First off, if you've every seen the show, then you know how Bob talks. This book seemed to ring with his voice on every page. It really does feel like you get a bit of Bob with you when reading this book.
What makes this book different from many other fitness/diet books is Bob deals with the emotional-mental side of things. He tries to get at the root of why we do what we do to ourselves and how to overcome that. For most people where emotions and food share a common thread, this helps you identify that thread and break it!
WHAT'S INSIDE:
Chapter 1 Are you Really Ready? Step One = he deals with your baggage and fears that are keeping you fat
Chapter 2 Accept Where You Are and Forgive: Step Two = You learn to reconnect with your body and forgive yourself for what you've done to it
Chapter 3 Love Yourself: Step Three = Building confidence and setting goals then staying positive
Chapter 4 Change Your Internal Tape Recorder, Change Yourself: Step Four = This is where he deals with emotional eating, mental hunger vs. physical hunger and provides a proactive formula
Chapter 5 It's an Eating Plan, Not a Diet = he explains a bit about foods and their relationship to weight loss. He then provides a great food list and then seven(7) options for a quick breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks
Chapter 6 Your Food Journal = Yes you need to start counting calories. You can photocopy the pages in this chapter to get you going with your own journal.
Chapter 7 Stress Busters = How to deal with dinning/eating out while on your plan; shopping strategies and then staying on course with your eating while in the real world
Chapter 8 Getting Started: Phase One = Introduction to exercise, including why monitor your heart rate. Also levels of exertion defined, basic equipment needed then his words on Cardio workouts
Chapter 9 My Master List = With over 65 exercises described and with most pictures of Bob performing the steps to the exercise. Though black & white, the photos are clear and easy to see what he describes the exercise performing
Chapter 10 The Workout = Three options for a week's worth of working out or you could look at it as 3 weeks of workouts. The options get progressively tougher. As someone like myself who is already fairly fit, Option 1 was too easy but Option 3 was a very good challenge.
OVERALL:
I liked this book, though the workout Bob puts together in the Biggest Loser book that came out first was a lot tougher (5 minutes of walking lunges and 7 minutes of crunches. Ack!).
This is a nice comprehensive book that hits the holistic experience of eating and working out and the challenges we go through starting and continuing a healthy process.
This book is a good addition to anyone's library.
I read this book, cover to cover, in 2 days and really enjoyed it. I think it is the perfect book for anyone who has a lot of weight to lose or for someone who is relatively new to working out. The book has a huge section of strength training exercises, which is great-especially for someone who is new to the weight room or concept of training with weights. I also enjoyed the food lists and recipe ideas.
I'm not sure how helpful this book is to someone who is already accustomed to working out and knows a lot about nutrition, but it a GREAT book for anyone in the beginner, intermediate range. I love how Bob combines mind and soul to make the weight loss a true, life-changing event.
Buy Are You Ready!: Take Charge, Lose Weight, Get in Shape, and Change Your Life Forever Now
I'm a huge fan of The Biggest Loser. I cry when the contestants lose weight. Bob Harper is a great guy the perfect counterpoint to Jillian Michaels drill sargeant persona. He appears to be kind, gentle, understanding, yet able to influence huge weight losses from the shows participants. I couldn't wait to get this CD and actually get a dose of the whole "Change Your Life" package. The truth is, there's really nothing new here. Bob tells us that we must get our insides together in order to be successful at changing our outsides; that we need to eat healthy foods and exercise at least 5 days a week. He tells us that if we screw up, we don't beat ourselves up. All this is delivered in Bob's charming, encouraging style. There is an enhancement to the CD that allows you to read his food list, sample menus & all of his prescribed exercises (or download the PDF version & print it out). I think that if you ordered the CD you will still want to get the book. There's too much information on supplements, exercise plans and implementation stages. I suspect that the book may have more details. My 4 star rating has nothing to do with what I think of Bob Harper. However, if you've been dieting/exercising for any length of time, you've probably already got this.
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I've been watching Bob Harper since he started on The Biggest Loser, and his book is just like he is on TV--positive and upbeat. It's all about fixing what is wrong with you emotionally before attempting to fix what's wrong with your diet. He is all about empowerment and shares personal stories to help solidify the need to balance your Inner Compass.
The nutrition advice is really helpful, and it never seems like he's telling you what to do. Instead, he shares with you and reinforces the fact that you shouldn't give up if you mess up once or twice. He stresses effort, and discipline that comes with personal growth.
This is definitely a book for beginners. This book, coupled with his Biggest Loser workout DVD, will have you well on the right track toward living a better, more healthful life.
Thanks Bob.
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I don't know about you, but I start off every year with a fresh batch of diet books and exercise DVDs. And every year by the end of the first week I still haven't tried a single recipe. And the exercise DVDs have been watched and deemed too tough for any human to get through.
This year I wanted to find something that would help me lose weight and keep it off for good. They say if you want to grow as a person get in a new relationship. Every piece of baggage from previous romances shows up.
Well the same thing happens when you decide to change your eating habits. Every piece of your dieting emotional, mental and physical past rears its ugly head and preys on you via your inner fat critic.
Where the majority of diet books ignore the "diet baggage" we all carry, Bob gets you to deal with it BEFORE you jump into a healthy eating and exercise plan. He has trained enough people in his life to know that even the most dedicated dieters at some point will back off when their inner fat critic starts to stalk them.
Bob's book is for those of us who continue to yo-yo diet and cannot figure out why we keep starting over again. He provides a concrete plan for resolving inner sabotage. And while this is not a substitute for serious psychological problems that require professional help, it is a great place to start for those who just need a four step plan to lose weight permanently.
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This is a great reference book to have. I love the paperback version and I like the recipies. However, I also bought Rosemary Gladstar's Familiy Herbal, different title and different cover, thinking it was a different book. It is the EXACT same book page for page. So don't buy both.
