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Six Weeks to Skinny Jeans: Blast Fat, Firm Your Butt, and Lose Two Jean Sizes
We all have a those frumpy, roomy, "fat jeans" we reach for when a few (or more than a few) extra pounds have banished our favorite "skinny jeans" to the back of the closet. Well, get ready to toss those fat jeans, because personal trainer and fitness expert Amy Cotta is here to help you tone up, slim down, and stay motivated until you can shimmy back into those sexy skinny jeans for good. Cotta believes that the key to skinny jeans success is diet, exercise, and attitude. Her 6-week eating plan trims fast-burning carbohydrates for the first 3 weeks, ignites weight loss, then reintroduces and manages those carbs for the second half of the plan. Her graduated fitness plan offers three styles of cardio and strength-training exercises that get progressively more challenging to keep you from getting bored or hitting a plateau while you sculpt those curves. Both plans are simple to follow in your own home--no gym, fancy equipment, or expensive food deliveries required--and there are calendars, food logs, and meal plans to help you stay upbeat and organized. Plus, photos and stories of real-life results from Cotta's clients who are back in their skinny jeans and loving it show how easy it is to regain the trim, lithe contours that make you look great and feel a youthful confidence you thought was gone forever. Packed with dynamic, down-to-earth strategies, Six Weeks to Skinny Jeans will inspire you to take control of your lifestyle and feel younger, sexier, and fitter than ever before.
- GenresHealthNonfictionDiets
375 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 20, 2011
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44 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 5, 2012
2.5 stars/Diet & Exercise
Six Weeks to Skinny Jeans
by Amy Cotta
Rodale Publishing
Due: December 20, 2011
ARC Copy
Rating: 2.5 stars
I have to admit up front that when I requested this book from the publisher, I was more interested in how the information was going to be presented than having a desire to wear skinny jeans. In my opinion, few people can wear them well anyway.
While the author sets the course in a very straight forward manner; including a workout plan, recipes and tracking logs to help you along the way, I didn't feel that she brought anything new to the weight loss arena.
With a background in fitness and healthy eating practices, Amy Cotta shares her knowledge with those willing to put forth the effort to move toward a better lifestyle and a goal to achieve a lower number on the scale. The thing that bothers me is the misconception that the title conjures up big payoffs in a short amount of time.
Her "eat this" and "don't eat that" message in the beginning chapters seemed a little brash with a hit of 'I know better than you' attitude. Then again, I bring a bit of bias towards her outcasted food selections such as granola bars, canned soups and all soft drinks (even diet?) since I've had a relative who recently lost 80 pounds on a diet that included the very items she disregards. (see: www.medifast1.com)
I found the excessive use of exclamation points and the overuse of the word 'baby' more annoying than motivating. ("I'm going to teach you how to set that cute little body of yours on fire!", "Oh yeah!", "I am strong!", "You just have to look for them!", "Start cranking out the Blast, Firm & Burn workouts, baby!", "You can turn up the heat & go full throttle, baby!", "You're cooking with gas, baby!") While I understand she is trying to be sensitive to her readers, I highly doubt she uses this same tactic in a gym setting as a personal trainer.
Overall, any weight loss/exercise program boils down to the same things. It takes self determination and motivation. People make a choice every day as to whether they will or they won't. If you have picked up a copy of this book and are making a real conscience effort towards change, then this book will most likely work. It is laid out in a very specific plan for each week with ideas to help keep you on the right track and additional advice of what to do if you are not seeing the results you thought you would.
Still, I am convinced that any person who adapts a common sense, portion controlled diet, drinks more water than any other beverage and does some kind of moderate physical activity at least 30 minutes per day would see a comparable result in the same time frame.
Six Weeks to Skinny Jeans
by Amy Cotta
Rodale Publishing
Due: December 20, 2011
ARC Copy
Rating: 2.5 stars
I have to admit up front that when I requested this book from the publisher, I was more interested in how the information was going to be presented than having a desire to wear skinny jeans. In my opinion, few people can wear them well anyway.
While the author sets the course in a very straight forward manner; including a workout plan, recipes and tracking logs to help you along the way, I didn't feel that she brought anything new to the weight loss arena.
With a background in fitness and healthy eating practices, Amy Cotta shares her knowledge with those willing to put forth the effort to move toward a better lifestyle and a goal to achieve a lower number on the scale. The thing that bothers me is the misconception that the title conjures up big payoffs in a short amount of time.
