Rosemary Conley's GI Jeans Diet

"(Edit: Just noticed that I have written this review logged in under my husband's ID, but I'm sure he won't mind!)
This is the first diet I have ever been on. I wasn't overweight, but I did find myself thinking rather wistfully of that flat stomach I had as a teenager. When I read the intro to the book, which seemed very much aimed at people with a lot of weight to lose, people who didn't exercise, people who had perhaps tried and failed on other diets, I thought that it wasn't going to be any good for me. When I read that you get a chocolate bar treat a day I was amazed. I eat about a dozen choccy bars a year, so I started the 3 week kick start with misgivings as to whether it would work for me. You are supposed to give up alcohol, and there was no way that was going to happen. Other than that, I followed the diet and found a good variety of meals to eat. I didn't find the cooking a problem, but then I have always cooked proper meals and don't touch pre-prepared stuff.
And the result was: After 3 weeks I dropped from 8st to 7st and the lovely flat stomach is almost there. That was last October. Since then, I have followed the regime on Mondays to Fridays - either one of Rosemary's recipes or one of my old favourites modified to meet the GI diet rules. I also get good suggestions from "thinner dinners" in delicious magazine. At the weekend, I eat what I like. It's now the end of March and after 6 months, I still weigh 7st.
I thought that the diet was excellent. As I say, I have never dieted before, so perhaps all I needed was some good advice on what things will make me feel full and what things are laden with fat.
There is a large selection of recipes that take 30 minutes or less to cook and speaking as someone who works full time, it's never been difficult to find 30 minutes to prepare a meal (and here I'm talking about 15 years worth of cooking, not just the last 6 months of Rosemary's recipes). I also found it easy to chuck in extra herbs or spices if I wanted to change the flavour, but most of the recipes just don't need it. The chicken Jalfrezi is a good example of a really tasty, easy to cook dish.

So, in summary, this diet really worked well for me and not just a short blast, but as a long term change to my habits. There is a good choice of recipes and a good framework for creating or changing other recipes to fit the diet."
~ Written on 2008-03-30

"excellent diet! the people who are saying the evening meals taste like cardboard obviously havent tried very many out. there have been one or two that arent quite my thing, but so many are really really good. i've been cooking things i'd never have thought of eating before, and it's a refreshing change!

Rosemary does seem to have a strange obsession with yogurt though lol. "
~ Written on 2006-06-19

"Well I absolutely love this! Admittedly I am only on my second week, but so far so good!

My boyfriend and I both want to lose a few pounds for our wedding in June, and this seemed a straight forward way of doing it. Basically you pick a breakfast, lunch, dinner and 2 fruit snacks plus a treat each day from the menus supplied (or you can use your own meals as long as they are within the specified calorie count, but obviously they may not be as GI "Friendly"). The treat is only added in from week 3 onwards, so these first couple of weeks are a minor struggle, but to be honest the evening meals are big enough to ensure that it is certainly do-able - I am looking forward to my daily treat next week though!

I must say I disagree with comments about the "boring" menu / recipes - everything I have had so far has been absolutely gorgeous (big credit to whoever came up with the gammon and pineapple rice dish, and the Lamb and Barley Casserole- divine)!! But the most important comment that I can make is - it works! My boyfriend has a stone to lose, and has weighed in 6lb lighter today, after just a week! I have half a stone I want to lose, and though I havent weighed myself yet can already feel small differences in my tummy and hips!

So all in all great! I am eating absolutely lovely meals and losing weight on it!!! As long as you stick to the portion sizes stated you cannot fail on this. Rosemary wins again!!"
~ Written on 2006-03-28

"I have to agree with one of the previous reviewers- after only three or four days on this diet, I was feeling completely mutinous! The diet isn't so much low fat as NO fat- the breakfasts and lunches are absolutely fine and I can live with them- but every meal I cooked from the dinner menu tasted just like cardboard and was really disappointing. I have also decided to modify this diet by sticking to the calorie allowance for dinners and cooking out of other low fat recipe books for dinner instead. I just can't live in a world where there is no cheese I guess!!

On the up side, the book is very easy to follow, as I said before, lunch and breakfast menus are a lot more palatable than dinner so are easy to stick to. The excercise recommendations are reasonable and easy to follow.

I have lost nearly two stone so far (in 8 weeks) so the weight loss is very good. Though as mentioned above, I have cheated a bit!"
~ Written on 2006-02-23

"Rosemary takes the boredom out of dieting with her new book. The diet is explained well, and the menu selections are quick, easy and very tasty. An exercise section makes this book great value for money. I'm on week three now and seeing good results. I bought her Shape Up & Salsacise DVD as well. This is great fun to do. Can't recommend both book and DVD highly enough."
~ Written on 2006-02-06