4 out of 5

Let’s set aside Coach Greg Doucette’s media presence for this review (except in how his persona affects the “voice” of the cookbook) and firstly tackle whether or not this book is for you.

I think there are a couple of main things that affect one’s enjoyment of the Greg lifestyle, and one of those is encoded in how I just referred to it: as something of a lifestyle. Not even in the sense that you need to convert strictly to Coach Greg recipes, by any means, just that this is one of those books that I think encourages making some general changes to how you view food, and I think a good encapsulation of this is the soda versus diet soda swap that many make when on their way to cutting out some calories. This puts us on a track of thinking of this cookbook as a dieting resource, which it doesn’t strictly have to be – I legitimately just love a lot of the food in here – but still, this example will stand: I’ve spoken to many folks who’ve made this change in their eating habits, despite the hesitance of not liking diet soda, and for losing weight, assuming other factors mostly remain the same…. it works! It can’t not work. (Although we’ll get into that in a moment as well.)

This change is normally small enough to be acceptable to many, and I think there’s maybe some subconscious consideration of soda as an “extra,” making the switch to a (mostly) non-caloric version an inherently healthier option.

However, when you start encouraging this concept to be applied to food, in whatever way, I’ve found it’s a tougher sell. Even suggesting very micro changes proves (in my experience) difficult. There are various reasons for this that I could speculate, but let’s shortcut that to get back to where I was going: this is one of the main things to accept, if this book will provide you any enjoyment – Greg’s eating style has some very generalized swaps going on, lower calorie things instead of higher calorie versions, then fluffed up with veggies or other tricks to make them filling. And so whether you’re using this as a one-time swap or ongoing, that’s a paradigm of eating it helps to be on board with. It’s not meant to trick you into thinking that protein ice cream and full fat ice cream are the same; rather, isn’t this protein ice cream frikkin’ delicious? Now eat that first, and recognize how full you are. Do you still want the full fat ice cream?

The second thing to accept, which is still kind of tied to the first: artificial sweeteners. If you’re just sticking to the savory options, not a big deal, but if you’re planning to use this for sweets, you’d better be okay with them.

Okay, one last thing, more affecting this book’s use as a weight loss or maintenance tool: calories in, calories out, or CICO. Greg believes in it; I believe in it. I’d argue… everyone believe in it, just some want to point out the nuances. And I’m not here to debate the nuances. But I think what can’t be countered the vast majority of the time is that if everything is kept the same in your life – level of activity, foods, health – except you lessen your calories consumed by however much, you will lose weight. This goes back to the lifestyle concepts, but this mentality is espoused throughout the cookbook, so if it’s triggering to you… the book will likely rub you the wrong way.

So: the Ultimate Anabolic Cookbook 2.0 – you’re getting about 170 pages worth of recipes, one per page, split into breakfast, lunch-ish (or sandwiches and snacks), dinner and treats / desserts options, with subdivisions within those options for french toasts, and wraps, and muffins, and etcetera. This structure is inherited from 1.0, but the presentation has improved, with a cleaner layout highlighting the prep time / ready-to-eat time and helpful notes like level of difficulty or the recipe being vegetarian / gluten-free, with the bottom calling out tweaks like increasing the portions or some item swaps. Again, this stuff was there before, but it’s much more reader-friendly.

The ingredient list is, I think, where Greg’s cookbook – besides the recipes themselves – differentiates itself. There’s a very helpful foreword about different types of sweeteners and protein powders in terms of the calorie / consistency impacts of using one or the other; within each recipe’s ingredients, you’ll also find similar callouts. Yes, Greg is going to first hawk his own products – that’s just savvy business – and I fully believe he cooks with those ingredients, so they definitely work, but there’s no end-all-be-all you-must-use-this-version mentality. Also repeated in the book is that there are no rules; swap in your own protein blends; buy a different IMO syrup; don’t use Waldens products – whatever! Experimentation is / can be part of any cookbook, but many, many influencer recipes use their own products, and I really appreciate how flexible Greg’s recipes are so that you don’t feel like you’re locked in or missing out if you don’t exactly have ingredients X, Y, and Z.

The variability of the recipes is also the big improvement over version 1.0. Cookbook 1.0 was already great, but I think you wound up with some Greg staples (ice cream, wraps, french toast) that were repeated with slight variations for several pages. Yes, those repeats are still here, but we also get a lot of other recipes this time around that really fleshes it out. So the variations feel more like bonuses than filler.

And then my favorite part of this book, and something every diet-centric cookbook should have: its indexes. There’s a master list of all of the recipes that breaks down the calories and important macros per recipe, as well as whether or not it’s vegan / vegetarian. This is an amazing reference, and also a good sales tool – it’s an easy pitch to show to a picky eater to suggest how many different options there are at a glance, and that it’s not all strictly high protein / low carb / low fat, but a great mix depending on your choices. Also in these indexes – fruit and veggie rundowns, showing how much equals 100 calories of any given fruit or veggie, and again, some macro rundowns of the same. I use this thing all the time, as veggies-as-fillers are the big lesson I picked up from Greg – adding a huge salad into every day keeping me full. And so when you have 100 calories or whatever you want to plug in somewhere, you can just glance at this and boggle over your options – I can toss like half a head of cabbage onto my plate? Sure!

Now, as to the print edition of this (as it was originally digital): the book is appreciably oversized, and printed on satisfyingly solid but flippable paper stock, with a very clean, bright printing. The text is clear, and the colors and pictures pop. The binding also feels quite solid. However, it’s admittedly a frustration that the book cannot lay flat – I did have to use something to prop it open while viewing pages. And while I realize it might be a bit of extra work, having the copyright and website link on the bottom of each page is clearly an artifact from this being a digital source – it might class up the book a bit to remove some of these design elements. Lastly, while this isn’t a comment limited to print, and I know it’s another big production ask (more pages, more upfront work), but I think a few additional choice pictures would be good. Definitely not for everything, but any of the unique recipes could probably do with a picture so you know what kind of consistency to expect. (There are pictures, but they’re generally limited to the start of each section, highlighting a particular item.)

I’d say if you’ve liked any of Greg’s recipes he’s shared online, having the cookbook – whether digital or print – is an easy decision. Depending on when you buy it, it can be costly, but I feel like the exposure to so many easy to make, low calorie but filling (and delicious) options was worth it, just in terms of getting me to think about how to better experiment with my own meals, and the convenience factor of finding what you want instead of picking and choosing from youtube vids is valuable. In terms of getting a physical version, I also finding it easier to flip to what I want versus going to the table of contents and following a page link or other various navigation options, but that’s just personal preference. (It also makes a great gift…)