Joy Fit Club: Cookbook, Diet Plan & Inspiration Hardcover – Illustrated, April 10, 2012

As someone who struggles with her weight, I enjoy watching Joy Bauer's "Joy Fit Club" segments on the Today Show. In fact, that is where I heard about this book. The members of Joy's Fit Club have lost 100 pounds or more. I only have a fraction of that to lose, but the stories shared and the advice given are still relevant to me. The book profiles 30 members of Joy's club, and goes into more detail than what is shared on the Today Show. I love their success stories! It certainly makes me think that if these ordinary, everyday people can lose 100 pounds or more, I should be able to lose a few pounds myself.The book discusses 8 important rules that you need to succeed. Some examples: You need to "get your head in the game;" you need to be ready to make a full-time commitment - for the rest of your life, not just until you lose 10 pounds or whatever. You need to exercise daily. Start out simple and build up from there. You need to recognize and avoid your trigger foods. (I don't know how many times I have purchased a bag of chocolates or potato chips, convinced that I'll eat them in moderation when I know deep inside that I really can't.) Also, you need to forgive your slip-ups. You need to get away from the "Well, I blew it today, that's it until I restart my diet next Monday" mentality (also a problem for me).In addition, the book contains a variety of healthy recipes, including main entrees, soups, breads, desserts, etc. The nutrition information (calories, fat, fiber, carbohydrates, etc.) of each is listed. This will be especially helpful to me, since a member of my family was recently diagnosed with diabetes and needs to track his carbohydrate intake.I find the book very inspirational, and look forward to using the advice and recipes ... and hopefully, losing my unwanted pounds.

One of my friends said her neighbor lost over 100 pounds with one of Joy Bauer's earlier books, so I was excited to see it as a Vine selection.Joy Bauer has a winner in her latest diet plan offering, "The Joy Fit Club Cookbook, Diet Plan & Inspiration". The book is packed with a ton of information to get you motivated and on the right track. The book includes weight loss advice, interspersed with testimonials and a number of recipes at the back and through out the book.There is nothing like seeing and reading about people who have experienced success with weight loss. And Joy's book is packed with examples. People who have lost a hundred pounds or more are shown with their "before and after" pictures and stories. One woman lost 410 pounds! Talk about motivating.Recipes include: Broiled Parmesan Vegetables, Grandma Sadie's Chicken in the Pot, Zucchini Bread and more. There are no exotic or hard to find ingredients. She also includes weekly menus.Joy gives 10 main weight loss strategies which includes tips like eliminating liquid calories, avoiding trigger foods and others. Her plan is a balanced one of protein, fats and carbs - no missing food groups here. And she stresses the need to eat breakfast with protein to start your day off right Joy includes many simple strategies that can add up to big weight loss.Overall, this looks like a solid offering to those who want to lose weight. There are a lot of weight loss winners featured in the book who were unable to lose weight with other plans but did with Joy's other weight loss books. This new book includes those ideas and a lot of inspiration. Maybe this plan will be the right one for you too!

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I would say 75% of this book is just short inspirational stories on different people who have lost 100 lbs. or more. It was interesting to read about the different dieting techniques they each used and what their journey to weight loss entailed. However, after awhile I was getting sick of reading one after another and was hoping for more of a diet plan from Joy herself. The end of the book does give you 3 weeks of meal plans. I was just a little disappointed that I paid so much for this book on my Kindle only to have it not be what I had hoped for. I read it while I was walking on my treadmill, so the inspirational stories were good motivation, but like I said there were too many. I wouldn't recommend paying for this unless you want to read about lots of people who have lost lots of weight. Sorry.

Anyone who has truly taken the journey from "Before" to "After" (and yes -- that's my story beginning on page 39 of this book) knows that the journey toward total health never really reaches the finish line. This is why I am so inspired by Joy Bauer and the information and stories presented in this book. At last, there is a resource for helpful tips, notable trends, delicious (and healthy) recipes and even meal plans... Along with an abundance of inspiration provided by the real people who not only won the battle of the bulge, but did so through common sense (without fads or gimmicks). As someone who took off over 250 pounds of excess weight, I know that I must remain committed to keeping the weight off and staying healthy. That makes this a book that can inspire anyone -- whether at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of their weight loss journey. And yes, I realize as one of the people who is featured in the book that this review might seem somewhat biased. But this fact also classifies me as someone who has met Ms. Bauer in person and someone who has been lucky enough to see her dedication first hand. She really, really gets it -- and her message matters. Anyone can lose weight, feel great and love themselves -- during the entire process. And this book reminds us all how we can do just that.