When it comes to topics, ‘food’ is about as universal as it gets. After all, everyone has to eat and judging by the sheer number of ‘diet’ books released every year, most of us have a love/hate relationship with food. Fortunately, as she is keen to point out, Amy Freinberg-Trufas’ FOOD (Eat with Ease Every Day) is not a ‘diet’ book. In fact, Freinberg-Trufas has surprisingly little to say about the topic. Instead, she offers readers a sustainable strategy for winning the weight-loss battle via her personal story of transformation and triumph.

As she points out in the book’s opening pages, Freinberg-Trufas struggled with her weight for as long as she could remember. It’s a story that will undoubtedly resonate with many readers, one marked with childhood trauma and a series of coping mechanisms that revolve around food. As she progressed through adolescence and into adulthood, Freinberg-Trufas continued to gain weight to the point of obesity. After years of struggling to get a handle on her diet, she eventually passed the three-hundred-pound mark and soon made her peace with what felt like an inevitability. Freinberg-Trufas’s lifelong battle with obesity had been all but lost, that is until her ninety-one-year-old father broke his hip. When the seemingly routine surgery that followed didn’t pan out as expected, her father beckoned for his grandson. Waiting in the wings, Freinberg-Trufas’s father shared some parting words of wisdom with her son: “You’ve got to make the life you want. Be happy.”

While her father soon passed away, his words remained and served as a mantra of sorts for Freinberg-Trufas, providing a “blueprint” for a way forward. What follows is a personal accounting of one woman’s quest to remove the burden of obesity once and for all. Key to this is what Freinberg-Trufas calls ‘eat with ease commitments,’ nine practical pearls of wisdom that are surprisingly universal in their application. Be it simple suggestions (like practicing patience) or more complex notions (like using a food-tracking app), much of what Freinberg-Trufas writes can be applied by anyone to just about anything. And therein lies the genius of her approach: rather than offering pages of citations, formulas and charts, FOOD (Eat with Ease Every Day) focuses on the psychology driving our eating habits. After all, the science of obesity might be ‘easy,’ but the ‘reasons’ are complex. It’s something that Freinberg-Trufas knows all too well, and her message is less about cheerleading and more about empathizing.

With that said, much of Freinberg-Trufas’ advice falls squarely in the ‘I did it and so can you’ box. Of course, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with said approach, but those looking for specifics on macros or any mention of a sustainable workout plan will likely be disappointed. Additionally, Freinberg-Trufas’ story is both compelling and insightful, and a case could be made that it’s far too brief. Brevity aside, FOOD is an essential read and easily the best next step for someone fed up with their weight loss journey.

From a trove of insights and epiphanies to the candid advice for well-meaning (but utterly unhelpful) doctors, Amy Freinberg-Trufas’ FOOD (Eat with Ease Every Day) is a sustainable strategy for anyone struggling with weight loss–a ‘diet’ book that (thankfully) has nothing to do with diets.

~James Weiskittel for IndieReader