The Man Diet: One woman’s quest to end bad romance

The Man Diet: One woman’s quest to end bad romance
Zoe Strimpel

The single woman has never had it so good – or so you'd think. As Zoe Strimpel discovered, the reality can often be one of Junk Food Love, in other words: negative man-related experiences, corrosive man-obsessing thoughts and damaging man-related actions.Determined to help her fellow single woman, Zoe put herself on The Man Diet: ten no-nonsense rules to stop you binging on bad romance and help you sort the wheat from the chaff – emotionally, sexually and romantically. This isn’t a book about snaring a man; it’s about treating yourself well while you’re single and putting you on the right track to happiness.

ZOE STRIMPEL

The Man Diet

Join one woman on her quest

to end bad romance

Copyright (#ulink_a24e638f-720a-5b01-915c-dbeb6e1ada40)

AVON

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 77–85 Fulham Palace Road Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

© Zoe Strimpel 2011

Zoe Strimpel asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

Where necessary, every effort has been made to contact copyright holders for material reproduced within the text. If the copyright holder comes forward, HarperCollins will be pleased to credit them in all future editions and reprints.

Extract from The History of Sexuality: The Will to Knowledge by Michel Foucault and Robert Hurley © 1998, reproduced by kind permission of Penguin Group UK.

Extract from What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver © 1992, published by Vintage Books. Reprinted by permission of The Random House Group Limited.

Extract from The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer © 2006, reprinted by kind permission of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

Extract from The Rules: Time-Tested Secrets for Capturing the Heart of Mr Right by Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider © 1997, reprinted by kind permission of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

Extract from Living Dolls by Natasha Walter © 2010, published by Virago Books. Reprinted by permission of Little, Brown Book Group.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9781847563057

Ebook Edition © NOVEMBER 2011 ISBN: 9781847563064

Version: 2014-07-23

Dedication (#ulink_947c5016-c05d-555f-94d2-48826947bfda)

To my old, dear friend Eleanor Halgren.

And, of course, to all the single ladies.

Contents

Cover (#ubb9eff21-1649-5094-8dfb-65031a41d9ed)

Title Page (#uae34b6ea-b964-505f-930a-376166ab0bc2)

Copyright (#uaac1c1af-f85b-51b9-890e-e7aceea306f2)

Dedication (#u464b4137-aff4-572c-a7ad-ae732bdbc4e4)

How I Came to Write this Book (#u2ce85859-9fca-5eda-be3b-c4dc68a5942b)

Rule Number 1 - Refuse to Have No Strings Attached Sex (#u70d8817b-6305-510b-84ec-feb7da946909)

Rule Number 2 - Cut Down on the Booze (#ub40248a5-c526-5221-a7d4-99aacf2f9174)

Rule Number 3 - No Facebook Stalking (#litres_trial_promo)

Rule Number 4 - No Talking About Men (#litres_trial_promo)

Rule Number 5 - Do Something Lofty (#litres_trial_promo)

Rule Number 6 - Take a Break from the Games (#litres_trial_promo)

Rule Number 7 - Do Not Pursue (#litres_trial_promo)

Rule Number 8 - Take a Break from Internet Dating (#litres_trial_promo)

Rule Number 9 - Dwell on Your Sense of Self (#litres_trial_promo)

Rule Number 10 - Know Your Obstacles (#litres_trial_promo)

To Wrap Up… (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Feminism and Further Reading (#litres_trial_promo)

Bibliography (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

How I Came to Write this Book (#ulink_c9afa955-6e95-5b34-ba1f-c8440115f40c)

Here’s a little story …

I’m with this gorgeous guy, we’re two-thirds of the way through a free bottle of champagne that I’d arranged through PR contacts and I’m calculating the likelihood of a kiss or maybe more when we’re finished. Just as I’m picturing his bedroom, and what a triumph it would be to see it, his iPhone rings. It appears that another girl needs him – an on-off friend ‘with issues’ – and so off he goes. Not, however, before I wrest a smooch off him as he unlocks his motorbike.