Skip the first half!

The first half consists of general info why diets don't work. Skipping this section will save you much time as most of the info there is nothing you have never heard before. The second half is the actual explanation and how to implement the mini habits. Once I skipped the first half, I learned quite a lot!

71 people found this helpful

Get this audiobook. You won't regret it!

I had already read about 35% of the Kindle version of this book when I got this audiobook. I went back to the start and listened from the beginning. It was worth it to review Guise's ideas, and the reader Dan Penz is excellent.
The author's writing style is extremely conversational, so in the hands of a good narrator like Penz, this book is very easy to listen to and understand. I usually listen on 1.25 or 1.5 speed, depending on how familiar I am with the content. This book was still listenable at 2.0 speed.
Stephen Guise is definitely onto something about how habits are the key to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight. He seems to understand with amazing insight the very complicated factors relating to people's relationship with the foods we choose to eat.
I read Guise's first book, "Mini Habits." It was good, but I didn't end up adopting any mini habits after listening to that book. I feel that in this book, Guise has landed on the perfect topic to encourage readers to adopt the mini habits strategy. I am now faithfully pursuing two health-related mini habits, as well as a third unrelated habit. The health-related habits have given me a vision of the power of mini habits.

41 people found this helpful

Great advice, especially for young, active men

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I absolutely adore this author's perspectives on behavioral change. I have a PhD in social psychology with an emphasis in behavioral health, and his mini habits approach is exactly the way to make conscious changes. Almost every habit I've mastered, from cleaning my house to drinking water to meditating to writing a dissertation, was achieved because I was able to commit to tiny, daily behaviors. His book is very well written, documented, and narrated.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The drawback of the book is his insistence that weight loss can result from increasing servings of whole foods. He convincingly explains that if you're going to eat a big burger or doughnut, it's better to first eat a fruit, vegetable, or egg. I agree that it's much, much better to focus on what TO DO to lose weight rather than what NOT to do. If we focus on NOT eating, we obsess, and we're not building new, constructive habits.However, he is too dismissive of calories. Young, active men or highly athletic women can fill themselves up on whole foods, be satisfied, and accrue a caloric deficit. Older, smaller, and more female people can easily gain weight eating moderate portions of fruits, nuts and avocados. An active, 30-year-old male who is 6 feet tall can lose a pound a week eating THREE THOUSAND calories a day. An inactive 50 year old woman who is 5-foot-2 would need to cut her calories to TWELVE HUNDRED calories a day to lose a pound per week. Huge difference. If she eats 1 avocado, that's 25% of her daily caloric allotment.

Any additional comments?

Through my research and work, I've noticed that the biggest problem for most women is nervous snacking throughout the day. Men are more likely to eat unhealthy foods in unhealthy quantities. Women are more likely to nibble nervously on snacks every hour or two, usually fruits, dried fruits, boba drinks, sweet coffee drinks, and nutrition bars. Some of those foods are technically whole foods, but they result in weight gain for people with slower metabolisms and smaller bodies. To his credit, he never says listeners are required to follow a whole foods diet to apply his other principles. He recommends other behavioral additions, such as drinking water with meals, chewing more thoroughly at meals, and increasing activity. I'd love to hear more tips from him on how people can build habits of not eating between meals. For instance, aiming for certain times of the day when food is off limits and slowly building up mini-fasts throughout the day.

21 people found this helpful

The best approach for weightloss

If you could sum up Mini Habits for Weight Loss in three words, what would they be?

Small Daily Habits

What other book might you compare Mini Habits for Weight Loss to and why?

This is similar to Mini Habits, but it details very specific habits that will help you lose weight and keep it off.

What about Daniel Penz’s performance did you like?

Excellent narration, doesn't put you to sleep.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I was impressed by all the research that went into this book - the majority of the nutrition information aligns with what I've read in my own research.

Any additional comments?

I encourage people to do their own research on dairy. I believe the author is correct that if you choose to partake, full fat is the way to go... However, I would argue that it is much better to leave dairy off your plate & out of your glass!

