French Women Don't Get Fat
by Mireille Guiliano
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Book Reviews of French Women Don't Get Fat
Book Review: A GREAT READ FOR EVERYONE.
Summary: 5 Stars
Everyone should read this book. It has a lot of wonderful insight to eating right. I don't believe in "diets". What I believe in is eating healthy. Watching the amount you eat, how often you eat and what time of day you eat. Making good decision. Exercise. This book basically reiterates that with some helpful hints.
It's been several years since I read thIS book so I don't recall a lot of details. What I do remember, what I got out of it the most is to pay attention when you're eating. Have no distractions. I totally believe in this process though I don't follow it. I have kids that often interrupt meals, and when they aren't around I'm I like to get in a little reading. But I am more aware of what I'm putting ino my mouth as I eat since reading the book.
The other thing I got out of this book is that dark chocolate is good for you...so to speak. And I LOVE dark chocolate so I now have a stash in my refrigerator, and have a VERY small piece of it everyday. I truly believe this helps satisfy any possible craving for "junk" as much as living by the rule, you should be able to indulge in some good things that aren't necessarily good for you. It's all about quantity and moderation, and you must make great choices the rest of the time, along with exercising.
So all in all, I felt there were several things in this book that were good enough that to this day I still incorporate into my life. Therefore, I deem this book well worth the money I paid, and the time I spent reading it.
Book Review: Disappointing.
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought this book used and when I read it, I was honestly angry and upset that I'd wasted my time learning things I already knew. I was not hoping to read this book and have it change my life, but I was expecting something witty with some sassy meal-tips. I didn't find that here. We ALL know how to lose weight: eat less, eat better, drink more water and exercise. I expected this book to have the same pizazz that a sassy book like "Skinny Bitch" had. I found very little of that here. This book was condescending, assumes that French women have mastered the art of eating like birds and feeling full and happy doing it, and that all American women are overweight and content to live life off of food French people wouldn't feed their livestock. In the United States, if you have the ability to eat fresh and enjoy the most local-peak produce and finest wine, you can probably afford a nutritionist and trainer too and don't need this book. I think I'm more angry that the author was able to fool me into believing she'd have something insightful to tell me other than that if I went to France I'd be labeled a blimp and that I can reset my body by eating nothing but soggy leeks for a weekend. Also, though I am not obese by any means, this book is NOT for the obese, it's really written more for the 5-10 pound overweight female still slender enough to not wear a plus-size and still confident enough to laugh at the truly fat and hide this book like an "en cas", en cas they feel un petite chunky. Skip.Book Review: first book ever bought in amazon
Summary: 5 Stars
I used to own a book like this back in the Philippines, but since I migrated here in U.S,I left the book behind. so I decided to look it up on Amazon because this book has always been and should be a mainstay on your bookshelves.
Mainstay because from time to time, we need to brush up on the ideas we've read, and we tend to miss out on small things sometimes, so just when you need to remind yourself a particular page you've read, just reach for this book and you can count on it anytime to put you back to reality and be ahead of your game again. No precise measurements, no pressure in calorie counting, this book reminds us to simply get in touch with our inner selves (which most of us through time always forget) and just listen to what your body needs, it teaches you to be sensitive enough to know and be familiar with your body's signals when it tells you to stop, slow down or go ahead and fill up with what your body needs. Every woman should have a copy of this book because I've read a couple of diet books,which by the way each and everything claims that they're not another diet book out there..puh-lease! talk about Bethenny Frankel's book.. I was so glued with her reality show that it got me intrigued, I bought her first book, still nothing compares to Mireille Guiliano's,chic and classy yet informative..so wherever I'd go,the copy of this book would always be in tow..
Book Review: A touch of arrogance
Summary: 3 Stars
Having just returned from France, I can say that this book is undeniably written from that French point of view of extreme cultural pride, sometimes to the point of arrogance. I didn't read this book for dieting tips, I was simply curious as to how a French woman explained the "french paradox". Mireille's tone throughout the book is a bit stuck-up, and sometimes hypocritical. She criticizes diet books for their focus on eating just one food for days at a time, and then tells her readers to spend a weekend eating nothing but leek soup. She also completely over generalizes about both the French and American cultures. I took issue with her claim that the French drink little tea, except tisanes, because while I was in France my host family drank black tea all the time, and the super markets' varieties of black tea is further evidence of its presence in the food culture. But the one sentence that finally convinced me to write this review was "The French are probably the world's biggest soup drinkers." Now that is just completely wrong. I guess Mireille has never read about or sampled Korean cuisine, where soup is served at just about every single meal.
I recommend this book for the recipes and the over-all French eating philosophy (in the first chapter), but the unapologetic cultural bias of this book makes it often hypocritical.
Book Review: Advice on changing your relationship with food.
Summary: 4 Stars
This is not a typical "diet" book that's going to give you some magical secret or dictate that you have to count carbs, points, calories, or anything else. What I got out of this book is that I can make small changes that add up over time. I have about 15 pounds to lose that have crept onto my body in the past couple of years due to my poor relationship to food. I see many of my friends and family also having their own poor relationships to food. The advice in this book directs you to re-think your choices, make small changes, don't deny yourself anything but keep your indulgences under control. I've been seriously modifying my way of eating (I won't call it "diet") over the past few weeks (prior to reading this book). And now I can see that a lot of what I'm doing are things that the author recommends. And I let myself have a treat once in awhile, but I make sure it's a really good treat that's completely worth it. My small changes have added up to the loss of about 4 pounds so far -- without feeling like I'm "dieting." Check out this book, but remember it's not a prescription for big weight loss, but some thoughts on how you can make your relationship to food a much healthier one.