I have a confession to make, I bought that book, Skinny Bitch, written by a couple of L.A. modeling agency types. I saw it a month or so ago. The title intrigued me, so I picked it up but I didn’t buy it then. Last week when I was sick and feeling sorry for myself, I was flipping through the channels and found the Tyra Banks show. That show also intrigues me because I can’t believe it’s still on the air. Have you seen it? It’s terrible. But anyway, I digress. One of the girls who wrote the book was on the show talking about it, so I watched. I ended up picking up the book. Now that I have a job, I feel like I can splurge on a $10 book here and there. It’s basically a “go vegan” book disguised as a diet book. It’s a very short read, the whole book is double-spaced to fluff it up and add pages. The book uses quotes and data from all the millions of other books about the evils of the food industry (Schlosser, Weil, peta, Robbins, Eisnitz). The back of the book lists all their sited sources and it gives you a pretty good idea of where they are coming from.
When I was feeling awful, I wanted someone to just tell me how to feel better, and this book sorta sounded like what I needed. I can’t say I recommend the book, but I don’t think it’s all that bad either. I can appreciate their gimmicking potty language and short, straight to the point writing. I have a few problems with their beliefs, one being that I think it’s important to support local, responsible dairy farmers, and I wish they had spent more time on the concept of eating locally grown produce. I also find their source sites a little weak and thin, and I have a hard time buying them, it seems like they just tore through a bunch of books looking for simple to digest facts that support their ideas. Those problems aside, I like the simple, straightforward tone of the book: If you want to feel healthy and loose weight naturally, eat good food, stop eating processed crap, and get some exercise. I can agree with that.
So I have been doing just that. I decided to stop drinking coffee on a regular basis and switched to tea. I’ve limited my meat and dairy intake, and I’m trying to eat more grains. And in less than a week, I lost 2 pounds. I have not been hungry and I feel better. I’m just trying to make good choices about food. I know that some things block me up and others help my digestion and I’m trying to honor that.
Tom is reading Omnivore’s Dilemma, which is a much, much better book if you are interested in the food you eat and where it comes from. I’m reading it Tom’s shoulder and I hope that I have time during the school year to read it too.