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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Your worth will never be found on a scale or on a size stitched into your clothing. Your worth will never be found in the mirror. You are already enough, at this size, at this weight. Alex works to remind us of this, that we’re enough now, we don’t need to change, we don’t need to chase anything. 9. “Happiness, I’ve come to believe, is not something that we can suddenly discover, but rather something to be uncovered within ourselves.” (pg. 150) Will this book change me? I hope so, but in truth I have been brainwashed for over 50 years and it will take me so long to shake off the messaging, I have been fat shamed, I have judged happiness by my size. The author is candid about her own journey and where she finds things particularly difficult and I know that change will be difficult for me. If anything can help me this book can. Having listened on audiobook I have now bought a copy of the book and I will be reading it again and again. I will be gifting copies of this book. 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? But it's not our fault that we see our bodies as projects in need of constant work: this is just one of the beliefs that has been ingrained in us by diet culture. 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.

Welcome to Symptoms of Living! A place where I like to relieve myself of the barrage of thoughts and ideas filling my mind. Here I'll take a look at various topics, from books to BPD, series to self-harm, there's nothing that we can't, and shouldn't, talk about. You Are Not a Before Picture - How To Finally Make Peace With Your Body, For Good by Alex Light. This is the book we always needed, and never had. 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)

7. “Diet culture is nothing if not incredibly smart at recognising a ‘problem’ and offering a ‘solution’ - for a price, of course.”

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.” In the past I have had a love/hate relationship with self-help books and have sometimes(wrongly) dismissed most of them as “woo woo” 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) Our misery is creating a huge payout for an already-rich industry. We’re not benefitting from this, we’re the ones suffering. I no longer want to be part of their cash cow, and that motivates me even more to break the diet culture cycle for myself. 8. “Once again, you’re enough as you are, exactly as you are.” (pg. 143)

As women, we’re always made to take up less space. Be thinner, be quieter, be more agreeable. At its core, diet culture is about making women smaller and meeker in the world. We deserve as much space as any man. We deserve to be accepted with loud voices and big bodies. No matter what your personal struggle is with weight and/or body image, I highly recommend reading this book. I learned so much and have felt inspired since the first chapter. My point of view on these matters will never be the same. Your guide to staying entertained, from live shows and outdoor fun to the newest in museums, movies, TV, books, dining, and more.

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You deserve to feel good in your body, so start taking the steps to get there. It’s a hard journey, one I’m on right next to you, but it’s so worth it. Discover the first step in learning to value your body.