You Are Not a Before Picture: 2022’s bestselling inspirational new guide to help you tackle diet culture, finding self acceptance, and making peace with your body

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You can’t control what people think of you. Even if you were your nicest self, people will still find fault. And usually, their criticisms of you say a lot more about themselves and their insecurities than anything you’ve done. You can’t control what they think, so why try? Why lose any sleep chasing their approval? Why change how you look for someone else? It’s easy to feel like we’re the only ones struggling with our weight. It’s even easier to feel like we’re the problem, not the media, not society. But if only 5% of people have this ideal body type, then why are we at fault? It’s clearly not an average body, so why are we killing ourselves to get it? This book gives an outlook on what diet culture is, where it originated from and the real harm it causes. From a very young age, we are all conditioned by the diet culture message which is exaggerated through the use of social media. Alex Light makes aware the pervasiveness of diet culture and that people’s bodies are not the problem. However, just knowing this isn’t enough. Light continues in the second half of the book explaining how to improve our negative perceptions of ourselves, steps to take away from dieting and towards intuitive eating and how to find joy in exercise.

I want to be happy. I don’t want to wait for a weight or size. 10. “I had let myself go and let myself live, and it was the most powerful thing I have ever done for myself.” (pg. 211) This book is certainly not that - it’s full of highlighters from me and I will revisit it time and again I have felt ashamed of the space I take up in a seat, a bed, a room. I have made myself smaller for too long. I don’t need to be the smallest version of myself to be accepted, because the people that want that version aren’t those I accept in my life. 12. ”What people think of you is none of your business.” (pg.261) Thank you to NetGalley, Alex Light, and HarperCollins 360/HQ for an ARC of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.Along with a history of how we've arrived at the 'thin is good, fat is bad' mentality we've been groomed to believe, Alex Light debunks the myths we've come to accept as fact. 'Skinny people can't be unhealthy', 'Fat people can't be healthy', and in general the moral issue that has become different food groups. She provides sets of healthy, reasonable, and achievable guidelines to live your best life in the natural body you were given. Her own story and battle with self-image are intertwined through all of this providing so much inspiration.

None of us fit this ideal body because we’re not designed to. This quote is the perfect reminder that we’re not the issue, and we’re not alone in this. 5. ”Being stigmatised for your weight can be a bigger risk to your health than what you eat or what you weigh” (pg.98) Here’s the sneaky thing about dieting and the human experience of having a body — we want to believe there is a way to fix how our bodies look and feel. We tell ourselves if we find the right diet, the right gym, the right clothing, there will be a day when we look in the mirror and think “Perfect. Flawless. No notes.”

Customer reviews

The issue isn’t your body, it’s your mind. We can be happy at this size, we don’t have to lose weight, but we need to change our thinking. This book helped me to start doing exactly that. 14. “You’re less alone than you may imagine.” (pg. 278) Overall, I loved the book. I was sad to finish it! I genuinely feel like it’s changed my life and my whole outlook on appearance and weight.