msmorvay's Full Review: Mireille Guiliano - French Women Don't Get Fat
I have to admit that my interest in this book was piqued when I saw the author Mireille Guiliano on Oprah. I listened to what she had to say about why French women despite living in a country where the foods are rich and pastries and breads are in abundance the women there do not get fat. I listened to the way she said that it is how they live that keeps them thin. I even listened to a member of the audience who said she used read the book followed its advice and lost pounds. I wasn’t completely convinced but I had to admit I was curious. So when an opportunity came to get this book at a reasonable price I decided that I would give It a read.
French Women Don’t Get Fat
After the French born Mireille Guiliano spent some time attending college in a America as a young woman she found that after adopting some of ways of living she found that she had gained quite a bit of weight, and found that she needed to go back to the French way of living in order to get her body back to where it had been. Guiliano, the CEO of Champagne Veuve Clicquot not only got her self back to a healthy size but also has helped others achieve this as well by teaching them how to adapt the French way of living.
French Women Don’t Get Fat is not a diet book. You will not find sample menus, food lists, and portion sizes listed in this book. This book is more of what I would call a healthy life style book. The author states that no food is really taboo as long as you keep things in balance and any thing in moderation is ok. And while you are at it when you do indulge you should indulge with every ounce of your being, use each of your senses to enjoy the food that you are eating and savor the pleasure of it.
And just as you savor food you should savor life. French women do not get fat because they savor life. They don’t speed their way through meals, they never stand while eating, the sit and enjoy the meal and eat it slowly. They also eat a great variety of things at one meal. They eat several small portions of different items. The author puts this in contrast to the fact that Americans eat very few different items in large portions. French women savor fresh foods and herbs.
French women also do not really sweat. The author claims that they prefer walking and stair climbing rather than full out sweaty exercise. They walk every where that they can and they never miss an opportunity to take the stairs. I did however appreciate that later on in the book that she says once a women reaches a certain age however there does become need to do some light resistance exercises in order to maintain muscle, and bone density.
So if this book does not contain your typical diet type information what does it contain? Well mostly advice on what I just wrote about in the paragraphs above; but there are also some other notable topics and chapters. There is an entire section in this book dedicated to recipes. These are mostly family recipes. There are a couple of recipes however that she considers to be very important and they are home made yogurt, and Leak Soup. These are both a part of the only plan that this book consists of and this is what the author calls the 3 week re-casting. In this she says that you should introduce the yogurt in to you daily life, and the Leak soup is used as sort of a cleansing in the beginning of the recasting. It would not be fair to the author to explain the entire recasting but I will just say that it is a way of evaluating yourself and introducing a new way of living to your self. I did personally try the Leak soup, and it was actually quite bland but I did drop a pound in 24 hours after eating it.
Other notable sections include deep breathing exercises, the uses of herbs, and the importance of water. There also three short stories of three women who Mireille helped to achieve slimmer figures and healthier life styles.
Basically if you take time to enjoy life, and enjoy your food, eat in moderation, and in balance, and move as often as possible, you will be living like a French women. Life is not about deprivation, it is about balance.
Life Style Changes I Have Adopted Since Reading this Book
This way of living is very easy to incorporate in to ones life style. Since reading this book I find myself not trying to cheat on my daily tasks I try to make myself move as much as possible during the day, and I am making an honest effort to not be lazy. When I do my house work now I try to do it with vigor, I try to park far away from the entrance when I go places. I don’t let my self say I’ll take it up stairs later or when I go, I make an extra effort to do it now. I am going way above and beyond than the book however and I do exercise strenuously several times a week. But I enjoy this and I am trying to make radical changes in my body, and I am trying to not age gracefully but rather to fight it every inch of the way.
I also have started to pay a bit more attention to my breathing and do, do the breathing exercises in the book to help me sleep. I am also trying to take more time to eat my food slowly and savor the taste of it.
Final Thoughts
I like the concept of this book and of course the author is 100% correct, if you eat and move and live in the way that she has suggested you will probably not get fat. However if you are already heavier than you would like to be you may need a little more of a radical plan than this one in order to lose weight, and then after you get to your desired size you can then start living like this. But there is certainly a good start suggested in this book with the recasting.
The book is extremely easy to read and will not take up a whole lot of your time. Mostly the book contains good common sense advice. I did kind of find the constant French wording thrown in a lot through out the book to be a little annoying, but some may like this. I enjoyed reading the authors personal story and the story of the other women in her book. I didn’t learn a whole lot from reading the book I liked learning about the breathing exercises, but most of what I read was not new to me but did serve as a reminder of the way things should be done. I will also use the Leak soup recipe again when I need to lose a pound or two fast. I don’t know if that was the author’s intention, but I will use it if I need to.
There are a few things about this book that make it worth your time and effort to read. So if like me you find that you can get this book for a reasonable price I would recommend going ahead and getting it. I am not going to say that this is the best book I have ever read, or that this plan is amazing and changed my life on several levels, but what the author says makes sense and is true at least to the best of my knowledge. And there are some tips that are quite helpful. So I would recommend this book, with a warning that if you are already considerably over weight this book is probably not enough. If you are a little over weight or out of shape, or are slim and need advice on how to stay that way then this book is for you.
Stylish, convincing, wise, funny–and just in time: the ultimate non-diet book, which could radically change the way you think and live.French wom...More at HotBookSale
In her delightful tale, Guiliano unlocks the simple secrets of the French paradox--how to enjoy food and stay slim and healthy. Hers is a charming, se...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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