Diet Cookbooks and Programs

I have been a dieter only for the past 2 years but was astounded by the cost of "losing weight". I had to pay a fee each week for someone to show me how to lose weight. The cookbooks were overpriced, the recipes were usually gourmet and not children-friendly and expensive to cook. Forget the ones that deliver the food to your door. They're even more expensive and not something that you can duplicate yourself. So, what does a person do?

I tried to diet on my own, using my own recipes, but lowering the fat content and making my portions smaller, but it just didn't work for me. I needed the prompting of others, but it was just too expensive.

I came across a cookbook called "Symply Too Good To Be True" by Annette Sym at my local newsagent. I didn't even realise it was "diet" cookbook until I got it home. The recipes were down-to-earth, user friendly (my children can cook them); and more importantly, most of the ingredients can be swapped for generic products. The cookbooks are also diabetic-friendly which is fantastic as diabetic diets can be scary for the newly diagnosed diabetics.

We began to cook exclusively from this book. I went online and found Annette's website and discovered that she had a big following in Australia and internationally, and had put out a menu planner CD rom, to help people who needed the extra help.

I don't know whether it's ok to let people know about commercial products on ThriftyFun but I thought I'd let people know about it because it's certainly saved me some money.

The cookbooks are $11.95 AU ($8.95 US) in newsagents but even less through the website. I did also buy a CD rom that spoon fed me even more at a cost of $39 AU ($29 US). I was in front already, especially when you consider it was costing me almost $17 a week in weight loss meetings, and my hubby wanted to do it as well, which would have been even more expensive.

We entered our details in to the program and it calculated the calorie intake we needed and did the menu planning for us including snacks (although my snacks were slightly different to hubby's)... and gave me a shopping list. You can enter up to 4 people on the one CD rom which is great if you have friends who want to lose weight. You could split the cost of the CD and each week print up everyone's menu plan and shopping list. I did have to buy 2 other cookbooks as the recipes on the CD rom came from Books 1-3.

Last week I spent $50 less than I normally would following the menu plans. I was able to feed my children the same menu (bigger portions) and they wolfed the food down and asked for more. They never really liked my previous diet recipes and quite often I found myself cooking double (very expensive and time consuming). Between hubby and I we have lost 4kg (8.8lb) in the first 2 weeks

The website is http://www.symplytoogood.com.au/

If you cannot get a hold of this program or cookbooks, why not look out for something similar where you live. There has to be something better than what's been offered to us. People who want to lose weight are being ripped off and we really need to look at alternatives before forking out our hard earned cash.

I hope this helps someone else as it has helped me.

By Ozbev from Rockingham, Western Australia