16 people found this helpful

A fun, sane, no-nosense approach that works

Would you consider the audio edition of Mini Habits for Weight Loss to be better than the print version?

Stephen Guise is a writer whose humor makes the detailed, well-researched, fact-based material a lot more fun and memorable. The narrator of the audio version, Daniel Penz, was the perfect choice for this because he gets Stephen's humor. The delivery was brilliant. So, while the print version was also excellent, the audio book here is the clear winner.

Any additional comments?

Weight loss, nutrition, and fitness are quagmires of -- misinformation is the wrong word -- but information that is true, but partial, and easily misapplied. In other words, it's easy to get confused, and there's a lot of money involved in keeping us that way. I've spent many years reading, researching, and trying different diet and fitness strategies, too, and seen quite a few of the studies. After a while, the information becomes incredibly difficult to process, and it's easy to give up in an exhausted state of "contradictory information overload." And that's before you even start the hard work of *dieting* and *intense exercise*.

Stephen, in this incredibly well-written and well-researched book, takes the hard work out of the process. The strategies for nutrition (not dieting, mind you) and activity (not the latest fitness fad) are easy to implement, fun to do, and are designed for lasting results. The strategy he teaches uses our own psychology to finally help us make the choices we need to make, consistently, for the long haul, without inadvertently creating any guilt, shame, or any of the other problematic yet often unrecognized and powerfully underappreciated psychological and behavioral saboteurs that can derail our efforts.

If you're familiar with Mini-Habits, or have been exposed to Stephen's work in any form, you already know that he doesn't lean on motivation to create (usually short-term) change. This book doesn't try to psyche you up for a Herculean effort, or convince you that you "just need to want it more". Somewhat ironically, the lack of motivational blather is, well, motivating...because when implementing the strategies in this book, you'll achieve small victories and wins even on your worst days. Nutrition and fitness are a lifestyle, and Mini-Habits for Weight Loss will give you the tools you need to make them part of *your* lifestyle, for the long haul.

16 people found this helpful

Terrible

Basically a weight loss book written by a slim person that tells you to just stop eating bad foods by adding small amounts of good foods over time. It took me a month to force myself to finish listening because I paid for it. If you're interested in a fascinating book about health and weight loss, check out The Obesity Code by Dr Jason Fung. Don't suffer through this garbage, unless you thought Dr Phils weight loss book was great

10 people found this helpful

mostly about nutrition

I like the idea of "Mini Habits"; and I enjoyed the author's first book and, overall, I enjoyed this book. That said, this book is--in my very scientific estimation--80% nutrition/20% instruction in weight loss mini habits. Hours of your time will be spent reviewing whole foods vs. processed foods. My takeaways: don't worry about macro-nutrients (ratios of fats to carbs to protein)--it's all about processed vs. whole; eat whole foods instead of processed foods (by volume, you can eat a lot more of whole foods); mini habits are too small if they're not leading to growing changes; if a salad doesn't fill you up, eat more salad; and remember that "the goal is not the strategy." I didn't care for the narrator, who tended to be overly enthusiastic/cheesy.

8 people found this helpful

Great book

I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking to make healthy changes in life. Some of the other reviews mention that you should skip early chapters, but I disagree. I think the earlier chapters about general nutrition and habit forming help to set groundwork for an individual to be able to make positive changes. I thought the narrator was great also. Must-read if you are serious about changing your lifestyle to a healthier one.

6 people found this helpful

Finally a real plan for change!

This is not about fast results. It's about rewiring the brain so you no longer want to keep an unhealthy lifestyle. It utilizes the brains short term reward system response to solidify better choices iin the long run and gain eventual results that don't send you back to the endless cycle of weight gain that yoyo dieting inevitably does. This approach removes the element of deprivation, shame and fear often associated with other diet plans. Sound research and science, logical and entertaining, and I really agree with the concept of whole natural foods. This concept is now becoming my new approach to everything I hope to accomplish.

5 people found this helpful

life changing book

I really enjoyed the mini habit books that I listen to I am applying the principles daily in my life and it helps me feel successful because the size of the accomplishment is so reasonable I feel that it will ultimately change me from the inside out

4 people found this helpful