Product Description

As the daughter of Beach Boys legend Brian Wilson, Carnie Wilson grew up in the fast lane and has had a lifelong struggle with obesity. Here, she picks up on her previous title "Gut Feelings", showing the progression of weight loss through a personal diary and detailing how she got her head in the right place as she lost more than 150 pounds. Carnie goes on to discuss how she re-established her career as an actress and singer in Hollywood, as well as her minute-by-minute description of posing for "Playboy" Magazine. Finally the last part of the book reveals the specific weight-loss plan that Carnie still uses to keep slim. However, she points out that this is certainly not the end of the road yet. She honestly admits that she's "still hungry" for knowledge, love, acceptance - and yes, a piece of chocolate or two.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34954 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 200 pages

Customer Reviews

Hungry but Happy
The synopsis above tells you what's in the book; what it can't convey is Carnie's spirit,courage and style. She writes compellingly about her reasons for undergoing bariatric surgery and its effect in helping her to control the most widespread and yet unrecognised addiction in the industrialised world - compulsive eating. Despite the rage she has induced in the Fat Acceptance lobby, after her appearance on Victoria Wood's Big Fat Documentary I thought Carnie seemed an honest and intelligent person whose opinion would at least be worth hearing. And it certainly was. It seems to me that for anyone weighing less than about 200lbs the discomfort, risk and sheer effort involved in this surgery would just not be worthwhile. But for those who weigh more than half as much again, as Carnie did herself, for whom surgery may be the only road left to take to avoid an early death, this book will be a lifeline. And it offers encouragement, advice based on personal experience and optimism to anyone else who has any sort of personal obstacle to overcome. Her suggestions for coping with the aftermath of WLS seem well worth following even for ordinary healthy eating and fitness purposes. She doesn't berate herself for having been fat, and she certainly doesn't disrespect others who are fat and happy about it, but she tells us the truth about herself: she was seriously, dangerously fat, unable to control her own eating, desperate to change and needed help. Short of being locked up for several years, this was the only way for her. It wasn't without cost, although her health insurance did cover the operation; she will always need to take extra care of herself, and her freedom of choice will always be limited. But this is the price she chose to pay in exchange for the life she now has. Carnie's extrovert personality, sense of humour and positive attitude shine through the pages of this book. Read aloud, it would make a wonderful motivational CD - even for those of us who just want to feel comfortable in a bikini again before the summer.

worse than her first one !
I read her first book and felt peeved that she could not make a decision without her shrink's back up. This one is even more dominated by the shrink and ugh.... I found this book annoying in the extreme. She tells of how she lost so much weight she went and did a play boy shoot, and was feeling so wonderful in her new body etc etc.... yes, I can relate to all this because when I lost half my body weight I also felt this new found lust for life and the ability to do things I never thought I could or ever would. However she has totally ruined this book and the message it 'should' be giving because she has gone and regained a lot of weight. This is more to do with her inability to 'listen to her tummy pouch' and stop eating when it's full. It totally misleads the reader by giving the impression that the weight regain was down to the surgical failure. I don't believe it was ! The title alone tells the reader that it's down to Carnie's inability to stop eating ! There is head hunger and genuine physical hunger, and once you have the bypass it's difficult to ever actually feel that sensation of 'hunger' again because the enzyme in the stomach that gives off that growling pang has been bypassed. I have had a gastric bypass so I know how hard it is not to sit down in the evening and nibble all night long - it's not that you are hungry Carnie, it's because you are mentally conditioned to want to do this ! Your surgery probably has not failed, but your shrink needs to be fired !
My advice is avoid this book if you are about to have surgery yourself. It's not the best role model and to me doesn't give a true story of how it really is to live with the gastric bypass. Also, if you are a UK patient, bear in mind that in the USA they do the bypass quite differently to over here and therefore there will be some major differences between her surgical story and our own.