Customer Reviews

Skinny Bastard: A Kick-in-the-Ass for Real Men Who Want to Stop Being Fat and Start Getting Buff

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

Why I Read this Book: Health is a constant area of study for me. These women have done the research and have a simple lifestyle that works. I've experienced it.

Review:

I know what you're thinking..."What on earth is Reading For Your Success doing posting a review on a book with a title like this?" How could that possibly be related to true health or success? Well, as my mom taught me early on not to judge a book by it's cover, it took me a couple years but I finally got past this one. And I'm glad I did. The books written by Rory and Kim have turned out to be incredible wealths of information. Useful, empowering tools that can dramatically change the way you feel and look-as they have for me. Not to mention they're about as entertaining as a nutrition book (or any book) can be.

After some deliberation, I decided to post the review. I wrote this based on having just read Skinny Bastard but it fits just as well for this book's testy older sister, Skinny Bitch, too. They're equals, just one for the ladies in your life and one for the guys. The message is the same (which I'll get to in a minute). After reading them, I believe the Skinny books are one of the most useful and easy to digest books on health that I've seen. In Defense of Food takes the cake but these gals are a relatively close second.

They obviously chose these titles to ruffle some feathers-and you know what they say, it takes something out of the ordinary to really break a pattern. This book will likely disturb you, maybe even disgust you, but in an informative good way. It's a very in your face way of saying something pretty simple-eat your fruits and veggies and stay away from just about everything else. That's the skinny.

This approach to eating first hopped on my radar at a Tony Robbins Unleash The Power Within event. He spent one full 12-hour day dedicated to energy, health and vitality. After 30 years of research he found that the diet most consistent with high energy, low disease and longevity is one that involves nothing but whole grains, fruits and a lot of veggies, especially the leafy green type. After two more years of self study and a few personal experiments on my body, I must say the data is pretty compelling. And this is coming from a guy who didn't use to be able to have a meal without some form of meat on my plate. I will spare you all the details for now but there is plenty of science behind this stuff both in the 1,000+ sources these girls cite and the books listed below.

"But what about getting enough protein??"

This is the first thing 99.9% of people ask in response to someone who labels themselves as a vegetarian or a vegan (which I am neither). If I had a nickle for every time I heard that, I'd be laying on a hammok in Tahiti somewhere. This was my major limiting belief before switching to mostly plants and I believe it is the biggest roadblock to sustainable eating for most folks. Guys especially are convinced that they need a ton of protein to get through life and especially if they want to pack on a bunch of muscle.

I couldn't have agreed more. I was as skeptical as they come. So what did I do? I decided to test it. One of my goals last year was to put on a few pounds of muscle-5 to be exact. So I picked a pretty rigorous program, P90X. I did the full program-13 weeks straight (I highly recommend it by the way-perfect workout for at home too). But I decide that I wouldn't eat any meat and next to no dairy during the program just to see what was possible.

I set out to gain 5 pounds of muscle, and at the end of week 13 I had put on 9.8! I was sold. Society has brainwashed us on this whole protein myth. Try it for yourself if you don't believe it. And don't worry, even if you stop your protein shakes and 20 oz of white chicken breast a day, you will still get your fair share of protein from all the things no one pays attention to-legumes, veggies and fruit. What are you afraid of anyway-suffering from protein deficiency? Have you ever even heard of that problem in our country?

If you're stuggling with what "your plate after meat" will look like, take advantage of the dozens of delicious recipes in this book. You'll never know the animal is even missing.

And if my little anecdote wasn't enough, you would not believe the list of vegan olympians, pro athletes (including NFL players) and body builders that these girls list. There must be a full page. There is comfort in numbers-especially big, fit and strong ones.

Here are the main things to keep in mind:

1. Keep your food sources simple: Think about where most food and meat really comes from. It is scary if you ask yourself too many questions. If you can pull it from the ground, it's not too hard to figure out where it came from. The graphic descriptions of the sources of some of our foods and meats will make your stomach churn.

2. Trust no one: We spend our lives reliant on others for health advice-doctors, commecials, FDA, food industry. Every one of these either has a huge conflict of interest or has little to no nutritional training. The only one to trust is yourself. Do your own research and know exactly what you're putting in your body and where it come from. You'll find whatever program you choose much easier to stick to if you understand what's behind it.

3. Alkalinity=Health and Energy: The pH level in your body has a great deal to do with your health and energy levels. Your body thrives in an alkaline environment. Most fruits and veggies (especially leafy greens) are incredibly alkaline. Dairy and meats are very acidic. According to the studies, in an acid environment your cells retain fat to protect themselves from the acidity. Diseases and viruses also thrive in acidic environments. Why do you think most cancer patients are told to adopt a vegan diet?

