Now I know why I call myself the Rebel Dieter. I mean, I knew before but it really hit me this week just how futile dieting in the traditional sense really is. But you know what? Despite this, I tried anyway. I would eat breakfast because I was supposed to. I followed Clean Eating meal plans because I thought that was the best way. But all this did was encourage me to eat when I wasn’t hungry. At all.

You know, I had thin habits once upon a time. I lost weight - about twenty pounds in all - without even uttering the word diet. Then I maintained it very well until I lost my grip on these habits. Then when I tried to gain them back, I looked in all the wrong places. I thought since Tosca Reno turned her life around and now looks fabulous that it would be the answer for me. Or Weight Watchers. Or whatever.

I’ve journaled at length about what those habits were and where they went. There was a time in my life when I actually lost twenty pounds and I have no idea how I did it. I was using years of cultivated thin habits to get me out of my perplexing heavy phase and I didn’t even know it. Then I lost them again.

I tried to find them in all the wrong books - more diet books. Then I read French Women Don’t Get Fat which was a breath of fresh air. I loved the idea in it. Learn some “tricks” that will help you be thin for life without worrying about it. That book was actually the inspiration for this blog in the first place.

But Naturally Thin: Unleash Your SkinnyGirl and Free Yourself from a Lifetime of Dieting is even better than that. Sure, the French book is fun and has some great recipes. And, the strategies are doable but Naturally Thin really gets to the heart of the thin girl mentality. As I read through it I think, “Oh yes, I did that.” I can see that this is going to liberate me from my extra weight and the unhealthy feeling that I need to “diet”.  Finally, something that makes sense.