The Flex Diet: Design-Your-Own Weight Loss Plan

by James Beckerman

SMALL CHANGES YIELD BIG RESULTS. Many diet books present readers with a single, inflex­ible program which forces them to stay on that diet or risk another dieting failure. Rather than teaching you just one way to lose ten or twenty or even fifty pounds, The Flex Diet shows you how to lose a single pound . . . in 200 different ways. A medically proven approach to weight loss from WebMD’s heart expert, The Flex Diet allows you to create your own custom­ized weight-loss plan—one that fits your lifestyle, is full of tasty and nutritious meals, boosts energy levels, and keeps the weight off for good. Start TODAY to lose five The Flex Diet begins with a two-week phase called “Today,” when you begin to make small changes to your diet and lifestyle that will help you lose weight right now and create a blueprint to a new you. It’s as easy as keeping a food diary, taking a multivitamin, and getting more sleep. Do it EVERY DAY and lose ten more Next, three weeks of “Every Day Solutions” introduce meal plans for breakfast, lunch, and dinner with dozens of tasty recipes and complete nutritional information. Heart healthy exercise and lifestyle options let you retool your life. Get yourself started on posi­tive Every Day habits like storing leftovers before you eat, switching to skim milk, and walking during breaks at work. Have it YOUR WAY to keep inches off your The “Your Way” phase offers nearly 100 more lifestyle changes and solutions that you can use to take things to the next level and continue a lifetime of slim and healthy living. The Flex Diet is an exciting new approach to a new you, your way.

Genres: Nonfiction

288 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 21, 2010

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love books like this, but that is because I don't like diet books. What?! The word 'diet' is in the title! Silly Emily! But no, this book is not along the lines of "Eat bacon and only bacon and you will lose 40 pounds by next week", it is along the lines of 'park farther from the door when you go to the store and you will trick yourself into burning extra calories'. I'm all about tricking myself. I'm pretty gullible, even when I know what I'm doing. Ha ha!

The book offers 200 simple lifestyle changes that collectively will make a difference. But you don't have to do all of them. You just pick a few. The one that I am going to work on is: Don't eat all the samples when you go to the store. That one made me laugh because I SPECIFICALLY go to Costco on Saturday to eat the samples. Quite often I don't even buy anything. But, that's a bunch of calories that are really hard to count and don't really register in our minds because they are "just samples". There was one day that they were doing cheese samples. I sampled every cheese. I'll bet that was at least 300 calories. 300 delicious calories, but 300 calories nonetheless. And 300 calories plus 300 calories plus 300 calories adds up. It adds up to a big butt. When I'm sitting on something hard I usually wish I had more padding on my butt, but the rest of the time I'm much happier with a little butt. So, if you catch me at Costco eating all the samples, please give me a disgusted or disapproving look. Or point out that my butt is looking bigger. I thank you in advance.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few new ideas, but mostly the same ones we've seen before, just presented in a different way. Fun that the author works and lives in Portland.

[Brandy Border-Rodriguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Similar in a basic sense to the "eat this not that!" Type of health book but written by a heart doctor who gives.you about 200 "flex"ible options.for you to incorporate into a healthier heart.diet & exercise plan the theory being g if you just them you'll find the ones that work for and appeal to you and this will lead to a lifestyle transformation that you can sustain and in turn reduce your reliance on medication and avoid costly surgeries that could be prevented with a little effort on the patients part.

[Anna K. Amendolare · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great book .... for beginners. If you are overweight and ready to get healthy but intimidated and unsure where to begin, this is the book for you. Many of the 200 solutions are easy to implement and will produce results. I did think at times Dr. Beckerman was straining to come up with 200 solutions (paint your dining room blue, an unappetizing color; try blue dinnerware). Of the solutions proposed, not many of them were original ideas; you've heard this stuff before: drink your water iced, park further away and walk, give up caloric beverages. Nothing new. Some of his solutions could have been better developed. He advises to eat rhubarb, but doesn't give any follow up recipes. I doubt rhubarb pie is going to aid in weight loss. However, the book is easily digestible and he really comes across as a partner in weight loss, speaking to the reader, not preaching at the reader. The conclusion of the book was spot on: he acknowledges that many people are in the pre-contemplative stage and he encourages the reader to decide to get healthy for oneself and then to just do it. A great book for someone looking to get started on the road to good health, but not much there for an experienced dieter.

