I was reading diet reviews and saw the basic premise of this book, and thought hey that is like what KD ascribes to! I got the book and am reading it now. The only thing that looks a bit odd is the leek soup thing...I guess you use this to cleanse your insides or something!

I personally think that one of the reasons, as the author alludes to, that the French are thinner than us in general, is that they eat smaller portions, more fresh foods, and they walk everywhere!! Maybe if gas got up here what it is in Europe people over here may do the same. Also....one thing that is not mentioned, they smoke like crazy over there from what I understand....maybe that has something to do with it. However, not a habit I will be picking up!

Robin

Loved reading this book! The best part about it, to me, was that she stresses enjoyment of food, and eating small amounts of the "real thing" instead of non-satisfying substitutions. Plus don't you feel French as you read her expressions?

I hated, hated, hated the leek soup too! I threw it down the disposer too!

Did anyone see Mirielle (did I get her name right?) on Oprah last spring? Unfortunately she was only on for about 10 minutes in a show that featured other diets too.

quote:

Originally posted by RobinBeBe:
...she emphasizes is three things: Identify your offenders (food you abuse, junk food, etc) and either cut them out or cut them back. Once you reach where you want to be weight wise, slowly add them back in, but in smaller portions. Hmmm sounds familiar But that is ok......it is interesting to read about how they do things and maybe it will help me out a bit!

I find it REALLY helpful to read the same message over and over - written by different people in different ways...

I used to have a boss, and when he would be repeating himself and driving a point home, he used to say, "Repetition is conviction!"

Hey Robin… I’m just so happy that you aren’t posting, “Auuugggghhhh!!! I give up!!! I’m going back to no-carb!!!”

You’ve made a bunch of progress in the past year. (I’m really proud of you!!) You may not have lost any weight (yet), but figuring it all out is going to really pay off when you are in a good place to really start working on it.

Just hang in there thru these stressful times and you’ll know when the time is right!

From what I understand, they do have a shorter workweek, longer vacations, and they split their workday in two...they have a long lunch, but work later into the evening. However, many of the European countries are heavily socialist,and yes they pay higher taxes than we do.

So far, in the book (I am bout halfway through) it just simply sounds like what she emphasizes is three things: Identify your offenders (food you abuse, junk food, etc) and either cut them out or cut them back. Once you reach where you want to be weight wise, slowly add them back in, but in smaller portions. Hmmm sounds familiar But that is ok......it is interesting to read about how they do things and maybe it will help me out a bit!

Robin

quote:

Originally posted by TriGirl:
What I think is interesting is that though our unemployment percentage is about half that of France's (5.5% vs. 10.1%), we have about twice the percentage of people living in poverty (12% vs. 6.5%). Interesting stuff. Also interesting that the number of people in poverty is much larger than the number of unemployed here.

I wonder how they factor for the number of people who are of employable age but don't work outside the home.

These numbers are from the CIA Factbook.

Anyway, sorry to deviate so much from the original topic. Still seems like the French might have it a little better than we do, plus they get to drink wine and eat cheese and stay skinny....

They don't have as many people living in poverty, because their social welfare system is much better. They also pay much higher taxes. VAT tax alone was 18.5% when I lived there in 1994-1995.

Dawn

quote:

Originally posted by TriGirl:
Still seems like the French might have it a little better than we do, plus they get to drink wine and eat cheese and stay skinny....

I drink wine and eat cheese. I don't know if I'd be considered skinny, but I'm thin and healthy, and I'm not French.

I suppose if I smoked like a chimney... I could get skinny... but skinny really isn't my goal.

I don't drink much wine... and I eat less cheese than I used to...

What I think is interesting is that though our unemployment percentage is about half that of France's (5.5% vs. 10.1%), we have about twice the percentage of people living in poverty (12% vs. 6.5%). Interesting stuff. Also interesting that the number of people in poverty is much larger than the number of unemployed here.

I wonder how they factor for the number of people who are of employable age but don't work outside the home.

These numbers are from the CIA Factbook.

Anyway, sorry to deviate so much from the original topic. Still seems like the French might have it a little better than we do, plus they get to drink wine and eat cheese and stay skinny....

quote:

Originally posted by TriGirl:
Sounds better and better -- why doesn't one of our politicians run on a platform like THAT?