4. Sugar is the devil: This shouldn't be much of a surprise. The stuff jacks your body up like crazy and leads to a ton of health problems, not the least of which is major weight gain. Avoid added sugar (especially high-fructose corn syrup) whenever possible, and stick to the natural stuff like stevia, molasses, honey or agave nectar when you need a fix.

5. Don't drown yourself in protein: I think this was covered plenty above. Ask yourself why you believe you need so much protein. Who taught you this? Have you ever tested whether or not it's true?

6. Moderation in moderation: This is my favorite. While these girls are hard asses about what to put into your body, they spend plenty of time letting you know that everything in moderation is crucial. Including moderation. Don't beat yourself up if you don't follow everything perfectly-no matter what you're tackling, life's just not that fun when you totally stick to the rules. When in doubt, just adopt Pareto's famous 80/20 rule. Do what you know is right for your body 80% of the time and the other 20% just go with the flow. Before you know it you'll be so accustomed to and enjoying that 80% lifestyle, that it will become the norm and flow of the rest of it.

So what do you say you take the time to explore your body a bit? It's our most magnificent and powerful tool. When nourished properly it can be unstoppable. Test some things out and let me know what you learn. And of course, moderate your moderation.

What have you learned while exploring a mostly-plant diet? What surprised you? How did you feel? Share a fun story (or recipe) with us.

~Reading for Your Success

Other books and articles you might enjoy:

In Defense of Food
Eating Our Way to Death, Literally
The pH Miracle for Weight Loss
Skinny Bitch
The China Study
Food Rules
Your Bodies Many Cries for Water
The Omnivore's Dilemma

I used to eat meat with every meal. I thought I was eating healthy and I worked out regularly but kept gaining weight. I picked up this book by chance while stuck in an airport 6 weeks ago and haven't eaten meat since. I now eat as much as I want (but choose the right kind of whole food plant based things to eat) and I continue to lose weight, 10 pounds so far. I also read one of the sources the authors of this book rely on (The China Study) to confirm that what they were saying was true. That is a book about the most comprehensive nutritional study ever done and is also an excellent read. Bottom line: you can substantially reduce your chances of cancer, heat disease, etc. merely by cutting meat, dairy, and eggs out of your diet. It is much easier than it sounds. There are many tasty substitutes for the things you cut out. Also, this book is very entertaining (lot of swear words) and a very quick read.

My wife, who was originally upset when I told her of my decision, is now a vegetarian too after reading my copy of this book. The weight loss for me is an added bonus.

Get this book. Change your life. Live longer. Be healthy. You won't regret it.

My daughter read the Skinny Bitch Diet by the same authors and began to change her eating habits and behavior. Within a week of her reading the book, I ordered Skinny Bastard and read it with much interest and skepticism. Now my whole family is primarily Vegan and loving the results. I wish I could justify my prior faith in our government and the food supplies that are offered by farmers, distributors and grocers. Restaurants are no better. I can no longer trust that the normal food supply is healthy and not killing us! Great read with vital information.

I am a truck driver and love to listen to good non-fiction books on CD. At the library, I pulled this book on CD out of the line of choices and pushed it back in. Then I noticed that there were two copies side by side. On a whim, I added this one to the stack. Whithin a week, I listened to it out on the road. What a wonderful shock this book turned out to be. As a Christian, concerning the language, I say "bad girls". As a man and a former Marine, I can say thanks for speaking in a "wake up" language that I can understand. I wasn't even done with the book when I cleaned out all the bad stuff from my cooler. I am "on it" now from day one and I feel better already.

I came from a family of farmers and seeing others harm animals always bothered me. I remember a slaughter house at Muncie, Indiana that had flowing water running over a very slick cement slope that all the animals had to walk down. We got less money for all the "downer" hogs that had their back legs "split out" while walking down this "trap". This was the packers little money maker and I can just imagine how the "split out" hogs got treated.

Your book made me angry because it reminded me that some people will willfully hurt anyone or anything for money and power. Your book also made me laugh many times. I didn't give you five stars because I can't recommend your book to "everyone". But the essence and the message of your book I can recommend to everyone. This is not a diet. This is a way of life. As an overweight truck driver looking for answers, this was just what I needed. Thank you Rory and Kim.

