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The De-Stress Diet: The Revolutionary Lifestyle Plan for a Calmer, Slimmer You by Charlotte Watts and Anna Magee


Most people will recognise that excessive stress is not good for you. It's the cause of depression, high blood pressure, skin problems and insomnia - to name just a few problems from a very long list. There's also mounting evidence that chronic stress is responsible for excessive weight gain and not just because there's a tendency (er, yes, I can testify to this...) to turn to comfort eating. Too many stress hormones in the body encourage fat storage - particularly in that obvious and very-hard-to-shift area around the middle. The aim of the De-Stress Diet is to bring about a slimmer, calmer person with a better quality of life.

The De-Stress Diet: The Revolutionary Lifestyle Plan for a Calmer, Slimmer You by Charlotte Watts and Anna Magee

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Buy The De-Stress Diet: The Revolutionary Lifestyle Plan for a Calmer, Slimmer You by Charlotte Watts and Anna Magee at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

Category: Lifestyle
Rating: 4/5
Reviewer: Sue Magee
Reviewed by Sue Magee
Summary: Not so much a short-term diet as a change of lifestyle. Even if you don't go for the full diet there's a lot of information here about small changes which you can make which will improve your life. Recommended
Buy? Yes Borrow? Yes
Pages: 288 Date: January 2012
Publisher: Hay House
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-1848507791

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The science behind the diet is all there, complete with references in the endnotes and it seemed convincing to me although I will readily admit to not being in the least scientifically minded. I would have murdered for a glossary - something I could have put a bookmark in and used when scientific terms - or their abbreviations were used. The authors were meticulous about explaining the terms - but a few pages and a few scientific terms later it would be lost to me. It's not just scientific terms either: the word 'grains' might not include 'beer' in a lot of minds, but might include 'oats'.

Although this is called a 'diet' - suggesting something you do for a period of time to get your weight down before you resume the old way of life and start piling the calories on again - it's more of an encouragement to change the way that you live and the way that you think about food. To begin with, the promises are realistic: lose up to 10lb in 6 weeks is going to make you feel better about yourself and encourage you to continue but it's not a weight-loss regime such as many I've seen ('no pain, no gain') which mean that you lose muscle rather than fat - and set yourself up for long-term failure.

There's a lot to think about. I began by thinking that this would be a book I could read fairly quickly and then review, but I've actually read it over a period of about three weeks. The six-week diet envisages three weeks of transition before you move into the 'full-on' diet. This is sensible as you need to establish just how stress is affecting you (there's a quiz and it got me spot-on right) and you'll need to adjust accordingly. This isn't a 'one-size fits all diet' - you're encouraged to listen to your body and increase, decrease, include or exclude foods accordingly. There's excellent advice about how to bridge the gap between such problems as having a sweet tooth and not having the cravings for sugar.

There's lots of encouragement and particularly encouragement not to feel that you have failed in being where you are or if you occasionally wander from the path. And after reading the book, where do I stand? Well, at the moment I'm not going to start on the 'full-on' version as there's a conflict with a medically-recommended diet which I wouldn't like to change without discussion with a doctor, but I have taken a lot of pointers away. Coffee is much reduced and I actually find herbal teas more refreshing now that I've got out of the coffee habit. I've adjusted the amount of food which I eat at different meals. I'm also convinced by the very straight-forward explanation of the benefits of yoga and in the meantime, I've upped the amount of 'moving about' which I do. I've also made a rule that the computer has to be off - completely off - for a substantial part of the day. Even these changes have made a real difference.

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

Another of your reviewers had considerable success with You Can Think Yourself Thin by Ursula James. We think you'll want to avoid Cracking the Obesity Crisis by Veronica M McNally.

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Buy The De-Stress Diet: The Revolutionary Lifestyle Plan for a Calmer, Slimmer You by Charlotte Watts and Anna Magee at Amazon You can read more book reviews or buy The De-Stress Diet: The Revolutionary Lifestyle Plan for a Calmer, Slimmer You by Charlotte Watts and Anna Magee at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
Buy The De-Stress Diet: The Revolutionary Lifestyle Plan for a Calmer, Slimmer You by Charlotte Watts and Anna Magee at Amazon You can read more book reviews or buy The De-Stress Diet: The Revolutionary Lifestyle Plan for a Calmer, Slimmer You by Charlotte Watts and Anna Magee at Amazon.com.

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