Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

As an English ex-Pat, living in the USA for the past 16 years, I can relate to much of what this book has to say. I went from walking everywhere several times a day...buying groceries daily, cooking home made meals daily, walking to the shops, library, school, doctors office...to a life of driving everywhere and weekly grocery shops and a lot more eating out and fast foods. My weight immediately started to go up after I moved here, and I put on 20 pounds in the first 6 months. I've been struggling with it ever since...not overweight according to my BMI, but just uncomfortable with myself. Add to that 9 years of working night shift as an RN and the amount of convenience foods, processed yuck and being too tired to exercise on my days off (or catching up on lost sleep) and the problem, along with my cholesterol levels, just multiplied. Happily two things have happened that I fully intend to change things: A 'Sprouts' store opened within easy walking distance of my house, and I finally retired from nursing...I finally had the time to walk more AND cook home made meals again...but I still wasn't losing weight, why? Reading this book helped me realise what I was still doing wrong: 1. I was still locked in the 'One Huge Dish Per Meal' mindset, serving a huge bowl of pasta or casserole, or a giant plate loaded with meat, potatoes & veggies at each dinner time, and attempting to compensate by not eating breakfast or even lunch sometimes (then snacking on chocolate whenever I was hungry). 2. I was still thinking of walking as 'exercise'...I would plan on going 'hiking' around the trails near our house, or driving to hike in one of the many beautiful parks here, and dress up in my hiking boots etc., but because that took so much time out of my day it turned out to be a very rare occurrence. I started reading this book about a week ago and have already lost 4 lbs...4 lbs eating breakfast, lunch and 3-course meals for dinner. I'm absolutely amazed. Her advice on eating more courses but much smaller amounts of each course are absolutely spot on. Quality food over quantity. Just go for a walk...no dressing in special clothes, just pop your coat on if needed and go for a stroll in your neighborhood, or to your local shops to browse or buy groceries if they are within walking distance. Use the stairs, not the elevators, park further away from the store and walk...all make perfect sense. And her recipe for Leek Soup as a quick weight loss starter is just a miracle worker...even though I made Leek & Celery Soup, and we are only having it for lunch and sometimes also as an appetizer for our 3-course evening meals, I have seen not only a loss in weight, but I feel so much better. I always felt heavy, bloated and immobile after one of our previous 'One Huge Dish' dinners, but I can eat a 3-course dinner of delectable, quality items and feel wonderful afterwards (and I actually enjoyed preparing 3-course meals...the effort needed burns calories too!). Of course the book has some bad points...there is far too much boasting about Champagne and living the high life that she can with the high salary she earns...there are a lot of things that are not in the daily budget of the average person, but you can modify the general ideas with a bit of creativity to suit your own budget. And despite her reassurances that Working French Women are able to find the time to do all of these things...I take that with a pinch of salt, although I did save time by making multiple servings of desserts and pate's and freezing them for later dinners. I also just purchased a soup machine to help with the complexity of getting an appetizer on the table and having time to sit and enjoy it while still having to cook the main course. Yes, there's such as a thing as a soup machine...they are available on Amazon too :).