The flip side to that is the high unemployment rate and the inability of French companies to compete successfully in the global market place (unless it's for expensive, high end items).

quote:

Originally posted by Bee:
It helps that the mandated work week is 35 hour/week and that most companies give employees a couple of hours for lunch ; )

Sounds better and better -- why doesn't one of our politicians run on a platform like THAT?

quote:

Originally posted by TriGirl:
I would love to have the kind of life where I could stroll to the farmer's market every day and make a nice meal for lunch and sit for two hours... Sounds great to me. I just need to become independently wealthy.

It helps that the mandated work week is 35 hour/week and that most companies give employees a couple of hours for lunch ; )

Part of the reason that people in Europe go to the store so much is that they don't have huge refrigerators like we do.

I would love to have the kind of life where I could stroll to the farmer's market every day and make a nice meal for lunch and sit for two hours... Sounds great to me. I just need to become independently wealthy. My husband and I have talked about maybe moving to another country when we retire. Sort of a reverse immigration -- my grandparents came here from Italy and maybe I can go back.

quote:

Originally posted by GoingSkiing:
I guess the French don't buy 50# bags of dog food and 8# gallon bottles of milk.

I guess if you are going to the store every day... you buy a quart of milk and a can of dog food.

Well, that is part of their lifestyle...they go to the market several times a week, not one big shop every two weeks or so. I have heard pros and cons about this from a financial standpoint, but it would be interesting to experiment.

Robin

My guess is that the leek soup would act as a mild diueretic, besides, she suggests doing a 48-hr leek fast. Yuck yuck yuck.

There are some really fun things about the book, though, leeks aside.

I think that there are a lot of things about American life that are less human-friendly than the way they live in Europe. BUT, when I toured Italy, I got a new appreciation for things like clean tap water and free public restrooms!

I guess the French don't buy 50# bags of dog food and 8# gallon bottles of milk.

I guess if you are going to the store every day... you buy a quart of milk and a can of dog food.

I loved this book! Very entertaining, and good advice. I think it is more difficult to get places by walking in many American cities but there is always the opportunity to walk more. I have started parking in the space farthest from wherever I am going, take the stairs instead of the elevator.
The thing that I have trouble with where I live is the market thing. Our local farmers market is open only Thurs-Sat., and I try very hard to get there but it doesn't always happen. I would love to be able to walk to an outdoor market each day and pick up fresh ingredients for lunch/dinner-we don't have that luxury here.
TriGirl-thanks for the tip about the leek soup, I always think about making it but it sounds nasty-maybe we could get KD to come up with a better version?
Jill

I agree that here in America, most of our towns are not conducive to walking, which is sad. I do know that some cities are building communities based on this concept of being able to walk to the market, be closer to your neighbor, etc. Maybe someday people will get a clue

Robin

The French do eat smaller portions. They do not eat as much "pre-prepared" food, although, that is increasing.

Typically, when eating in a restaurant, the French dine, and do not wolf down their food, but French restaurants are more condusive to that. They don't rush you, when the restaurant is full it is full, there is not "turning over tables".

Some of the French walk more, but not all of them do. I also don't care how high the price of gas gets in the U.S. it won't end up making a big difference in whether most of us walk or drive, because our cities are not built the same way that European cities are. With rare exceptions like NY, Chicago and San Francisco, most of us don't live places that will really allow us to walk to the local market, even if we want to. I live only 2-3 miles from the closest grocery, which isn't too far to walk,however it is down a 4 lane busy highway with no side walks, so walking isn't an option. I live over 20 miles from my office, so walking to work isn't an option. I can't really move closer to my office, because my DH and I don't work in the same part of town, housing isn't affordable closer, and the school system is terrible. Unfortunately, that seems to be the norm for much of the US.

Many of the French do smoke like chimneys, and many of the college age women smoke specifically to stay thin.

In general though, I think the French have a healthier attitude toward food. They enjoy what they eat. They use all of the senses when they eat and they take the time to dine, rather than just stuffing down whatever they can grab. They won't bother consuming food that isn't delicious to them. Anthony Bourdain has a new show on the travel channel "No Reservations" and one of the first episodes was in Paris. He really highlights this about the French, and I do think that is something we can all learn from them.

The French don't seem to have this concept of "good" food vs. "bad" food in the sense that we do. Their concept is good tasting food vs. bad tasting food, and that seems to be the only part they worry about.


Dawn

It's a fun book -- I did a review of it -- and it has some really great insights about being good to yourself. I like the message about eating real foods versus a lot of fat-free sugar-free junk. But when you read it, you will see that the author is recommending that people seriously cut back on their food intake too.

That leek soup is horrible. In the interests of science I tried it. I threw it all down the garbage disposal.