Hello - I just bought this book and am on chapter 3. It is really crass, but straightforward. I'm wondering if anyone has read it, and what do you think. Thanks!

Never heard of it, where did you get it and how is it?

I got it at waldenbooks. They have a deal where you can get the cookbook 1/2 price when you buy both. The book is about healthy eating. They claim people are fat because we are unhealthy because of all the nasty stuff in our food. They tout a vegetarian diet with no dairy. The book is an easy read and quite informative. However, if you are offended by cussing, watch out. The book reads like you are talking to your foul-mouthed smarta** girlfriend. I've been considering becoming a vegetarian for many years and i have made some changes, but this book is really pushing me to do it.

I've skimmed through it in many bookstores. I've been a vegan before, so that was nothing new. Basically it promotes a vegan diet which can be very healthy. But I think the authors should have been more upfront about that. The cursing and attitude was a real turn-off.

Salon did a great article on it...

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/02/11/skinny_bitch/

Many women, hoping to get saucy advice from two stunners about staying slim, have felt duped by the offerings of what the authors proudly tout as a "manifesto." Aspiring Bergdorf blondes buy copies of "Skinny Bitch" at L.A. boutiques, only to be blindsided with accounts of live cows skinned alive on the assembly line. At least when a Hare Krishna gives you a vegetarian cookbook in the airport, you know -- thanks to their flower-wielding characterizations in Zucker brothers movies -- that they are cultish wack jobs. But Barnouin and Freedman, under the ruse of weight loss expertise, alternate concern for animal abuse with reader abuse.

The relentless bullying peppered throughout the authors' advice accounts for much of the book's humor, including quips like "you need to exercise, you lazy shit," "coffee is for pussies" and "don't be a fat pig anymore." It was a formerly anorexic friend of mine who nailed it when she read excerpts from the book. "When you have an eating disorder," she told me, "that's the voice you hear in your head all the time."

Thanks to "Skinny Bitch," women who hate their bodies no longer need rely on their own self-loathing to stoke the flames of what seems like motivation but is actually self-flagellation -- penance for the sin of being too fat. Now dieters can have the convenience of a former model (Barnouin) and a former modeling agent (Freedman) putting their transgressions in the black-and-white terms of right and wrong. "If you eat crap," they chirp, "you are crap."

It's a heavily agenda'd method of preying on the dieter, whose mind is weak from starvation and preoccupation with nothing but food. Have you tried to hold a conversation with somebody on a diet? The first 10 pounds they lose are mostly brain. Christian diet books like Gwen Shamblin's "Weigh Down Diet" and "What Would Jesus Eat?" (a real cookbook by Don Colbert, no relation to the comedian) sell copies based on the same reasoning.

I read it as well,

I simply did not take it all that seriously, it was crass I agree but also very very funny...They write like my girlfriends talk. I loved the analogies..."continue drinking coffee and your breath will smell like ass"...rofl

I looked at it on Amazon but bought The Fat Girl's Guide to Life and Hungry instead.

Ha ha I absolutely love it. It cuts the B.S. and just tells it like it is. While I would LOVE to be a vegetarian (as the book espouses), i have been vegetarian before and I always become severely anaemic -- so that rules that out. I absolutely need red meat, for some reason.

Back to "Skinny Bitch". If you want a wake up call from some no-holds-barred authors who won't tiptoe around the issue and "nurture your feelings" then it's a great read. Definitely shocks you into submission :biggrin:

But I can understand it being far too confronting for some, as they do swear a lot and present you with some uncomfortable truths about the food we eat every day.

So, have a flick through before you buy it, make sure that you're not offended or anything by the terminology, then buy and enjoy

On another note, their cookbook "Skinny Bitch in the Kitch" has a lot of lovely recipes. Highly recommended! (obviously all vegetarian).

I wonder if these skinny bitches would be skinny bitches no matter what they ate. They don't strike me as the type to gain much weight - even in pregnancy.

Hi All,

That book also made it over to the UK! I have a copy, I like them they are brutal though!

K XX

I thought the book was hilarious. I did actually stop eating meat after reading it back in December. I am slowly cutting dairy out of my diet as well, though it is much more difficult to do than the meat was. I have felt pretty good physically, which surprised me.

Salon did a great article on it...

Hey, skinny bitch! | Salon Life

"It's a heavily agenda'd method of preying on the dieter, whose mind is weak from starvation and preoccupation with nothing but food. Have you tried to hold a conversation with somebody on a diet? The first 10 pounds they lose are mostly brain."

Personally, I wasn't offended by the book, but I sure see why some would be. But if I were offended by the book, I would be MORE offended by this part of the review!

I got the book on tape that included the cookbook. I can't tell you how many times it had me laughing so hard that I almost had my drink spewing out of my nose while listening to it in the truck!

Thanks for all your thoughts!! I finished the book and found it to be hysterical. My sister has now bought it and we discuss it! I have decided to become a vegetarian and work my way to vegan. I'm not going cold turkey, cleaning out what is in the house already and just making sure to buy veg food. I laughed my butt off for most of the book - except the part about the animals and slaughterhouses, that was a tough chapter. To all who are reading the book, enjoy!

One of my good friends read this book and now she is a vegan... She said something about milk being unnatural? I haven't read it nor do I really want to, cheese makes up most of my diet! Then again shes about 100 pounds and I'm more than 2 of her.... hahaha, so to each their own.

Allison

I read the book and loved it. I like their matter of fact attitude. And yes, after reading it, I have taken meat out of my diet as well. It was an eye-opener. Haven't gone vegan yet. I still eat the eggs and drink the milk. Who knows, one day I may, but I'm not ready for that yet.

I've read most of it standing in the bookshop, lol. I dont really agree with things like having to become vegan. But the attitude.

It pretty much sums up what I feel about weight loss. Its how it is, its VERY SIMPLE. Shut your gob, move your ass. Just. Do. It. All the discussion in the world about how to avoid temptation, how to motivate yourself to exercise, etc etc, its all procrastinating really. In the end, you either do it or you dont, and the only person responsible for it is you.

So yeah, I agreed with the attitude and that sort of self talk worked/works for me. I just finally thought, oh quit bitching and DO something, and I did.

But I think a lot of recovering from obesity is mental and its not always beneficial to be so blunt and in your face about it. For a lot of people, the very first step in the journey is learning to be honest with themselves and facing their responsibility towards themselves. Many people start out playing the victim, or as excuse makers, and even when they have valid reasons to feel that way, it doesnt matter, they either get over it or they dont.

But its like telling someone who's depressed to just brighten up, get over it. It simply isnt an effective tactic.