The diet test: Highway to health

Who is this book for?

The cover of the book states that this book is a 30-day challenge for anyone looking for a tasty healthy lifestyle that is easy to maintain.

First impression

Highway to health is a colorful book with many (funny) photos and illustrations and is structured as a 30-day plan for your health. Every day Mouha discusses a step you can take towards a healthier lifestyle. At every step she explains why the challenge of that day is so important. And she gives tips on how to do the challenge, how to get started and how to remove any barriers. In addition, Mouha has some tips for you every day that vary from practical applications and experience stories to recipes.

What do we know about the author?

Sanne Mouha is a Flemish dietician with her own practice. She already has several books to her name and is involved as a nutritionist in various Belgian media. She says about herself: “I am a quirky barrel full of ideas with a f*cking love for my job as a dietitian, for healthy cooking and for good food.”

What’s New About This Diet Book?

The usual message about how to eat healthy in a modern way: through a challenge. Challenges are hot on social media, but you don’t see them much in book form.

Read on

For thirty days, Mouha will give you a new habit every day in the field of nutrition, exercise and relaxation to get started. She does this in a very smooth way in a writing style that will certainly appeal to young people. The challenges in this challenge are classified according to a fixed pattern. From the Mighty Monday through the Thirsty Tuesday and the Watetewe today Wednesday to No Drama Thursday and the Vitamin Friday. To end each week with Sweaty Saturday and Zen Sunday. The challenges per day fit within this framework. For example, the challenge in the first week on Thirsty Tuesday is: ‘A glass of water, the rest will come later’ in the 2nd week, ‘One liter a day keeps the hunger away’. And the assignment of the Vitamin Friday in week 3 is ‘Take Vitamin Sea once a week’ and in week 4 ‘Lets go nuts, twice a week’. The latter is therefore about eating nuts more often. The structure of the texts in small blocks with many boxes with tips and facts makes it all very easy to read. And because Mouha explains the why of a step, you also know what you are doing it for.

What can you do with it in practice?

Learning healthy habits step by step is one of the best ways to start living a healthier life. If you tackle everything at once, you will quickly get stuck. The challenge set-up in steps is therefore something that you can really do something with in practice. Moreover, Mouha writes so accessible and fun that you will enjoy reading this and will have many aha moments. And as for the recipes: they are all simple, creative and look very tasty. Although there could have been a few more.

What does the dietitian think of the diet – does it really help?

This is a super fun book to get started with. Hats off to Mouha who provides so much good information about healthy eating and living in a fun and creative way. All the steps in this book make sense. I just think that you should actually take a little more time to take the steps. Of course everyone prefers a quick fix and we would rather have a new healthier lifestyle in 30 days than in 1 year. So Mouha really discusses the Highway to health, while I would rather take the B roads. It will take you longer, but there is a greater chance that it will stick. Keep that in mind as you get started with this book: it can also take you 30 weeks with 1 step per week.

Verdict:

Pros

• Learning new habits step by step
• Easy to read
• Lots of tips
• Tasty and simple recipes

Negatives

• Changing your entire lifestyle in 30 days is an illusion