Customer Reviews

Full Lives: A Woman's Guide to Freedom from Obsession with Food and Weight

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As a nutritionist and eating disorders specialist, I highly recommend this book. It is composed of group of individual healing stories by women who make up the well known experts on eating disorders revealing their own experiences. It is not just a "how to" book, but a deeply personal journey into the lives of these women and how they overcame their own personal struggle with the weight and eating issues that haunt so many women today. It puts the issues of food and eating where they belong instead of on the pedestal designed by American Culture. Reading this book should be a tremendously healing experience for all women, not just those who struggle with eating issues. We are all in this together, and the more who understand, the more we will be able to help our fellow sisters in their struggle to have a normal relationship with food and their bodies! It is high time all of us stopped basing our self worth on our body size and our ability to diet. We need to start accepting our worth recognizing that we don't all have the same genetic potential, and we need to try to be the healthiest that we can be, rather than trying to imitate someone else's idea of who or what we should be. That is what this book is about. A great first step on a worthwhile journey.

This is a great book to read, quite different from the many other titles out there that primarily focus on methods to free one's obsessions with food, weight and the disorder in general. As the book is staged at a dinner party, it consists of remarks and insights from those who have battled these issues firsthand - and is refreshing to the reader in that they have plenty of company in their struggle. I finished the book with a refreshing feeling of freedom, having identified with the personalities within the book and with a fresh outlook on my daily battle. A great read for those already on the road to recovery.

I think it is good for all women who have an ED to write a memoir for their healing. After reading this book, I do not think it is a good thing for all women who have had an ED to read those memoirs. Many are triggering, depressing, and not really productive towards healing. I think different stories speak to different people, as do writing styles. This book just wasn't my style and was more harmful than helpful.