The Secrets of Skinny Chicks: How to Feel Great In Your Favorite Jeans -- When It Doesn't Come Naturally [Paperback]

Karen Bridson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 26, 2006

Now you can find your inner thinner chick with the exercise, diet, and image secrets of the most enviable bodies

In The Secrets of Skinny Chicks, award-winning women's health journalist Karen Bridson profiles 25 svelte women--including models, actors, athletes and regular folks--to reveal exactly what it is each one does to look so great. These women share with you their tips for planning menus, exercising, and staying motivated as well as advice on boosting metabolism. You will learn how to adapt these secrets into your own life safely and realistically.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Now you can find your inner thinner chick with the exercise, diet, and image secrets of the most enviable bodies

They've got the bodies you covet: long, lean, muscular, healthy . . . it's easy to assume that skinny chicks look great effortlessly. But as twenty-one fit and fabulous women divulge in The Secrets of Skinny Chicks, they have to work hard at it every day-no excuses!

Personal trainer Karen Bridson-who was once overweight herself-demystifies the fitness and diet secrets of women with fantastic bodies and offers easy-to-stick-to game plans to create a healthy lifestyle that works for you. By following her fifty secrets you'll learn how to:

• Get in touch with the negative thoughts involved with overeating and develop a “skinny state of mind”
• Incorporate your favorite “cheat foods” into your new, healthy diet every day (really!), so you'll never feel deprived
• Plan a cardio and strength-training regimen so invigorating you'll actually love to work out
• Listen to your body's cues that tell you when you're hungry and when you've had enough

The Secrets of Skinny Chicks provides the tools to finally, once and for all, make a lifelong commitment to living a healthy life and loving your body-flaws and all! With the help of this book, you can stop being afraid of that denim monster in your closet, reach back into the abyss that is your wardrobe, and let those skinny jeans see the light of day!

About the Author

Karen Bridson is a certified personal trainer and award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in Runner's World, Active Woman Canada Magazine, The Globe and Mail, and other major publications.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (July 26, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 007146901X
• ISBN-13: 978-0071469012
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #405,945 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm an award-winning freelance journalist specializing in women's health issues. I've published three books and I'm working on my fourth. Fifteen years ago I was 45 pounds heavier than I am now; I recently completed my sixth marathon.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Motivator, January 30, 2007

By 

O. Brown "Ms. O. Khannah-Brown" (Twopeas, WA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Secrets of Skinny Chicks: How to Feel Great In Your Favorite Jeans -- When It Doesn't Come Naturally (Paperback)

****
Very enjoyable and motivating book. The point of this book is that women who look good and are fit usually work very, very hard to be thin and in shape. The first part of the book is filled with detailed examples of very fit women, exactly what they eat each day (a sample food diary), exactly what exercises they do each day of the week, what their attitudes towards food are, what their personal philosophy of weight loss is. This was my favorite part of the book, because it was very eye opening. Most of the women eat between 1200 and 1600 calories a day. And yes, as other reviewers have mentioned, they exercise often up to two hours a day. It was eye-opening to me, because it helped me to see how much I ate compared to how much these women eat; it's no wonder I'm overweight!

All of this work and effort might seem unrealistic to most of us, but the rest of the book is chock-full of ideas of how to put over thirty of these women's "secrets" into practice in the real world. The good thing is that after reading about what the fit women do, it doesn't seem so overwhelming to exercise a half hour or an hour a day---it seems doable. There isn't a lot of new information here, it's true, but this book is a great motivator packaged in an inspirational and entertaining way.

If you are a beginning dieter, you'll find much that is enlightening here. If you're a veteran (as I am), you'll find a nice shot in the arm of motivation and a good review of all of the latest information on diet and exercise and healthy body image. I'm excited about ways of creating a healthy lifestyle for myself again.
****

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Skinny State of Mind...., July 28, 2007

By 

K. A. Stevenson "WIAPilot" (Tucson) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Secrets of Skinny Chicks: How to Feel Great In Your Favorite Jeans -- When It Doesn't Come Naturally (Paperback)

Although over 50 diet books grace my bookshelves, this truly is one of the best. Skinny Chicks profiles a variety of women and allows the reader a glimpse inside their lives to view "the cost" of being slim. And make NO MISTAKE...to get (and remain) slim usually takes a LOT of effort and work. Yes, there are a very very few women out there who seem to be "naturally" slim, but the vast majority of women who stay slim have learned approximately how many calories they can eat and still stay slim and how much they must exercise.

I don't believe that this book sets the expectation that all women need to be a size 2-8. Our society (unfortunately) has already done that. However, if you feel that you need to be this size, this is a great book. It should be noted however, that the author in no way advocates that everyone needs to be (or should be) that small.

That said, this book was such a breakthrough for me. Even though the author specifically says that you do not have to be "on a diet" for the rest of your life, I FINALLY got the message that - "Yes. I DO need to be on a diet for the rest of my life. And so does ANYONE who has lost weight...IF they want to remain at that weight. THAT "DIET" MAY NOW INCLUDE 1800 CALORIES A DAY, RATHER THAN 1200 - BUT NEVER ARE YOU GOING TO JUST MINDLESSLY BE ABLE TO EAT ANYTHING YOU WANT WITHOUT HAVING SOME IDEA OF HOW MANY CALORIES YOU ARE CONSUMING." And that "diet" may also include being able to "cheat" or having an off day or two. But the absolute truth is that if you want to remain at the slim weight that you have worked so hard to get to....you can't cheat for weeks at a time or continually eat foods you shouldn't. You have to STILL diet....except you CAN have more calories, but you are STILL going to have to exercise and do the things that helped you reach your goal. This sounds so utterly SIMPLISTIC, but I can't be the only one who didn't "get it" before - because something like 90+% of people who lose weight, gain it back! I am about 1/3 of the way with my weight loss and I KNOW that I will keep it off THIS time. (I just wish that I had read this book the LAST time that I lost weight!) Definitely a book worth reading and quite different from the usual array of diet books!

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nothing new, but still a great motivator, September 30, 2006

By 

M. Witte "irgcorona" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Secrets of Skinny Chicks: How to Feel Great In Your Favorite Jeans -- When It Doesn't Come Naturally (Paperback)

Okay, so maybe this isn't rocket science, but I have read most of the fad diet books out there and I did enjoy reading this one. Although I already knew all 50 of the "secrets", I found it to be a great reminder of what I SHOULD be doing. It was just enough to get me motivated again to get back in my healthy routine that I have managed to blow off the past 9 months and now have the too tight jeans to show for it. This book probably wouldn't be too interesting for people who already know how to maintain their dress size, but might be very beneficial for those who don't.