Dr. Kushner's Personality Type Diet

This is not a modern diet book with a specific list of "bad" foods and proper breathing techniques—instead, you'll find a series of well-planned questionnaires designed to help you root out the causes of your extra weight and formulate a plan that works for your specific issues. Dr. Kushner's Personality Type Diet Book looks at three aspects of weight—your diet (including both what you eat and when you eat it), your exercise pattern (be honest!), and any emotional ties that link the fridge to your search for inner peace. Each category you find yourself in—sensibly determined with percentages rather than absolute answers—has its own section of carefully tailored advice.

Kushner's plan involves a constant, lifelong attention to your food and exercise, complete with charts that continually reexamine motives as you move through life changes. The idea is that once you've clearly identified what's holding you from your ideal weight, you'll move along smoothly toward achieving it, and as with all dietary changes, these only work with self-motivation and honesty. Ultimately, he suggests realistic goals and lays out a comprehensive plan for long-term results. This is not an exciting breakthrough miracle plan of any sort—and it is likely to be ultimately more successful than any of them.

Sprinkled throughout the book are commonplace suggestions for improved health, such as walking more, keeping a food journal while beginning a program, eating more fiber and fewer trans fats, and finding substitutes for that triple-chocolate cake when you're feeling blue. The few included recipes seem obligatory rather than particularly inspired, but in general, his advice is both sound and sympathetic. --Jill Lightner