Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #267 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-03
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Synopsis
Ever wanted a diet book by and for real people - you know, people who actually have a life? Congratulations! You've just picked it up. We lost ten stone in a year - and if we can do it, then just by following our tips you can do it too. There's never been a diet book like it - for women, by women with simple advice that is not hard to follow (plus jokes).

From the Author
I thought it might be an idea to pop up on here and explain a bit about the book, since it's an unusual one - a diet book that tells you jokes, gives you genuinely delicious recipes, and lets you into our heads as well as our stomachs. Basically, my friend Neris and I got fat. Reallyfat, like size 22. And one day we finally decided to do something about it.

So we went and found out about diets, about what worked and what didn't; we cherry-picked, we fiddled about - we wanted, for instance, to eventually be able to drink and to have the odd piece of chocolate - and, armed with our own user-friendy version of a high-protein, low-carb diet, away we went.

It worked: we lost five stone each in a year. That was just under three years ago, and we haven't put any of it back on. So we thought we'd write about how we'd done it, in blow-by-blow detail, charting the emotional ups and downs, providing recipes, and all sorts of other stuff we found useful, like trying to unravel the reasons behind our overeating. I'll bet you a roast potato they're the reasons you overeat, too. We think unravelling them is crucial if you're going to keep the weight off.

We also thought - completely insanely, in retrospect - that we should be photographed wearing leotards and tights at every stage of the diet, and leave the pictures absolutely un-retouched, so readers could see for themselves that it really works. The pictures - they're really quite grim -
are all in there. So that's something to look forward to.

The other thing we really wanted to do was to write a diet book for real people - people like us, with kids, jobs, dogs and the rest, who didn't have the time or the energy to cook themselves separate meals, or to sit miserably in the corner with a lettuce leaf. People who actually had a
life, liked going out, went to the pub - and who wanted to carry on with all of these things while dieting.

Above all, we wanted to write a diet book that started off from a place of love. We are so sick of women being made to feel terrible about the way they look. During our research, we came across a pile of diet books - many,
though not all, written by middle-aged blokes - whose basic premise was 'You're a fat freak and you're killing yourself'. That approach - see also 'your insides are like sewers,' naming no names - is appalling. We start
off with the premise that you're pretty fabulous, and that you're going to be even MORE fabulous when you slip into that tiny little dress you thought you'd never in a million years fit into. It's not about body fascism: we're
not interested in dropping from a size 12 to a size 2. But from a 22 to a 14? Yes please.

We're really, really pleased with the way the book has turned out. If you're at that stage where you think, 'You know what? Sod it. I'll just stay this size and avoid full-length mirrors,' then please buy it. We've so
been there. Plus we're busy, greedy and undisciplined. We did it none the less. You can too.

Oh - one last thing. Low carb diets have, post Atkins, got a slightly sinister reputation: there are an awful lot of otherwise intelligent people who think that eating low-carb means having red meat three times a day, with a side of butter and another of cream. But all low-carb means is dumping the stodge: it is completely possible to follow our way of eating and shun red meat altogether, eating chicken, fish, tons of vegetables and good fat in the form of olive oil. What this basically gives you is a Mediterranean diet, widely acknowledged to be the healthiest in the world. So if you're thinking hmm, I like the sound of this but I'm worried about clogging my arteries, please bear the above in mind. No one's clogging any arteries, or sitting down to devour packets of lard. I'll leave you with that attractive visual.

From the Back Cover
`Amazingly frank...the honesty of their confessions exceed
anything previously published' Evening Standard

'A compulsive read with good advice, whether you want to lose five pounds
or five stone. It addresses the emotional issues of eating. Completely
delicious and simple to make recipes' Mail on Sunday

`You'll laugh out loud. Reading this book is like talking to a clued-up
friend who also makes you feel great about yourself' Eve

`The down-to-earth duo are brutally honest, not just about their own eating
habits, but also their recognition that food is often closely linked with
emotional problems...will certainly put you on track for better eating
habits' She

Customer Reviews

It's not the way to pig!
It may sound priggish but Neris and India have only written an amusing lifestyle book. I cannot recommend it as a diet book. Because they are women who have lost weight, they understand the urge to flop on the couch to cheer yourself up with food because life is sad/bad/good/happy/boring. Because they are genuinely warm and funny, it is like talking about dieting with your best, funniest friend. I was very taken with the approach and am already carrying out some of the ideas. It includes what clothes to buy while you are a fatso, how to be happy without walking to the fridge and about how we cheat.

But the diet itself....

It is very, very low carb. You lose weight fast. I was tempted. But I was conscious that while they are working mothers (which means they understand) and media experts (which makes them persuasive) they are not nutritionalists. So before I did the diet, I checked out advice from doctors. They say, no, not in the long term. People need carbs. They also need fruit. Although you do lose weight fast, some of it relates to water (as always) and sometimes it burns muscle (which is a low carb thing). It can change the metabolism and make weight loss harder in the future.

There is plenty to praise the book for - but not the diet.

Okay but over-hyped. Veggies stay clear!
This is an ok diet book, packed with good advice that makes sense, helps you understand how food affects you and educates you to make sensible food choices. It's also very motivational and upbeat. I can very easily see how this book can help people to lose a lot of weight. However...

...it's another low-carb diet, which is very difficult to follow if you're a vegetarian. There's no advice on adapting the diet if you don't eat meat, so essentially ths is a good book for meat eaters, but veggies would do better with the Rose Elliott low carb-diet.

Is there any other diet...
I have been doing diets on and off for the past 15 years. Then I came across this one - it so easily slipped into my lifestyle - I didn't have to weigh anything - could eat supper with the family without feeling deprived. This book is a pink bible of hope - it is not written by supermodels or starved actresses - it is written by real people who have the same cravings that you do - people who fall down but get right on up again - just like normal human beings - and once you have read it you realise "if they can do it - so can I"!