Larry, from Ohio

I was fifty-two pages deep in SKINNY BASTARD when the authors finally admitted that they were writing Vegan propaganda. Do not think this dismayed me too terribly much. I live in Los Angeles, and can't throw a rock without pegging a Vegan right in the kisser. I'm used to Vegans, and I decided that finishing the book would allow me to give their culinary philosophy a hearing.
I won't bore you with the story why I was curious about alternative food approaches, except to say that like everyone else born in the 70s, I grew up being bombarded with cold-blooded Food Industry and Government b.s. about the Four Food Groups and the Food Pyramid, which were designed primarily to bilk people into thinking that you needed red meat, cow milk and white bread to stay alive. As I grew older and realized the extent to which I'd been brainwashed, I cast about for a food philosophy that felt right to me - in other words, balanced health with good taste, and also addressed, at least in a token way, some of the spiritual issues raised by the animal-rights crowd. Thus, SKINNY BASTARD.
Like Dirk Benedict's CONFESSIONS OF A KAMIKAZE COWBOY (which advocated a macrobiotic diet), this book is essentially a polemic, and I have to admit it's a powerful one. Although there are boring passages here and there, the writing is generally terse, fast-paced, aggressive, and humorous in a very locker-room sort o' way. The book is broken down more or less like so:

1) Why eating sugar is unhealthy.
2) Why low-carb diets don't work.
3) Why eating animal products is unhealthy and immoral.
4) Why dairy is unhealthy and immoral.
5) Why Vegans don't have to worry about getting enough protein
6) How the FDA, USDA, EPA, ad hoc genus, are all in bed with the dairy, cattle, poultry, pharmaceutical, etc. industries.
7) How to approach the change to veganism - pitfalls and strategies to avoid them.
8) Miscellaneous stuff like recipes, foods to eat, foods to avoid, and how to deal with other people threatened by your newfound Veganism.

By and large, the authors, Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin, make a convincing case. They point out, quite rightly, that fad diets like Atkins may cause you to lose weight, but they won't make you healthy, and in fact may contribute to very serious health problems. They document with great exactness the deliterious effects of fast food, sugar, dairy products, and most especially animal protiens like beef, chicken, and fish, which are loaded with pesticides, steroids, antibiotics, growth hormones, and assorted filth. They reiterate the oft-quoted but seldom examined fact that "we are what we eat", and that if a person takes into their bodies things like McDonald's, Coke, Splenda, Ben & Jerry's ice cream, hydrogenated fats, MSG, Twinkies, etc., the state of their health (and, as Benedict pointed out in CONFESSIONS, their mental and spiritual outlook as well) will reflect it. People who eat and drink crap shouldn't be shocked when the develop diabetes, cancer, heart disease, et al - they are paying the wages of their culinary sins. The most effective part of the book, by far, however, regards the barbaric and horrible treatment of animals by the beef and poultry industries, and - surprisingly - the dairy industry as well. The section about pig slaughtering was incredibly difficult to read, even for an ex-law enforcement guy who has attended numerous autopsies. In fact, I could only get through it by reminding myself that only a complete [.....] could eat something without bearing to hear how it came to his plate.
The flaws of SKINNY BASTARD are the flaws of Veganism generally. They inveigh against processed food (in its fast-food form), but basically gloss over the fact that a Vegan diet is actually impossible without eating huge quantities of processed or tampered-with food, most notably soy-based foods like tofu, which, if overeaten, have their own cons and downsides. They insist, as Vegans, that any/all animal-based foods are evil, but their argument wavers between "it's bad for you" and "it's immoral" depending on the actual scientific date backing them up, which in the case of foods like honey is lacking. In addition, the authors, Freedman and Barnouin, use childish psychology on the male reader, constantly trying to equate Veganism with super-manly-man-ness (pointing out, for example, that UFC slugger Mac Danzig is a Vegan), so that we scratching, grunting, flatulence-prone apes will decide it's cool and embrace it. But the biggest failing is their assertion that becoming a Vegan will turn a man "buff" and "ripped." I eat frequently at Vegan restaurants in Hollywood, and you would be hard-pressed to find anyone in them who isn't flabby, sallow-skinned, and generally out of shape. Hell, I would argue that it's easier to get fat on a Vegan diet, because of the huge variety of carb-heavy snack foods and delicious non-dairy ice creams available. You may be spiritually healthier, produce less mucus, have better breath, an unpolluted colon and a normal-sized prostate, but you won't get "buff and ripped" by eschewing animal products - period.
I could nit-pick much more extensively, but I don't think that would be fair, because the truth is that reading this book did indeed put me off red meat and pork to the tune of about 75 - 80%, and reminded me of what a disgusting fraud the so-called "watchdog agencies" (USDA, FDA, EPA, et al) of over government really amount to. I doubt I'll ever go Vegan, or even vegetarian, but eating more of that type of food has opened me up to the fact that there are Vegan/veg substitutes for things like milk which are as good or better as the originals, and much healthier. That alone was worth the price of SKINNY BASTARD.

