Retrieve Secrets Of A Former Fat Girl: How To Lose Two, Four (or More!) Dress Sizes--And Find Yourself Along The Way Assembled By Lisa Delaney Available As Document

recently lostpounds, but fell off the wagon over the past couple of months, I picked this book up to help get me back into a "get healthy" mind frame and push my motivation to get back into my fitness routine.


I really appreciated this book and I think it would be great for anyone who wants to make some positive changes in their overall health and fitness.
Fortunately, the gym I belong to has some extremely knowledgeable employees who have always been very free in dispensing healthy lifestyle tips and tricks.
So, a lot of her "tips" were old news for me, I did however, enjoy reading about her ups and downs and felt I could relate to a lot of what she'd been through.


I especially liked her "it's not an option" or INO as she referred to it mantra, I have even found myself applying it when confronted with the desire to eat mindlessly or indulge in a big greasy bag of popcorn at the movies.


Her tip to "keep your new lifestyle a secret" was also on point and can be applied to any habit you are trying to break.
It's true that as soon as you start advertising that you are trying to better yourself quitting smoking, dieting, getting more organized, etc.
someone inadvertently or not tries to break you, I agree with the author, it's better if you just go along your way and let people notice for themselves that you are making a change.


All in all this was a fast, light hearted and enjoyable read, Perfect for anyone who is trying to make a lifestyle change and needs a little extra encouragement, This is a great book, Very motivating. There isn't anything exactly groundbreaking, but reading her experience really helped me out, I was very surprised at how well I related to her thought processes about relating to food, I think it will help me in the long run, It's a good book. I did NOT like how she'd interrupt the overall narrative with her "sidebars", I found it a poorly formatted book, But other than that, loved it, Thinking of buying it. This is as much a motivational tool as a memoir of Lisa's experiences before/during amp after her weight loss.


The few tips amp tricks provided aren't new, You've heard them before amp thought, eh, that sounds hard, But Lisa shows how she broke them down into baby steps to acheive great rewards AND how she stayed motivated on the LOOONNNGGG way to her goal!

I am already implementing some of her tips amp seeing results.
I plan on purchasing this for a friend who's getting gastric this summer amp buying a copy for myself.
As this copy was from the library,

Aim was not to lose dress size, but to tone up my going into flab body,months post surgery.
Even though I don't follow most of the techniques mentioned in such books, I get a high just by reading about the conquered struggles.
At completion , I am feeling dates, determined and positive that I will soon be able to convert my flab into muscle mass, with more emphasis on rectus abdominis, the muscle which was cut open during my surgery.

Would recommend this as a motivational read rather than a DIY guide for those attempting a healthy lifestyle.
Loved it! So helpful! I really like that she gets into the mental and emotional struggles of managing ones weight and taking the risk to take control of it in a culture that is saturated with diet scams.
She gives real tips to help, I bought it on a whim at a liquidation sale and I am so glad! Finished it in a week, could t out it down! Very good book.
Very well written, in a very humorous way author is telling simple truth about losing weight, She's telling her story in a funny way, showing that she was one of us "fat girls" and that if you want to become a FFT former fat girl that it is really possible.
She motivates reader in interesting way, that really works! PUT THIS BOOK DOWN!! I started reading it and I thought it was crap.
Then I got to a point and thought maybe it's a joke when she tells dieters to avoid nosy well meaning people by sequestering themselves.
But I am afraid that this book looks like it's serious,

I've never read a Massmarket published book that so explicitly promoted selfhate, and I've read that skinny bitches book.
This is worse than the skinny bitches book where they yell at you in text format,

This is such garbage,

That isn't to say there isn't some good stuff in here but the good bits are surrounded by shittalk.
Reading this book was like dumpster diving: sure you got something that was good from the trash but now you're worse for wear.


I wish I never took this home from the library but I'm happy I didn't buy it.
By the looks of this book, it's never been read since it was entered into the library init'sas I write this so thank god for that.


With all that being said, this book might be helpful to some women, I'm all over it because of the fact that selfloathing is the core of this book, but I bet there are some people who can really relate to that and this is a guide for at least reducing one aspect of the selfloathing.
But the question really is will this book do more harm than good even to those with such deep shame and selfresentment


My extended comments:


A few things about me to put my opinion in perspective.
I grew up chubby or husky and only broke that in my earlys, I maintain a BMI of,ish comparable to this author's BMI of,, she's'" and. I also did my masters thesis on the emotional repercussions of overeating, looking at overeating as an impulse control problem.
So I'm not a skinny girl that doesn't get the topic of the book and or the lifestyle of larger women.
I'm not a fat girl that resents the topic matter of this book and the writer, And I'm a little more aware of nutritional eating literature than more people, So that's the place that my perspective on this shit book is coming from,

. So much selfhate for being overweight, I whole hear tingly disagree that you can't love yourself if you're overweight or if you look different from other people.
Some women are naturally larger anyway, Even women who feel like they should lose some weight can still have self love, Weight and self love shouldn't have an inverse relationship they shouldn't really have a relationship at all,

