Rating: 
Summary: Use common sense
Review: I have read all the reviews out here and congratulate those who have been successful. I also understand the criticism that '1 star' people have shared. Personally , I think that this type of 'intuition', 'listen to your body' type of diets are the best and natural means of losing weight but noone should ever get religious and praise God for their weight loss. At least not go over board. Just plain and simple, listen and trust teh body that God gave you.
Rating:
Summary: Leaving behind my shackles . . .
Review: I was always mystefied by super-skinny people who ate full-fathot dogs, full-fat cheesecake, and full-fat Lasagna and didn'texercise except for lifting their fork. How did they keep such a nice figure while eating like that? I figured that I was just unlucky, a victim of "bad genetics", "bad habits", or "bad foods". I have tried every diet that has been around: low-carb, low-sugar, low-fat, raw foods, you name it, I've been there! I wasn't too much overweight (just about 10 pounds) but I obsessed about food day and night. One day, while browsing in a Christian book store, I saw Gwen's book. I opened the front cover and read, "I can eat a candy bar and stop in the middle if my stomach is not calling for it." With that simple phrase, I bought the book. Although I am struggling, I believe that this is the way to lose weight . . . permanently. With God's help, I will be able to stop in the middle of my beloved 3 Musketeers . . . and throw away the rest.
Rating:
Summary: Not particularly religious but it's working for me, too
Review: I was pretty wary when my brother asked me to sign up for the workshop with him and buy the book, as I'm not particularly religious, and I don't feel the personal relationship with God that Gwen does. However, once beginning the program, I was drawn in by the common sense approaches. So many reviewers below seem to take aspects of the program out of context. Of course exercise is not wrong. But exercising obsessively in a attempt to control overeating is. The program is NOT telling you to stop exercising. Similarly, I read complaints that reviewers felt guilty when they overate because they felt they were disobeying God's will in addition to their own. Perhaps this issue is dealt with in more depth in the tapes, but one of the wonderful aspects of this program is how it focuses us AWAY from guilt. As Gwen emphasizes, we all make mistakes. She doesn't want us to feel guilty! She just wants us to try to refocus, quickly, so that the overeating gradually becomes the exception, not the rule. Sure it's hard to get in the habit of eating less. This is not a quick-fix, lose 10 pounds in two weeks program. That's why it's better. I hesitate to even call it a "diet", since I'm simply eating less. I've lost 9 pounds in about 4 1/2 weeks. That may not seem like a lot to you, but the only other time in my life that I've lost more than 12 pounds on a diet was when I was on Redux, and we all know how that story turned out. And of course I gained it all back once I stopped taking the diet pills. I fully expect that it will take the full twelve weeks to make the lifestyle change of eating less a habit. And that's fine with Gwen (and, I assume, with God!). Gwen focuses on incremental progress in eating habits rather than numbers on a scale. I think that can only be good. I recommend the book and the program.
Rating:
Summary: A Life Changing Book
Review: I read this book when I received it in the mail by accident 2 years ago. I did loose and keep off 27 pounds and lower my cholesterol and increase my energy. But, more importantly, I learned to depend on God more. I learned that He cares about even the smallest details and decisions in my life. Society today has told us to "go ahead and eat all you want, it's lowfat", forgetting that too much is not a good thing. Forgetting about calories and the body's ability to "ask" for what it needs. This book teaches that you can cut fat and calories drastically by decreasing the amount of food eaten. I allowed myself to eat what I wanted when I was hungry. You would be suprised how quickly your taste for sweets and fatty foods subsides when you are not deprived of these foods when you want them. My weight is down, my cholesterol is down, and my spirits are up thanks to Gwen,but more so thanks to God. He created us and had it all planned out in the beginning. There were no fat free foods in the garden of eden.
Rating:
Summary: The Weigh Down Diet
Review: This book has changed my life for the better--permanently! The author's views are unique, yet biblically and spiritually sound, carrying the power to revolutionize one's relationship with God. She gives very practical, simple, commonsense advice about how to have victory over the many ways to suffer from the bondage to food through overeating.
Rating:
Summary: A life changing book
Review: I was between 90 and 100 pounds overweight. Needless to say, I have tried every gimmick, every diet pill, diet powder food, diet powder drink, fasting, low carb diets, rice diets, liquid diets, fruit diets, low calorie, no calorie diets there are! PRAISE THE LORD that I finally tried this book! Which is NOT a diet. It is a book about learning to LIVE in a thin body as GOD intended for us to do from the beginning of creation. I am feeling wonderful and down 24 pounds. I have been a christian since 1984, and I have never known the LORD as I have experienced Him since picking up this book. This book has opened my eyes to the relationship the Lord ment for all of us to have with Him. After many years as a christian, it is a relationship that I did not even know could possibly exist. And in the process, I am finding a thinner me.
