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May 03, 2011

BarkLessWagMore rated it:

Well, this book mostly made my head hurt. She makes a few helpful suggestions such as throwing out everything in your fridge and cabinet that didn't grow in the earth or have a mother (does that mean we can eat people?!) and she tells you to eat 4 small meals, 4 x's a day and not to eat after 9 but I learned a whole lot more about hormones and how they effect your body and your metabolism than I ever wanted to know. I seriously don't think I'll retain any of it as I couldn't stay focused on th More...

29 comments like (13 people liked it)

Jun 27, 2011

Heather rated it:

I love Jillian Michaels. Some people whine about her tough love approach, but like it or lump it, what she says is the truth. You are not going to get healthy if you continue to eat crap, processed foods and if you don't challenge your body for at least 5 hours a week. Taking the stairs instead of the elevator a few times a week is NOT going to cut it - you have to work your ass off. Switching to low-fat or "diet" crap food isn't going to do it, either. Eat REAL food, just eat less of More...

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Feb 02, 2011

Cornerofmadness rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Dec 26, 2010

Erin rated it:

I read this book from cover to cover and changed my diet completely. Before it, I was keeping myself at 1200 to 1400 calories a day and honestly I was losing about a 1/2 pound to a pound a week...but i was miserably hungry and had no energy and was pretty grumpy. If I went over my calories by having a glass on wine or dessert I would gain a couple pounds right away - it was not making sense! Once I read this book I learned about how certain foods, toxins, preservatives, etc...effect your hormo More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 03, 2010

Lauren rated it:

I generally avoid fad diet and fitness books by celebrities. So I was surprised a couple months back to read a recommendation for this book in an article about natural eating - not only in the article but also in the comments section. So I put it on hold at the library and then, once I got it, let it sit on my desk for a couple of weeks - I mean, yes, I watch The Biggest Loser, but well, Jillian Michaels doesn't exactly limit her endorsements to natural products. But after finally reading this b More...

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Apr 24, 2010

Caroline rated it:

As a lifelong dieter who has "tried everything," I found Jillian Michael's book to be informative and thought provoking. It prompted me to do a lot more reading and thinking about the impact that processed foods, artificial sweeteners and other chemical additives have had on the functioning of my body. I want to emphasize this first because I think that this is probably the greatest value of having a book like this out on mainstream bestseller lists.

Having said that, here's More...

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Mar 12, 2010

Brad rated it:

I read this book because I got it free from Parade Magazine. I normally wouldn't read Jillian because she's always seemed like too much of a self-promoter for me to take her seriously. But I also thought this would be an interesting read given that my wife is a dietitian. I would read a section and then quiz her to see what she thought. Generally, Jillian's research was in-line with what my wife had learned. In fact, by the end I sort of found myself skimming and saying, "Michelle alrea More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 21, 2010

Wendi rated it:

I really started out liking this book. She has really good solid research and information. But the further into the book I got the more and more extreme she got. Which is why some people really love her. I thought her theory was intriguing but seemed totally impractical to actually practice. I whole heartily agree in eating healthy and taking care of your body. I am sitting on the fence over organic foods. But she really started to lose me on the toxic environment we live in with all man More...

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Sep 12, 2009

Carol rated it:

All nutrition books say this is not a diet...but I have to say this is not a diet. Jullian Michaels (love her or hate her, Biggest Loser fans) goes into great length on chemicals in our foods that do not belong in our bodies. Further, she recommends eating all organic. I will be a while considering that one at the current price of a gallon of organic milk, as a for instance. But I have no argument with the premise that we are eating alot of chemicals and non food additives that cannot be good fo More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 08, 2009

Richard rated it:

I was prepared to like this book, and I expected to like it, but in the end I had a number of problems with it. First, the 2 chapters on hormones were really confusing. I'm a reasonably intelligent reader, but after awhile, my eyes just glazed over. There was a lot of information presented, and not always presented well.

Second, and much more importantly, there is a second topic to the book that is not mentioned in the title. Michaels has a certain world view about local farmers, on More...

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Jun 06, 2009

Nicole added it

Well....I love Jillian on The Biggest Loser, and I totally get what she's saying- "If it didn't have a mother or grow in the ground, don't eat it". I get it. HFC's are bad. Processed food is bad. Plastics are bad. I get it. However, I'm not liking this "all-or-nothing" approach to the book. Jillian leaves absolutely no wiggle room in the plan for the occasional piece of birthday cake or slice of pizza with friends. Or the need for Tupperware when you've got three kids and lef More...

