Customer Reviews

Chic & Slim: How Those Chic French Women Eat All That Rich Food And Still Stay Slim

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Anne Barone's book "Chic & Slim Encore" is a favorite on my bookshelf, so I was delighted to discover her earlier work "Chic & Slim" has been reprinted.

"Chic & Slim" is the original book written by Anne Barone to share the secrets of how the French women eat rich foods, drink wine, are rarely seen at the gym and still manage to wear size SMALL!

The key according to Anne is the choices the French woman makes. She chooses natural unprocessed foods. Portion sizes are smaller. Exercise is fit in naturally by walking everywhere. Water not soda is the beverage of choice. Sugar is eaten in moderate quantities.

Instead of aiming for quantity, the French aim for quality. Eating a small slice of the finest pastry instead of a whole box of processed twinkies. Drinking one or two glasses of red wine instead of a number of unhealthy cocktails. Don't supersize your fries and double your burger. Instead eat a little portion of "pomme frites" with a palm size piece of grilled chicken. Forget the salad dressings with synthetic ingredients instead dress your lettuce with just a bit of heart healthy olive oil and vinegar.

Anne also goes into "ATTITUDE". The French women sees herself as a beautiful women despite her physical flaws. She is worth the effort of eating well, taking care of herself. She deserves to be slim and healthy. Many American women are unfortunately caught in a cycle of trying to look like the models we see in magazines instead of enjoying what we have and making the most of it.

The French woman does things that make her feel good about herself. She dresses to look and feel her best. No sloppy sweats and big gym shoes. Clothing that makes her feel feminine. A perfume that reflects her personality.

The book "Chic & Slim" also shares Anne's triumph of losing weight when she stopped dieting and started eating like the French. She shares more of her ideas at her website annebarone.com.

"Chic & Slim" like its sister book, ""Chic & Slim Encore" is a must read for the woman who wants to learn to enjoy and appreciate herself more. The woman who wants to get off the diet rollercoaster and learn to eat sensibly and with joy. A true treasure!

This book is full of little gems of information and observation. I've heard some of them before but never so many good tips on one place. This book and some others helped me realize that "Fat is NOT the enemy!" We need fat in our food. After I read this book and the Encore one, I switched to a diet without preservatives or hidden sugars, with healthy fats, and as organic as possible. I'm eating desserts and cooking french main dishes with butter, eggs, cream, and all that "high fat" stuff in them... but I am finally steadily losing weight! (After several years of gaining weight no matter how careful I was with dieting.) I lost 3 pounds the first week and total of 10 pounds after a month. No calorie counting, no worry about fat grams, no skipping dessert if I want it. Maybe this book is not perfect but at least 95% of it is pure genius as far as I'm concerned. Thank you Anne Barone!

I've read a number of books on weight loss, but none so logical nor, at the same time, so encouraging as CHIC & SLIM. Having traveled to France and witnessed for myself the many svelte French women and their ability to eat, eat, and eat some more, I was intrigued by "le systeme francaise." However, Barone goes beyond simple weight control to personal style, which encompasses all areas of life and promotes total health. While describing this connection, Barone is both humorous and refreshingly blunt -- a rare combination! If a person is happy, he or she will more than likely be healthy. If the reader follows the tips Barone offers, he or she will be able to achieve the chic and slim lifestyle. This is a book I will not only reread several times, but one that I will always keep in my library. . .I'll buy another copy to loan out to friends. If you purchase only one book about weight loss, buy this one -- it will leave you with an incredible feeling of confidence. Thank you, Ms. Barone!

