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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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. 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.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. 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. 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)

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) I have a lot of thin friends, and I’ve always felt so frustrated by it. I couldn’t help but notice how they’ll eat less nutritious foods and workout less often than me, and yet I’m in the bigger body, I’m the one that will be labelled negatively. It used to drive me mad, until I realised that I was the one fixating on the fact, no one else. 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. 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.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 This book is certainly not that - it’s full of highlighters from me and I will revisit it time and again

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. 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.” 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.

Found this very interesting. If you’ve ever wondered why don’t women have more influence in the world, how about the idea that patriarchy manipulates fashion to keep women down? This seemed too far fetched but once I started looking and listening I found that there are examples all around. Thank you to NetGalley, Alex Light, and HarperCollins 360/HQ for an ARC of this book. All opinions in this review are my own. 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. Let’s also consider some evidence of a more anecdotal nature: if diets worked, every person would only need to do one in their lifetime. It would be a success and they wouldn’t need to diet again, right?”

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. 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)

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

I am a woman in her 50s, a woman who has spent all her life on one diet or other…this is the book I have been waiting to read. 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. Light includes ways for the reader to think about how they’ve been conditioned by diet culture, and offers tips and thought starters around things like the accounts we follow on social media. She asks us to really notice what we’re engaging with. And because she is deeply aware of the ways we’ve been trained to think of beauty as white, straight, and cis, she asks the reader to actively seek out content from people who are marginalized. “Being exposed to a range of bodies reminds us how varied, different, and beautiful the human race is.” I could almost guarantee there will be at least a few chapters that resonate. It certainly did with me 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.

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.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. 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) Nothing felt better than losing weight, and yet I was constantly miserable. Because I was permanently exhausted and could barely think straight. I don’t have many memories of that time, maybe just because I didn’t have the energy to even form them. 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.” 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)