Customer Reviews

The Martini Diet: The Self-Indulgent Way to a Thinner, More Fabulous You!

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Don't be fooled by the title, "The Martini Diet" by Jennifer "Gin" Sander, is not a version of the drinking man's diet. Instead it's a truly delcious way to lose weight!

The Martini Diet consists of 3 very simple rules: Rule #1 - Eat only the very best. Rule #2 - Eat somewhat less of the very best and Rule #3 - Eat the very best only at mealtimes (ie no snacking). According to Gin if you follow these rules the pounds will drop.

Personally I have tried a number of methods to lose the baby weight I gained (and baby is 14) from questionable supplements to lo-fat foods to food combining to Weight Watchers. I would get very hyped on these plans only to discover that none of it worked LONG TERM. You see, I like my comforts and that includes chocolate, wine, good bread, etc. So I just couldn't stick to programs that didn't include these goodies or that encouraged eating fake foods that made my appetite increase!

Gin's book teaches balancing pleasure with moderation. If you give up the fake, tacky foods like processed cheese whiz, and diet nutrition bars and lo-fat fake cookies etc. and if you eat real food in modest portions and don't snack much if at all, you can lose weight. And you will LOVE the process.

My dinner last night was a simple piece of grilled chicken, corn on the cob (no, you dont have to give up starches..just eat them in modest portions) and asparagus. Washed down with a glass of zin and chased by a piece of rich dark chocolate. What could be better?

I love Gin's book because of the refreshing way she writes. She entreats you to become a food snob and turn your nose up at the twinkies and boxed scalloped potatoes. You are too good for that. I love the way Gin tells you to treasure yourself and indulge in the very best.

However, there are a few things that bothered me about the book. The first is though Gin implores you to eat "REAL FOOD" she confesses she has a penchant for Slim-fast. Though Gin tells you to "LOVE YOUR FOOD" she then shares that she enjoys Slim-fast because, "it gets that morning meal out of the way". Huh? What happened to enjoying your food? She also includes recipes at the back of the book and a few include questionable ingredients like soda pop.

Despite the few inconsistencies, I give the book top ratings because of the core message. Gin's message is to "Spoil Yourself Thin". This will help you get out of the weight loss means depriviation and punishment mode. She suggests you treat yourself to the best food. When you get a craving, pamper yourself by beautifying yourself instead of eating. You participate in exercise you love instead of killing yourself at workouts you hate.

By now you may be wondering why the title, "The Martini Diet". This is because Gin suggests you indulge each day in a glass of wine or martini for the health benefits and pure enjoyment. She also gives simple techniques to figure out your portions sizes by using a martini glass. Nifty!

Gin admits she is not a scientist or doctor. She is just sharing what works for her. So if you read around the inconsistencies and stick to the core of what she is sharing you will have fun with the book. Gin wants you to enjoy your life and losing weight can be a pleasure if you follow her tips.

What wonderful lifestyle books have come out this past year! All of them eschew either the old dieting axioms of counting calories or the newer dieting crazes which call for a complete removal of an entire food group, be it fat or carbohydrates, and actually celebrate the enjoyment of eating FOOD. What a delicious concept: living life passionately. Advocating the same message of Arbor's lovely "Joie De Vivre", a luscious account of the French lifestyle and "The Fat Fallacy" by Will Clower, an easy-to-read scientifically founded entreaty asking Americans to embrace real food rather than ingest convenience faux food alternatives, Author "Gin" Jennifer Basye Sander writes a fun book bulleted with interesting insights and hints on how to lavishly eat yourself thin. Understandably, Gin's role model is Julia Child, the queen of cream, whose long and well-lived life is a testament to all that Gin extols in "The Martini Diet": moderation and food snobbery of the highest and most decadent level. If your idea of dinner is a delectable soup followed by a course of succulently cooked roast chicken smothered with a wine-based sauce and surrounded by fresh vegetables and finished with a glass of vino and a small chocolate dessert, then by all means, read on, Gin will teach you how to enjoy all this and lose weight at the same time. No more measuring or arranging your plate to ressemble an annoying food clock; no more skipping the potatoes and the rice or passing on high priced olive oil and vinagrette dressings.