Rating: 
Summary: I'm ashamed to have ever purchased this book
Review: This book, to me, contained some frightening weight loss theories. I simply wasn't sold on the ideas that a high-fat diet (even in small portions) is of no medical risk, or that exercise, vitamins, and whole grains are unnecessary. Biblical passages are taken out of context here, for the sake of selling this diet as "God's plan." There is such a heavy guilt burden attached to this diet that I feel that it will only lead many people to increased depression and overeating. And the premise that following this plan is in "obedience to God" makes this program too self-obsessive and cult-like in its approach. I, ultimately, wasn't able to finish this book, because Shamblin's delivery struck me with the insincerity and self-righteousness of a TV evangelist (or a used car salesman). I'm sorry that I didn't turn to the Bible first, as this book has convinced me that that's where the whole truth and inspiration I'm looking for REALLY lies.
Rating:
Summary: Turn to God, and skip the rest of this!
Review: I've been a religious person all my life, but I simply couldn't buy into this program. For starters, I was turned off by Shamblin's pushy, self-righteous, evangelist-style delivery (very insincere, to me). I also find it difficult to dismiss exercise, vitamins, fruit, vegetables and whole grains as she does. I agree with her that obsessing about exercise and calories eventually leads to failure in any weight loss program, but at the same time, I refuse to dismiss the overall importance of (at least moderate/steady) exercise, vitamins, fruit, vegatables and whole grains as she does. I mean, Shamblin isn't even old enough herself to know what the long-terms effects her diet has had on her own arteries and colon, so how can she promise this as a plan without health risks? She suggests waiting for your stomach to growl before determining that you are hungry. However, many people begin to lose alertness or feel faint when going 4 or 5 hours without eating (and growling), and I can't believe that ignoring this fact is somehow "God's plan." She also writes so much about OBEDIENCE, as though, when we "mess up" with our food volume for even a single day, that we must feel overwhelmed with GUILT over being DISOBEDIENT to God! Isn't guilt one of the problems that leads many people to be overweight? And doesn't God love us no matter how many times "we mess" up? Honestly, there are more actual, serious types of sin that God would rather us reflect on than whether or not we're keeping to the Weigh Down Diet, unwaveringly, 365 days a year. And if we're truly reading scripture and growing closer to God, why should we need to be dependent on the expensive workshops that Shamblin is continually hawking in this book? We all need to turn to God for spiritual fulfillment, and for the inner strength in successfully learning to eat less, eat healthier, and enjoy all foods in moderation. Turn to the Bible for such help - NOT more of these New Age hucksters.
Rating:
Summary: Gwen brings honesty and knowledge to teach others how eat.
Review: I was introduced to the book by my son's teacher. I noticed that she was much smaller than the first time I met her. In her hand was the Weigh Down Diet book. She began to tell me the weight she was and the trials she had been through before she got the book. I was amazed at her testimony and the testimony of others that I met. I could see the difference in their weight and how they felt about themselves. I myself am 20 pounds overweight. I purchsed the book and I have not been able to put the book down. Gwen brings honesty and nutritional knowledge to teach us how we eat. God was her tool to keep her using this particular practice to keep her weight down. The spiritual passages are helpful and useful. I do not believe that she is pushing God down the throat of her users. On the other hand, she gives you the information and allows you to decide what is important to you. If I do not reach my goal to lose the excess 20 pounds, I will definitely not blame Gwen. All anyone can do is provide you with the information. It is up to you to listem to your own body and allow yourself to learn from each mistake. This "diet" is practically free - compared to other plans that make you buy food other than what you cook for your family. "You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink" I noticed so much with in the first 24 hours how much I overate. How much I ate because I was bored, needed to taste that piece of cake, emotional depression, and stress related depression. The way that Gwen presented the informaiton was so close to home...I laughed, I cried, and I shared the information with friends. I never knew a diet book to be so fun to read. It was like reading a wonderful novel - I was eager to get to the end and find out more. When I lose my first 10 pounds, I will write back to show my progress. Thanks, Gwen, in advance.
Rating: 
Summary: Good message, but we do need water, exercise, calcium, etc.
Review: I think that Gwen has great ideas on slowing down. Not being so in love with the food. Eating what your body wants so that you will not binge. Turning our hearts to God rather than food. All of this is great. BUT, I know that my body needs exercise daily along with water and calcium. I believe that Gwens heart is in the right place but her nutritional values for water, vegtables, calcium, etc. is questionable. I realize that yes the body takes what you give it and makes what you need but after a long extended period of eating JUNK food your body wears down and no longer functions properly. Yes, this does happen with the extreme obese but it also happens with the skinny french fries junky. My uncle died of heart failure at 45 years old and he was only 20 pounds overweight. The reason: too much fast food clogged his arteries and it can happen to anyone who eats to much junk and does not exercise and take care of the body God gave us. Yes GOd does want our hearts but he wants us to use our heads when we eat. I do not think that God really created the Frito I think it was trees with fruit and vegtables was the goods of the land. I may be wrong but she might be also. Please pray about this diet. Also note that she has only been 15 pounds overweight in her heavy years at least that is my understanding from Weigh DOwn at Home.
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