Suzanne Somers' Fast & Easy: Lose Weight the Somersize Way with Quick, Delicious Meals for the Entire Family!

by Suzanne Somers

Book Overview

Outlines a food-combining program that emphasizes the role of sugar in promoting excess body weight, and includes recipes for healthful dishes that can be prepard in thirty minutes or less. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1400046432
• ISBN13: 9781400046430
• Release Date: December 2002
• Publisher: Crown Archetype
• Length: 330 Pages
• Weight: 2.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 7.7" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Book

Arrived on time Good book

As Promised!

Suzanne Somers's "Fast and Easy" is just that: Fast AND Easy. My husband and I love the recipes in this book. The Cheeseburger Pie, Southwest Eggs In A Pan, Cream Cheese Pancakes and others are great staples and are cheap and easy to produce. Having been raised on processed food (Hamburger Helper, Bisquick, ect.), our tastes migrated toward casseroles and anything with white bread/flour. These recipes satisfy us and can usually be stretched for two nights! The Tomato Soup (only 8 minutes) is to die for! Make a double batch on Sunday and eat all week long! Cheaper than Campbell's and better tasting, too.In her previous books, Suzanne has really gone for the gourmet end of the food spectrum. The food was fabulous, but the budget was stretched. "Fast and Easy" takes the food down a notch, but has not sacrificed flavor or texture! As for the constant sales pictch...it's mildly annoying. Although, I can't help but admire her tenacity. Regardless, if you're not interested in buying her products you can find most of the recipes in this book (The chocolate dipping sauce is divine). Also, the conversion chart for Somersweet to Sugar is on her website (www.suzannesomers.com). Since Splenda is 1:1 for sugar, use it once you get the conversions. I wrote them right into the front cover of my copy of "Fast and Easy" so I can look them up as needed.I agree with a previous review on the shake and bake coating. We had such bad gas that our own dog left the room. It was really tasty, though. It's good if you're not expecting company!After being on the diet rollercoaster most of my adult life, this program is a breath of fresh air. Atkins works wonders, but it's not for me. This is sanity! You eat practically everything, only in healthy, unrefined versions. I lost 6 pounds in the first week alone and am skipping right on down the scale. Still, my favorite part of the program is the amazing energy I have. I haven't given up caffeine or chocolate and I've been fine. When the quality of the food improves, the portions take care of themselves. I've counted POINTS and lost weight, but always felt hungry. My microwave is running all the time, but not from a pre-packaged dinners! This cookbook is the ultimate "cook once, eat twice" way for busy people to eat well. The microwave now simply heats up my already-prepared, quality food that I ACTUALLY want to eat. There's reason enough to buy!This is a great book and I recommend it highly, especially to those trying to eliminate carbs and feeling like they're failing. Thank you, Suzanne!

A view from a skeptic

Let me start by saying that I was very skeptical when I read about this "new way of eating." My first reaction was "Oh yippee, another star tells us how her private chef and personal trainer helped her lose the weight and keep it off!" I had managed to lose 15 pounds on a traditional low-fat diet, and I was convinced of two things (1) low-fat, small portions was the only way to succeed; (2) there was no way that I would be able to lose any more weight without going hungry and feeling miserable. I was wrong on both counts.Every diet is only as effective as the dieter - what I mean is that any diet plan will only work to the extent that the dieter can stay within the guidelines of the program in the long term without "cheating." I had found that I never seemed to get enough to eat on low-fat diets. I would wind up filling up on low-fat snacks like bread, crackers and diet bars. The sugar content in these foods was so high that I kept blowing my calorie count. I do not have this problem with Somers' diet at all.The recipies are not fast, and they are not easy. They are however very very tasty. Somers does not skimp on ingredients, so this diet will be a challenge for anyone on a budget. However, if you like gourmet food and you are willing and able to pay for it, you will really enjoy this diet. I have lost 10 pounds in one month and I feel great.A word to the wise - you may feel somewhat dizzy or disoriented for the first few days on the diet. I think this is because you are burning through your carbohydrate reserves. Stay calm, keep your caffiene intake low, don't operate heavy machinery and wait for it to pass. It is well worth it.

Realistic recipes with concise diet instructions, finally!

