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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lots of info on dressing thin, eating fewer calories without deprivation, and more--written with delightful humor!, September 11, 2009
This review is from: 101 Things to Do Before You Diet: Because Looking Great Isn't Just about Losing Weight (Hardcover)
This book is such a delight to read! Author Mimi Spencer is a UK-based fashion and beauty journalist, so she knows the topic well, and knows how to write. The book is littered with information and tips, as well as humor. Her style includes a very entertaining use of personification of food ("Chocolate cake actually talks to me..."), exaggeration ("There are about 12 people on the planet who look truly brilliant in a strapless dress, and -love you as I do--I must tell you that it's unlikely that you're one of them"), sarcasm ("In their study of why the French remain so much slimmer than Americans, ...[they]came to the remarkable conclusion that it was because the French ate less"), wit ("While other eras basked in the Renaissance, the Golden Age, the Belle Epoque, we're lucky enough to have a TV schedule that boasts America's Next Top Model"), and similes ("A full pocket is like a diaper: objectionable in the extreme").
The premise of the book is you don't need to diet to lose weight--in fact, obsessive dieting may lead to yo-yo-ing. Instead, the author suggests 101 things to do that will help you feel good about yourself, let you cut back and eventually lose weight without feeling deprived, and dress right for your body type so you can look your best at the weight you're at.
The best part of this book is that the tips don't have to be read in any particular order (though they are grouped in chapters with themes), so you can skip around, bypassing the ones that are "old hat." Just the titles of some of the tips are sure to put a smile on your face ("Tape a Picture of Bad Britney to Your Fridge," " Find Your Thing, Stick with It. You May Even Meet an Endorphin").
Studies are cited to support many of Mimi's suggestions, such as portion control (1 in 4 people clean their plate, so they need to use a smaller plate!) and trays (One study shows if you use a tray at a cafeteria you may feel compelled to fill it up). And though I am the author of a nutrition book myself, and have read hundreds of books on nutrition, even I found a few surprises in that realm (ex: people who eat almonds regularly weigh less than people who don't).
I was delighted to note that one of the tips is "Get fresh and feel the force" and she even says to "Uncook! Go raw!" (In my opinion, that is the best tip in the entire book!) Nonetheless, there were a few tips I had to disagree on, because for me health trumps beauty (and really, the two are intertwined). So please be discerning with tip 68 ("Wear Heels. Always.") because high heels are the equivalent of the Chinese tradition of foot binding. (Just ask any podiatrist or chiropractor about patients that wore high heels a lot.) Ladies,--dare to wear flats! When you are older you will thank yourself. Another tip I would avoid is "Wrap tempting tidbits in aluminum foil so they can't make eyes at you through a window of plastic wrap." Both aluminum and plastic wrap leach toxins into the food, so may I suggest glassware for food storage? I also disagree with her that detox diets are useless.
Sprinkled throughout the book are many info-blurbs such as ones on how to get rid of cellulite, the pros and cons of stripes, and how to select a bra. But the most fun for me were her tips on fashion. Unlike the book "How Not to Look Old," these tips are timeless. They also teach you to "dress thin" according to your body type. Mimi suggests that you choose clothes designed by women (since women have a better understanding of curves and bulges), and guides us in finding the right jeans and swimsuits. She encourages us to buy a corset (!), and playfully suggests we boycott the handbags of boutiques that refuse to stock anything above a size 8. She argues that even if overweight, we should wear fitted clothes "tight to the torso" as "this is the most flattering and slimming silhouette for any body shape" contrary to the concept that we should hide our fat in a shapeless garment. For us apple shapes there is an info-blurp on how to best conceal an overly ample waist. And Mimi warns us to "Go for low-key prints: busy patterns will make you look like a sofa."
For any woman, any age, or any size, who wants to look her best: this is a very informative and unusually entertaining read--as well as a great reference book for shopping!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
When Dieting Is No Longer A Sport About Weight Loss, It Can Finally Be An Effective Health Strategy, September 24, 2009
This review is from: 101 Things to Do Before You Diet: Because Looking Great Isn't Just about Losing Weight (Hardcover)
One of the greatest fascinations people seem to enjoy doing these days is dieting. It's almost as if it's some kind of sport of sorts for those who hop from diet to diet without preparing themselves properly ahead of time for what is to come. And the predictable weight loss failure of such a strategy only feeds into the continued pursuit of the next big miracle way to shed the pounds. Author Mimi Spencer thinks enough is enough, though.
