Skip to main content

Book review – FRENCH WOMEN DON’T GET FAT

Captain's Log, Supplemental

I know I’ve already gushed about my latest favorite diet book, French Women Don’t Get Fat, and yes, I know the title is strange/misleading/slightly insulting to Americans, but indulge me.

I just love food. Food is my reward, often, when I finish a book or a critique job. There’s nothing as satisfying as a bowl of Bing cherries to celebrate typing The End on a manuscript.

Other diets have been hard for me because they treat food like the enemy and say I shouldn’t make food my reward. That I should go for a spa day, or shopping, or a soak in the tub, or read a book.

I’m sorry, I get ten times more pleasure from a Beard Papa cream puff than a bubble bath. Shopping and spa-ing are too expensive, and I read all day for my job, so it’s nothing special. If I want to indulge, I go for something that will make my taste buds squeal.

My biggest problem has always been portion control, and this has been the best book I’ve ever read to teach me how to control the amount I eat at each meal.

Her principle is that you are more likely to be satisfied with eating less of something if it’s something that’s super tasty and that you really enjoy eating.

She teaches you to savor your food so you eat slower, and savoring is more likely to happen when the food you’re eating is super good.

She encourages really fresh and ripe veggies from farmer’s markets because they’ll just taste better, and this is something I have discovered in the past year.

Captain Caffeine and I joined an organic co-op farm, and I pick up a huge basket of fresh veggies every week. You don’t get a choice in what you get, but it’s always a huge variety, and the veggies are also very young and tender, since they don’t need to worry about long transport to a supermarket.

Price is about the same as we used to spend at Safeway each week for veggies.

The stuff at Safeway is always more mature and also tough, but the lettuces and green beans are so tender they’re amazing. The flavor of the veggies is also more intense. I can’t wait for tomatoes to start arriving in our baskets.

Anyway, the book points out that if you start with really good produce, your veggie dishes will be tastier. You’ll enjoy them more and not feel deprived if you eat less or if you’re eating an entrΓ©e that’s low in fat.

Next week Monday I’ll talk about how I’ve been losing weight while eating pasta, rice, and bread!

Comments

Hi, Camy, I blogged about this book, too. Because when we went over, I was the Second-Fattest Woman in Paris! Seriously.
My weight in this country is just "average."

They walk to the grocery almost every day. And they smoke a lot, too. They also may eat rich sauces, but not every day, and after a feast, they eat soup the next day or two.

A family friend married a beautiful Parisian and brought her over here. Alas, she packed on the pounds, picking up our bad habits.

Good for you, teaching about their good habits.
Leslie said…
This sounds like an interesting book. I'll probably look into it.

I love the idea of organic food = but alas, in East Texas - if there is such a creature I've never heard of it :(
SmilingSally said…
Ah, but we don't live in France, and when in Rome do as the Romans do. So I say, "eat up!"
MLethbri said…
I lost five pounds in my semester in France, and then put them back on when I came back. It's true about the difference of fresh vegetable. I've always eaten tomatoes, corn, and zucchini right out of my dad's garden. We make zucchini muffins that are really good :)

Popular Posts

Window shopping

Captain’s Log, Stardate 03.14.2005 Knee update: I went to the doctor today for a checkup, and saw his assistant. I’ve been concerned because there’s still inflammation in my knee joint, and it’s been almost 4 months since the surgery. She said she’d talk to the doctor about it tomorrow and call me. Sometimes he suggests laying off the PT to see if that causes the inflammation to go away, but I don’t know if that will work because lately I’ve been pretty active outside of PT. At PT today, the therapist did ultrasound and some sort of electrical current on the joint. Hopefully that will make the inflammation start to go down. I’ll know by tomorrow, probably. Writing: Mt. Hermon conference starts this Friday! On Thursday night, I’ll be at the Santana Row Borders bookstore to help out (and hopefully learn a bit, too) at a booksigning for several of the ACFW authors who are attending Mt. Hermon . That should be lots of fun. I had a good brainstorming time at ...

New book idea a la Captain Caffeine

Captain's Log, Stardate 04.14.2009 So my husband, Captain Caffeine, had lunch with a few friends a few days ago. And they asked about my writing, and if I’d been on Oprah yet. (Yeah, right) They then discussed NYT bestselling books, and why can’t Camy write a NYT bestseller. (Sure, let me just open a vein over a blank page and it’ll come right out.) So Captain Caffeine came home with ideas for my new NYT bestselling novel. First it starts with vampires, because Twilight is so hot. But not just any vampires. This one’s an Amish vampire. And he’s not just an Amish vampire, he’s a cop in disguise, infiltrating the Amish community to protect a witness. (Hmm, that storyline sounds familiar ...) But wait! There’s more! To add more conflict and stick with my brand of Asian fiction, we introduce the Tibetan monk! Who joins the Amish community to get away from the pressures of monkhood. But in reality, he’s protecting the Chinese princess on the run, trying to escape from her father’s Hong...

Japanese language learning process in more detail

I blogged a few weeks ago that I’ve jumped back into my Japanese language learning after being lazy and letting it slide. I’ve been keeping my Japanese language study habit for about a month now, and I wanted to blog about my process in more detail. One thing I had noticed about my Japanese is that I tended not to do it if I left it to do at the end of the day. I realized that it was just like my exercise—if I didn’t do it first thing in the morning, it never got done. So I started doing my Japanese right after my exercise in the morning. I treated it like one of my “frogs,” as I read about in the book Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time . The book is based off of a Mark Twain quote: “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” It suggests doing your “frogs”—your important things that you’re likely to procrastinate doing—first thing in the morning in order to get it done, and ...

I sold to Steeple Hill!

Captain's Log, Supplemental Remember that romantic suspense proposal I blogged about earlier? Well, it just sold to Steeple Hill’s Love Inspired Suspense line! I am so jazzed! I am beyond jazzed! The story’s working title is Sinister Spa The story's title is Deadly Intent and here’s a blurb (but it’s probably not what will appear on the back of the book): Massage therapist Naomi Grant could use a massage herself. With her father at home recovering from a stroke, Naomi is put in charge of the family’s elite day spa in Sonoma county. The new responsibilities sit awkwardly on her shoulders, and things only get worse when handsome Dr. Devon Knightley breezes into the spa, demanding to see one of the female clients. And the woman is found dead in Naomi’s massage room. Suddenly, Naomi is a suspect and her family’s spa is shut down. How could God let this awful thing happen? Devon only needed to see his ex-wife about a family necklace she still hadn’t returned, but when she dies and...

Grace Livingston Hill romances free to read online

I wanted to update my old post on Grace Livingston Hill romances because now there are tons more options for you to be able to read her books for free online! I’m a huge Grace Livingston Hill fan. Granted, not all her books resonate with me, but there are a few that I absolutely love, like The Enchanted Barn and Crimson Roses . And the best part is that she wrote over 100 books and I haven’t yet read them all! When I have time, I like to dive into a new GLH novel. I like the fact that most of them are romances, and I especially appreciate that they all have strong Christian themes. Occasionally the Christian content is a little heavy-handed for my taste, but it’s so interesting to see what the Christian faith was like in the early part of the 20th century. These books are often Cinderella-type stories or A Little Princess (Frances Hodgson Burnett) type stories, which I love. And the best part is that they’re all set in the early 1900s, so the time period is absolutely fasci...