Skinny Chicks Eat Real Food: Kick Your Fake Food Habit, Kickstart Your Weight Loss [Hardcover]

Christine Avanti (Author)

Book Description

Release date: December 20, 2011

Skinny Chicks Don’t Eat Salads author Christine Avanti explains how women and men can
control their appetites and lose weight by avoiding the fake and processed foods that are
actually making them fatter.

 

Many women think that products labeled “fat-free,” “sugar-free,” or “lite” are the key to easy weight
loss. The truth is that these so-called healthy packaged foods are filled with processed ingredients and
chemicals that actually contribute to weight gain by causing us to overeat.

In The Real Food Diet, nutritionist Christine Avanti explains why a diet rich in all-natural produce, whole grains, and lean protein packed with the nutrients responsible for maintaining stable blood sugar levels and speeding up metabolism is by far the more effective option. Avanti draws on the latest research to provide guidelines for what and how often readers should eat to ensure that pounds are dropped—and offers specific meal plans, grocery lists, and a collection of flavorful recipes filled with fresh, seasonal ingredients.

 

A guide to eating real food in a factory-food world, a weight loss plan, and a real-food cookbook in one, The Real Food Diet will instruct and inspire readers to steer clear of fake food and eat the balanced, all-natural way we were designed to eat.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Put down that diet soda! Drop that fat-free cheese! Forget those diet frozen dinners! Christine
Avanti, a clinical and sports nutritionist, advises a back-to-basics approach.”—Time.com --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Christine Avanti is a certified nutritionist, a graduate of West Lake Culinary Institute, and the nutrition director and executive chef at Passages rehabilitation center in Malibu, CA. She lives in Los Angeles.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Rodale Books; 1 edition (December 20, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1609613082
• ISBN-13: 978-1609613082
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.2 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #298,554 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Christine Avanti is a former swimsuit model, a published weight loss author and a "celebrity" nutritionist who spends almost as much time on TV as many of her celebrity clients. She is a passionate proponent of the transformative power of healthy food.

In her early 20's she was an aerobics instructor and a magazine cover model - a "fitness queen" on top of the world. But in her late 20's, she suffered the loss of her beloved Grandpa Luigi - her father figure. It was a devastating blow. She became depressed and began eating everything in sight. On some days she ate nothing but ice cream for breakfast, lunch and dinner. She once baked, frosted and ate an entire German chocolate cake in a single sitting. In 6 short weeks she gained 30 pounds, obliterating her modeling career along with her social life. It was a lonely, humiliating time in her life.

Then she decided to lose the weight. But it wasn't easy. She tried an endless stream of diets, all eventually ending in failure. It was maddening. With all her fitness knowledge she couldn't lose the weight.

Somehow Christine stumbled upon the information that would change her life. She met a nutritionist who taught her to stop dieting and eat more. It was counter-intuitive, but it worked! She KNEW right then that it was her mission to share this with the world.

And that is EXACTLY what she has done. Christine has counseled over 1000 one-on-one clients who have collectively lost over 10,000 pounds.

In 2009, Christine published her first book, Skinny Chicks Don't Eat Salads with the world's leading health & wellness publisher, Rodale. Christine has appeared as a guest nutrition expert on the Today Show, Dancing With The Stars, Rachael Ray, Tyra, Good Morning America and dozens of other TV shows. She can be heard weekly on KLOVE radio and her comments can be found in magazines such as US Weekly, Health, Fitness, and InStyle. Three times she has had her material promoted on the Yahoo! front page. (see christineavanti.com/tvmedia.php for the complete list).

Some of Christine's celebrity clients: Jeremy Piven, Jason Statham, Johnny Galecki, Chelsea Handler, Samantha Harris, Giuliana Rancic, Rich Sommer, Janine Turner, Marcus Allen, Steven Seagal, supermodel Stacy Williams, and many more.

Christine holds a nutrition certification from The American Academy of Nutrition. She also holds an Associate of Science Degree in Comprehensive Nutrition from Huntington College of Health Sciences. She's a professional member of the National Association of Nutrition Professionals. Her office is located in Century City (Los Angeles), CA.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 50 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Getting started eating REAL! December 20, 2011

By Scave31

Format:Hardcover

As a burgeoning real food advocate, I'm always trying to find great books to support the lifestyle. Skinny Chicks Eat Real Food didn't disappoint. Avanti gets that we won't always be perfect at eating real food, so does what she can the help us get to the point where we are at least 80/20 or 90/10 percent real food to "factory food" as she calls it. She includes lots of great-sounding recipes, and, knowing that not everyone has access to or can afford specialty stores, Avanti includes real food on a budget resources such as Walmart, Costco and Trader Joe's, complete with easy to reference lists of real food available at these stores.