Her "eat this" and "don't eat that" message in the beginning chapters seemed a little brash with a hit of 'I know better than you' attitude. Then again, I bring a bit of bias towards her outcasted food selections such as granola bars, canned soups and all soft drinks (even diet?) since I've had a relative who recently lost 80 pounds on a diet that included the very items she disregards. (see: www.medifast1.com)
I found the excessive use of exclamation points and the overuse of the word 'baby' more annoying than motivating. ("I'm going to teach you how to set that cute little body of yours on fire!", "Oh yeah!", "I am strong!", "You just have to look for them!", "Start cranking out the Blast, Firm & Burn workouts, baby!", "You can turn up the heat & go full throttle, baby!", "You're cooking with gas, baby!") While I understand she is trying to be sensitive to her readers, I highly doubt she uses this same tactic in a gym setting as a personal trainer.
Overall, any weight loss/exercise program boils down to the same things. It takes self determination and motivation. People make a choice every day as to whether they will or they won't. If you have picked up a copy of this book and are making a real conscience effort towards change, then this book will most likely work. It is laid out in a very specific plan for each week with ideas to help keep you on the right track and additional advice of what to do if you are not seeing the results you thought you would.
Still, I am convinced that any person who adapts a common sense, portion controlled diet, drinks more water than any other beverage and does some kind of moderate physical activity at least 30 minutes per day would see a comparable result in the same time frame.
quit
February 27, 2012Flipped through this book at the library over the weekend. It basically describes, in sexed-up terms, exactly how I lost 20 lbs in the past 2 months. Except I didn't read the book first, I just kind of made it up on my own. Would recommend to all the people asking me how I did it.
January 22, 2012
I think if there are two strong points that Amy Cotta has in "Six Weeks to Skinny Jeans," it's her distinctive passion for her field and the way she presents the narrative in an easy to understand format. Usually in diet guides of multiple types, I look for those that are easily accessible, have a fair amount of information that would be useful to the person seeking to change their lifestyle, and something that can stand on its own as a reference to return to.
"Six Weeks" definitely aces the easily accessible challenge. Cotta's tone is conversational (as if you had your own personal trainer in the room with you), encouraging, as well as informative. She makes the concepts in the work very easy to understand and proceeds in a sequential form of what aspects to focus on - falling in the measure of examining mind, body, and diet in a six week program tackling everything from specific dietary regimens, to exercises, to encouragement as the reader takes the specific steps towards their weight loss goals.
The "fair amount of information" part is decent, though I wouldn't say it goes beyond most dietary guidelines if you've read a number of them. The encouragement/mental/motivational parts of the guide I thought could've been a bit more expanded upon, because it's helpful for people to know whether they're ready to start exercising yet and address the barriers they have to exercising. She addresses them in brief, but perhaps not to the depth I was hoping for in the guide, even for a six week training program. The information on specific exercises and dietary regimens, however, are well advised (though arguably for the dietary portion, that's more on individual guideline recommendations. Some people may be able to simply control their portion sizes and still manage to lose the weight depending on how regularly they exercise and how many meals they eat in a day. As I've always been taught, and have reiterated to people I know - there's no one set recipe for someone to be able to change their lifestyle in a positive way, and be able to reach their fitness/weight goals. You have to tailor it to where you can work past your comfort zone in a feasible way, and any good trainer will work with you to see how you can best meet your goals. Since this is primarily a DIY guide, I understand that she's distinctly setting the guidelines for this regimen for people who want to try it and see if it works for them.) Her information on the basic assessments (RPE, average caloric intake, etc.) are also great, and easy to pick up on when reading the guide for the beginner.
As for the "can it stand on its own?" measure of things - it would be dependent on the reader. Beginners with no other special needs/considerations could probably pick this up and run with it. I somewhat wish Cotta would've noted the PAR-Q or something like it to have the reader assess what they would like to do/accomplish in the weight loss measures.
It's easy to understand and follow, though it asks for specific adherence that I think may not be necessary for some, and those who may have special considerations beyond this guide may need additional information beyond this. I personally haven't tried the six week intervention method she prescribes (I read this more as a reference book), but the fact that she includes a dietary guide, in-text exercises (including reference points to her blog - which works fine from what I was able to peruse), and various healthy recipes automatically add bonus points to this particular work.
So, what other caveats to this guide are there? Well, depending on what angle you're sitting as you're reading this book, it may not be comprehensive enough to consider you if you have special needs (if you're diabetic or if you have specific physical limitations or something of that nature). Also, while Cotta's tone is conversational and certainly optimistic, her use of terms like "baby" and a plethora of exclamation points might make one a bit weary. It didn't bother me really, I was laughing quite a bit because the tone's so light and her energy is infectious, but I'll admit it was something that stood out so much that it was hard not to notice it, and I could see a potential for it to be overmuch. She's sometimes funny and other times the humor's a little off-kilter, but that might just be up to personal preference. :P
Overall, I enjoyed reading this, but I would say that there were considerations I think Cotta could've included in this guide to make it more comprehensive for women, and some recommendations that I think were a little too general for a reader to really take home and resonate with them for a lifetime weight loss program. Temporary weight loss sure, but I would prefer a guide that emphasizes more of a program that one could take with them for lifetime wellness considerations.
