Skinny Bitch

alicia17

Cathlete
I broke down and bought this book last week. I don't know why, I guess I laughed at the first page (and the media coverage). Anyway, has anyone else read it? What did you think? It made me never want to eat meat or dairy again. I ran to the store and bought a whole bunch of organic foods, and tofu. Although the book only seemed to give you bits on food safety, it definately made me want to find other literature to read about the subject.
 
I ran out and bought it too. I had been trying to get my DH to go vegan with me forever. After I read him a few chapters, he decided to have a few meatless dinners with me. I learned a lot of "stuff" from the book, that I did not know, I have read Eat to Live and a few others, but never seen a book put together quite like this. I thought it was interesting. There was a previous thread with the same title also, that was how I found out about the book.
 
Ok, I actually read this book quickly because of its humor and hard-knocks attitude. Sometimes I was actually laughing out loud at the comments. :)

I have read Eat to Live and Disease Proof your Child, which are very similar in methodology, IMO. I strongly agree with the philosophy that is behind all of these books, which is a plant based diet, no sugar, no caffeine, etc. However, I find that implementing these tactics are difficult in a family. I know it would be easier to do this without the influence of my children & husband. They seem to not care if it is healthy or not most of the time. I feel like I am fighting a losing battle. They love to eat pork, bacon and ham...which now after reading these books disgust me. :p

They want to also take away my coffee (decaf or caffeinated) for reasons that seem logically, but I am not sure I can do that!

I basically force feed my children their fruit and veggies each day. I tell them they don't have to eat anything else except their veggies (which I pepper their plates with) and they do not have to eat the pasta or bread or meat. Admittedly, their are some veggies that they don't like and others they do. And the ones that I know they have difficulty with, I put a little salad dressing on. I don't want to fall into the easy way out trap of frozen chicken nuggets and mac/cheese and call it a "well balanced" meal. (Actually I am lucky because my children don't really eat nuggets, fries, hot dogs, or pizza). But it is a struggle to get kids to eat tofu, no matter what I have done to disquise it. :-(

I hope that everyone reads this book because it is so easy to read and understand. And also, please read EAT TO LIVE because Dr Furhmann educates us on nutrition very well.

xoxo, Denise :)
 
>Ok, I actually read this book quickly because of its humor
>and hard-knocks attitude. Sometimes I was actually laughing
>out loud at the comments. :)
>
>I have read Eat to Live and Disease Proof your Child, which
>are very similar in methodology, IMO. I strongly agree with
>the philosophy that is behind all of these books, which is a
>plant based diet, no sugar, no caffeine, etc. However, I find
>that implementing these tactics are difficult in a family. I
>know it would be easier to do this without the influence of my
>children & husband. They seem to not care if it is healthy or
>not most of the time. I feel like I am fighting a losing
>battle. They love to eat pork, bacon and ham...which now
>after reading these books disgust me. :p
>
>They want to also take away my coffee (decaf or caffeinated)
>for reasons that seem logically, but I am not sure I can do
>that!
>
>I basically force feed my children their fruit and veggies
>each day. I tell them they don't have to eat anything else
>except their veggies (which I pepper their plates with) and
>they do not have to eat the pasta or bread or meat.
>Admittedly, their are some veggies that they don't like and
>others they do. And the ones that I know they have difficulty
>with, I put a little salad dressing on. I don't want to fall
>into the easy way out trap of frozen chicken nuggets and
>mac/cheese and call it a "well balanced" meal. (Actually I am
>lucky because my children don't really eat nuggets, fries, hot
>dogs, or pizza). But it is a struggle to get kids to eat
>tofu, no matter what I have done to disquise it. :-(
>
>I hope that everyone reads this book because it is so easy to
>read and understand. And also, please read EAT TO LIVE
>because Dr Furhmann educates us on nutrition very well.
>
>xoxo, Denise :)




I totally understand this. My kids hate veggies for the most part, but love junk food. It is a long hard road, but I am still willing to travel it!!
 
I read this book last month and passed it on to husband, sons and friends. It really pushed me into becoming vegetarian and we all have been now for the past month. Even tho I really eat pretty clean I lost 6 pounds and just feel much better. I have started putting together a collection of vegetarian cookbooks and that has helped. I had been leaning in that direction for quite a while and this just pushed me right over. Now I am reading a book The Skinny which is written by a food critic and writer about how she stays slim. While it is not vegetarian she does give you lots of advice about how to eat (she eats out almost every day for her job) and provides some good recipes. I liked this one too. No calorie counting just common sense about portion control and trade offs. Plus it is fun to read and kind of has a magazine layout. Check your library.
 
I read Skinny Bitch. I read it after I was already Vegan for a while. I thought it was a fun book and a light read. However if someone was new to a Vegan lifestyle I would suggest that they buy Becoming Vegan or another book that goes more into nutrition than Skinny Bitch did. If I remember correctly Skinny Bitch went into what should be cut out of a diet but not much into what should be added in.
 
I agree, Jacque! I don't think that the Skinny Bitch book talked enough about what should be added into the diet. I wish it had more recipes and suggestions for complete meals.

Dr. Furhmann does talk alot about getting kids to eat veggies in his book, Disease Proof Your Children...and to be honest, I need to re-read his books. I think I might be able to extract more this time.

xoxo, Denise :)
 
I bought it a few weeks ago, read it and gave it to my daughter to read it. Now she is a lot more careful when it comes to food choices. Money very well spent!
 
