Book Review

Okay so this month, my book-club book sounded really boring so I'm skipping it and reading The Girlfriends' Guide to Getting Your Groove Back by Vicki Iovine instead. I've read her Girlfriends' Guides to pregnancy, the first year, and toddlerhood as well and if nothing else, they made me feel like I wasn't the only one experiencing this stuff - while making me laugh along the way.

Now one could argue that I didn't have much of a groove before I had kids. One would not qualify for Girlfriend status.

I haven't read much of it yet, but I just finished Chapter 2 entitled "What Did I Do to Deserve this Body?" and it absolutely cracked me up so I had to share some of her tips about eating. I'm paraphrasing completely, but one of her rules is don't eat while in a car or standing up.

I don't know about you, but applying that one simple rule would cut a good 25% of my caloric intake.

The author says that when implementing that rule for herself, she had to stop demanding leftover pudding cups and bologna sandwich crusts from her kids' lunchboxes when she picked them up from school.

Another rule is not to finish the food on your children's plates. I've been known to snitch food from their plates beforehand, but if you saw the grossness that is my kids' meals during or after, you'd be with me on dropping remnants directly into the garbage disposal.

There is a humerous diatribe on trying to get your pre-baby body back. In her case, she's talking four kids and ten to fifteen years later. In my case, Rainbow was 3 1/2 when I realized that I couldn't continue to call the extra 20 pounds I was carrying baby weight. This was two years after my first pregnancy with Taz so at this point I was five and a half years in. The weights was mine now, and I had to own it.

That's when I started going to the gym at lunchtime. I hated it at first, but over time I found myself looking forward to the break in the middle of the day. I also started running because it was quick. Not my speed - just the fact that I could do it from my house without additional travel time and get it over with.

Then I got a bike and found TriGirls, and all is good on the exercise front. Good nutrition and that elusive groove though are totally different subjects...

So far, I'm very entertained by this book. The next chapter is on fashion. I can't wait to read it.