Rating: 
Summary: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
Review: Finally a book I can relate to!!! I finished reading yesterday and already finding myself re-reading it!!! I put my scale away and continue to exercise but now do not worry about wrong food vs. right foods. I eat 5-6 small meals a day and after one week I can actually feel and see a change!!! What a relief to know that fad diets, stressing about what to eat and what not to eat and crying over the numbers on a scale no longer have to be a part of my life!!!! Thank you Debra Waterhouse!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Readers digest version--save your money
Review: Here is a synopsis of the book so you may spend your money elsewhere:
1) Don't diet
2) Get used to your "new" menopausal figure--ie. learn to love it.
3) Exercise 4 times a week for at least an hour so you feel better--but don't expect miracles in the weight-loss department.
Well. duh! I really felt the book rambled on about the obvious and in the end, I just ended up feeling depressed. What the book did manage to do was to thoroughly explain the biological process of why your body is changing. That, I already knew!
Rating:
Summary: Finally, the answer to my problem!
Review: I had high hopes that this book would help me reverse the steady increase in my weight that has been occurring over the past several years in spite of my healthy diet and exercise program. Unfortunately the author didn't provide me with any new information. The message I got was accept the fact that you're going to put on weight with menopause.What did help me lose weight, as well as improve my sleep and alertness, was Barry Sears' Zone diet. Waterhouse laments that menopausal women can put on weight eating rice cakes. Sears explains why this happens. (Bottom line: don't eat rice cakes!) Waterhouse tells us that some women actually like their more rounded, apple-shaped figures. Sears explains why it is a look we should avoid. I enjoyed the humor, but if you're serious about losing weight, trying reading some of Barry Sears' books. I've been losing half a pound a week consistently, feel more mentally alert, and sleep better.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing, but enjoyed the humor.
Review: I had high hopes that this book would help me reverse the steady increase in my weight that has been occurring over the past several years in spite of my healthy diet and exercise program. Unfortunately the author didn't provide me with any new information. The message I got was accept the fact that you're going to put on weight with menopause. What did help me lose weight, as well as improve my sleep and alertness, was Barry Sears' Zone diet. Waterhouse laments that menopausal women can put on weight eating rice cakes. Sears explains why this happens. (Bottom line: don't eat rice cakes!) Waterhouse tells us that some women actually like their more rounded, apple-shaped figures. Sears explains why it is a look we should avoid. I enjoyed the humor, but if you're serious about losing weight, trying reading some of Barry Sears' books. I've been losing half a pound a week consistently, feel more mentally alert, and sleep better.
Rating:
Summary: Freedom From Dieting & Becoming Healthier at the Same Time!
Review: I recommend this book so highly that I am taking the time to sit down and write a review--something I usually do not do! I have just recently had a doctor agree with me that I am going into the perimenopausal years (in my late thirties). Debra Waterhouse explains that it really is true that more and more women are entering this time of their life already in their thirties--something that I've had a difficult time getting people I know to believe! I feel that all women in the perimenopausal and menopausal years really need to read this book. (Women of all ages should read the author's other book "Out-smarting the Female Fat Cell). Dieting has a terrible hold on women who doen't realize or believe the negative effects of it. It has been a tremendous relief to me to read that my recent, rapid weight gain is not necessarily all my fault and that dieting will only make it worse. To read and understand what's happening with the hormones in my body and the effect that has on me physically and emotionally gave me a feeling of confidence. Confidence that I can become healthier--without dieting and depriving myself--and stronger by working more physical activity into my day. I plan to put Debra Waterhouse's advice into practice and be healthier and stronger after menopause than I am now! Thank you for this great book and the way you have written it so that the average person can understand this very complex time in their lives.
Rating:
Summary: The ONLY "diet book" I'll ever recommend
Review: I'm a fat acceptance advocate who hates diet books on principle. Someone suggested I read this book anyway, and I'm glad I did. It confirmed the conclusions I've come to on my own after many unhappy years of struggling with an illusory "weight problem": diets make you fatter, skipping meals is bad for you, there are no "bad foods," you should listen to your body and eat when you're hungry, and the only way to stay in shape is to exercise. Her theoretical explanations made a lot of sense, and her attitude was reassuring: this is the way a woman's body WORKS, and if you gain some weight or change shape in midlife it's not because you're "doing something wrong." I don't agree with her completely: I think she's unnecessarily judgmental about "emotional eating" (if you're under stress and can't do anything else to alleviate it, is it better to overeat for a few weeks or to take up smoking?). Also, she seems to feel that the only way to build strength is to work out with free weights, but many other exercise programs can have the same effect -- even yoga, if you select the right asanas to practice. Still, in general, hers is the ONLY sensible approach to managing one's weight that I've ever read (any diet book that lists the National Association for Fat Acceptance as a "support group" is all right with me!), and I'd like to recommend that every woman (fat or thin) read it as she enters midlife.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth Reading
Review: I'm still working my way through this book, but so far it's given me a great deal of reassurance that I'm not alone in suddenly developing a "spare tire" at the age of 40, and it has also done much to help me understand that the same old exercise and eating routine I've followed for ages isn't cutting it anymore.