With explanations about why we all should eat real food over factory processed food, including how just switching to real food can help us lose weight, Avanti makes a case for gradually switching our diets to wholesome, nutritious foods that taste great and nourish our bodies rather than just filling them with empty, unsatisfying calories. By the time you're done with this book you'll be willing to give it a try...and you won't be sorry when you do! You'll look better and feel better than you ever have before when you eat the foods you were intended to eat instead of processed, chemical-filled garbage. Avanti has penned a winner!

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Frankly...Disappointing December 17, 2012

By Baubles

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

After reading Avanti’s first book, Skinny Chicks Don’t Eat Salads, I was pretty impressed with the author. She gave a very easy explanation for why certain foods cause weight gain and make you feel hungry at the same time. She appeared (at the time) to know her science, and created a very sensible and effective diet that followed. While I lost (and managed to keep off) weight on her program, I simply couldn’t stay on board with her overly processed ingredients, and left it for “real” foods.
Naturally, when her latest edition came out, Skinny Chicks Eat Real Food, I looked forward to following her approach to dieting and exercise again. This time, with a correction to the only flaw I could find in the first one – too many franken foods. Sadly, this was not the case. She chucked out her original teachings and replaced them with poorly explained excerpts from the real food movement. She then created a diet, which made no sense at all, to fit into her new, poorly researched theories.
I gave it two stars because I am true believer of real food -- although I have yet to find anyone who has been able to fashion it into a true weight loss regimen. It appears my beloved Avanti failed to do it as well, but she does have beautiful pictures and a few little nuggets of mind games you can try on yourself to eat less. Overall, I wouldn’t pay more than $4 for this book. She has also ruined quite a bit of her credibility with this book.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars REAL food February 5, 2012

By Shannon MacAdams

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Avanti is definitely a great person to be giving this advice. She has been through yo-yo dieting and was still carrying around extra weight - even as a personal trainer. To stop the yo-yo cycle, she stopped following others' advice and educated herself. Being a certified nutritionist, she knows the basic cellular processes behind what goes into our bodies. She is great at articulating these complex processes to those of us who do not have the education background. On top of being a nutritionist, she went to culinary school. So, not only is her food NOT diet food, it tastes amazing!! Who wouldn't want to nix the "fat free," "low carb," "light" foods? I know I do!

I think a major point of the book is the education behind why it is so important to eat REAL food (research the slow food movement, if you have the chance) and just how dangerous and unbeneficial fast/processed food is. But Avanti is also real about the fact that eating real food won't always happen. If anyone can stick to the 80/20 ratio (real/fast food), he/she will definitely notice an improvement in overall health. This is definitely a book worth reading.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars "MOTIVATING, INSPIRING, INFORMATIVE!" January 20, 2013

By Geraldine Ahearn TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Christine Avanti, clinical and sports nutritionist and trained chef chronicles a nutritional guide book, a cookbook, and an easy to follow diet. The author takes a simple and basic approach to good health through a complete change in lifestyle. Christine Avanti directs us to saying goodbye to fatty foods as we focus on a budget plan for real food, while losing the unwanted weight, and feeling better. The author shows us how to switch our diets to nutritious foods, where we can purchase whole foods that are not costly such as Walmart as we begin to follow a plan that works. This book is an 'eye opener' and not the first book I have read on this author. By following her expert guidelines, there was a time I lost 32 pounds in a month, and kept the weight off, simply by changing lifestyle. Christine Avanti offers simple recipes with easy-to-follow techniques in our routine lives, which include diet, exercise, and healthy everyday helpful tips. In addition, she highlights why we should get rid of processed and junk food, begin eating real food, and much more. We begin this unique plan by tossing out the fat-free and fake foods, as we embark on a complete change in lifestyle. Motivating, concise, and inspiring. Highly recommended!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book January 9, 2013

By Christine D

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is great! I really enjoyed reading it and it really does work. I lost 20 pounds in about 3 months and kept it off. This book gives a lot of information about what eating real food is and I was able to apply it to my life. It's an easy read and has a lot of references and resources to continue your real food transformation.