As a fashion and beauty journalist from the UK, Spencer has stumbled across a lot of effective tips and strategies for looking great, feeling fabulous, and getting slim without getting bogged down by the whole diet industry. This book she has written is the ANTI-diet of sorts, but it's so much more than that. She digs deeper into the psychological and emotional reasons why women especially feel such an innate call from within to hearken back to days gone by when we didn't quite feel as "fat" as we are now.
The theme of the book is to start learning to enjoy your life more and stop getting bogged down in the day-to-day minutia of living it. This is vital for people who think they have to measure and count every little morsel of food that goes into their mouths, time precisely how much exercise you need to get in a day, and allow your diet to control you rather than the other way around. That's not at all how life was meant to be lived and so Spencer gives you 101 specific things you can do right away to get your diet off on the right foot.
I love some of the positive reinforcing messages Spencer shares like "Love the skin you're in," "Laugh at celebrity magazines," "Put on your best underwear," "Buy more food that has no label," "Read food labels...use your common sense," and my personal favorite, "Tape a picture of bad Britney (Spears) to your fridge...you will put down that slice of pie." Witty tips mixed in with experience from pop culture, you get uplifted in this effort toward living a healthier lifestyle.
At the same time, though, there are some issues I have with some of her 101 things that don't exactly jive with what I have learned about health and nutrition. The very first one is "Don't read diet books" but I think there's plenty to learn when you absorb all the latest information. I can certainly appreciate that people shouldn't encompass their lives into new diet books, but there is some benefit to reading them.
On her actual diet advice she provides, Spencer says to eat a decent breakfast of oatmeal followed by a "protein-rich lunch" and a "smallish supper." Not shabby and she does give some credence to carbohydrate-restriction but noted "with all due respect to dear departed Dr. Atkins, there is a time and a place for carbohydrates." Oh yeah, when's that? Eat some, but not too much she says. How much is that supposed to be? Spencer doesn't say and it's left to the imagination of the reader.
And she's no fan of salads that contain cheese, eggs, bacon, meat, and dressing which she describes as "salard" instead thinking this kind of meal will make you fat. Again, the tendency to create a negative image of consuming high-fat, low-carb foods like this kinda goes against the ANTI-diet philosophy she stated at the beginning of the book. I do appreciate the fact that she acknowledges how the term "salad" tends to give people a free pass to consume unhealthy ingredients like a "pasta salad," for example. As she puts it, "A meal containing broccoli will not make you thin." Brilliant! There is no health halo just because there happens to be one or two good things about a meal (like my brother Kevin always jokingly said when we were growing up that chocolate cake was good for you because it had eggs and milk in it).
Some interesting guidance Spencer provides in this book can be useful if you're willing to implement them into your life. Things like stop watching The Food Network, imagine finding a bandage or fingernail in that unhealthy food you think you can't live without (EWWWW!), give up driving your car by carpooling or walking, stop hanging out with your fat friends and family, and squeeze liquid soap on your kids' leftover food. Odd? Perhaps, but Spencer is convinced these things work because she's tried most of them herself. There is an equal amount of ink dedicated to looking good on the outside while doing all you can to get healthy on the inside.
101 Things to Do Before You Diet is a neat book to browse through for anyone interested in how to look and feel amazing. Ironically, if you took the advice that this book gives you, then you'd probably never read it since this is yet another diet book. Oh well, Spencer hopes you'll suspend that one just for her book!
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5.0 out of 5 stars
intelligent,witty,funny,just great, September 24, 2011
This review is from: 101 Things to Do Before You Diet: Because Looking Great Isn't Just about Losing Weight (Hardcover)
This is really a book worth buying by people with weight problems.It didn't provide me with new information,I already knew almost everything in it,but it's so funny that I enjoyed every bit of it!I would definitely buy it again!
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