Book 2: Beautiful Bodies
Welcome back to my 12 book reviews in 12 months series for 2019! Can you believe February is already over? This post is part 2 of 12 (check out part 1 here) where I share a bit about each of these books, my thoughts, how many stars I’d give it (actually it is how many Jericho’s as I’m using his cute face in place of stars. ;) ), and what other books I've read that month. I thought Beautiful Bodies was fitting with the “love” theme from Valentine’s Day and it being national heart month. Keep reading for the full review!
Title: Beautiful Bodies
Author: Kimberly Rae Miller
Genre: Non-Fiction | Memoir | Diet Book
Page Count: 198
Short Synopsis: This memoir combines scientific information about diets through the years (footnotes and all) with the author’s personal experiences. Kimberly first learned about diets at the age of four, went on her first diet when she was seven, and tried just about every diet under the sun since then. As an aspiring actress she learned early on that if you wanted to “make it,” you had to be skinny. When she wasn’t acting, she edited diet books, wrote blogs for health websites, and created her own personal blog. She also had a short stint writing a daily column on Elastic Waist, which showcased weight loss gimmicks and trends. Although she wrote about different diets, she knew that scientifically speaking, long-term diets do not work and people usually end up weighing more than they did to begin with. This doesn’t change the fact that she knew she was addicted to dieting (which I would imagine would be easy to do when being constantly surrounded by weight loss articles day-in and day-out).
Beautiful Bodies takes you through the author’s struggles through dating, being married, and having children. She eventually made the shift from wanting to change her body to be considered “good enough” to wanting to be healthy overall so she could support a baby, be a good wife, and a great mom.
“You can never stop dieting. There’s no end - there’s just finding a plan of starving yourself that you can live with for the rest of your life.”
My Thoughts: If you’re ever dieted or exercised to change your body, this book is for you; so basically every human on planet earth needs to give this book a read. ;) I was able to relate to a lot of what the author went through; trying different diets, always trying to make my body smaller; thinking that I wouldn’t have friends, a husband, success, etc., if i wasn’t a certain size.
I found it very enlightening to read this book from “the other side” - meaning, (99%) recovered from my own disordered thinking. When you’re in the thick of it, you don’t see how damaging being in that headspace can be. Her mother contributed to her diet mentality by dieting herself and reinforcing some of those diet behaviors. Reading about how damaging that can be makes me more conscious of how I want to speak to and raise my kids. I don’t want to shy away from photos or certain activities because of how I think I look; or validate being thin / losing weight / starting a diet / etc. I want my kids to know they are loved no matter what and they are allowed to reach their goals no matter their size. I want to raise them to be confident in their own body so they can do the same for others. There are so many more important things in life than obsessing about how we look.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading the author’s story and especially loved how she gave some practical tips on how she personally learned to be happy in her body. Throwing away the scale, reciting self-love affirmations, not reading fitness magazines, and taking more photos of herself, to name a few. All of these being things I also did to help myself love my body just the way it is. As you’ll see from this book, the standard of beauty has changed in the past, giving us hope that it can change in the future.
To end on a lighter note, I did learn that alcohol was the first weight loss diet and that dieting used to be a predominately male hobby as it was considered masculine to do so. It has since changed. To anybody who needs a little encouragement towards loving your body, give this book a read.
“My focus shifted from wanting to be thin (because for the first time I didn’t have to be)…I didn’t really have a game plan; I just tried to eat the foods that made me feel good physically.”
My Rating:
Other Books I Read in February: The Last to Let Go | As Sure as the Dawn | Deadly Memories | Eyes | Cold Judgement | Fudge Cupcake Murder | Sugar Cookie Murder