[Modern Girl · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise of the book is to be the anti-diet book. There is no magical trick. Instead you get 200 everyday, simple solutions that you need to work at. I liked the premise. The write was clear and well edited and a real easy read.

However, it did go into "restrictive diet" territory with some of the ideas. I'm not giving up bagels. And instead of being "select from these 200 things" there were some solutions that were presented as mandatory for all, which was confusing.

The last few chapters were great - but I skimmed them. After making it all the way through the list, I was done. I didn't want to read about BMI and surgery and stuff. Those chapters should have gone before the list.

[Brandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

5 of us are currently working together to achieve our wight loss goals with the help of this book. This is not your typical - "this is what you eat", "this is what to do", "this is what you can't have" book. It is a "solutions" book. Things you can change, alternatives to the norm. I am the coach that holds our team (Team Flex) together with positive messages, encouraging words, congratulations, and weekely & daily goals. So I tweaked the program a bit, but hey so far it's working and we are all losing weight!

You can view the progress on my blog: (a suggestion from the book)
http://branflakes.myblogsite.com/

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Contrary to the impression conveyed by the title, this is not really a "diet" book but rather an approach to reasonable, flexible weight loss and life long healthy eating and exercise. Written by a cardiologist, there was not a great deal of new information presented; however, the organization of the information and the simplicity of ways to make impactful changes to obtain lasting results are the unique offerings of this book: things to do Today, Everyday, and Your Way. I did find the author's information about the particular value of almonds/almond butter, Greek yogurt, flaxseeds, pine nuts and apples to be very helpful.

[Olderworker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book, which begins with a compendium of all the current research on weight loss. The writer then lists 200 small changes we can all make in order to loss weight.

My one reservation about recommending this book is that I'm already doing most of the things in the list, and still retain ten stubborn extra pounds. I have begun eating grapefruit (instead of drinking orange juice) every day for breakfast, and adding more activity to my daily routine, so we'll see if that produces any changes.

[Barrie Gardner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely a beginner diet book. If you are an American woman, you have already heard most, if not all, of these tips a hundred times. The only ones I wrote down were limit carbs to one cup (a good quantitative visual for me), fasting for one day every three weeks, and using baby food instead of oil when baking (although, now that I think about it, using applesauce in place of oil and butter has been around forever.)

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I kept waiting for the diet part of this diet book; it's really a collection of eating, exercise, and lifestyle tips rather than any sort of formal plan. I wasn't clear on how the author intended one to implement this "diet", and I'd already been exposed to most of these tips before; perhaps if I were a newbie to diet and shape-up information this would have been more useful to me.

[Rachel S · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great book to simply list 200 differnet ways to lose a pound. Many are simple and common knowledge. The author details and gives resources for further information. This book could be helpful for those who are needing a kick start to their fitness program.

[Adrienne Enriquez]

I heard Dr. Beckerman speak at a luncheon (he's a local cardiologist ... a bit of a superstar, it seems). His great talk and the notion of choosing a diet that works for you, rather than against you, convinced me to buy his book. If only I could find the time to actually read it all.

[Dawn Attanasio · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book offers practical ways to have a healthy lifestyle.

[Camilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read through it, then copy the checklist and hang it up somewhere. You'll be pleased at how many small things you already do. Then do some more!

[Vincent Davis]

one of of the best diet, I ever read, good sense.

[Michelle Williamson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found it to be a good book. Lots of great points and advice on overall health and wellness. Worth the read.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good ways to find hidden fats, sugars and good lost of ways to monitor yourself. There are helpful hints, not a be all end all, but great for beginners

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lost ten pounds in three weeks in way inspired by this book! Highly recommended to help get you on course.

[Tony Nickonchuk · Rating 3 out of 5]

For someone not versed in evidence based ways to lose weight, this is a great book. For me, I zoomed through it because I knew most of it already. Nothing new here unfortunately.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting ideas and good steps that could make a person take a look at how one pound lost can turn into 5,10 or 100. If you are looking for ideas and solutions it would be a good read.

[Tracie Krellwitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got this book free from work so why not give it a try. The author is cute!