Rating: 
Summary: EXCELLENT, honest, heartbreaking, reality-based!
Review: Anyone who has ever faced the real, emotional issues of having a weight problem will love this honest, day to day portrayal of an overweight person. I totally disagree with the first reviews. This book was not meant to be some sort of well organized, factual, inspiring weight loss manual that fits in a pretty box, it's an unedited "diary of a fat housewife" and it's the "rawness" that makes it so beautifully and poignantly written. OF COURSE she had ups and downs, self pitying moments, times with no self-esteem, grumpy family members, low will power, broken diets and contradicted plans!!! Along with those are the triumphant moments, the lost pounds, the rededicated efforts, and the one day at a time struggle with something that consumes the lives of overweight people. That is the heart of her and our battle, if it all went smoothly, we'd all be thin! I've read this book several times, and each time I gain some new insight into my own food addictions and self discipline issues. Rosemary exposed her deepest insecurities and struggles to help all of us, and in her "realness" she made this my favorite book EVER in dealing with weight issues. It's a must read for anyone who's ever felt alone in their weight struggles. I would love to contact the author and I've been anxiously awaiting her next book - Go Rose Go!!! :)
Rating:
Summary: a very true to life account
Review: as someone that has also struggled (struggles) with a weight problem, rosemary's accounts of her struggles made me cringe,laugh out loud and shed tears. It is so brutally honest that i could sometimes see myself in her anecdotes. really looking forward to the sequel that she promised at the end of the book, (i.e. Thin Again). I would like an update on her condition and if she has succeeded in controlling the urges she previously described, i feel it would be very inspirational to others who have read the first installment, so to speak of her frank and funny story.
Rating:
Summary: Good grief! My clone has written a book!
Review: I cannot believe it! We have lived the same life in two different bodies. I wish we could all be as honest with ourselves as Rosemary has been in her diary. I've read this book several times. Heck, I've lived this book several times.
Rosemary, if you're out there and reading this, we are ready for the next book.
Rating:
Summary: The Most Motivating Book I Have Ever Read!
Review: I got down to my "dream weight" while reading and re-reading this book (50 pounds lost within 4 1/2 months). There aren't many people who can't identify with some of the negative behavior patterns revealed in this inspiring diary. The underlying message is one of hope and self-renewal. Thank you, Rosemary Green, for the book that changed my life.
Rating: 
Summary: DON"T BUY THIS BOOK!!!
Review: I had previously reviewed the hardcover edition of this book on Amazon and given it a good review - three or four stars, I think. I have now downgraded it to two stars...After over six months, I picked up the book to re-read it. I was amazed at the nuances I failed to pick up in my previous reading of this book! While I do admire anybody's effort to lose weight and realize from agonizing personal experience how difficult it can be, still there are so many times she contradicts herself, many of which are listed in previous reviews. Like that episode in the department store with the lingerie display. The other reivewers were right -- I mean how else are you expected to sell underwear? Another thing is how she swings so widely about her husband. First, he doesn't support her -- not being there at night after working at what sounds like a high stress job, supporting a very large family, BTW -- to discuss her diet with her...yet she explodes when he drives her to an Overeaters Anoymous meeting in a sincere attempt to help her. The way she takes things out on her children is also disturbing. Jeez, I thought MY house was messy -- she is at home most of the day, yet from the photo taken of her in February 1996, both her and her house look like disaster areas! Obviously, Rosemary needed (and maybe still needs?) professional psychiatric help -- but she feels that losing weight is the answer to all her problems. Well guess what? While I can personally say that being 120 pounds lighter than I was 10 years ago definitely makes life better, it is by no way the answer to all life's problems!Also, I wrote to Rosemary a couple of times, first c/o Warner Books, and then using the "Winning at Thinning" address, and never received a reply. Like another reviewer below, I have the feeling that Rosemary Green was unable to maintain the lifestyle changes necessary to keep the weight off, and is obese again...otherwise, she would still be SOMEWHERE in the spotlight, even if she hadn't come out with that sequel she promised so confidently! Perhaps if I'd included a request for info to order her "Winning at Thinning" plan (what sounds like a dubious plan at best, even though she did have some good tips on pages 334-336 of the paperback edition) I may have received a reply?