I ordered this book from author Anne Barone's website, received it today and already completed reading it. Like Will Clower's book entitled "The Fat Fallacy", Barone's book focuses on the French lifestyle and compares it to our lifestyle here in the United States. Keep in mind that many of Anne's comments and observations stem from the considerably repressive Puritan ethic which states simply that 'if it tastes, looks or feels good, its got to be bad for you"--such philosophy represents the cornerstone of American thinking on many issues. That combined with our ready-to-go, off-the-peg mentality combines to produce a lethal and contradictory combination in terms of many things especially diet. We feed ourselves preservatives and then worship unrealistically tooth-pick thin models. Sadly, the idea of good old fashioned nourishment that tasted good and was enjoyed amongst family and friends has been replaced snd refined by a culture that reveres 'getting more for your money', and would prefer to pop diet pills, eat chemically preserved boxed entrees and exercise until the cows come home rather than show a little self-restraint and simply stop eating before one gets full. Barone, like Clower suggests that much of the problem has to do with bolting down food--whereas the French spend two hours over lunch, we shovel down our food within 10 minutes---taking the time to eat and allowing the brain to decide whether or not the stomach is full will certainly stop those added inches from ruining our waistlines. Barone does this in a much breezier, fun style than Clower--she relates her own experience in a compelling heartfelt narrative that is easy to read and easier to understand. In addition to her comments on food, she also delineates between the American and French lifestyles regarding their self-image, their clothes, their homes and their relationships with men. Again remember that much of the die-hard American logic that Barone opposes in her book strictly stems from her Bible-Belt background. Those of us that are not from the Bible belt and do not stictly adhere to what is considered good-old American, may already drink wine with our meals, drink water, never soda, eat real food rather than packaged fast food snd have a good sense of self that is not decided by au courant trends seen on television or in magazines. However, if you were brought up to believe that 'gain is never without pain' or 'if God wanted it to be that way, He would have made it that way', you definitely need to read this book. For all others, if you wish to have your own ideology summed up and reinforced by over 1000 years of French culture, this is the book for you.

Anne Barone's tone is fun yet matter-of-fact. I did not like the little magazine-type asides which she uses to tout her own work; I found these to be distractive rather than helpful. She ends her discussion of all components of a French lifestyle with her 100 things-to-do list which neatly summarizes everything in the book. Recommended to every woman who needs to find her inner self, rejoice in it and lose weight along the way to finding much pleasure. I agree with Anne when she claims that if you don't want to do something, you need not feel guilty about JUST NOT doing it.

Basically, this is a delicious book that is a light-hearted change from much of what is written about weight control and self-image. Its greatest contribution is promulgating the attitude that food is to be enjoyed and "enough" trumps "more than enough" in all things. In addition, French women choose to eat just enough because it makes them feel better and aids digestion rather than because it's shameful to eat more. I also like the emphasis on quality foods. I had already been exposed to the idea of eating enough to satisfy in a workshop and other books more than 20 years ago, but those authors said you should allow yourself all foods with no prejudices at all. I found this was too much freedom, and I was choosing sweets way too often. One statistic quoted in Anne's book that has made the biggest impression on me is that the French average only five pounds of sugar consumption per person per year compared to 90-plus for the average American! Yet they love food! This has helped me not choose the flavor of sweet many times more than I would have in the past.

I do have several problems with the book. I think it is misleading to say French women eat "all that rich food," implying that they eat a lot and often. They don't. Basically, from what I can glean from the book and website,they eat what Overeaters Anonymous has been recommending for years: three moderate meals a day with no snacking in between. This I have not been able to do. I work long hours, getting up early and waiting until I am hungry for my cafe-au-lait and teaspoon-of-butter-on-good bread breakfast around 6:30 or 7 a.m., but by 10:30 a.m., I am legitimatlly hungry. Herbal tea just doesn't do it to tide me over to lunch. (I am a teacher and have 30 minutes to eat lunch-not a lot if you want to take small bites and chew thoroughly.) I also get authentically hungry around 5 p.m., which is too early to have dinner. I eat quality snacks, but I haven't been able to do without them without becoming completely preoccupied with food because I am so hungry! I am not talking about that desire to eat; I mean HUNGRY! Maybe my body will change after I have implemented these behaviors for awhile, but I refuse to go for hours being hungry. It smacks too much of deprivation and punishment. I also have a bit of problem with Anne's acceptance that people should feel ashamed of being fat. I want to believe that becoming slimmer should stem from recognizing the body's real need for food and honoring that rather than thinking that I am a disgusting fat slob. (Granted, she doesn't say this all the time, but when she does, it's quite palpable.) I also think she benefitted more than she knows by actually living in France for quite awhile before she left and was able to implement the ideas all over the world.

I don't think my complaints should keep anyone from reading and benefitting from this terrific book. It also has great stuff on beauty, style, the life of the mind, and the importance of examining your own life and developing your own lifestyle, including eating habits.It should be in the library of any woman who struggles with food and weight.

