The Secret to Skinny Book Review

An article by Joanna    1 Comment

I was super excited to get the opportunity to review The Secret to Skinny: How Salt Makes You Fat and the 4-week Plan to Drop a Size & Get Healthier with Simple Low-Sodium Swaps by Tammy Lakatos Shames, RD and Lyssie Lakatos, RD The Nutrition Twins – and not just because the Nutrition Twins are so absolutely sweet and fun to work with. Here’s my thoughts on the book:

My Take

Salt – it’s one of my secret enemies. When I first met my husband, I often wondered why he even used a salt shaker at all. I can remember asking him once or twice if he wouldn’t just prefer I go out and get him a salt block to lick – that’s how much salt he was pouring on his food! When he had a heart attack at the age of 26 and had to change his eating habits, the salt was one of the first things to go. When I was offered a chance to review The Secret to Skinny by the Nutrition Twins (who are absolutely sweet and friendly), I was super excited. See, I’ve been fighting my own salt war for a while, and the more I learned about salt, the more I wanted to cut it out of my diet.

I absolutely love the menus and food suggestions offered in this book – they are not only delicious, but also totally doable. I absolutely hate it when a diet plan is really just not realistic to use for the long term, but the Nutrition Twins are definitely on to something with their menus and recipes. I really love the appendix in the back that has the JumpStart foods listed in a table – it’s super easy to see the serving size, calories and sodium content of the foods, which is a big winner when trying to lose weight and follow their menus. The ability to customize the menus with the foods in the tables is also super helpful, that way I can use the foods that I already have in the pantry or are on sale that week at the grocery store. It really helps my frugal side to be able to customize!

Personally, I love this book and the way it breaks down what I need to do – including how to exercise – to get the weight loss that I’m after. I would give it as a gift to any member of my family, but especially the women because I think they have more of a chance of reading it than most of the men in my family. It’s not that the men couldn’t use it, but typically if the women in the family are on board to make a change, the men don’t stand a chance. However, that does not work the other way – so it’s important to get the women on board first! Anyone who is interested in losing weight and/or interested in learning more about nutrition could really use this book. I would even consider it for some of my bride-to-be friends. The information is laid out well, and super easy to read. I really think you will love this book as much as I do!

The Perfect Gift For…
This book is the perfect gift for anyone who is interested in nutrition and wellness. I would also recommend giving it to someone who you know is struggling to lose weight, as long as you are close enough to them that it will not offend them (some people are offended by weight loss gifts I know, so I definitely wouldn’t recommend you getting in trouble at the holiday!). For me, I will likely be giving this book to my mother-in-law, because I know it’s something that she would be very interested in reading.

Disclosure
I received a free copy of this book to facilitate my review. I received no other compensation for writing it and was not required to write a positive review. The opinions in my review are honest and my own.