I am definately going to pick up a few more books on the subject. In the meantime, I have been eating tons of veggies and fruit. I even made my 7 year old tofu nuggets. She loved them. Here is the receipe:

16 oz firm or extra firm tofu
3 tablespoons wheat germ
2 tablespoons cornmeal
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
Dipping sauce

Preheat oven to 400

Cut tofu into 3/4 inch thick slices. Blot well between paper towels. Then cut into 3/4 inch dice. Combine wheat germ, cornmeal, salt in mixing bowl. Add tofu chunks and stir until evenly coated.

Arrange tofu on a lightly oiled non-stick baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, turning once.
 
Ahhh I cannot imagine not having my cut of ribeye or new york every now and then! I love meat!

Although the title of the book had me opening the post - it might be interesting to hear her theory....there are so many out there- you have to do what is best for you :)

But man - I LOVE Grilled Chicken with BBQ sauce, Steak marinated in pepper with mushrooms - and salmon drizzled with olive oil & tomato basil! and every rare often - I eat an actual hamburger!

I don't think I could do it (vegan) - now i would have no problem trying to cut out more sugar, but I love my bit of caffeine as well :) and I do meatless dinners with no problems, but as I mentioned above - I love GRILLING! So whats a girl to do! We already grill more fish and chicken then steak ever, but every now and then that red meat is fantastic!

My aunt and uncle switched to NO RED MEAT and now its almost like they look DOWN on people who eat it! I couldn't believe the RUDE comment I got from them on one family occasion! I just piped up and said "well red meat now and then isn't the deal breaker, just like that chocolate desert you eat every once in awhile" - I just don't get the attitude of people sometimes, I dont look down on people who eat tofu nor do I think they are better than me! Although maybe I am guilty a bit because I do kind of look down on people who gorge on fast food! hmmmmmmm - - - maybe I am hypocritical that way???

I believe in moderation - and the book "skinny bitch" just for the title is probably worth the read!
 
I hadn't eaten red meat in many years but did grill alot of chicken and fish. Now I grill vegie burgers, vegetables and tofu. I think if you are leaning towards vegetarianism Skinny Bitch will push you right into it. That is what happened to me. Then I went and got The New Becoming Vegetarian from the library and that supplied alot of nutritional info.Some of it very surprising. But I think it is SB that will provide the motivation to change if that is what you are looking to do.
 
>I basically force feed my children their fruit and veggies
>each day. I tell them they don't have to eat anything else
>except their veggies (which I pepper their plates with) and
>they do not have to eat the pasta or bread or meat.

I recently read about some new cookbook (sorry, can't remember the name) that focuses on recipes for getting kids to eat more veggies (usually by blending them or mashing them and 'hiding' them in some other recipe. I think there was a recipe with mac and cheese with something like squah in the mix (though I could just be dreaming up that last part).
 
I haven't read the book, and frankly the title was a turn-off for me, but if it's leading more people into the direction of a plant-based diet, I think it's great!:)
 
Ok, so I just read a preview of this book online and I can officially say that I will be going to the bookstore on my lunch break to go buy it.... Thanks!

Allison
 
Allison - Having met you on the RT, I do think you will enjoy reading it! :) ;-) It is so funny & harsh at the same time about how people eat. Unfortunately there are some parts that are "eye-opening" that are not so funny, but let us know what is really going on out in the real world to raise this food we eat. It even makes me look at eggs differently.
Enjoy it, Allison!
xoxo, Denise :)
 
Kathryn - I do know what you mean, I was turned off by the title too. But, it certainly does fit and will grap people's attention to read it....marketing. Maybe they should concern re-packaging it with a different title??
 
> Maybe they should concern
>re-packaging it with a different title??

Actually, it seems like the current title is working well...it seems to catch the attention of those who might not otherwise be interested in veganism. And that's what the authors' intention was, according to an interview I read.
 
Ok, so I'm back from lunch and I have Skinny Bitch in hand! I'm a quarter way through...man this book is amazing. This may sound naive, but I had no idea Splenda was so bad for me...

Don't know if I'll ever be able to give up meat entirely--I'm too lazy. It's so much easier to make a turkey sandwich than to cook up veggies, tofu and tempeh and to know what spices can liven up an otherwise boring meal of vegetables. I lived with my older sister for 2 years and she is a devout vegan and I used to watch all the work she did preparing meals for the week. I'm sure I'd get into it. I've just never been much of a cook to start with. I hate, hate, hate it. No patience. When I'm hungry, I wanna eat. Period! haha. I don't like the time it takes to prepare a good meal. I know, I know. Pure laziness. Maybe when I finish the part of this book that talks about eating meat I may think (and hopefully act!) differently...

Allison
 
They have suggestions at the end of the book which, if I remember correctly, are not labor intensive. Also they are coming out with a cookbook at the end of the year. I'll bet that won't involve much work to get a veg meal together. The NY Times has a whole page ad for the book in today's edition. Amazing how it took off and is now No.1 on the NY Times nonfiction bestseller list. I bought the book on a whim and I am glad I did. It really changed the way I eat.
 

Our Newsletter

Get awesome content delivered straight to your inbox.

Top