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May 24, 2009

Robynhode rated it:

I've read MANY health and exercise books in my time, but this one is probably up there with the best. Jillian, with clear insights from others in sports medicine, health science and endocrinologists, has potentially discovered what it takes to get a person's metabolism back into balance because of the discovery of so many items that is wreaking havoc with our hormone balance, that ultimately, controls how hard it is to lose fat from the body. I was taken aback a little bit that she gets into har More...

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May 03, 2009

Patricia rated it:

I just wanted a basic book explaining how our metabolism works and how the hormones in out bodies interract. It was extremly basic. I am fascinated by the idea of eating well to improve health, and it touched on some information that I was looking for. This book was examined how our foods negatively impact our general health. Her reccomendations are pretty extreme and encourage eating only organic foods. I already don't eat food with preservatives, and make meticulous desicions about how my fami More...

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Apr 13, 2009

Patty rated it:

Let me first say that in the past year I have increasingly been drawn to basic foods (without all the packaging etc.) and have loved it. My favorite breakfast is a hot cereal made of oats, millet, quinoa and other grains. My husband makes bread in our house. We've increased our fruits and veggies. Still I think that many people take "organic" too far for our family.

Jillian starts out with her experiences of her childhood and her connections to food and then goes on to her y More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 12, 2010

Julie rated it:

I've been a little bit of a healthy lifestyle reading obsession. Not that I have really changed my lifestyle too much yet as a result, but I'm intrigued by the info out there. This one I actually only read about half. While most of it I believe is true, it is so DOOMSDAY about food and everything around you. Every plastic you touch and every food you eat will give you cancer eventually! I'm sorry but I will not spend twice as much on organic. Who can afford it?
It has made me paranoid More...

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Apr 01, 2010

Barky added it

There are a lot of things going on inside of our bodies that can easily get unbalanced - we're apparently more delicate than we know. Jillian Michaels identifies some of the things in our diets and lifestyles that can wreak havoc on our metabolisms and undermine our efforts/ability to lose weight/maintain a healthy weight.

Even skimming this, I found it a little bit overwhelming. Seems like the side-effects of a lot of different chemicals/hormones were similar. Best thing to do mig More...

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Mar 14, 2010

Natalie rated it:

I was not expecting an informed and well written book from Jillian Michaels. I have never seen her on The Biggest Loser but I am a big fan of her workout dvds. I reserved this book a the library because I thought it was fitness book or workout book, not a nutrition book.
I was pleasantly surprised! The book is in the line of Micheal Pollan's In Defense of Food, or the Skinny Bitch book, with a message to eat whole, unprocessed natural foods, eat organic,avoid chemicals in the diet and surr More...

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Apr 15, 2010

Felicia rated it:

This book was especially helpful to me since I have hypothyroidism. The list of foods to avoid and foods that may help my condition with explanations as to why was very helpful. I liked the in depth explanations of different hormones as someone who had no idea about how they really worked going into the book. I am torn between liking Jillian and hating that she is always selling products, but I think that this is a very good book with a lot of good information in it - information that is read More...

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Jan 12, 2010

Angela rated it:

I love this book! Ok, well kind of. It is jam packed full of information about everything you eat. It gives you short detailed information about what your body does with food and different types of food do to your body. I am morbidly obese and was thinking of going vegan only for the health reasons. But I think God put animals on this earth to be eaten so I was struggling with cutting something purposely placed here as food out of my diet. I think that Jillian's plan is the next best thing. She More...

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Apr 26, 2011

Leiah rated it:

This book reminded me of "Skinny Bitch" in that it's sort of a Cause in disguise. "Skinny Bitch" looks on first glance to be about getting skinny - and it is - but it's more about Veganism. "Master Your Metabolism" sounds like it's going to be about secrets to burning off tons of fat, but it's secretly about the importance of buying Organic foods.

Jillian had some good advice - about environmental toxins and the benefits of buying organic foods & supportin More...