I really wonder if the negative reviewers actually needed to lose a lot of weight (like me) or if they focus on superficialities.

For me this book, and it's sequel (C+S Encore) plus the next book (C+S Techniques) have been the first ray of hope in a very long time.

I've struggled with weight all my life. As I've shared in my recent Guide, I did manage to attain "normal" weight and kept the weight off for 5 years, then exhaustion and stress took their toll and I regained it all and then some.

I've had direct experience with yo yo diets, always gaining back a bit more than my starting weight.

And diets take a lot of effort.

Oh I can hear the judgemental cries, "all you need is will power" or the other one "you are just lazy". Both make the judge sound so strong, so hard working and the struggler sound lazy and weak.

If will power or effort was all there was to losing weight, and keeping it off, then I can sell you a bridge in Brooklyn honey!

HOWEVER THIS BOOK AND IT's sequels, (plus a few others I share in my guide), are changing my weight and my life, without effort, without pain and without will power.

I'm enjoying food, life, living -------and slowly I'm LOSING weight.

I can't rate this book highly enough.

I bought it on the recommendation of Lee Mellot, and Diane Von Behren, and I'm very grateful to them for their positive reviews.

To those who were less then positive, I don't get it.

This book explains some very key reasons why I gained weight and couldn't seem to lose it without a lot of strain and effort. I don't care about the politics of a writer, just whether the book is good and true.

This is a book about understanding reasons why some North Americans have a hard time with weight. She does use comparison between French and Americans to help people understand why some cultural differences are hurting us.

She isn't trying to recreate France in America or cause Americans to hate themselves any more than she is trying to get fat people to hate themselves. She is trying to explain some key reasons French women have an edge, an advantage.

Works for me!

I got my copies from her site. I followed a recommendation in the reviews to google her name, or the words French Chic and Anne Barone. She sells them direct for a lot less than they are sold second hand.

But whatever you have to pay for these books, get them if you want to lose weight, and then read them over and over till the concepts begin to sink in.

Take time, allow yourself time to learn and change.

Another book to read alongside this is The Rules of Normal Eating by Karen Koenig. It agrees with what Anne says, and gives some further explanations of why this method works.

Bottom line, these books by Anne Barone are worth their weight in GOLD! (or fat) LOL whichever works!
;-)

I am so glad I bought them.

A great piece of work. Fast-paced, fun and full of good advice on living well. I love Chic and Slim's common-sense approach to weight control. Barone deconstructs American food culture and provides innovative alternatives to help you conquer excess fat. This book is less expensive than a freezer full of diet food, and ten times more effective. I highly recommend Chic and Slim to all intelligent, cosmopolitan readers.

If you go to annebarone.com, you can buy all her books directly from her for a reasonable price.

This is the book for you if you:

Have tried diets in the past and have had enough of counting calories, fat grams, "points" or whatever else and want to get down to eating sensibly and moderately for health and slimness.

Are ready and willing to do an honest self-analysis of where you are now and where you want to be in the future and design your own program, based on your own specific needs and desires. This is not a "prescription" or "cookie-cutter" diet program. I found the author's experiences and advice very helpful but in the end, her message is that you have to design your own course. Which, in the end, of course, makes your success all the more likely.

Are ready to think in terms of lifestyle and not in temporary terms. That's why it's so important to do the analysis described above.

I've lost ten out of twenty-five pounds so far by making small changes to my lifestyle as I felt ready for them. In many ways, I've found this book and its companion, Chic & Slim Encore, very inspirational.

Anne Barone takes a beautifully holistic approach to beauty and dieting -- very French, oui -- which is part of the charm of her series of books. I especially admire the fact that her Chic and Slim books are self-published, and better yet, Barone is not trying to hawk pills or products.

This is one of the most sane "diet" books I've read, and yet, as the author points out, Chic & Slim is not a diet but a sensible, sensuous way of eating and savoring one's life. It inspires us all to rethink and reinvent the way we live and eat here in America.

No wonder these books continue to be such a success. They are great fun to read, and I have shared mine with several women, many of whom have ordered their own copies. Viva la self-publishing, Anne!!!