In her 2009 book, Naturally Thin: Unleash Your Skinnygirl and Free Yourself from a Lifetime of Dieting, Bethenny walks readers through her own experiences and encourages them to live a healthier, enjoyable life through making smart food and lifestyle choices.
The 'Skinnygirl' Approach
Bethenny provides a transparent, honest look at her own life’s journey through failed diets to finally finding freedom in making healthful but satisfying food choices through her "Skinnygirl" approach.
She helps readers break free of the mentality that they are forbidden particular foods or must deprive themselves through dieting. Rather readers are encouraged to make positive decisions that allow particular foods but are also reminded to balance their not-so-healthful choices with healthful ones.
Several “rules” are highlighted in the beginning of the book to let readers in on what Bethenny has learned as the keys to being “naturally thin.” They include looking at one’s “diet as a bank account,” canceling one’s “membership in the clean plate club,” to “know thyself” and to “get real” with the foods one eats, for example.
The tips she provides are very helpful, and the analogies she gives help the reader find concrete examples with real life situations Bethenny encounters from day to day.
The book also has an important theme of putting common sense to work and listening to one’s inner voice to know what is really desired when it comes to eating.
Bethenny reminds readers that it’s not about eating according to the clock or according to what everyone else is doing but taking the lead from what one desires most – in moderation and with self control – but with the knowledge that every choice a person makes affects the rest of their day.
It’s about making good food investments that help the body function well but also satisfy craving and fulfilling what a person really wants when it comes to food and drinks.
Overall Excellent Book, Recipes, and Meal Examples
Bethenny does an excellent job of providing the real life meal examples or situations one could encounter and how to tackle it as well as menu suggestions of what to eat throughout the week. She also provides several recipes that are both creative and healthful yet delicious.
She doesn’t hold back when it comes to writing honestly, and her humor and voice is classically-Bethenny, for those who know her from the Bravo's The Real Housewives of New York City. She’s witty but truthful and makes a concerted effort to aid the reader’s journey to becoming Naturally Thin.
Overall, the underlying message to be Naturally Thin is all about self-control and being a well-informed, motivated adult in the subject of eating. Likely not intended, but definitely a life truth, is for that cohesive message to translate into everything related to one’s personal life and knowing how to be honest to one's self.
Bethenny’s book is unlike any healthy-eating, healthy-living diet book out there. It is a breakthrough in showing people they can be naturally thin when careful consideration is given to life choices and eating habits.
Naturally Thin is published by Fireside - a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. (March 10, 2009). The ISBN-10: 1416597980 and ISBN-13: 978-1416597988.