Gin's rules are easy enough to follow. She suggests eating only the best a la the French and their famous French Paradox, eating slightly less of the best, meaning no more supersized, wow-look-at-all-the-food-I-got-at-the-all-you-can-eat-buffet-for $5.99, and eating the best only at mealtimes, where snacks don't count as meals, they simply don't exist. Common un-American sense that embraces the slow-food movement and pushes aside fast food and its convenience as treating yourself with much less than you deserve. Think like a queen, eat like one and look like a princess.

With these concepts under your belt, her advice for avoiding the typical American feed troughs is simple and amusing to read--she calls it her Cinnabon Avoidance and in true Proustian style relates a familiar and deadly temptation--that succulent aroma wafting through the airport and the sight of those wonderfully gooey cinnamon buns that are sized like a mini-birthday cake instead of a typically sized muffin. Her practical tips include using everything under the sun, including breath and tooth whitening strips to get the thought of snacking on treats out of your mind; overall her comments border on breezy, wise-cracker funny and have you head nodding in agreement.

Admirably, unlike other lifestyle authors, Gin labels the popular style icons---Jackie O. and her ilk---as TOO SKINNY, commenting on their diets of consomme and lettuce as way too boring and restrictive. HOORAY for GIN! Im with you girl--I'd much rather be a size 8 and healthy--with the curves I was born to have!

Bottom line: this book is FUN and SAVVY. Its message doesn't only pertain to food, Gin discusses clothing and exercise with the same lavish approach. Buy well and look well. Partake in activities you love and you'll never skip a "workout" again. Why spin when you can ride a bike in the countryside? For a different perspective of the same concepts, pick up Clower's "The Fat Fallacy" and Arbor's magnificent "Joie De Vivre." Read all three with a glass of wine and a square of 70% dark chocolate and forget about the scale because you have satisfied all your cravings---in moderation.

Instead of advocating any particular type of diet for weight loss, "Gin" Sanders recommends a fun, painless way to lose those unwanted pounds.

Her simple method involves three steps:
1) Eating only the best
2) Eating slightly less of the best, and
3) Eating the best only at mealtimes.

Her method makes losing seem effortless, and yes, even indulgent. Also, dieters learn to respect/accept themselves RIGHT NOW, even before the pounds come off.

And lastly, there are those great martinis to enjoy...

Reviewer: Linda Painchaud

Are you a food lover? Does the idea of cottage cheese and peaches make you reach for a girdle instead of a diet book? Why can't a diet be enjoyable? Jennifer Sander shows us how a food snob can tackle a diet effortlessly, dining on wine, chocolate, and filet mignon. Spoil yourself thin with the Martini Diet!

Martini Diet Rule #1: Eat Only the Very Best
Martini Diet Rule #2: Eat Somewhat Less of the Very Best
Martini Diet Rule #3: Only Eat the Best at Mealtime

Eat only the very best foods. This means the freshest, highest quality foods you can find or afford. Sander teaches us to focus on the food, and enjoy every morsel. She advises us to avoid what she calls Ghastly and Tacky foods, that include food horrors such as ramen noodles and chicken nuggets. She also teaches us why many of these foods should be avoided, as they frequently contain trans fats, high fructose corn syrup, and a variety of chemicals. Dining on the best doesn't just treat our taste buds, but is also healthier overall.

Eat smaller portions. Remove terms such as super-size and buffet from your vocabulary. It isn't as much what you eat, as how much you eat. One of our 3FC forum members once said "I'd rather have one tiny piece of real, imported chocolate, than a whole bag of sugar-free candies". The real thing IS better! But, portion control is required, and that is the basis of the Martini Diet. Self indulgence doesn't include gorging on fine foods. It involves pampering yourself, within reason. Sander recommends using a martini glass as a measure for your foods. The standard martini glass holds 3 ounces of liquid. She advises us that this is the perfect portion size for most foods.

