Beaut.ie Diet Diaries:

Diet Diaries came back last week and the amount of tips and advice shared were fabilis as usual. Girlfriday told us about a book she read that inspired her to lose about 20lbs. So we'll be wanting to hear ALL about that book so!

"I have lost around a stone and a half in the past 6-7 months, and to be quite honest, it was fairly easy. Before you all collectively barf, I’ll tell you how.

"I read a book called The Hungry Years, and it literally changed the way I think about food.

"The book is written from a man’s point of view. It is all about how he went through life for years over-eating, eating rubbish, and basically putting his body through a constant yo-yo of sugar highs and lows. It all boils down to this: sugar is the enemy! I started to follow a high protein, low carb diet, the pounds fell off easily, and I was never hungry! The thing is, everyone thinks low carb means Atkins - i.e. living on steak and cheese and high fat foods. It is so not! All you need to do is completely cut out all refined processed ‘white food’ i.e. white bread, white sugar, too many potatoes, white rice, white pasta etc. Switch to the ‘brown’ version of the above - wholemeal bread, brown rice etc.

"Think about it - a lovely piece of roast chicken/fish/steak cooked in a wee bit of butter with some fresh green salad or something - delicious and really healthy, and will keep you full for hours. Refined carbohydrates are the bane of dieters. All they do is fill you up quickly, raise your blood sugar so quickly that it crashes shortly after, and make you hungry again. I’m telling you ladies, stay away from all food that is ‘low fat’, ‘low calorie’ - all this type of food is full of sugar, and is going to make you hungry. If we all ate the way people ate a hundred years ago, no one would be fat, diabetes levels would be minute, and we would not feel so hungry all the time.

"Read the book girls, it will change your life!"

The Hungry Years by William Leith is available from Amazon. I'd love to hear more recommendations of diet books you've loved or hated. I love diet books. I feel like I'm going to lose the weight just by reading the book! It's like watching an exercise video while eating a bar of chocolate. Which I've also done...

Which diet/healthy eating books have worked for you - or have great advice? I'll put them into a special Beaut.ie Listmania - so we can share our experiences with the world.