. The author was more than overweight, more than just a fat girl she had an addictive eating problem, Sure a lot of us can relate to feeling shameful about eating sometimes, and eating when we feel we're not suppose to but this woman was an extreme case.
She says she's maintained her weight ofish for the lastyears I'm going out on a limb here and saying that she's a disordered eater different than eating disorder.
Sure she lost the weight and is in a healthy weight range now, . . but she isn't a normal eater, Her relationship with food and her reality around food is so fucked up, She shouldn't be giving anyone advice on how to eat,

. I hate hate hate how postfat people always become hardcore athletic folks, You don't need to run marathons unless you enjoy doing it, No you can't never move ever and be healthy, but you also don't need to own a lick of spandex.
You just need to use your body on a regular basis which means taking the stairs just to take them sometimes or walkingminutes to get to the grocery store/post office/library and walking home a few times a week in your jeans and winter coat.
Maybe doing a leisure bike ride or hike, Doing that sort of stuff regularly will keep your food to exercise ratio balanced,

In a way, it's inappropriate for diet resources to suggest going to the gym to someone who has never gone regularly.
It's like suggesting that an illiterate person learn how to read by going to the library or join a book club.
. . but in reality, putting that person in an unfamiliar environment won't help them learn how to read, It just encourages them to sit around books, Grr.

. "Chapter: Remember You're not Like Other People" Seriously Fuck off, So much self hate and shame inducing bullshit, "You weren't born with an appetite odd switch" if there are people like that in the population they'd be as common as those born with ath toe or webbed feet.


. The author is a projournalist who's the special projects director at Health Magazine, Maybe her dieting outlook is more appropriate for workout junkies, Perhaps a better audience for the authors expertise would be individuals with a hobby in body sculpting and that sort of

thing.
Who knows. But this is a bad book for its target audience,

This author spends most of the book plucking at our heart strings while she wallows in the bad experiences of her childhood and throws around the word 'shame' far too often.


Also, her book is hard to read, It's diet tips entwined into a memoire, She makes you read all about her painful experiences before getting to the goods,

So the intro of this book starts by saying "You don't know me, but you probably hate me.
". No sweetie, I don't hate you, I pity you and I wish you hadn't written this book and spread the poison.

It is a good read once you get past the fact that she actually isn't that fat, Also, I'm not really sure how she is',and wearing a size, Or how she broke a chair atpound, Regardless, you can relate a lot to the book if you are trying to lose weight and gives many tricks that help along the way.
I read this when it was first published a few years ago, wanting to become a "former fat girl" myself.
It took a while, but now I actually AM a former fat girl, and I figured it couldn't hurt to leaf through it to see what I need to do to stay here.
It's good for inspiration, so I'll keep it handy as a quick reference,
I LOVED this book, It really hit home with me and helped me make necessary changes for myself, I just loved the author's honest approach to sharing her experiences,

To give an idea, I read the book and just implemented a few changes because I was so motivated and I've lost approx.
pounds. I was really inspired by this book to be honest with myself, I read this book at the beginning of my journeymonths andpounds ago, I'm no longer in the new phase and in the "do I have to keep doing this forever, uggh!" phase and needed motivation, While this book still has things that help me today, it's still best for people just starting out on their weight loss journey.
I am trying to remember her "It's Not An Option" though to get me back on track,

Reread FebI don't consider myself a "fat" girl, but anyone who has struggled with losing weight and getting fit will likely relate to this book.
I know I did. You are not going to learn a specific diet or how to exercise, but that is not what I was looking for when I added this to my summer reading list.
I wanted to get insight into someone else's experience so that I can see how to apply it myself, and Lisa delivered.
Her story is inspiring, and provides great tips on how to not only lose weight and get in shape, but how to maintain it for life.
She speaks from experience, having been the "fat girl" until she was almost, but then changing her life in many more ways than just the physical and maintaining it foryears.
The "secrets" themselves are mostly things I have already figured out for myself over the years, but reading them and seeing both how she learned and applied them is a great reinforcement.
This book was very motivating, and I expect I will go back to it again for some reminders down the road.
I have read several weight loss type books and articles and several self help books, Thiw was the first time I actuall felt like the author understood my situation, I related with her totally, The advice was straight forward and honest, She never claims it's easy but she also doesn't make it feel impossible to make changes, It's easy to feel overwhelmed especially when you have a lot of weight to lose and it's nice to have someone put it in perspective.
After I read it I felt like, hey it's ok if it takes two years to lose all the weight, it doesn't have to be instant and probably will last longer if you take the time to do it right.
Hated the intro, enjoyed the book, The offputting thing about the intro was that the author made assumptions that simply didn't apply to me, but that was about the only part of the book that I couldn't relate to.
Everything else was spoton, and I've already begun applying some of the 'secrets' to my life, with encouraging, empowering results! i thought this book was pretty helpful and realistic about weight, weightloss, and the struggle with the two.
It definitely had useful tips, mainly that the tougher and more determined you are the more is possible, But I think the idea of playing games, like only eating the folded over tortilla chips is lame, I think you can enjoy food and still be at a healthy happy weight, This book really helped me take a look at myself and set some goals that I know I can follow through on.
It helped me realize that I am not the only one going through the struggles of weight gain and loss.
That working out is something that you can jump into when you set goals and take care of yourself.
Make sure you start out doing what you can do and not over extend, I really enjoyed reading different scenarios that the author went though that I have gone though myself,

Great book! I have bough a couple copies and gave them to friends going though the same issues.
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