Book ~ "The Diet Dropout’s Guide to Natural Weight Loss: Find Your Easiest Path to Naturally Thin" (2013) Stan Spencer

From Goodreads ~ This book isn't about the latest celebrity diet, wonder food, or miracle supplement. It’s about creating a personalized weight loss plan—your own easiest path to naturally thin. While you can lose weight with almost any diet, keeping the weight off is much more difficult, requiring permanent changes in eating and exercise habits. This book provides a science-based approach for making those changes in a way that works best for you, without wasting time, money, or effort.

Dr. Spencer explains why we gain weight and why the fat lost by dieting almost always comes back. He then presents an array of practical weight loss tools for controlling emotional eating, calming cravings, boosting metabolism, and improving nutrition and exercise. In the final chapter he has you create a natural weight loss plan based on your unique set of needs, abilities, and preferences. Simple recipes are provided for weight loss foods that reduce cravings and prolong satisfaction.

What this book offers is a solid approach to weight loss—self-directed, gradual, and lasting—in contrast to the quick but fleeting weight loss offered by most one-size-fits-all diet plans.

Because I have some pounds to lose, I'm always interested in reading weight loss books.  This one caught my eye because "natural" was in the title, not once but twice.

This book states right away that it is for you if you want:

• to get to the root of the problem and address the real reason for the extra weight
• to lose weight permanently even if it takes a while
• a book that is brief and to the point

It's not for you if you:

• are looking for a diet or exercise plan
• want to lose weight quickly, even if you later gain it back

It is divided up into ten chapters (along with easy-to-make recipes in the appendices):

1. Why the weight - less active lifestyle and fattening food environment
2. Why diets fail - most of the weight dieters lose is regained within four or five years; lasting weight loss is best accomplished by making permanent changes in your eating habits and physical activity
3. Emotional eating - improving your emotional well-being (focus on the present, mental relaxation, healthy thinking, social interaction and doing something productive)
4. Beat temptation with minimal willpower - keys to avoiding temptation and ways to calm cravings 
5. How it adds up - understanding RMR (resting metabolic rate)
6. Eat less without going hungry - eating more natural weight loss foods like veggies, fruit, nuts, whole grains, etc., eat a solid breakfast, lunch and supper, eat less junk food, eat mindfully, limit restaurant meals, get enough sleep and watch less TV
7. Be active - turn work and play into exercise and get away from the screen
8. Boost your metabolism - the benefit of exercising
9. Myths
10. Your easiest path - a checklist of all the naturally thin habits discussed in the book to master

There are reminder cards on the website that you can print and keep in your wallet.  For example, here is the one to quit emotional eating.

This book is a good reminder of the things I should be doing (especially the list of healthy habits in chapter ten). It's not heavy-duty and keeps things basic ... eat the right foods and get more active and you'll lose weight.

I received a copy of this ebook at no charge in exchange for my honest review.