A few weeks ago I was sent a book to read titled Healthy You! by Dawna Stone. 

I was looking forward to reading it, but to be honest at first was a little leery simply because it in many ways is a book on weight loss.  I am not opposed to weight loss books, but from my previous disordered eating patterns I was worried that this might not be the best kind of book for me to read while still getting back on track.

I started reading it with an open mind and decided I would read it more as a health book rather than a weightloss book, because the title even states “14 days to Quick and Permanent Weight Loss and a Healthier, Happier You.”

The book is divided up into 4 sections:
 

Part I – Before You Begin

This section of the book discusses how Dawna created this program and her own personal struggles with weight loss and living a healthy lifestyle.  It also discusses the benefits of keeping a positive attitude, setting realistic goals, how to deal with setbacks, and really discovering what type of eater you are.

As I said when I read this book I was not looking to lose weight so some of the sections didn’t apply to me quite as much, however, I loved how the book was set up. Before she even got into to how her eating plan works she discusses all aspects of it. She doesn’t just say “do it and deal with it” she walks you through all the possible scenarios you can face.

Dawna has struggled all her life with her weight and I love that she puts her personal feelings and experiences into the book. You can almost understand how she felt going through different parts of her life.

Part II – The Healthy You Program

This is a simple overview of how the program works. It is divided up into sections which is all laid out for you in the book.  If you are looking for a good and healthy meal plan that is spelled out for you and that you can actually use for LIFE then I really would recommend this book. She has done her research and focuses that this is not a DIET but a change of the way you live your life.

The are two phases in her 14 day program:

1. The Elimination Phase
2. The Clean Phase 

The idea behind the elimination phase is to cut out one thing a day during the first week. It is about taking one small step a day and then by the end of the first 7 days you have eliminated the processed unhealthy foods from your diet. After the first 7 days you will have eliminated: sugar, wheat, dairy, processed foods, diet soda and artificial sweeteners, red meat and alcohol.

I was happy to read that during the sugar elimination section she stresses not to eliminate natural sugars that are found in fruits and some vegetables. She is focusing on the non-nutricious and refined sugars in your diet.

The clean phase is a continuation of day 7 for the next week. You will continue to eliminate these items from your diet.  The real purpose of the 14 days in my opinion is to help “detox” your body and break some of your addictions.

Once the two phases are up she goes into detail about how to reintroduce some foods back into your diet and what she would suggest in how to apply this program to each and every day of your life.

Part III – Ensure Your Sucess

In this section she really goes into detail about how to make sure you are able to keep up with this for LIFE. This is not something that you do for two weeks and then go back to your old ways. It is about making healthy changes in your life and sticking to them.  She focuses on how to make changes you can keep for the rest of your life.

The meal plan comes down to good, wholesome clean eating.  There isn’t any fancy tricks to it, it is simply about putting good clean foods in your body and cutting out the processed junk. She also make sure to make the meals in the book simple and easy to make. No matter what your schedule is you would be able to manage these recipes.

She also discusses removing trigger foods, finding a support team, and how to track your progress. She address exercise in this section too which I was interested to see if it would be brought up.  She supports exercise, but the basis of the book is simply around diet.

Part IV – The Real World

The final section of the book really takes a deeper look into what you are going to face in the “real world.” It discusses how to live your life after the 14 days are finished and how to handle everything from occasional indulgences, eating out, how to make real life changes, and some motivation to aid you in the process.

She really makes sure to cover all areas and situations that you will face as you are striving to live a healthy and balanced lifestyle.

One of the main concerns when I finished reading the book was:

1. How can I apply this to ME when I don’t want to lose any weight?

2. How can someone who is heavily involved in exercise (such as a runner) able to apply the eating schedule of the book?

I emailed the company to see if they had ever met anyone who used this book in the same sort of situation. This was her response:

Great question! We actually got this question a couple of times during the 14-Day Healthy You Challenge on Facebook. If you are working out really hard (and not looking to lose weight), you may need some additional calories. Dawna suggests trying to stick to the foods in the program but add in an additional snacks /calories throughout the day. 

 

If you have a long workout in the morning, and the breakfast doesn’t seem to satisfy your hunger, add a snack between breakfast and lunch. Depending on the day (and the workout), you may need to add another snack between lunch and dinner (and possibly an evening snack as well). When adding the snacks into the program, just make sure they are healthy (as opposed to a bag of potato chips or a box of cookies). Try to sick with clean, healthy options.

 

Some of the breakfasts on the meal plan are a little lighter, therefore you may need to ‘beef’ them up by adding in some peanut butter (natural), oats, brown rice, quinoa, etc. in order to incorporate additional calories in a clean way. Another suggestion is to add calories to the meals by increasing the servings sizes of each meal.  

 

The most important thing is to listen to your body. If it is telling you that you are hungry, don’t be afraid to modify

the plan by adding a snack or increasing the portions sizes of the meals. This is the beauty of the Healthy You! program!  Dawna was really adamant that she wanted it to be flexible enough so that it can work for everyone!

 

I really hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any questions. And if you make the modifications above and you still find that you are hungry or losing more weight than you’d like, like me know so that we can figure out how to adjust it accordingly.