What I've Learned from Skinny Girl Bethenny Frankel

• Your Diet is a Bank Account - Balance your food choices just like you balance your spending and savings (bank account). Bethenny says "don’t eat too much of any one thing, balance starches with protein, vegetables and fruits with sweets, and always balance a splurge with a save."

• You can have it all, just not all at once. So no more fries with my cheeseburger. Or no more cheeseburger with my fries. ;) Side salad it is.

• Mangia Poco Ma Bene - Eat little but good (well). Quality versus quantity.

• Spoil your appetite. Bethenny says "if you are ravenous, you’re going to have a hard time just tasting something great. But if you have spoiled your appetite? No problem." So true.

• Take a  seat, slow down, pause between bites, and make food special.

• Downsizing is not deprivation.

• Check yourself before you wreck yourself. NEVER BINGE. Make peace with food.

• Know thyself: Know your own hunger, know your own food triggers.

• Exercise, sleep, participate (in your life), and loving yourself are all good for me.

• Trust my food voice, not my food noise. Bethenny says "Your food voice is a deep inner wisdom that tells you when you are hungry, and what you really want to eat. Your food noise is that obsessive voice that tells us we can’t eat this, we must never eat that, we can’t can’t possibly touch even a bite of something else. Then it turns on us and commands us to eat everything in sight because we feel deprived or stressed out and we “deserve” to eat. But then it makes us feel guilty about what we did, and subsequently tells us we don’t deserve anything good again. Or it tells us how good and virtuous we are when we don’t eat."

• If I’m going to drink with my meal I should eat protein. The protein will balance the sugar in the alcohol, and the food will stay with me longer. Keep it light and clean.

• Learn to love vegetables. Seasonal will always taste better. Your local farmers market is the best place to find them.

These are a few of my favorite take aways from Naturally Thin by Bethenny Frankel.