Being a mother-of-two and still beanpole thin, one thing that has become ever more apparent to me is that Anglo-Saxon women have an endless supply of excuses for not being thin. On the other hand, a Frenchwoman has an iron will and unbreakable self-discipline that enables her to be attractive in any season of life (both the young filly and old bag season, as Zoë Williams put it, MDR). In this blog post, I outline typical excuses of Anglo-Saxon women and what a Frenchwoman's solutions are.
Excuses
Anglo-Saxon women seem to be under this bizarre impression that they need to eat for two when expecting a baby. Granted, I have only given birth to two children, but having used the same strategy to stay thin during both pregnancies, my assumption is that the process is repeatable, no matter how many children a woman has: - Bilal is only too happy to oblige in enabling me to prove this, MDR. During both pregnancies, I observed the rules I observed when not pregnant, primarily portion size. If you remember them and have an iron will like we Frenchwomen, there is no reason to ever get fat.
Many Western women fall into the trap of comfort eating, the excuse being that because they are sad, depressed or whatever, they comfort-eat. In other words, what they are saying is they have a bad lack of self-control when their moods are low. A Frenchwoman knows very well that comfort eating never was the solution to low moods, as it causes large amounts of food to become like an addition, i.e. she is bad-tempered until she gets her fix.
Another common thing Western women do is blame people around them for "unrealistic" images of beauty, i.e. setting off a yo-yo dieting pattern because she does crash dieting to achieve the desired weight, which is followed up by eating more and getting heavier. They often blame unrealistic images and the men in their lives, as Natalie Grant did in that article. Our Heavenly Father displayed His wisdom in pairing Bilal and me: - I am able to listen to all he has to say about me being a "well buff wifey", appreciate it, and still remain in full control of my eating and weight, irrespective of anything Bilal does or doesn't say. Natalie Grant (the author of the article the link points to) would no doubt respond in a similar way if she were married to a man like Bilal who appreciates fine women.
Solutions
Simple solutions are often the best. A Frenchwoman knows that there is no black magic necessary to achieve a pencil thin figure: - just say "la moitié, s'il vous plaît" at every mealtime! If necessary, keep doing so until the portion is befitting of a dainty Frenchwoman! Simple! This phrase has been key to keeping a Frenchwoman thin for many generations. A French female learns this phrase that acts as the perfect solution for staying thin when she first starts to talk.
If the food portions available are more than twice as big as they should be, the next solution is to remember what proper food portion sizes are. Mireille Guiliano discussed portion sizes she regards as standard, though truth be told, they are a little too big for me, MDR. Even so, the principle behind the solution is the same: - women should build an idea in their mind about what standard portion sizes are and stick to what they remember. If she lacks ambition and she wants to use Mireille's portion sizes, she can carry such objects around with her to look at during quiet moments and continue building up her familiarity.
Exercising control of moods is another solution. A Frenchwoman does not tend to indulge her moods in ways that lead to her indulging herself further with food. Anglo-Saxon women tend to get angry about things and rant angrily, before resorting to comfort eating to lift their moods. On the other hand, a Frenchwoman will just light another Gauloise (just kidding, we French women are not the stereotypical chainsmokers Zoë Williams thinks we are), do a Gallic shrug and say "bof". She knows that self-discipline in general is key: - if she has mastered it over her moods, she will more than likely have self-discipline over food as well. I am not saying a Frenchwoman never has trying times in life, but her solution is to deal with them by other means, such as more searching for beautiful garments.
The power of imagination is another solution in a Frenchwoman's arsenal. She considers eating more of her favourite foods and then remembers the joy of being able to fit into all her favourite clothes. When tempted, she thinks of the joy of being able to walk round in tight outfits and the misery of being too fat to fit into beautiful clothes! Simple! The only times I have ever been too big are during my two pregnancies: - the danger during this time is women will slip, given that she won't fit into her previous clothes anyway, so she needs to picture a postpartum shopping spree for the most gorgeous clothes she can find (I wouldn't dream of wearing fashions from 9 months ago) and fitting into all of them perfectly as she has no pregnancy pounds. One day, I hopped on the train at Marseille-St. Charles at 08.38, arrived in Paris 3h07m later, rushed round shops selling haute couture (that would never fit fat and dumpy Anglo-Saxon women) and found anything I wanted fitted me just like before. I got on the 16.15 train at Paris-Gare de Lyon with my hands full of shopping (plenty of room though, given how little of the seat I took up, MDR) and 3h10m later arrived back at Marseille-St. Charles to find Bilal waiting for me with our sons telling me I was a "well buff wifey" in my latest outfit and that he was treating us to an exquisite dinner at the Vieux Port. Imaging such situations is the ideal solution for maintaining self-control during pregnancy!
Though France suffers from big government, a Frenchwoman knows the solution is to take responsibility for her own body. Mireille Guiliano pointed out that "French women choose their own indulgences and compensations. They understand that little things count, both additions and subtractions, and that as an adult everyone is the keeper of her own equilibrium." It is nice that Natalie Grant chose to take control of her diet for her own health, but she is vulnerable to falling into the bulimia trap again, as she lays the blame for this at the hands of her ex-boyfriend/fiancé, rather than accepting she is the keeper of her own equilibrium. Granted, her ex-boyfriend/fiancé was unsuitable for her as a believing lady: - my daddy made it clear he would turn away all suitors if they had no history of regular attendance, participation and volunteering in a church (eventually, he realised it was not possible to fault Bilal on this). However, a Frenchwoman has self-control and self-discipline and accepts responsibility whatever the men in her life are like: - I would never take the easy way out and blame the men in my life (Bilal and our two sons) for sidetracking me from exercising personal responsibility for staying beanpole thin!
So there you go: - common excuses for not being thin and a Frenchwoman's way round these excuses. Stop making excuses and be impossibly perfect as we Frenchwomen are!
