Book excerpt: Ever hankered for a diet book by and for real people--people who, you know, actually have a life? Congratulations: you've just picked it up. Before we began our diet, Neris and I weighted 434 pounds between us. Our goal was to lose 140 pounds between us in under a year, to go from a size 22 to a size 14. And we did it. If two unusually greedy, cocktail-loving moms can lose this amount of weight without much effort, so can anyone. This book tells you how two friends did it, and how you can do it too. It's not a diet devised by some bossy string bean who has never been more than 7 pounds overweight, nor by a fat middle-aged doctor, but a real, long-term, workable diet for real people. A modified and therefore bearable low-carb, high-protein way of eating, the diet really works and includes meal plans, recipes, advice on clothes, make-up and hair at every stage from fat to thin. It doesn't include impossible exercise routines or disgusting things to eat. Above all, it gets to the bottom of why we overeat--and shows you how to stop. There's never been a diet book like it--for women, by women, with jokes and useful tips, and advice that is truly simple to follow. What other diet book tells you to pour yourself a large drink at the end of the day, because you've earned it? "You'll laugh out loud. Reading this book is like talking to a clued-up friend who also makes you feel great about yourself...amazingly frank...the honesty of their confessions exceed anything previously published!" ---The Evening Standard