Book: Skinny Bitch

by: Wesley Winston Cox

Skinny Bitch! It is an incredibly fun phrase to say, especially when you are able to say it out loud in a restaurant in polite company. I first heard about the book during OU/TEXAS weekend while sitting around the table with my family at a Thai restaurant in Dallas.

When my mom first told us the title of the book she was reading, she murmured the title under her breath, obviously bashful, almost whispering. I could barely hear her, “Pardon?!” – my mom said it a little louder, but the next time she said it I was still unsure that she had actually said “Skinny Bitch.” So, just to clarify I asked her to repeat it one more time, “Yes, the name of the book is SKINNY bitch.”

To which my brother and I started mocking all social sensitivities, “So the name of the book is skinny BITCH?!”. Repeating and re-phrasing the question, incrementally putting louder emphasis on ‘BITCH’ in a bout to outdo the other until everyone in our section had heard us practically scream “skinny BITCH.” Rascally I know, but typical of my brother and I.

After the ensuing conversation that night about Skinny Bitch, I picked myself up a copy back home in Tulsa. It was an easy read; I read the whole thing in a few days. I have been a vegetarian my entire life, so many of the concepts and paradigms in the book were familiar to me, however the authors did a spectacular job of presenting the facts and their opinions about the state of health awareness in America with a unique and ‘saucy’ flair. Their “We don’t give a shit if this offends you because you need to hear it” attitude are an appropriate and effective communication style considering the sad state of health in our culture today.

They call it like it is, shining a huge spot light with exciting flair on the entrenched and unconscious lifestyle habits of Americans. Without delay, they start the tough love on the third page: “Brace yourself, girls: Soda is liquid Satan. It is the Devil. It is garbage. There is nothing in soda that should be put into your body.”

The book reveals a litany of oversights by the government, corporate cover ups and scandalous science that has played a part in formulating our miss-informed paradigm of what constitutes a “healthy” diet. The truths revealed in Skinny Bitch are indeed SHOCKING. Before you read the book, you need to be prepared to set aside everything you think you know about health and wellness and be receptive to a new consciousness.

Skinny Bitch is not just for women. Every person, man and woman old and young alike could benefit from the insight and truths revealed. I can attest to the effectiveness of the truths they reveal – after reading the book, I followed just one of the minor tips and tricks. The book helped me fully understand that cheese is a fattening junk food with hardly any nutritional value. After reducing and almost eliminating it from my diet, I lost 15 pounds in less than 4 weeks, down from 200 to 185. With no exercise!

If more Tulsans would read this book and adjust their diets accordingly, it would be a big step forward to improving the types of restaurants and healthy offerings on the Tulsa dining landscape.

I office downtown and it is practically impossible to get a healthy light salad, a fresh alive sandwich on wholegrain bread or a wholesome cup of soup anywhere. However, if I want a Coney, some brisket or a bologna sandwich I have an abundance of choices. Everyday people vote with their money and patronage to determine what restaurants our community chooses to continue to support.

Unfortunately for our community the majority of consumers are ignorant about health and totally unconscious of what they eat. Lets be honest, the majority of Tulsans are overweight and unhealthy, rapidly consuming the red meat, the processed foods and other toxic JUNK that is served up for us at our local restaurants. All the while we remain completely oblivious that we are sleepwalking while making our food choices instead of being discerning about what types of foods and lifestyles we continue to support in our town.

IT’S TIME TO WAKE UP! Do we need more fast food? Do we really need another Coney stand? Do we really want another sandwich shop that serves us white bread, processed meats, cheese and ice burg lettuce?! Why are we still so ignorant about our food? It is 2008 and we still eat like it is 1958.

Just because we live in Oklahoma, does not mean that we have to eat like Oklahomans.

Read Skinny Bitch, tell your friends to read it, and let’s raise the consciousness of our community and stop eating like Oklahoma Billies.