The 17 day diet - Book review

“The 17 day diet”, like every other book that helps you reduce weight, has a motivating title.  What’s even more convincing is the fact that the book is written by a trust-worthy reputed doctor. And that’s how I ordered a copy of  “The17 day diet” by Dr. Mike Moreno, in the hope of shelling out some pounds in a healthy way. And here’s how my body and mind reacted to this book. Read on to know if the book will really do the magic on you!

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The first thing I look for in any book is a single, meaningful quote from the author. You can find them in most of the books written by insightful authors, italicized and centered on a full page. That single thought would convey what the author wants to imbibe in the readers and help develop the required wavelength to make the book work well for us. In that way, this book too had  a rumination from the author. 

“We’ve all pledged, promised and bullied ourselves to eat better and exercise more, but so many times even the best intentions fall short. I incorporate healthy habits into my work and home life and you can too.”

So true are his words that I realized that even after mourning a whole day over my fat belly, I would irresponsibly have cashew  pudding for dinner.

Just a glance of the contents can help you understand the stages which the book will help us cross.

Cycle 1- Accelerate: Encourages rapid weight loss, cleansing and fat burning. Discourages fat storage.

Cycle 2- Activate: Resets the metabolism.

Cycle 3- Achieve: Develop good eating habits, re-teach yourself how to eat carbs.

Cycle 4- Arrive: A combination of the first three Cycles. On weekends, enjoy your favorite foods.

Each stage is righty termed a cycle as the path across the stage is not linear. This is a very important realization in the context of weight reduction as we cannot and should not be hurrying to cross all stages. Instead we should give our body enough time to correct itself from its usual unhealthy behavior.

Just because of 17 days being a very small number as against 6-month or 1-year training programs, I expected it to be a crash course or a unhealthily drastic weight reducing regimen. But only after following the recipes mentioned there, I realized how small changes in our diet could cause herculean impact on the way we look and feel. This is actually the truth. We aren’t asked to apply a chemical around our belly or to wear an electronic belt that would burn the excess calories for us, while we happily relax in front of the TV. There is no operation suggested or any exercising equipment advertised. All we are asked to do is cut our fatty intake, and follow our early ancestors’ healthy eating habit. It’s only that we haven’t had the realization that “Clean and healthy food habits are more than enough to help lose weight as fast as possible”!

The book mainly stresses the importance of concentrating on eating healthy rather than eating less to lose weight quickly.

And the next focus is on controlling the hunger which comes when we eat more of fruits and vegetables and less of carbs. Their tip to take green tea every morning worked out really well for me! Whenever I felt hungry or tired, I would just take a cup of green tea or water. It not only made me take less of junk food, the water made my skin clearer than before!

The doctor also gives a 17 minute exercise to be done everyday to help the low calorie nutrients work well in keeping us fit. I do this exercise every morning soon as I get up and it gives me freshness all through the day, which I hadn’t felt ever before.

I am on the 5 th day of the diet plan and I have lost 5 lbs! I am planning to do some more of walking and swimming in addition to the tips from the book to accelerate my weight losing process!

1. The book doesn’t expect the readers to spend money other than buying the book. All recipes advised are simple, available at home and easy to prepare.
2. The entire writing is motivating enough to help one stay optimistic about the entire idea of losing weight in a very short period.
3. The very basis of the book lies in advocating the fact that “Clean and healthy food habits are more than enough to help lose weight as fast as possible”.
4. The book is well organized into 4 coherent cycles and each cycle is well elaborated.
5. The foods advised are natural and easily digestible. And the exercises advocated are pretty easy to follow and practice. So, this diet plan can be followed by people of all ages.

1. The book can only be purchased online and that too in a limited number of places.
2. The book encourages only natural weight reducing measures and nothing chemical/electronic with side-effects. With all this, though the book claims that the prescribed plan itself will change the metabolic activity of the body to maintain this weight for a long time, the sudden lose of weight will not always retain if we return to our previous eating habit on the 18^th day.
3. In-depth insights could have been given regarding the goodness of everyday fruits and vegetables, grains and pulses we use.
4. The exercises including the 17 minute work-out could have been a bit intense. If not for all ages, some specific exercise techniques could have been made optional for those who are young enough to do.

This book claims to have been exclusively created to keep in good shape even after the holidays as most Americans tend to eat negligently during the vacation in the name of Christmas. However, I feel you can read the book and practice its diet whenever you feel your clothes getting tighter on you! Also, the goal of the book is to reduce the belly fat which is a visible sign of obesity and ill health.

I started off by smelling the book and fanning myself with its pages, the way I do with any book I read, before I realized that this was not a book to be read and forgotten.