"You cannot keep eating the same shit and expect to get skinny. Or smoke. So don’t even try some pathetic excuse like, ‘But if I quit smoking, I’ll gain weight.’ No one wants to hear it. Cigarettes are for losers. They are so 1989 and totally uncool.”
These were some of the first sentences in the 1st chapter of Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin’s Skinny Bitch, a #1 New York Times Bestseller that serves as a guide to helping modern day women become healthier and well, a “skinny bitch.”
However the authors don’t mean “bitch” as in an attitude nor a female dog for that matter. They are very keen on promoting self-awareness and a healthy lifestyle. Never had I read a book that was brutally honest and shocking! I couldn’t believe I was getting yelled at for my eating habits and I even sat with my mouth ajar when I was being cursed at for eating meat! Yes, there are many cuss words. This book used obscenities that I find vulgar, even in this day & age.
Chapter 10 displays one of those words largely (think Fussy but with a P) as it is a chapter about allowing yourself to do what is necessary to lose weight. In other words, the only person holding you back from losing weight is yourself! Do not be timid with your goals, you have to create a plan and stick to it because guess what?
“You can change your life. You can have the body you want for the rest of your life. You can enjoy healthy foods. All you have to do is follow a simple formula, and be willing to delay gratification for a few months” (p. 115, 116).
Kim and Rory are exactly right.I have always believed that anything worth achieving, any big accomplishment is going to come with a side of suffering.
If you choose to go back to school and obtain a Master’s Degree while working full time, then prepare for some long nights buried in books or library aisles, missed parties and giving out rainchecks to your friends. Some things worth achieving are just automatically served with a side of suffering.
If you want to be a professional NBA dancer, then prepare for arduous routines and long rehearsal schedules, missed Thanksgiving dinners and Christmases due to games. Some things worth achieving are just automatically served with a side of suffering.
In my opinion, and quite certainly the authors of Skinny Bitch agree that you will need to get used to your new eating habits and an exercise regimen. You will have to retrain your mind to believe that junk food, processed food, unnatural ANYTHING is bad for you and with that…comes a side of suffering!
That isn’t the only thing the book is trying to point out. I have never read anything that spewed so many facts regarding the USDA , legislations or just the ins & outs of the meat industry. I thought the authors had magnificently accomplished the task of inserting facts but keeping it an easy read. I despised Science growing up but I found this book entertaining, even with the insertion of Aspartame, Opiates, Casein, and Butylated Hydroxyamisole (BHA) in sentences.
Now I do have to warn you: Chapter Four’s “The Dead, Rotting, Decomposing Flesh Diet” and Chapter Five’s “The Dairy Disaster” are quite graphic. So graphic that I actually could not complete Chapter Five in its entirety. The authors detail the disgusting treatment of animals on the so-called Factory Farms. These Factory Farms “raise cattle, pigs, chickens, egg-laying hens, veal calves or dairy cows “ in incredibly small spaces (p 44).
The slaughtering of these animals is detailed in Chapter Four and Five especially; I do not recommend reading them while eating baked chicken & rice, like I did.
Here’s an excerpt from Chapter Four(p45) to give you an idea:
“They all live in the filth of their own urine, feces, and vomit with infected, festering sores and wounds. To keep animals alive in these unsanitary conditions, farmers must give them regular does of antibiotics. Half of all the antibiotics made in the United States each year are administered to farm animals, causing antibiotic resistance in the humans who eat them. A study at the University of California-Berkeley linked eating beef to urinary tract infections (UTIs) in women. It just so happens that the most common infectious disease in women is UTIs. You do the math.”
I dare not quote anything from Chapter Five for fear of losing my readers entirely! Like I said, the explanations of the animal treatment was so graphic, I couldn’t finish reading it.
However, do not be disgusted! This book is not just about the mistreatment of animals but mainly for women to be more aware of how we treat our bodies.
Do you know what the ingredients were for your last meal? Your last snack? Your last lunch? Your breakfast this morning? Do you really know what you are putting into your body? The authors of Skinny Bitch are challenging each of us to let go of the ignorance and simply know what we are eating. They are so concerned with our well-being, they have even written a follow-up book of recipes called Skinny Bitch in the Kitch, as well as for those expecting mothers, Skinny Bitch Bun in the Oven.
Skinny Bitch offers several resources in the endnotes and cites other potentially good reads there as well. I enjoyed reading and will definitely pick up Skinny Bitch in the Kitch, as my very own go-to guide. After all, the goal is to be knowledgeable because only then can we become the skinny bitches that we all want to be! Til next time…
*M*
**For more information on Skinny Bitch and any other books in their series, visit their website at www.skinnybitch.net
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