Read the cover, you read the book

I love when a simple hook helps make it as simple for people to get results.

I experienced it when the simplicity of the 8 Minute Abs videos I produced sold a couple million copies, then got teased in TV sitcoms, the Tonight Show, and a movie.

Beachbody experienced it when Michi's ladder made food choices simple and people lost weight. And we saw it when a 90-day fitness program called Power 90 challenged people to focus on fitness and eating right, not for the year or the rest of their lives, but for just 90 days. The rest of their lives would be easier once they got 90 days under their belt.

I picked this book, "The 3-Apple-A-Day Plan" off the shelf at Barnes & Noble to find out what it was about, and it was such a simple hook, that I could understand how it would work for people: Eat an apple before each meal, and you'll lose weight.

To me, it makes the same sense as Atkins, Scarsdale, South Beach, and other systems that simply shake up our diet habits so we have to look at them... when you pay attention to what you're eating with the intent of reducing consumption, you lose weight. Doesn't matter if it's apples, lettuce, cabbage soup, or grapefruit; a change that brings more fiber and "good carbs." and less saturated fat and sugar into your diet will have a dramatic result to expedite your weight loss. It really is that simple.

Trouble for the author of this book is, the concept pretty much fit on the back cover of the book, where she describes how she got the idea from a weight loss client who came up with the idea, and lost a pound and a half of fat in a week. Coulda been a pamphlet.

A better title would have been: "Get full on anything healthy before you eat what you would have eaten otherwise, and you will lose a lot of weight and feel a whole lot better."

Then again, that might not have been as catchy.

Point is; keep it simple. Don't trick yourself into looking for the breakthrough - it's right in front of us: Eat more of the good stuf, less of the bad stuff.