Cook This, Not That

Today I purchased the newest of the weight-loss guides from the Eat This, Not That authors David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding, and I have begun reading it trying to take in all the new information. This latest version tells you what foods you should choose when shopping at the grocery store to cook your own dinners. That's right, it is telling you that you need to cook your own food. Why? Because you have control over what you eat, how much a portion is, and how it is cooked. Case Closed.

The book then proceeds to help you out by color coding from best to worst things such as meats, carbs, diary, and even fats that we cook with. It even gives you a best food index with things such as blueberries, almonds, dark chocolate, and red bell pepper. The best thing about this book is when it gives you something that you should eat or not eat it tells you in plain English why or why not! Let me take an example of the Red Bell Pepper, because that was a new one I have never heard before... According to Cook This, Not That, it is "the best food for surviving flu season." Why is it? "Vitamin C is essential to your liver's ability to eliminate tocins, and vitamin A increases the efficacy of white blood cells and antibodies. A red bell pepper has twice as much vitamin C as an orange and three times as much A as a tomato." It is the little things like this that I find helpful when learning what is the right thing to eat, because lets face it, not everyone knows what they should or should not eat. We have a general idea, but sometimes we underestimate our generalizations.

The book likes to give little facts or "Nutritional Nuggets" as they would like to call them, all throughout the book which people tend to remember a little easier than all these facts and to dos coming at you. What is truly great about this version compared to the others is that it is essentially a cook book! The Cook This part contains recipes that aren't afraid to use a little fat every now and then but healthy foods for you. And they are things we tend to eat all the time, not some crazy diet, broccoli a la fritz yada-yada.... things like quesodillas and chicken fingers! I love both of those!

The point is that these books are very insightful to how you look at food no matter which one you buy. I now own 3 of them. They make you think about what you are eating and give you the facts about them and they don't hold back. The writers are witty and humorous while being knowledgeable at the same time. Its not dieting in a sense but a way to change how you eat by helping you make better choices.

I haven't tried any of these recipes yet but I plan to this week, so I will let you know how it goes and if they are worth a try. I am also going to start reading Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kin Barnouin because I hear that the book puts you in your place and lets you know how it is when it comes to dieting. And lets face it, sometimes when we see a pretty skinny girl we call her a skinny bitch in our heads.


You can purchase your own copy of Cook This, Not That at a local bookstore or if you are an online shopper, Here at Amazon.com.

Disclaimer: I do not own Cook This, Not That or Skinny Bitch and I used qoutes from these books and are not my own.

I will be writing again in a few days to tell you hour the "lifestyle change" is going and to let you know what I am doing to cut calories among other things.

Katelyn