Rating: 
Summary: A change of heart...
Review: I had previously reviewed the hardcover edition of this book on Amazon and given it a good review - three or four stars, I think. I have now downgraded it to two stars...After over six months, I picked up the book to re-read it. I was amazed at the nuances I failed to pick up in my previous reading of this book! While I do admire anybody's effort to lose weight and realize from agonizing personal experience how difficult it can be, still there are so many times she contradicts herself, many of which are listed in previous reviews. Like that episode in the department store with the lingerie display. The other reivewers were right -- I mean how else are you expected to sell underwear? Another thing is how she swings so widely about her husband. First, he doesn't support her -- not being there at night after working at what sounds like a high stress job, supporting a very large family, BTW -- to discuss her diet with her...yet she explodes when he drives her to an Overeaters Anoymous meeting in a sincere attempt to help her. The way she takes things out on her children is also disturbing. Jeez, I thought MY house was messy -- she is at home most of the day, yet from the photo taken of her in February 1996, both her and her house look like disaster areas! Obviously, Rosemary needed (and maybe still needs?) professional psychiatric help -- but she feels that losing weight is the answer to all her problems. Well guess what? While I can personally say that being 120 pounds lighter than I was 10 years ago definitely makes life better, it is by no way the answer to all life's problems!Also, I wrote to Rosemary a couple of times, first c/o Warner Books, and then using the "Winning at Thinning" address, and never received a reply. Like another reviewer below, I have the feeling that Rosemary Green was unable to maintain the lifestyle changes necessary to keep the weight off, and is obese again...otherwise, she would still be SOMEWHERE in the spotlight, even if she hadn't come out with that sequel she promised so confidently! Perhaps if I'd included a request for info to order her "Winning at Thinning" plan (what sounds like a dubious plan at best, even though she did have some good tips on pages 334-336 of the paperback edition) I may have received a reply?
Rating:
Summary: rosemary has revealed what being fat is all about
Review: I have read some of the reviews on this book and it seems simple to pick out who is/has been fat versus her thin readers. For all of you who hated this book, you probably don't know the first thing about obesity as a result of untreated depression. She was not just "wallowing in her own sorrow", this is sadly how it REALLY is to be a huge fat cow. Rosemary, I loved your book. Although I found parts of it to be extreme, I understood those parts of you to be born out of the anger and frustration that is a direct result of being fat in today's society. I lost 8 pounds in the short amount of time it took to review your diary. I have been able to implement my own "workbook" and have posted my own mantras (around my house) to help me in my journey to the real me. I am looking forward to your next book and to hear how you've been managing since you published your book. Also, I am an alcoholic and agree that alcohol and obesity are very similar monsters.
Rating:
Summary: Appealingly honest, but honesty doesn't always equal insight
Review: I have to agree with the reader from Ann Arbor: Green's book is so honest in its depression that readers want to hug her (or kill her--it's interesting that the reviews show both impulses), but so accepting of cultural stereotypes as the bottom line that I wanted to shake her at the same time. Green's misery is honest, and frightening, but its cause is not, as she seems to think, fat alone (though, of course, the treatment of fat women in a culture which venerates thinness (and maleness) is enough to depress pretty much anyone.) As the reader from Ann Arbor perceptively pointed out, Green seems unaware that her loathing of her flesh--the description of which is some of the most lyrical and passionate prose in the book--might have any historical, cultural, or even economic roots beyond what she considers the inherent loathliness of fat. She speaks of her heavy load of debt, of the six children which she raises and cares for largely on her own, of the constant demands on her time and attention, apparently without any idea that these might have as much to do with her state of mind as her physical weight. She says, in fact, in between her many (and somewhat formulaic) references to her spiritual life, that "weight loss is my only reason for living, being, existing, or doing for the next six months"--suggesting that her job as a primary caregiver for home and children neither pays enough nor offers enough stimulation to give her any real "reason for living." Moreover, in between almost hysterically loving claims that her husband and family support her in every way, she documents their neglect of and disinterest in her struggle; it is difficult, given what she records, not to suspect her husband of deliberate sabotage of her efforts, at whatever level of consciousness. In short, the operative word in the title isn't "fat"; it's "housewife"--a job which can, with luck, grace, education, and