Don't snack between meals. Sander explains that part of our excess weight can be blamed on between meal snacking, which usually involves junk or sugar-laden foods. It is true that traditional snack foods are not healthy. However, many successful weight loss plans do allow for 2 snacks per day, if those snacks are well chosen. We recommend applying the Martini Diet philosophy to carefully planned snacks, to round out your day.

The Martini Diet book is filled with humor, celebrity anecdotes, and even fitness tips. Yes, self indulgence includes being good to your body by exercising regularly. Instead of aerobics, we are given suggestions of horseback riding, ballet classes, and fencing.

What does the self indulgent dieter eat? Sander shares her favorite recipes to help us dine gracefully at home. We can enjoy sour cream waffles, bourbon cheese straws, prime rib roast, and even chocolate fudge cake.

We enjoyed reading the Martini Diet and think our lives would be a little nicer if we can apply this philosophy to our own lives. We recommend picking up a copy to read while you have your next pedicure or bubble bath.

This is the sadest little book ever! After reading Will Clower's "Fat Fallacy", and becoming a big fan of "eating for pleasure", I wanted to find more books on the topic and came across the reviews for "The Martini Diet", in which one of the readers compared this book to Mr. Clower's- immediately stirring my interest. But unlike the "Fat Fallacy"- written in an intelligent, constantly providing scientific facts- sort of way, which convinced me to adopt the life style in the first place, Jennifer Sander's book is written on a middle/highschool level and I found it close to unbearable to read. If I haden't read the "Fat Fallacy" first, I'd have no idea what this woman was talking about and would assume that this was something she and her "big-big" friends (Her words, not mine!) came up with while sipping on Martini's.

If she's not constantly talking about "putting Martini glasses down" to engage in other activities(is she an alcoholic?), she contradicts and repeats herself over and over again:
-Like stating that she enjoys the Slim Fast Shakes and breakfast bars, which substitue for a REAL breakfast. So much about a "real food diet"!
- On page 49 she even advertises calorie counting (and I thought that that was excactely what we didn't want to do anymore!)
- And what about her statement, that "real grown ups" are never seen in public drinking anything, including bottled water because that would be tacky!? Hello?

Just to mention a few disturbing things.

I absolutely agree with the outline of this diet, but it couldn't have been advertised any worse than this! "Gin" Sanders seems to want to morphe herself so desperately into Jacky O. and Co., that you can't help but wonder what happened to this woman during her "heftier" day's, to make her completely want to become somebody else. If you are not interested in turning yourself into a "wannabe" socialite with a few simple tricks from "Gin", but would like a great- new approach to nutrition, explained with adult reasoning, then I suggest you read William Clower's "Fat Fallacy" instead!

This could have really been a great book... :(

The title of this book can be a little deceptive. I thought somehow I was going to be reading my way into Martini drinking weight loss. That is not at all the case in this fun little book. "Gin" Sanders uses Martinis as a pun, a metaphor for good times, the martini glass for measurements, and does believe that an occasional martini is a wonderful indulgence.
This book was designed for women. It is about following three simple principles 1. Eat real food, good food 2. Eat smaller amounts of that good food 3. Eat only at meal times.(no snacking) It sounds so simple, but it makes perfect sense.
Gin is funny, factual and gives you good reasons to love yourself and treat yourself well.
This is not a quick weight loss routine. This is not about low carbing, low fatting, counting calories or points or fat grams. This is about eating like a grown up with a plate in front of you, a napkin, eat small, eat slow.
No more golden arches, slurping down thick shakey things with the motor running, while cramming down fried potatoes and talking on the cell phone. Gin reminds us that food is an art,eating is an art.
No more fat free filler foods, with ingredients that sound like poison, no more packaged stuff, no more drive through stuff, no more fruity dyed stuff. This is common sense real food, to eat, real drinks to enjoy and a real life to live and love and pamper.

