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I listened to The Heavy on audio from the library last weekend. This is the lengthy review I posted on Goodreads: I was torn on whether to give it 2 or 3 stars. It was short and breezy, if repetitive. I did find myself interested in What Bea and her mom (the author) were going through and I don't disagree with some of what mom/author did.
However...the author knows nothing about nutrition. Granted, she admits to not being an expert and the book is more a personal story than a guideline for others to follow but, come on. The author says she had her own "struggles with weight," going from 115 to 100. She does say she is short but I am very short. I was 102 in college and that was a bit too thin, granted not horribly so and I do have a solid build (good proportion of bone and muscle to fat-had it measured).
Also, the author rants against yogurt, salmon, almonds, and exercise. I don't think she likes the taste of the salmon or the almonds and, granted, flavored yogurt can be quite caloric but some non-fat, plain yogurt sweetened with stevia would have been much better and more filling for Bea with her strawberries than the non-fat whipped cream without adding too many calories at all. Maybe Bea wouldn't have been so hungry after school if there had been more real food. I have tried 100 cal snack packs. They just leave me hungry. Greek yogurt and berries or a baby bell cheese and apple does not.
I had and have similar leanings to Bea. I don't have an "off" switch for food. Guess what? I was never a pudgy kid until I was old enough to use my allowance at the school snack bar for candy bars (12-13) and I certainly wasn't obese by any reckoning, just slightly pudgy. My mother took me on walks and let me do her Jane Fonda tape with her and I stopped buying candy bars myself (and food at home was very healthy), so I turned into a slender teen. Obesity happened when I started college and has since been dealt with in an ongoing struggle kind of way (I lost the 30lbs I gained my Freshman year plus a few to get to that 102 I mentioned earlier).
That brings me to the author's views on exercise. *Facepalm* The author's story about passing out on the treadmill and blaming the exercise and not the salad was pretty silly. If the true goal, as she constantly states, is health, exercise needs to be a part of that and, yes, you have to eat a little more if you are exercising. That is WHY I exercise. Heh. Guess what, the weight still comes off and, in my experience, comes off more quickly.
The author, in my estimation, has put her issues with food on her daughter. I get the feeling that the author is a picky eater (re the salmon and almonds. Also, she talks about Japanese and Mexican but no other cuisines and they live in NY for pete's sake. I'm in podunk Louisiana and eat Thai and Vietnamese on a pretty regular basis) and obsessed with thinness, despite her protestations (see her "struggles with weight").
The two best things she did, though, were to put Bea in Karate, though long walks would've done as well and to giver her diet coke. I know there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth over this and my own mother hates that I, as an adult, drink diet coke but it is a way from steering clear of those liquid calories, which are generally no good for your health with the exception of milk. If you're not drinking your calories, you can use them for more filing and nutritious stuff.
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