| Why Your Last Diet Failed You And How This Book | | | | including Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, South Beach, |
| Won't Help You on Your Next One | | | | and Body for Life. He does not harp on any of these |
| | | | diet plans. In fact, he recommends them all. Because, |
| (Lockshire Press, 2007) | | | | as he rightly points out, every person is different, thus |
| Pages: 210 | | | | every diet can aide at least one person. Choosing a |
| ISBN: 978-0-9749732-6-5 | | | | diet is a personality match. There is no right way or |
| Price: $16.96, paperback | | | | one way to approach weight loss. Despite the many |
| Books dedicated to dieting abound. How to diet, how | | | | tag-lines that claim otherwise. |
| not to diet, instructions for specific diets...the public's | | | | Hills also tackles these tag-lines and plethora of claims. |
| demand for guidance seems to grow exponentially on | | | | The mixed-messages they send that dupe the |
| a daily basis. Its rise propelled by the increasing number | | | | common dieter into repeatedly trying and failing. While |
| of diets and dieters. This trend is precisely what Charlie | | | | all the while praying for the magic pill or plan to come |
| Hills's book, Why Your Last Diet Failed You And How | | | | their way. These mixed-messages, Hills argues, cause |
| This Book Won't Help You on Your Next One, seeks | | | | dieters to believe that the diet should do all the work |
| to address. | | | | for them. That if the dieter fails, it is the diet's fault. And |
| While Hills's book may share a shelf with other diet | | | | if the dieter succeeds, it is the diet's victory. By |
| books, it shares little else. And that, in my opinion, is a | | | | discussing the popular diets of today, Hills points out |
| good thing. Hills's book does not try to capitalize on | | | | how they, and all diet plans, are essentially the same. |
| readers's potential insecurities. It does not try to | | | | The bottom line being that every weight-loss plan tells |
| promote any one diet or exercise plan. Nor does it try | | | | its followers to eat less and exercise more. Everything |
| to sell: equipment, shakes, pills, or special foods. What it | | | | else is a marketing technique. |
| does do is speak frankly and honestly; from one dieter | | | | Having tackled diets, Hills can more easily make his |
| to another. | | | | case against diet books. He does admit that such |
| Charlie Hills is not a doctor or a dietician. He is a dieter. | | | | books can provide helpful tips and suggestions. But he |
| He has in fact tried many diets; a good portion of | | | | argues that like their diet counter-parts, these books |
| which are discussed in this book. By adopting the voice | | | | are all relatively the same. And all typically serve only a |
| of a witty commentator, Hills shares the failures, | | | | short-term purpose. They lay out guidelines and |
| successes, and revelations that came with his 192 | | | | instructions and provide motivation. But basically state |
| months of diet-hopping. Neither his failures nor his | | | | the same old fine print: eat less, exercise more. |
| successes are new. Many a dieter has fallen victim to | | | | Hills uses a fine tuned balance of personal |
| the yo-yo effect, and the curse of the "dietlet". But that | | | | experiences, observations, analysis, facts, and figures |
| is what makes his book so appealing. He has been | | | | to successfully argue his two points. His honest, witty, |
| there. He is one of the dieters he is writing to. He's | | | | and at times sardonic, voice speaks to his audience. |
| "one of us," his target audience can chant. What are | | | | Not at them, or down to them. He approaches his |
| new, or at least rare, are his revelations. And the way | | | | readers on their level. Because, as I said, he is one of |
| in which they are presented. | | | | them. He seeks only to share with others like himself |
| Hills's book has two purposes. To explain why diets fail, | | | | the lessons he has learned while bouncing from one |
| and why diet books do not help. (Hence the title). What | | | | weight-loss attempt to the next. Why Your Last Diet |
| Hills learned over the course of his dieting is that diets | | | | Failed You And How This Book Won't Help You on |
| are not all-powerful. That any success a person has | | | | Your Next One, is a fun and quick read for novice and |
| while on a diet is not because of the diet itself. It is | | | | professional dieters alike. It will help its readers take |
| because of the person. It is the dieter, not the diet, that | | | | dieting and themselves a little less seriously. And |
| makes the changes happen. Or not happen. To back | | | | manages to teach a few things in the process. |
| this up he breaks down the most popular diets; | | | | |