Bethenny Frankel's Naturally Thin

I thought it was awful and wasteful, honestly. And I think she's repulsive, and I though less of her after the book. There's just something wrong with ordering a filet and taking a bite. I dunno ... feel free to say I have a bad attitude about it

I personally LOVED the book! For me, it was really helpful in how I think about food. She never suggests that you should follow her menu exactly. The point is to change how you approach food, you can eat the entire filet but you will need to make sacrifices elsewhere. And, you can eat more than sushi on a Friday night...but you'll have to take it easy earlier in the day or on other days. It's all about balance. Diets don't work, we all know that. It's about eating what works with your tastes and lifestyle, but being realistic about what you're putting in your body. We all know eating an entire bag of chips is bad for you, but there's no harm in eating a handful of chips if your other meals are healthy. That's the point Bethenny tries to make and she does so in a positive yet funny voice. But, everyone has their own opinions on her and her suggestions. Me personally, I think they make a lot of sense and I have felt great, have been eating great and have lost 5 pounds since reading her book and using her tips and strategies.

I loved this book and follow a lot of her advice. Not all of it. Take from it what you want, leave the rest. Here's what I thought:

Pros:

This book gave me a lot of great tools to implement the new thought process I learned from reading Geneen Roth's book Women, Food and God. I understood all of the concepts of Geneen Roth’s book, but wanted more direction when it came to applying these concepts. Enter Bethenny Frankel’s book.

I could relate to Bethenny’s story and her journey to natural thinness. Bethenny is a former food and exercise obsessive who decided to get off the diet and exercise treadmill and just live her life. She lays out the guidelines she follows and covers one guideline per chapter. It’s heavy on the application part which is what I needed.

She’s a huge fan of playing fast and loose. She frequently stresses that perfection is not the goal. These are guidelines. Some days you’re going to have more or less than what an ideal day would/should contain, but that’s how life is. Perfection is not attainable and it is not the goal.

Her view of exercise is in line with mine: do what you love because you’ll actually do it.

She emphasizes that her guidelines are not meant to be restrictions. They’re all meant to be used as a means to be good to yourself. I couldn’t agree more with the ‘diet and exercise as an expression of love’ concept.

I'm a fan of her tips and tricks (my FAVE being 'spoiling your appetite').

There are also GREAT recipes in this book.

Cons:

Her narrative voice can sound harsh. She’s abrasive so I get it, but if I hadn’t already read Women, Food and God, I don’t think this book would have been a good book for me to read. Her narrative voice can sound a LOT like my inner-critic. She can also use negative and judgemental turns of phrase that I’m trying to banish from my life (ie: you want the cupcake right this second? What are you? Two years old?).

She says never to measure or count. That measuring and counting are obsessive. Yes, they can be. I agree, but she then goes on to describe in detail how to use different size bowls for certain kinds of foods (ie: a super small bowl for ice cream) and guidelines for a balanced day (no more than two servings of sweets a day, if you have alcohol, that counts as one sweet, if your last meal was carb heavy, your next meal should be protein based and you want to have this many protein meals and this many carb meals each day, etc). Um, sounds like counting to me. You count your way with your dishes and ‘no more than two sweets a day’ guidelines (granted, they’re good guidelines, but don’t pretend like you’re not counting and tracking) and I’ll count and track my way.