This book is like MS Windows 2000 operating system - in essense, several new features, but predominately, a long list of "corrections" to the previous bug-filled version. If you've read and followed any of Suzanne's other diet books, you'll understand that although the food-combination is a great way to consistently loose weight and not feel bloated (even while eating large portions of properly combined food) how frustrating and/or incomplete (we came to find out later) some of her instructions were, and how some of the recipes were unrealistic for an average, working person/family on a reasonable, moderate or working-class budget and/or hectic schedule. To address the latter point, previous books contained delicious, often gourmet, yet time-consuming, ... have-to-shop-in-several-markets recipes. Roast crown pork baked for 13-hrs (yes, that's right) is wonderful I'm sure, as well as some of the other ... beef/pork entrees, but filet mignon is not a normal dinner feature for me, after paying bills after another long, hard day at work. Although I love to cook, and am handy at it, I routinely have neither the time, money nor ambition to prepare salmon with a cream/butter/wine sauce and capers upon arriving home after 8pm traffic!This book finally, gives us working folks, the chance to make tasty and uncomplicated, quick foods like chili and burgers, of course, the Somersize way. She even lists the approximate preparation time, and most hover around 10+ minutes, from pan to plate. A bonus is that she lists her sugar-free recipes for ketchup and her special sauce for burgers, so you don't need to purchase them thru her website or TV. ...P>The former problem is addressed by a 100 question and answer section, to clear up the sometimes complicated food-combination conundrums average folks discovered after reading her books, testing the recipes, and finding out after all that they weren't loosing any weight. Why? Mainly, the correct ingredient info wasn't elaborated upon in the previous books, or mentioned at all, or in a few cases, wrong. This whole section was prompted by VERY frustrated readers bombarding her office with letters/emails asking just for clarification. <p>These are some of the simpler problems:<p>1. Was it ever mentioned that bottled ketchup, salad dressing or powdered creamer routinely contain sugar? No. She said watch out for hidden carbs, but many of us were not loosing weight because they also contained sometimes as much as 40% sugar! <br>2. Can you eat pumpernickle bagles? Only if they contain no sugar or white flour. Do you know this if you buy them in the bakery section of the store? No. So you must find a package, so you can read the ingredients. Now that you found the "proper" bagle in a package, which cream/cottage cheese is the right one to choose? Well, watch out for sugar in those, and also, do you eat non-fat, whole or skim? <br>3. Can you thicken sauces with arrowroot or cornstarch? No. They're both starches. There is noth

Eat, drink and lose weight with Suzanne Somers!

How would you like to drink red wine, eat rich chocolate, suck down creme brulee and still wear size S or M? Wouldn't you love to have a thick porkchop smothered in mushrooms with creamy sauce? Or how about fried chicken wings with bleu cheese dip?But no you can't eat any of this because you are (pick one or two or more) counting calories, counting points, drinking weight loss shakes or whatever. Well guess what? You can eat rich fatty foods. (Fat is your best friend on this diet!) You can drink wine. You can eat chocolate, cheese, and other foods you may have given up in order to lose weight. You really CAN have your steak and eat it too! The secret is Somersizing. Somersizing is a method of eating foods in certain combinations so your insulin levels stay on an even keel and fat is not stored. When you eat this way, you can enjoy creamy sauces, steak, and cheese and not gain weight. "Suzanne Somers Fast & Easy" is a book by Suzanne Somers that explains this weight loss method and how it works. This book like her previous books explains in detail how to "Somersize". And like her previous books it continues to refine and develop the program. I feel that many of Suzanne's original ideas were based on the work of French weight loss guru, "Montignac". There are so many similarities in his diet and hers. But many diets are based on others and Suzanne has greatly developed the plan. In this book Suzanne recaps the weight loss method and then gives information on how to make the program work faster and easier! To make the weight loss faster, Suzanne suggests eating fewer meals with carbohydrates. To make meal planning simpler, Suzanne includes a number of family friendly foods that are quick to prepare that everyone will enjoy. There are over 100 new Somersized recipes in the book."Suzanne Somers' Fast & Easy" also includes information on supplements to take to enhance health and weight loss. The book has an extended question and answer section. Her books are carefully written with a lot of detail. The photographs are lavish. She makes the "diet" a sensuous pleasure. "Fast and Easy" begins with an introduction by Michael Galitzer MD praising Suzanne's work. He discusses why he thinks her plan is safe and effective. Next the book gets into Somersizing information. With Somersizing you don't have to worry about counting points or calories, you just combine correctly. Suzanne explains all the combinations. Exactly what you need to do to lose weight. She also tells you how to "cheat" once you have lost your weight. When I started on the program it was like manna from heaven. I never dreamed I could nibble on cheese, eat full fat dressings and suck down mousse and lose weight! But I did and so can you, if you follow the Somersize rules. Most of the weight loss information is a repeat from her other books with some surprising updates. She now says a potato a few times a week is ok for level 2 (the level after weight loss). She also covers in detail, he

A fabulous addition to her somersizing series

I am very impressed by this book. As usual, the plan is laid out very well. It's made easy to understand, and the most up-to-date medical information supporting Suzanne's plan is included. But best of all, the recipes are MUCH better than her last books. In her last books, the recipes were more gourmet and "haute cuisine". They were good, for the most part, but my husband really didn't want to eat chicken stuffed with goat cheese - no matter how elegant the presentation - and my budget didn't allow for the expensive ingredients in most of her previous books.These are recipes that families can enjoy, and she's tried to make most of them fast & easy to prepare. I am soooo happy! She's included fabulously "somersized" recipes for a shake & bake type mix, ketchup, barbecue sauce, tartar sauce, chicken nuggets, "fries" made from zucchini and "tater" tots made from cauliflower. She's got chili, ribs and even a recipe for "Green Eggs & Ham." She's got boston cream pie, "pink kiddie" ice cream and chocolate cupcakes. (my toddler is in heaven already!) There's even cinnamon bread with an orange icing so I can make cinnamon buns!Thank you, thank you, thank you Suzanne! This really is food families can eat!