The Inside Out Diet: 4 Weeks to Natural Weight Loss, Total Body Health, and Radiance

by Cathy Wong

Book Overview

The Inside Out Diet

A gem of a book, full of helpful information.
--Frank Lipman, M.D., author of Total Renewal: 7 Key Steps to Resilience, Vitality, and Long-Term Health

I've been a fan of Dr. Cathy Wong for a long time, and if you haven't discovered her yet, this terrific book is a great way to do it. The three-step plan is on the money and the book is a rich source of information about food, detoxification, spices, weight control,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 047179211X
• ISBN13: 9780471792116
• Release Date: July 2007
• Publisher: Wiley (TP)
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

The Inside Out Diet Review

From: www.BasilAndSpice.com Author & Book Views On A Healthy Life! Book Review: The Inside Out Diet by Cathy Wong, ND, CNS Dr. Cathy Wong, naturopathic doctor and nutritionist with ten years of research, clinical, and research experience in alternative medicine, has written The Inside Out Diet. She also is a featured contributor in Woman's Day, Woman's World, Body+Soul, and other publications. Notably, Dr. Wong is the guide to Alternative Medicine at About.com where her weekly newsletter is read by almost 100,000 readers. Why begin on the inside? Dr. Wong's diet starts with her own experience. As a university student, she ate poorly, eating quick foods and gaining weight. At age 24 she was informed that her cholesterol was borderline high; the following day she began her liver-cleansing diet. Her health and energy rejuvenated quickly. Dr. Wong improved her life from the inside-out, beginning with her liver. Why the liver? The liver is a prominent organ that performs several functions. Dr. Wong states that it regulates blood sugar, makes and burns fat, helps you absorb omega fatty acids, regulates cholesterol, balances key weight-loss hormones, helps maintain muscle tone, and gets rid of fattening toxins. A healthy, clean liver is essential to natural weight loss, total body health, and radiance. Four weeks are taken in three components: the first is a simple gentle detoxification of the liver, the second involves tackling ongoing weight loss, the third strides onward with maintenance of an established weight. Highlights from The Inside Out Diet: "Helps you lose weight safely, continuously, and permanently Improves liver function and decreases fatty liver Restores insulin and leptin sensitivity Improves cholesterol and triglyceride levels Eliminates unhealthy cravings Decreases risk factors for heart disease Re-establishes hormonal balance Improves overall health" Dr. Wong also addresses supplements, exercise, relaxation, sleep, a healthy home, cleansing the colon, checking for food intolerances, and the risks and hazards of diets. It is a realistic approach that works with the American diet. The recipes, more than fifty, were provided by celebrity chef Sabra Ricci, who is known for her delicious menus and clientele. She too has been a contributor to Woman's Day, Self, and Spa magazines. Her monthly column appears at AOL Living. The recipes range from breakfast to dessert and are very appetizing, samples--Southwestern Egg Cups, Lamb Curry, Lemon Cream with Raspberries, Blueberry Granola Crisp. The Inside Out Diet, with a beautiful green cover and orchid photo, is well worth reading. Dr. Wong doesn't just tell the reader to lose weight, but explains how and why. Most importantly, she's focused on the liver, defining its necessity for weight loss and health. Open up the book and read it from the inside out. 5 Stars

The Inside Out Diet

Extremely helpful and informative. I'm no only hoping to lose weight but I'm also hoping to help my problems with acid reflux. This is a wonderful book.

It's Not About The Weight Loss, But Rather On Your Health

For those of us who have struggled with our weight for the majority of our lives, we know that simply cutting back on our calories and fat ain't gonna cut it. When most people get exacerbated by the continued failure of these kind of diets, they turn to weight loss pills or surgery instead. Not good! That's where Dr. Cathy Wong's The Inside-Out Diet comes in. Instead of focusing on the weight loss (which will still happen, by the way!), this plan gets people to eat for the sake of their health instead by consuming a nutritional program that will allow your liver to function better than it ever has before. Yes, this is a detoxification diet, but it's so much more. I especially enjoyed the step-by-step approach of this diet looking at every possibility for why you might not be losing weight, including food allergies and intolerances, stress, excessive insulin production, and more. It's as if Dr. Wong takes you by the hand to assure you that we WILL get to the bottom of your obesity problem and attack it from "the inside-out." For fans of recipes, Dr. Wong includes 50 of her favorites in the back of the book. She earnestly believes in the slow, methodical approach to weight loss because it's about eating healthier first and foremost. If more people took on this philosophy of eating primarily for the sake of their health, then obesity rates would drop faster than they ever have before.

Overall, a fantastic book

This book combines weight loss and detox into one diet plan. What I liked was that instead of just being told eat this, eat that, it's a very down-to-earth, informed approach with lots of information about sensible food consumption and understanding your body to help you lose weight and feel more energetic. It's good for you if you're dedicated to changing your eating habits and are willing to devote some time and energy on improving how you eat. Step 1 - During the first week, you avoid certain foods. Even though it's a detox diet, Wong explains that it's better to avoid a severe or overly restrictive detox diet because of the overload of fat-soluble toxins that are released which impact the liver. You eat vegetables, fruit, lean protein (chicken, turkey, egg whites, etc), certain starches (brown rice, sweet potatoes, etc) and can have a coffee a day if you want. You're not having dairy, wheat, or foods with gluten during this week. Step 2 - In the second week, you introduce one of the seven forbidden foods/food groups back into your diet each day. The goal is to help you discover whether you have a food sensitivity that might be affecting your weight or making you bloated etc. After you've figured this out, you can now include all the foods you didn't react to. The book says to eat like this for another two weeks before moving on to the next step, but also says that many people opt to stay here until they've reached their desired weight. Step 3 - This is the maintenance plan - I find that a realistic maintenance plan like this one (where nothing is off-limits) is the only thing that works in the long run. To do this diet, it helps greatly if you have access to organic fruit, vegetables, chicken, and meat and a health food store. Some of the optional foods like honeybush tea and shirataki noodles may be difficult to track down. You also have to be willing to eat cruciferous vegetables (e.g broccoli, cauliflower, arugula) plus a lot of other veggies, whole grains, low-fat yogurt (if you can't eat yogurt or certain grains there are alternatives), and other health foods. Meat and eggs aren't required on the diet but protein is. In case you're a vegetarian, there are vegetarian protein sources in the allowed foods lists. That said, most if not all of the daily meal plans and many of the recipes have either eggs, chicken, lean beef, or fish, so if you're a vegetarian, you'll have to spend time figuring out your meal plan. If you don't cook for whatever reason, you may find it difficult to get all the required foods (fruit and veggies, etc) and avoid all the unwanted foods. But if you can at least make smoothies in the morning, have salads with grilled chicken for lunch, and make dinner at home, you should be able to make it work. Making a large batch of vegetable soup on the weekend with all the required vegetables and having them at lunch and/or dinner during the week might help. There are daily menu plans and recipes at the back of th