I read Skinny Bitch near the end of 2007 and have been a vegetarian (non- meat eater) ever since. Now that I have read more than half of Skinny Bastard, I'm ready to ditch dairy products, eggs, and fish. These women do not mince words when it comes to their condemnation of the meat and dairy industries in America, and knowing the truth about how animals are treated cruelly and consumers are lied to makes me embarrassed to reside in what most of its residents call "the greatest nation on earth." We are a laughingstock in the eyes of Europeans and other industrialized nations, who do NOT permit the use of bovine growth hormones in their dairy products and for the most part reject American-raised meat. It's time to wake up and to stop supporting animal cruelty, false nutritional claims, environmental degradation, and "food" that is downright detrimental to human health, all in the name of making billions of dollars. The more you know and realize about "factory farms" and "fish farms," the more you will want to reject a way of feeding ourselves that does nothing but pick our pockets and increase our liklihood of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, kidney ailments, premature aging, and a host of other consequences. Don't give this book a low rating just because you can't imagine giving up your favorite fast foods and non-nutritious junk. A whole world of wholesome, satisfying, energizing, and slenderizing foods and beverages are out there waiting to take the place of what is making you fat and sick. The USDA, the EPA, and the FDA are not operating in your best interests, but are staffed by far too many corrupt people who can be bought for a price. Educate yourself and refuse to support a national disgrace.

As someone new to reading about the benefits of a vegan diet, I thought it was educational and quite funny. I think the authors go a little overboard in their anti meat rants and I don't think the analysis of sperm odor is amusing. But I have been eating a better diet after reading the book and I find myself eating more raw fruits and vegetables and less dairy and meat and I have lost 25 lbs over the last several months. I don't attribure all of my healthier lifestyle to the autthors but they deserve credit for teaching an old dog some new information.

I live these girls! They don't try to be nice when criticizing your bad habits. As they say, eating well is not some "girlie" thing and they will whip your bu tt into shape with their straight talk using their locker room language. Yes, the locker room language. You have to be a man enough to take it and do something about it. I find the language hilarious, but you need to be forewarned if you don't like too blunt expressions. On the other hand why would you expect anything else after reading the title of the book?

The book gives readers a tough-love guide on how to become healthier and skinnier. Things like:
-- stop shoving sweets into your mouth all day long; sugar is for candy as ses.
-- get up off your behind and exercise
-- stop drinking coffee each morning. If you cannot wake up without it then you are addicted to it, and "generally unhealthy sl ob"
-- you are what you eat
-- the government doesn't give a sh...t about what you eat.
-- don't be a pu..sy and use your big head!

The authors promote vegetarian lifestyle and although I am not a total vegetarian myself, I fully support that idea.

This is definitely a very helpful, eye-opening read. I really enjoyed the book and found it more valuable than I expected. I would recommend it to all adult readers - not only men. For more great reading about losing weight in a healthy way read "Can We L ive 150". Especially Chapter 3 of that book titled "Obesity your worst enemy" is not to be missed. It is all you need to look good and feel great about yourself.

Finally a diet book that doesn't coddle. The tone is "in-your-face" and the effect is an intervention.

What I like most about the book it explains why our usual diets make us unhealthy.

There are literally hundreds of facts like these:
Sugar is flat-out toxic. Milk is designed to make a 100lb calf a 2000lb cow. American dairy products have so many artificial hormones that they are banned from most countries. The FDA found that 99% of chicken products contain fecal matter (which it allows, by the way).

This book is exactly what I needed to get started with a new life.

I have followed its guidelines for three weeks now and I have already lost 14 pounds. More importantly, my mind is sharp and my body feels refreshed.

I can't recommend enough.

THIS IS NOT A FAD DIET BOOK, IT IS A WAY OF LIFE.

In a short and simple term, being Vegan is the best way of life. I am not a Vegan myself, but I am on my way to it. I have successfully, over the last year, eliminated dairy from my life... and meat is next. Sure, this book can be rude towards men, but Skinny Bitch did the same thing to women. The big difference between the two books is that Skinny Bastard covers some more helpful information specific to men, like prostate or testicular issues.

The best thing about this book is that it sites the many different books and websites they use as information in the book. And they give you just enough information to open your eyes about what the meat and dairy industries are up to. So look them up yourself if you think the girls are "inflating" the truth or just outright lying.

AND ABOVE ALL ELSE, THIS IS NOT A FAD DIET BOOK. IT IS A WAY OF LIFE. It is informal and direct and worth the time.