The few problems I have with the book include the author's irritating tendency to periodically stress that women "need" chocolate. It's almost as if she's projecting her own cravings onto all women - going so far as to write a book on this very topic; thus further perpetuating this ancient stereotype (the book sounds too absurd to even look into).
As she's taken pains to publish a work explaining women's biological midlife changes, drawing on (and greatly simplifying) scientific research to support her claims, this baseless, repetitive nonsense about chocolate has no place here. It's as scientific as stating "all women love shoes". I've found in my own experience that giving up all types of processed, packaged baked goods and sweets years ago has resulting in losing my taste for it. And, like many women, chocolate causes me to suffer from terrible migraines and flareups of rosacea. I neither love it or need it and haven't thought about in two decades. She would have done better to simply say that we tend to crave sugar more at this time, which is probably closer to the truth.
Moving on..I also noticed while flipping through the book another glaring factual error - one concerning vegetarian protein sources. The author states that it is necessary "to combine your beans and rice" to get a complete protein source. For years before this book was printed (1998) modern science acknowledged that this isn't true. As long as we get all of the amino acids we need in a day, food combining is totally unecessary. It's unfortunate that she didn't double check her facts before printing this misinformation. Frances Lappe Moore made this assumption initially in 1970, and her subsequent book some years later corrected the error.
Finally, since the book is directed at 35-55 year olds, and many of the women who buy it may fall into the lower end of that age range, the continual reference to being "menopausal" (I didn't enjoy thinking of myself that way, mainly because I'm nowhere near menopause) can be quite grating. Even though she does explain the difference between perimenopausal and menopausal phases of life, the "perimenopausal" references tend to drop by the wayside as the book progresses.
All things considered, I would still recommend it for anyone struggling with an otherwise inexplicable weight gain and other signs of midlife change.
Rating:
Summary: At last! A book you can comprehend!
Review: This is a truly enlightening explanation of what occurs in these bodies of ours and, more importantly, what to do about it! I'm going to buy a copy of this for all of my friends who are in the same situation I've been in - watching my waistline getting bigger when the rest of me isn't, and grasping at all the possible "diets" except the CORRECT one!
Rating:
Summary: Free at Last!!!!
Review: When I came across this book I was in the middle of another "Lose 15 lbs. in 2 weeks!" type diet. I was tired of starving, feeling guilty, and ready to give up. While reading this book it was like a light bulb came on. What she writes makes perfect sense. Eat when you're hungry; eat smaller more frequent meals; stop when you're filled, but not full; exercise moderately. These were foreign concepts to someone who has lived either on or off a diet for half of her life. So, I immediately stopped starving myself, and began listening to my hunger signals. It has been a life-changing experience for me. Now I'll never live in semi-starvation or binge-mode again! Goodbye counting calories, carbs, fat grams, eating on schedules, etc. Hello life! Bottom line: If you're addicted to dieting, are a yo-yo dieter, and can't seem to lose the weight or keep it off, give this book a try. It's working for me!
Rating:
Summary: At last! A book you can comprehend!
Review: When I came across this book I was in the middle of another "Lose 15 lbs. in 2 weeks!" type diet. I was tired of starving, feeling guilty, and ready to give up. While reading this book it was like a light bulb came on. What she writes makes perfect sense. Eat when you're hungry; eat smaller more frequent meals; stop when you're filled, but not full; exercise moderately. These were foreign concepts to someone who has lived either on or off a diet for half of her life. So, I immediately stopped starving myself, and began listening to my hunger signals. It has been a life-changing experience for me. Now I'll never live in semi-starvation or binge-mode again! Goodbye counting calories, carbs, fat grams, eating on schedules, etc. Hello life! Bottom line: If you're addicted to dieting, are a yo-yo dieter, and can't seem to lose the weight or keep it off, give this book a try. It's working for me!
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