Mireille Guiliano

I've read other reviews of this book and have been amused at the people who are offended that Guiliano is being superior and calling Americans fat. News flash, Americans. We're fat. Instead of getting offended, I jumped right into this book. It's helpful that I've always loved all things French.

Guiliano didn't pen a diet book. She simply tells us what French women do differently and then gives us advice on how to incorporate it into our lives. Everyone who has ever crashed dieted knows that show more it's short term and doesn't really work (and potentially does more harm later on). The whole restricting everything lifestyle change rarely works either. Very few people can stick to that for long. What Guiliano suggests is making moderate changes and still being able to indulge in the food that you love.

Her first suggestion is to keep a food diary for 3 weeks, no calorie counting, just writing down everything you eat and drink. Then you analyze your weak points, where you eat out of control portions or just plain overeat. Then for 3 months you start pulling back. Make portions smaller (actually, for America, that basically means just eating NORMAL portions and not our steakhouse portions that we're used to).

Guiliano includes several recipes that sound great. I've already started the food diary and managed to increase my water intake by a few glasses a day. I really do feel perkier.

With all my health problems, I was looking for ways to be healthier. I may not be able to change genetics but I can control what I ingest. And if I lose a few pounds with it, I won't complain. show less

I seem to be on a run of books written by bossy people - first Joel Salatin and now Mireille Guiliano. I liked a lot of this book (I've not read her 'French women don't get fat' yet) - the parts about eating seasonally and the recipes particularly. But other bits seemed to shout 'smugness' at me in a loud (French-accented) voice. It's lovely that the author has homes in Provence and New York and that she is on good terms with the proprietors of a two-starred Michelin restaurant. But I could show more probably have continued living my single-homed existence just as happily if I hadn't known about those things.

And the instructions on how to wear scarves in various ways weren't useful without diagrams. I'm not sure they would have been useful with diagrams either, to be honest. Maybe I'm just never going to be a big scarf-wearer. show less

Mireille Giuliano is the author of a book you may have heard of, French Women Don't Get Fat. While I haven't read that best-seller of hers, not yet anyway (it's all for health, I assure you, vanity has nothing to do with it!), the title of this book made it seem like it would be a good read right now: lately I have been pondering career advancement, how we women fit into the world where men continue to rule, and why the situation is what it is. Guiliano was president and CEO of Clicquot, show more Inc. for several decades, so I figured she'd have some interesting thoughts on the matter.
I wasn't wrong. This French-born powerhouse tells it like it is, from women having to work harder and smarter than competitors to get ahead, to the fact that women continue to get the short end of the stick when it comes to compensation. What I liked though was that none of it was a lament of the situation. "It is what it is, face the facts, put on your big girl pencil skirt and go get 'em if that's what you want to do" is Guiliano's kind of career advice.
She is realistic about our feminine shortcomings (not playing up our own worth, not negotiating the terms to get what we want, gossiping, trying to take care of everything and everybody at the expense of ourselves) just as she is realistic about our strengths (ability to listen and see a problem from different angles, being flexible, being enough of a novelty to command immediate attention if we position ourselves as an equal with valuable insights to offer). She gives practical advice on topics ranging from presenting ourselves in the best possible light both on paper and in person, to entertaining, to value of excellent communication skills and time-priority balance. She talks about what makes a good leader and a good manager, the importance of not being reluctant to share information with other women and help each other advance, as well as the fact that sometimes chance and luck are huge factors in the course one's career takes.
Throughout the book she illustrates her points with real-life examples from her own career and experiences of other women, and men, she knows, which helps to make the book a more lively read. It is already written in a very accessible voice so these illustrations make it helpful and fun at the same time. If that's not fun enough there are recipes, self-deprecating humor, wardrobe advice and a healthy dash of French turns of phrase.
My only reservation regarding this book stems from the fact that despite all the positives I didn't get a feeling that it is aimed at women who aren't aspiring for corner offices. Granted, Guiliano writes from her experience, and she was a high-level executive in a luxury industry for many years, but not everybody is looking for titles with Cs in them, some of us just want to get out of the rut of the lowest levels of the support staff positions. On the other hand of course the time she spends talking about entertaining business associates or working with leaders of foreign companies only makes this book more useful for those of us who do want that C title. After all, tips on working smarter is something we all can use, from an entry-level assistant to a president of a corporation.
One last note: the very last sentence of this book is "Bon courage". Not luck, courage. That alone made the book worth reading. show less

I liked the general idea of this book - slow down and actually enjoy the food you are eating instead of mindlessly shoving it into your mouth.
It made me look at my own bad habits (eating in front of the TV and not paying attention to what I was eating and actually enjoying it).
I found it worked for me, slowing down and savouring food made me eat less overall and more of the foods I enjoy. When visiting France hubby and I happily indulged in great food and walked everywhere, and at the end of show more it were slimmer, fitter and happier depsite all the pain au chocolats we had devoured. We also rarely snacked, and if we did, it was on a piece of fruit from a market stall. The French, regarding their view and culture of food, have it right in that respect.

But there were some parts, like the alcohol chapter, that felt outright self-promoting (she works for a champagne company...) show less