Overall score: 3/5
Note: I received this as an ARC from NetGalley, from the publisher Rodale.
"Six Weeks" definitely aces the easily accessible challenge. Cotta's tone is conversational (as if you had your own personal trainer in the room with you), encouraging, as well as informative. She makes the concepts in the work very easy to understand and proceeds in a sequential form of what aspects to focus on - falling in the measure of examining mind, body, and diet in a six week program tackling everything from specific dietary regimens, to exercises, to encouragement as the reader takes the specific steps towards their weight loss goals.
The "fair amount of information" part is decent, though I wouldn't say it goes beyond most dietary guidelines if you've read a number of them. The encouragement/mental/motivational parts of the guide I thought could've been a bit more expanded upon, because it's helpful for people to know whether they're ready to start exercising yet and address the barriers they have to exercising. She addresses them in brief, but perhaps not to the depth I was hoping for in the guide, even for a six week training program. The information on specific exercises and dietary regimens, however, are well advised (though arguably for the dietary portion, that's more on individual guideline recommendations. Some people may be able to simply control their portion sizes and still manage to lose the weight depending on how regularly they exercise and how many meals they eat in a day. As I've always been taught, and have reiterated to people I know - there's no one set recipe for someone to be able to change their lifestyle in a positive way, and be able to reach their fitness/weight goals. You have to tailor it to where you can work past your comfort zone in a feasible way, and any good trainer will work with you to see how you can best meet your goals. Since this is primarily a DIY guide, I understand that she's distinctly setting the guidelines for this regimen for people who want to try it and see if it works for them.) Her information on the basic assessments (RPE, average caloric intake, etc.) are also great, and easy to pick up on when reading the guide for the beginner.
As for the "can it stand on its own?" measure of things - it would be dependent on the reader. Beginners with no other special needs/considerations could probably pick this up and run with it. I somewhat wish Cotta would've noted the PAR-Q or something like it to have the reader assess what they would like to do/accomplish in the weight loss measures.
It's easy to understand and follow, though it asks for specific adherence that I think may not be necessary for some, and those who may have special considerations beyond this guide may need additional information beyond this. I personally haven't tried the six week intervention method she prescribes (I read this more as a reference book), but the fact that she includes a dietary guide, in-text exercises (including reference points to her blog - which works fine from what I was able to peruse), and various healthy recipes automatically add bonus points to this particular work.
So, what other caveats to this guide are there? Well, depending on what angle you're sitting as you're reading this book, it may not be comprehensive enough to consider you if you have special needs (if you're diabetic or if you have specific physical limitations or something of that nature). Also, while Cotta's tone is conversational and certainly optimistic, her use of terms like "baby" and a plethora of exclamation points might make one a bit weary. It didn't bother me really, I was laughing quite a bit because the tone's so light and her energy is infectious, but I'll admit it was something that stood out so much that it was hard not to notice it, and I could see a potential for it to be overmuch. She's sometimes funny and other times the humor's a little off-kilter, but that might just be up to personal preference. :P
Overall, I enjoyed reading this, but I would say that there were considerations I think Cotta could've included in this guide to make it more comprehensive for women, and some recommendations that I think were a little too general for a reader to really take home and resonate with them for a lifetime weight loss program. Temporary weight loss sure, but I would prefer a guide that emphasizes more of a program that one could take with them for lifetime wellness considerations.
Overall score: 3/5
Note: I received this as an ARC from NetGalley, from the publisher Rodale.
September 9, 2016
Killer workout but the diet is nothing new. Book talks a lot about resources available on the website but none were available at the time of my reading. I even spoke with the author on the book’s facebook page who assured me my issues would be responded to but 3 months later, still nothing. This lack of customer service and general support makes me leery. Although many of the exercises are shown in the book (they did NOT appear in the Kindle galley version, however) the promised videos would be helpful to most readers. Everyone I spoke with, though, was unable to access these videos or the promised “support forum” as the website just seems to be a shell. This lack of support is worrisome and until those issues are fixed, I would hold off on any purchase of this book because it does not, in fact, work well as a standalone product.
ARC Galley Proof
ARC Galley Proof
October 14, 2012
very basic...which is what I was looking for. just needed a guidelines and a few recipes. All the workouts and stuff not necessary. But it helped me find my fitness pal...so i am happy for that! AND best of all...the diet works for me (and i am eating fruit which is forbidden in the first 3 weeks).
March 20, 2012
I think everyone should challenge themselves, and this is my next self-challenege! Let me know if you want to join me :)
November 15, 2012
more for aging women..disappointing.
July 11, 2012
Nothing I can't find in a monthly woman's magazine.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews