How We Did It: Weight Loss Choices That Will Work for You!

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How We Did It: Weight Loss Choices That Will Work for You!

by Nancy B. Kennedy (Goodreads Author)

3.56 of 5 stars 3.56 · rating details · 9 ratings · 4 reviews

In How We Did It, Nancy Kennedy tells the stories of those who have tried just about every weight-loss program available, facing frustration but ultimately succeeding. These stories will inspire, inform, and encourage you to find the plan that will work for you, whether a name brand plan or one of your own making.

Weight loss plans are too often presented as one-size-fits-...more

Paperback, 223 pages

Published December 6th 2011 by ACU Press/Leafwood Publishers

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Mar 01, 2012 Melissa rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

When I checked my email one morning and saw that I won this book from Goodreads First Reads program, I immediately got excited. As the days went on before I received the book, that excitement turned to dread. Another diet book, I thought. Yippee. I figured I would read it anyway. After all, I got it for free; I might as well put in a bit of effort and go through the whole thing. As usual, I scanned the back cover and chapter titles as soon as I pulled it out of the packaging. Something really ca...more When I checked my email one morning and saw that I won this book from Goodreads First Reads program, I immediately got excited. As the days went on before I received the book, that excitement turned to dread. Another diet book, I thought. Yippee. I figured I would read it anyway. After all, I got it for free; I might as well put in a bit of effort and go through the whole thing. As usual, I scanned the back cover and chapter titles as soon as I pulled it out of the packaging. Something really caught my attention:
This is not a diet book.
That’s right. This is not one of those books. You know the ones – they tell you to eat and do things that sound crazy. They want you to do something like “Eat only cauliflower and plain chicken for a month and watch the pounds melt away,” or other things that seem impossible for normal people. I know those kinds of crazy diets work for some people. I always assume those people have 9-5 jobs and don’t have to cook for other people ever. Also that they have no taste buds or joy in life. (Those assumptions are probably blatantly not true, but it’s what I generally think). Working retail doesn’t always offer regular hours that stay the same week to week, which makes it difficult to stick to one of the schedules usually mandated by the stricter diets. However, this is not one of those books anyway, so that doesn’t matter right now.
This book is full of weight-loss success stories from normal people. How We Did It shows over two dozen changed lives and almost as many programs and diets. Each person tells his or her stories through interviews with the author. After the success story, each person gets the opportunity to thank those who helped them reach their goals, followed by their own little tips for the reader. Kennedy then offers a quote from a book or other media related to the program under discussion and a brief analysis. One of my favorite parts is the checklist at the end of each story. “This plan might work for me because…” with a short list of things the reader is looking for or thinks he can handle that would work well with the program.
The first featured story talks about SparkPeople. I never heard of this website before reading this. I signed up two days ago. It’s not a specific program; rather, it provides lots of tools and support. I haven’t explored it very much yet, but it certainly has me intrigued. It’s a free website (which is one reason I chose to look into it). I also plan to purchase the book Thin Within based on the description in chapter 6. It’s a Christian approach to weight loss that looks at weight in light of a relationship with God.
How We Did It features specific diets (Atkins, South Beach, Zone, Nutrisystem, and Jenny Craig), do-it-yourself tools (SparkPeople, calorie-counting, personal trainers), support groups (Weight Watchers, Overeaters Anonymous, Recovery from Food Addiction, and the Duke Diet &Fitness Center), surgeries, and other programs (the Pritikin Program, First Place 4 Health, 3D, Body-for-Life, Curves, and the Ornish Program).
I cannot recommend this book enough to anyone curious about different weight-loss (and weight-loss-maintenance) methods. Kennedy does a great job presenting each of the featured options in an equal light, allowing the reader to decide what works best in his individual situation.
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Feb 26, 2012 Vee41dmb rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

I was really surprised and pleased with this book.
I read it in about two days. I liked how it was broken down into simple sections of each person's tale. It covered a wide range of ways that people lost weight and often mentioned that must people used multiple methods. This book was very inspiring to read and left me feeling hopeful.
thank you.

Also, I do want to note that I am a atheist. There is some spiritual mentions in through out the book, but i never found them to be pushy or forced upon th...more

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Sep 01, 2012 Kara rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: weight

The human mind has the flight-or-fight hard wired into it in order to survive dangerous situation. Faced with things like fangs and claws, chemicals are involuntarily pumped into the blood stream, muscles tense, pupils dilate, and we are prepped to either start running from a saber tooth tiger or hunting down a woolly mammoth.

Today, the response is still there, ready to help us out in car accidents, natural disasters, muggings, or other times we find ourselves in danger.

Sometimes, however, our...more

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Dec 04, 2012 Jackie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Interesting book with stories about how people lost weight. The vast majority lost over 100 lbs. They were successful using various diets and most of them had tried different types of diets. There was no one diet is the best in this book. The message is to find a diet you can live with and then go for it.

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Q&A with Nanc...: Ask your weight loss questions	5	2	Mar 22, 2012 10:30am
Q&A with Nanc...: Meet the folks in How We Did It	7	4	Mar 15, 2012 05:57am
Q&A with Nanc...: Share your weight loss story	2	2	Feb 27, 2012 10:33am
Q&A with Nanc...: * Welcome!	1	1	Feb 25, 2012 09:50am

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About Nancy B. Kennedy

I am the author of a series of books titled Miracles and Moments of Grace, which are anthologies of inspiring stories. The three titles (so far!) are: Inspiring Stories from Moms, http://www.amazon.com/Miracles-Moment...; Inspiring Stories from Military Chaplains http://www.amazon.com/Miracles-Moment...; and Inspiring Stories from Doctors http://www.amazon.com/Miracles-Moment...

I have also publis...more I am the author of a series of books titled Miracles and Moments of Grace, which are anthologies of inspiring stories. The three titles (so far!) are: Inspiring Stories from Moms, http://www.amazon.com/Miracles-Moment...; Inspiring Stories from Military Chaplains http://www.amazon.com/Miracles-Moment...; and Inspiring Stories from Doctors http://www.amazon.com/Miracles-Moment...

I have also published a book of weight loss success stories titled How We Did It: Weight Loss Choices that Will Work for You http://www.amazon.com/How-We-Did-Weig.... I have also written two books of children's science activities. I write articles and personal essays for books, magazines and newspapers and am a member of the Authors Guild. I worked in newspapers for many years, including a stint as an editor for Dow Jones’s pioneering computer news service, for which I edited both The Wall Street Journal and Barron's.

As a financial freelance writer, I worked for many newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times and the online Wall Street Journal, and for the financial services firm Merrill Lynch. As an editor, I worked for such well-respected publishing houses as Princeton University Press and Ecco Press, now an imprint of HarperCollins.

I am the author of a series of books titled Miracles and Moments of Grace, which are anthologies of inspiring stories. The three titles are: Inspiring Stories from Military Chaplains http://www.amazon.com/Miracles-Moment...; Inspiring Stories from Doctors http://www.amazon.com/How-We-Did-Weig.... The third title, Inspiring Stories from Moms releases in March 2013. http://www.amazon.com/Miracles-Moment...

I have also published a book of weight loss success stories titled How We Did It: Weight Loss Choices that Will Work for You (Leafwood, 2011) http://www.amazon.com/How-We-Did-Weig.... I have also written two books of children's science activities. I write articles and personal essays for books, magazines and newspapers and am a member of the Authors Guild.

Visit my website at http://www.nancybkennedy.com website, or the How We Did It blog at http://www.howwediditbook.blogspot.com. You can follow my books on their facebook pages and I am also on facebook, http://www.facebook.com/nancybkennedy..., where I would be delighted to be your friend.
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More about Nancy B. Kennedy...

Books by Nancy B. Kennedy

Miracles and Moments of Grace: Inspiring Stories from Moms

Miracles and Moments of Grace: Inspiring Stories from Military Chaplains

Miracles and Moments of Grace: Inspiring Stories from Doctors

Miracles & Moments of Grace: Inspiring Stories from Moms

Make It, Shake It, Mix It Up: 44 Bible Stories Brought to Life with Science

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