Drop Two Sizes – A Proven Plan to Ditch the Scale, Get the Body You Want & Wear the Clothes You Love! by Rachel Cosgrove

Drop Two Sizes – A Proven Plan to Ditch the Scale, Get the Body You Want & Wear the Clothes You Love! by Rachel Cosgrove

I am a sucker for diet books. Love ‘em. But even more than diet books, I love, love, love workbooks with simple-to-follow plans for diet and exercise. I admit it. I’m an idiot when it comes to knowing how to lose weight. I mean, I know the basics. Consume less, exercise more, get enough sleep and hydrate. Simple, right? Yeah, well, for me, not so much. I like very specific instructions on what to eat, including recipes and how and when to exercise. I’m very good at following directions – as long as those directions are easy to follow. But, leave me to my own devices and I’ll procrastinate, give in to cravings and come up with a bazillion reasons why now is not the time to start eating and living healthier. (One reason? Chocolate eclairs. Seriously.) I’m incorrigible, I know. And that is most likely why I keep losing and regaining the same 10 pounds. (Ok, they’ve become 15 pounds by now.) Sound familiar? Yeah, I know I’m not alone.

Thank you Rachel Cosgrove for writing and compiling Drop Two Sizes: A Proven Plan to Ditch the Scale, Get the Body You Want & Wear the Clothes You Love. 

Drop Two Sizes is a customizable 12-week diet and exercise plan that includes daily menus and recipes, strength and cardio exercise routines and loads of helpful and motivational tips to keep you on track to achieve your goal. It’s loaded with photos showing how to properly execute the exercises in the program and, best of all, it is loaded with lists. Lists!  Love them. Each week, there’s a grocery list which takes the burden of meal planning off of me. Vegetarians take heed: Drop Two Sizes doesn’t offer terribly many vegetarian recipes. As a non-meat or fowl eating pescatarian, I’ll substitute tofu or seitan for some of the recipes that call for chicken or beef or I’ll merely double up on eating fish during the week. No prob at all.

The program begins with taking a vow to avoid counting calories and to use your clothing as a barometer of weight loss. It also asks that you take a “before” picture. I hid mine in the bottom of a drawer and will look at it again in several weeks. The program continues with checkpoints (attitude check, splurge check, jeans check) that are daily behaviors you use to achieve your goal. They also serve to motivate and keep you on track.

The next step is to either join a gym or set up a home gym using dumbbells, exercise bands, a kettlebell and a TRX suspension trainer. I belong to a gym and think that using their equipment is probably the best way to go, but don’t be discouraged by the equipment you’ll need. All of it is readily available and, once you have it in your home, it will hopefully motivate you to use it.

The following step is The Workout Calendar which requires that you perform a strength workout on alternate days and a metabolic workout on Saturday. Recovery days are liberally interspersed in the workout calendar.

The next part of the book includes an eating plan and recipes with everything laid out for you in a simple, easy-to-follow format. Plus, with flexibility built into the program, it’s easy for anyone to follow.

I can do this. I can do this. I will do this.

Twelve weeks is only three months, which means that come Labor Day, I’ll have dropped two sizes. I’m psyched.

Wish me luck – or better yet, do it with me and let me know of your progress by leaving a comment in the section below.

You can purchase Drop Two Sizes and Rachel’s other books here:

About Rachel Cosgrove

Rachel Cosgrove, BS, CSCS, is the co-founder and co-owner of Results Fitness in southern California. She is a fitness expert for Women’s Health Magazine and was named 2012 IDEA Personal Trainer of the Year.

Note to readers: I received a complimentary copy of Drop Two Sizes which in no way swayed my opinion of the book. The fact is that I receive lots of free stuff because of my job – but, if I don’t think it will be of benefit to my readers, I simply won’t write about it.

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