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. An urgent, enlightening and empowering guide to disavowing diet culture and learning to make peace with our bodies, from body confidence and anti-diet advocate, Alex Light. 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.

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) I’ve always felt like I was chasing happiness. I was always trying to find the thing that would make me finally feel happy. When someone loved me, then I’d be happy. When I reached a certain size, then I’d be happy. When I could wear shorts and like my legs, then I’d be happy. But once you’ve healed, you realise how little control you actually wielded. You were at the mercy of a number on the scale. You couldn’t enjoy food, you couldn’t go out with friends, you couldn’t let go for even a minute. You were never in control.As a society, we have such a screwed-up relationship with food. It’s truly devastating when you think about it. We’ve applied morals to nutrition, and the worst part is that it’s constantly changing. Carbs were the biggest evil, and then it was suddenly fats. Food hasn’t changed, we have. When I think about losing weight or getting toned, it comes with the inherent belief that people will like me more then. Not just potential partners, but my friends and family. It sounds ridiculous to say it out loud, but a part of me truly thinks that my loved ones will regard me higher if I had a smaller waist, toned legs or abs. The dominance of diet and exercise programmes and the detrimental effect they have, the powerful algorithms employed by social media and advertising, demonising foods and eating, our perceptions of what healthy looks like are all examined in detail in this book. When we look in the mirror, so many of us see a ‘before’ picture: the miserable person in the side-by-side shot waiting for the ‘glow-up’ (read: weight loss) that will bring true happiness. 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. We have been taught to view ourselves as a collection of ‘problem’ areas for which the billion-dollar diet industry holds the solutions. Personally, I’ve never had any issues with food however I really resonated when it came to the chapter about weight gain. Society views thinness as the goal to get to, when in fact there’s nothing wrong with gaining weight.

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.Thank you to NetGalley, Alex Light, and HarperCollins 360/HQ for an ARC of this book. All opinions in this review are my own. 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. Short, simple and sweet, this is one of my favourite quotes in ‘You Are Not a Before Picture’ because it’s a reminder we all need sometimes. We’re not the only ones feeling this way, so don’t struggle in silence. We’re not alone in this. We all want to dismantle diet culture and lose these awful lessons once drilled into us. We can do this together, it’ll take all of us. 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) From an absolute ice cold hearted non crier, I felt so emotional when I got to the end of this. I honestly can not think of a woman that this wouldn’t resonate with. And that’s sad.

In the final chapter, Light says, “[Life’s] too short to live as a ‘before’ picture. You are not a ‘before’ picture…We are living, breathing, multi-faceted, talented human beings whose true beauty cannot be captured in a picture…Our bodies are merely the vessels that hold all the good stuff.” This is an excellent book, not only for self-help but also educational in informing how diet culture was founded and has involved over the years I could almost guarantee there will be at least a few chapters that resonate. It certainly did with me Here are my 14 favourite quotes from ‘You Are Not a Before Picture’ by Alex Light. It was difficult to choose, and I found myself wanting to make this a list of 20, 30, or even 40 quotes, but I tried to be strict with myself. These Alex Light quotes perfectly sum up every aspect of this book. 1. “Dieting became my personality, my entire sense of self, and my life revolved around it. I was a true chronic dieter, riding the fleeting highs and persistent lows and living off the hope I felt buoyed by when I discovered a new diet.” (pg.7)

We have been taught to view ourselves as a collection of 'problem' areas for which the billion-dollar diet industry holds the solutions.Step-by-step, You Are Not A Before Picture provides a framework for changing the way we view ourselves and the world around us. 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) I also listened to the audiobook of this book and it is read by Alex - and is done phenomenally. If you can't read books, try listening to it. This book really helps with breaking down diet culture, why the "body positivity" movement isn't necessarily great, but finding food freedom is. Food is food. Food isn’t guilty, it isn’t cheating, it isn’t earned. 4. “Only around 5 per cent of women possess the body type typically shown in the media. How does that leave the other 95 per cent of people feeling?” (pg.70) These quotes by Alex Light don’t even do the book justice, you really have to read ‘You Are Not a Before Picture’ for yourself! This book is easy to read and hard to put down. It’s the perfect mix of personal anecdotes, scientific evidence and input from other experts.