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Jul 31, 2011

Stephanie rated it:

This book has great information on how processed foods and the environment in which we eat/get certain foods can effect our health. I found some contradictions however. It talks about how you need to be careful eating flax seeds, for example, due to it having other omegas than omega 3 and you can get too many from it. Then in the recipe section it has recipes that use flax. Another example is how she preaches about whole foods, but then uses instant oatmeal packets in several of the recipes. More...

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Aug 04, 2009

Kathy rated it:

I love Jillian Michaels. She is my kind of girl and I can totally relate to her in most ways. I do have mixed emotions about her book. Most of the things she is talking about in here I already know and it was a good kick in the butt to up the anti with my diet. I have been working on slowly cleaning things up this past year to eat more natural and stay away from processed foods and artificial colors/sweeteners/flavorings. Organic is more difficult. Veggies are easy in the summer when I can grow More...

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Apr 14, 2011

Delores rated it:

This is my first delve into reading a nutrition book. The book is fairly easy to read once you get past all the detail JM provides. Many times I skimmed over that stuff. However, I found that I did learn quite a bit. Some was familiar having read it before in magazine articles or online.

Jillian's plan is fairly simple: Remove, Restore, Rebalance. Remove unhealthy foods and toxins, restore healthy foods, rebalance your energy by doing the following: eat breakfast, eat every 4 hours ( More...

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Aug 06, 2009

Cindy rated it:

Another book of "secrets" to a perfect body. Sadly, I must report that this is once again not the case. There are no secrets. She also uses up a bunch of pages with recipes, which I find particularly annoying in this kind of book. It's just a space-filler in my opinion.

On the other hand, there is some really useful (and scary) information about plastics and how they affect our hormones and our metabolism. The book is worth the price just for those chapters. I was so h More...

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May 24, 2011

Yaritsa rated it:

It took me a while to pick up this book because I thought it would be full of terminology I might not grasp and unrealistic diet advice, but was very pleasantly surprise. Jillian does a great job at explaining what things are, how they work (or why they're not working), and what you can do to repair them. Yes, there are a ton of hormones listed and no, I don't readily remember them at the end of the book, but I think of this book as a great reference guide. Something I can come back to. By all m More...

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Jul 13, 2009

Lauren rated it:

This book was really a fascinating read, and I learned quite a bit about label reading and making sure I'm not putting as many chemicals into my body. While I've tried to adopt an organic diet, I'm finding it incredibly expensive. I can't believe how much healthy food costs! No wonder Americans are so fat. Crap food = cheap food.

Jillian also recommends the website skindeep.com for information on cosmetics. I had already begun reading skindeep before this book, but now, I am a devout More...

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Jun 16, 2011

Leane rated it:

This book has changed my life, and anyone who says it is too difficult for the average person to understand is mistaken. I found this book to be highly interesting, it pertains to my life, and it has gotten my dieting/weight loss back on track. The title may sound boring, but Jillian Michaels is basically giving everyone the chance to learn about how what we eat messes with our bodies. I have eliminated much of the processed foods from my diet for the past two weeks and have finally seen some More...

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Mar 01, 2010

Anna rated it:

There were some things in this book I really liked - she is straight to the point about all the crap we eat. I'm on a mission this year to eliminate HFCS from our diets and this book was a recommendation from a friend b/c of that. As someone with a thyroid disorder I was interested in that aspect (Jillian is also hypothyroid).

While I think some of the wisdom is great some of it is pretty unrealistic. A lot of it is pretty common stuff - eat fish, eat nuts, don't eat crap, etc.
More...

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Oct 09, 2009

Carrie rated it:

I enjoyed this book and would suggest to anyone wanting to learn more about what your metabloisim actually is, how it works, and how we can control it. I learned a lot. Many of the suggestions in the book would just be to difficult for me to put into place at this time in my life. But there are many things i think I can do and change that will make a BIG difference. Such as, eating breakfast EVERY day and not waiting till 11 or noon to do so! that is something I already knew, of course, but More...

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Sep 04, 2010

Ryan Zimmerman rated it:

A very good book that makes a lot of sense.
My only critiques are her comments on enriched flower and Thiomersal.
She wants us to eat whole grains, which are very good – but enriched flower isn’t bad. Enriched flower initially replaced whole grain in the middle ages because of health concerns (whole gain was more prone to fungi and mold – not really big problems now but a killer back then). White flower does have some nutrients stripped, and enrichment puts them back and then some (enr More...

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