Yellow Kite The Food Medic: Recipes & Fitness for a Healthier, Happier You

As a 49 year old fairly active male who regards himself as quite fit for his age but probably carrying between a stone, and if I'm really honest, a stone and a half too much weight, I listened to the author being interviewed by Chris Evans on Radio 2 and was impressed by what she said. Consequently I bought the book with an open mind to see what it was about and I was immediately impressed. While my lifestyle is a long way from that of Hazel Wallace, I liked the autobiographical insights she introduces about her relationship with food, which hasn't always been a healthy one. She is open and honest about the issues she faced and how she went about putting things right. This explains her passion, which shines through and also gives the message that 'if I can do it so can you'. Nevertheless, she avoids being 'preachy' and the autobiographical insights don't overpower the rest of the content. In fact the opposite, I feel she recognises the issues we all face and is reassuring about your starting point, in terms of your diet, as a reader. The beauty of this book is that it gives enough but not too much scientific information about the different food groups in terms of what they are and how they work and which foods to find them in. As a junior doctor and someone who has done a lot of research into nutition, the author gives easy practical advice on how to combine different foods to have a healthier, balanced diet. This includes by food group, illustrative tables of examples of 'before you might have been eating these kinds of foods', but 'now try replacing them with these foods' . There's also a shopping list of good foods to stock up on. So the methodology of how to go about giving yourself a healthy balanced diet comes across as a well reasoned, logical approach that should work. OK, so after a couple of weeks of reading the book and mulling things over, I decided to give it a go and stocked up on the types of foods the author recommends. Now, I should point out that I've never believed in 'diets' as such but have always believed in a 'sustainable approach to eating' though have struggled with the will power to actually do it, so this book seemed to be 'right on my wavelength'. I'm now starting my second week of following her advice and I have to say I'm very impressed. Now I would be the first to recognise it's very early days, but so far I have to say that it really seems to be working. I feel better already. The thing I have found very pleasantly surprising is that I HAVEN'T been fighting an urge to raid the biscuit barrel and eat biscuits, chocolate biscuits and crisps between meals as I was previously. In fact the opposite, I haven't even wanted those foods any more. I'm feeling satisfied after eating, but not bloated and haven't been and my weight has already started to move in the right direction again. So for me personally, the approach advocated in the book DOES seem to be working, albeit it at this early stage. I was a bit irritated initially that after using the 'healthy shopping list' to stock up, the recipes in the book didn't seem to use as many of the ingredients as I was expecting, but the more I got into it the less it mattered because I was making better choices about how to combine my foods anyway. I have tried a few of the recipes and they are pretty good and I've started adapting some of the other recipes or planning when I'll try them. I'm spending quite a bit more time in the kitchen than before, but I'm actually enjoying it and feel it is doing me some good. I can't really compare this book against other books on the same topic as I haven't read them, but I suspect there are other books out there that either give a lot more detail about the science or have a wider range of recipes. For me, this book is more about an approach and some illustrative recipes to get you started and as such, the formula works. I'm now looking at the section about exercise and am going to start using some of the advice here too as again it makes good sense and is practical. This book is not for everyone, but for me I'm happy I bought it.

Super Buch mit ganz einfachen Rezepten für jedermann!

Good recipe

Such an incredible book. Full of nourishing recipes, healthy snacks and a big bunch of simple but effective workouts. Waiting for the next one!

I have followed the food medic and Hazel for a long time so when I heard she was releasing a book, I jumped on that pre-order. The book is not disappointing and follows on from her wonderful lifestyle/fitness blog and website. This book is a lot more than just about nutrition and fitness, Hazel is trying to highlight and encourage people to develop a healthy balanced approach to food, where nothing is excluded. Her aim is to show us how food should be used to fuel our bodies and fuel our workouts and in doing so help people build a stronger mind and body. I love the section with smoothie recipes, I find it so hard to find nice recipes but these are fantastic: banoffee pie smoothie and ice protein coffee, yummy. As always her breakfast ideas are fantastic and not boring, they are quick, full of variety, and energy packed. My only criticism is that I would like a slightly larger section on home workouts, weight training, and different workout ideas. But Hazels workout videos and Instagram cover all this, while the book brings together everything else she has tried convey through her daily posts. Her greatest success in this book is debunking all the myths surrounding fitness and nutrition and providing people with the knowledge and recipes to build their own strength inside and out. If you buy the book I highly recommend trying out the smoothies, and the chocolate hazelnut oats. Favourites so far, which I tried from some of her earlier posts. And the banana swirl bread. So much to try out. Thank Hazel. I know this won't be your last book. Great job. x