If you're tired of strict, no fun diets, pick up this book. The author espouses simple yet indulgent ways to lose weight. For example, after reading her section on trans fats, I decided to NEVER touch fast food again. I won't settle for it in a rush anymore either. If I'm eating, I'm eating something that tastes great and doesn't leave a film of chemicals on the roof of my mouth! Yuck! I've also picked up walking over grueling, runs. I "indulge" in an hour walk each morning with a friend. We get our coffee; we talk. We have fun. My exercise isn't a chore, it's something I love to do because I'm having fun with a friend. Just by following Gin Sander's advice--and not suffering (I ate chocolate on Easter but only the good stuff!), I've dropped a pant size in a little less than a month. Don't let the title fool you into thinking this book isn't about health. It is. And the author's advice is awesome!

Gin seems like someone you'd want to have as a friend. A build-you-up, happy-when-you-succeed friend. This book was so much fun to read and the advice really works. Why suffer just because you want to drop some weight This doesn't even seem like a diet. I lost 8 pounds in 3 1/2 weeks and intend to lose about 7 more. She also incorporates some of her luxurious advice (she is the author of Wear More Cashmere) such as little, inexpensive luxuries that make you feel more glamorous, therefore you don't want to be eating that gooey Krispy Kreme anyway, do you? This is far better than the Chic & Slim books written by French-worshipping Anne Barone. She makes ridiculous statements about how much more civilized the French are and we slobs just don't get it. Don't waste your money on those books; buy this book and you'll refer to it again and again!

Since I was 21 I have battled with the same 10-15lbs. Weight up, weight down! Not only was my life ruled by which diet I was on, but my quality of life/happiness was the pits. I would diet, then binge and look puffy, sad and miserable. I think the binges are from diet deprevation backlash. Anyway, I picked up this book 2 months ago and my life has changed drastically!!! You cannot imagine how simple this way of life is. People comment on my weight loss and how happy I look. Funny, I used to torture myself to lose weight, but now its a pleasure. I drink alcohol (which is forbidden on any strict diet), I eat bread at every meal and I said goodbye to balance bars, diet soda and that low carb junk that is all chemicals. I eat REAL food now and am satisfied with so much less. READ THIS BOOK if you are a chronic dieter and are sick of the low carb 'lifestyle' that has been thrust upon us. EAT BUTTER, EAT BREAD, EAT CHOCOLATE AND GOSH DARN IT ENJOY IT!!! [...]

If you enjoy glamour, if you want to get or stay slim, and if self-deprivation is not your thing, then this book is for you. Gin Sanders has just the right comedic schtick for appealing to my more mature, more glamorous side for staying on track with a diet that is so livable you can even enjoy a glass of wine with dinner. And speaking of glamour - how about that awesome silver cover, even on the paperback version?!

This is a real "diet", not a joke book, though. Some of the other reviewers complained that Gin's advice requires having a lot of money. I just read it while keeping in mind that I might have to tailor it to my own situation...just like any other advice I receive in life. I figure I might spend a little extra on quality food (although fresh fruits and vegetables from my local produce stand are not expensive!). But with her advice on limiting portions, nixing snacking and pre-packaged junk food, and saving real "extravagances" for special occasions, I should be saving some money by reducing my required food quantity at the same time. It probably comes out even in the end. And I'd suspect that a book called "The Martini Diet" was never intended as a how-to-lose-weight book for those of us who are on an extremely tight budget. We all find ourselves there sometimes, so we all know that martinis and tight budgets usually don't go together, right? I even thought while I was reading the book how the same principles could be applied to money: only spend money on the very best you can afford and don't waste money on items that are, in the end, just junk. There. Now I'm getting slim AND saving money.

I loved this book. I'm inspired and ready to enjoy my life while waving au revoir to the 10 extra pounds I've picked up in the last few years.