Just recently, I read the new book Quantum Paleo by Doug Willen on my Amazon Kindle app. I had completely forgotten about it but finally got around to reading it. I just finished it a few days ago and am still torn on it. Let’s just get into the meat of the book.
Figuring Out the Why
This book is heavy on the “why” to lose weight and get healthy rather than the “how” of the Paleo Diet. I think this part of the book can be a huge help for a lot of people. He gives you activities and tasks to do to help you stick to your long term goals. Some of the tricks he uses are similar to things I’ve done in the past, things that helped me be successful. I even found that reading these tips and performing the tasks myself have helped my determination to get fit and healthy finally return. I found this aspect of the book extremely useful!
Executing the Diet
Like I said, this book is not really about the “why” of the Paleo Diet. I want to note that he is a nutrition expert who has been using a grain, sugar, and dairy free diet for years to help people become healthier and relieve symptoms, long before The Paleo Diet came out. He does support the other experts in the field, encouraging readers to read The Paleo Diet, The Paleo Solution, and Primal Blueprint for more information of the diet itself. His exectution of his “plan” is pretty minimal. He tells you to go to his website to calculate your caloric intake. He encourages you to work out without specifying how long or how often. His plan is to basically stick to a strict Paleo Diet in your caloric ranges (from his website) for 21 days. He talks a bit about the benefits of CrossFit but doesn’t force it on you. The book is actually very hands off, encouraging you to do what is best for you without telling you how to figure that out.
The Audience
This part is a little tricky. On one hand, I think the mental exercises he gives you to figure out how to stay motivated would be great for beginners. On the other hand, I remember a sentence specifically saying that this book was written for someone who was already relatively fit and in good health to get to that “next level” so to speak. This is where I was confused. Also, the lack of a solid plan tells me that this book is not for beginners who may need specifics.
Overall Impression
While I really enjoyed reading most of this book, there were parts that annoyed me like the lack of a real “plan”. I actually got to the end of the book still expecting the meal plan/caloric recommendations/etc. to show up. Second, I didn’t really like how much he pitched his clinical practice, his wife’s cookbooks, and other “products” he promoted. I actually was getting pretty annoyed by that. I felt like he spent a lot more time on the first half of the book, the half where he went through the motivational exercises.
This was a quick read and if you just want a book to give you a bit of motivation to get started, this may be it. If you just want the basics of getting into a good health cycle, this would be good too. If you want a thorough health plan, information on the Paleo Diet, or other specifics, this is not the book for you.
So basically, this book could go either way. I found it fun to read but in the end, felt a little disappointed in the lack of information. I’m leaving it to you to decide if this book is right for you!
