Interesting and informative article. Lots of good tips!

I have a very busy schedule. I think we could all use more sleep. I take lots of little naps. Sometimes, I manage to sleep long hours but it’s rare.  I’m definitely not sleeping  nine hours on a daily basis.

My bedroom is where I go to sleep. There is no tv.

I think the point here is that you need to make sleep your priority. 

No, you DON’T need to stay up and watch TV and check your email.  I agree that there is no place for a TV in the bedroom-everyone I know who has one in the bedroom is sleep deprived.

I used to have a flexible job where I could grab a nap when I wanted or sleep a little late if I stayed up.  Now I have an office job where I have to get up at 4:30am in order to get to the gym before work.  I have never felt so healthy!  I am forced to be in bed by 10 at the latest, earlier if possible.  I had thought my flexible schedule was a blessing, but it was really killing me.  It IS possible to follow a good schedule with a busy life, you just have to make it happen.

I have always slept w/no lights, definitely no computer, tv, or clock, in my bedroom.  I trust my inner "clock" and if I need to wake up at a certain time, I do…there are just 2 clocks in my home, I have a clock on my computer, and one on the tv cable box. If I wake up, in the middle of the night, I’ll always try and guess the time…I’m usually w/in a few minutes…but, I’m NOT thin, (used to be), and I normally sleep 7-9 hours.    hummmmmm…

I do not eat 1-2 hours a day….but, I’ll definitely be eating slower and longer….when I get my/a LapBand.

I am French (well, French Canadian by birth), and I don’t understand these concepts all French women are born just knowing. I get the author’s points, but they aren’t always realistic. For example, I read French Women Don’t Get Fat and some of it consisted of eating a lot of leek soup, which came through my pores and, frankly, smelled. I took from that book what I could use, but it became a remainder book here in the states very quickly. Either that is a sad comment on how inflexible we Americans are, or smelling of leeks isn’t fashionable just yet.

I have been an insomniac since I was a small child. Running around all day, climbing trees after school, eating just the vegetables from my plate (never met a vegetable I didn’t like, but I didn’t like meat), and still I was always up long past my older brothers and sisters went to bed. I think some people cannot follow these rules and succeed—that’s why they read books like this, then kick themselves. Ouch.

Recently I read that its best to go to sleep before midnight, but for me that doesn’t work very well. I find that my body clock runs from Midnight to 8AM. If I go to sleep earlier I usually wake up within an hour or two and then have trouble going back to sleep. If I go to sleep somewhere between midnight and 1AM, I have a good chance of getting at least 5 or 6 hours of solid sleep before waking. If I can go back to sleep again great, if not at least I’ve gotten a solid 5 or 6 hours.

Last night I slept 8 hours straight. I am 68 years old and retired.

The reason I slept this many hours without a sleeping aid was because:

I spent 90 minutes at the gym, before entering the house pulled weeds for an hour, and after lunch I picked berries for two hours in the country.

In the evening I read and worked on a complex afghan for a while.

I probably overdid it a bit alltogether, but my sleep was wonderful.

This morning I played 18 holes of golf (no golf cart for me and my friends)……….

Now if I could only lose a pound……..

I’ve read bits and pieces of this woman’s work. I think she gets away with it because so few Americans actually know any French women. My husband’s French - I know his friends and family. French women are skinny because they live on coffee and cigarettes. In places where they actually eat the way Mireille recommends, they look like healthy Americans. And where they eat junk food, they look just like the rest of us.

Don’t get me wrong - many of her suggestions are worth consideration (I personally would love to get 9 hours consistently). But there’s nothing intriniscally "French" about her philosophies.

I think this article has some great suggestions.  Sleep is so important to function well in all areas of life.  Americans may complain they don’t have enough time to sleep like the French, but I honestly think the main difference is not work schedules as much as time spent watching TV.  Cut out the TV and you find you are more relaxed and have a lot more free time.  Same with staying on Facebook for hours on end.  

Also, in regards to the French staying thin by smoking, statistically the smoking rates of women are actually almost the same as in the US.  My personal observation and experience while eating in France is that they really do stay thin because of better eating habits (real food, rich foods that truly satisfy - no diet, lowfat, lowcarb anything-, lower sugar intakes, family meals, etc.).  Of course, as the French adopt American junk food habits, they will get fat.  I think Mireille’s lessons are based on those still following *traditional* French dietary patterns, not every single French person.  Personally, Mireille’s book truly changed my life: it freed me from guilt surrounding eating and taught me to enjoy food, take care of myself and lose weight.  I’m living proof it can work for Americans: 4 years so far of eating like a French woman and I’ve never looked back!