resource for anyone doing BFL and looking for meal ideas. I'm glad I bought it.