support, be satisfying, but which, unfortunately, has at least equal potential to be stultifying, suffocating, lonely, and a cause of despair. For Green, it seems to be the latter; but all the blame goes to the fat, to the physical flesh. She speaks of the "sins" of fat at the same time that she considers it a "disease" (one for which she won't get serious professional help, though); while claiming, like so many others, that what's she's interested in is good health and the "normal" or "real" self which all the fat has hidden, she documents a state of mind which is, if possible, even more food-obsessed than the state of compulsive eating which she seeks to avoid. "Disease!" she says again and again, and often it's the truth. What she doesn't consider is whether, if her disease were cancer rather than compulsive eating coupled with depression, she would blame herself and her fellow sufferers so vehemently, speak with such passion of how she's buried this once-innocent beauty queen (and there's a goal worthy of a woman's whole life, hmm?) in "each hideous little pound of greasy lard". It's a book worth reading, but not for the reasons the author seems to think. It's a heartbreaking account of an obsession with flesh, sin, guilt, and shame, very possibly for lack of other occupations. The "moral" I took from it was the reminder that fat is not a moral issue but, if anything, a medical one, and the conviction that when dieting becomes an entire reason for being, we're better off at 200 pounds, 250, 300, whatever. But it's also pointless to yell "get a life" at the unfortunate Mrs. Green, whose economic and cultural circumstances have drastically restricted her opportunity to do so. At this point it's probably screaming in the wind to tell her to overcome the entire force of her upbringing and culture; the only appropriate response seems to be to wish her, and everyone who shares her sufferings, the best that she can have, and to hope, rather futilely, that the best may include something besides thinness, for her and for all of us.
Rating:
Summary: This book makes a great doorstop.
Review: I just knew this book would make me laugh and make me cry. Well, it did. I laughed in glee, happy that I hadn't shelled out money for this book and I cried when I realized how many hours I wasted reading this garbage. I have absolutely no idea how I managed to read the entire book. I kept hoping it would get interesting at SOME point. It didn't. If you want to read basically the same diary entry reworded about 1,000 times and listen to someone drone on and on about how depressing her life is, then this book is for you! Talk about a broken record!!! I've dealt with debilitating depression and weight problems for years myself and even I wanted to say "Rosemary, honey, get over it and get a life." Not to mention the author contradicts herself more than once about many issues. Puh-leeease! Pure drivel and totally uninspiring. If I could give it zero stars, I would.
Rating: 
Summary: inside the head of a fat person
Review: I love reading journals and have always wondered why my fat friends are so heavy, so this book held my interest. They eat so little when in public, I could never understand how I eat more than them and can stay slim. This book gives an inside look to why morbidly obese people stay that way. I never knew that they ate such large quantities alone or were so obsessed with their eating and food. I thought Rosemary was very honest with her thoughts. I felt sorry for her because it is obvious as you read the book that she is lacking any identity of her own. She has nothing to look forward to all day but food! She is living in the past when she always speaks of her beauty princess days. I think she lacks motivation. She has no motivation to lose weight, clean her house, look for other interests besides food. She looks for approval from her husband. She needs to find her own happiness first and then she would most likely find happiness with him and the family. I never knew obese people harbored such negative feelings toward us skinnies! We don't stay slim by luck alone. We watch what we eat and use self control because we know we are worth it and we like to move around unencumbered. It must be terrible to worry about simple daily things like, fitting in dentist chairs, restaurant booths (my heavy friends request tables) theatre seats, winter coats closing. Isn't it worth losing weight to avoid these problems? I think Rosemary and alot of obese people have a compulsion to eat. I wouldn't know why, I'm not a shrink, but I would think they would all benefit by talking to someone who can help before they put themselves on a diet. My advice to them is to keep busy busy busy! I had the compulsion to smoke and the only way I quit was to keep busy, admit I'm worth it and I was able to quit and stay off. I was disappointed when I skipped ahead and saw that Rosemary did not lose any weight at all and is still morbidly obese, but I did go back and finish the book. I don't think any diet or book can help these obese people. They need to know why they compusively eat and they need a great motivating factor in their lives and have to keep that motivation at all times. I give this book 3 stars because it does get redundant at times....
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