Nothing to Lose: A Guide to Sane Living in a Larger Body [Paperback]

Cheri K. Erdman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1996

For all of us who have ever struggled with weight and body image, "Nothing to Lose" offers a way to break the vicious cycle of guilt and self-doubt. Featuring the latest research, practical exercises, and personal stories from dozens of women who have decided not to accept society's "weight problem" as their own, this groundbreaking book offers all the information, support, and encouragement you need to begin accepting your body size and feeling good about yourself, starting now.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

For the estimated 30 million large women in America, Cheri Erdman offers the first inspirational guide for achieving real psychological and physical self-acceptance. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Harper San Francisco (May 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0062512544
• ISBN-13: 978-0062512543
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #972,767 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book was a revelation to me., May 15, 2002

By 

anonymous - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Nothing to Lose: A Guide to Sane Living in a Larger Body (Paperback)

I read this book very slowly over the course of a year. I'd put it down from time to time because the ideas it contained were so radical that it took me a long time to absorb them. This book has had a major and lasting impact on my life and on my relationship with my body. It started me on my own spiral of acceptance and introduced me to a whole new way of thinking about my body, about food, about exercise, about my place in the world. I highly recommend this book to any woman who has ever hated her body. The ideas in this book will bring peace, enlightenment, and healing. I wish you a joyful journey.
--Mary Ray Worley

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Healing from the stigma of being a fat child and fat woman, November 15, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Nothing to Lose: A Guide to Sane Living in a Larger Body (Paperback)

Reviewed by Barbara Altman Bruno, Ph.D. Dr. Cheri Erdman is intelligent, wise, responsible, warm, and accessible. So is her book, Nothing to Lose. Erdman, a professor and counselor at the College of DuPage in Illinois, has nearly always been fat. When she was five, her well-meaning parents, at the instigation of her fat kindergarten teacher, sent her for a year to a residential facility where she was kept on a diet. Healing from the stigma of being fat has been the focus of her career. The information in Nothing to Lose has been synthesized so as to be accessible to the average reader. Erdman starts with a larger perspective about the changing popularity of different body sizes for women. She moves then to the arguments that being fat is unhealthy, and challenges these beliefs. She presents her own body philosophy: Eat healthy (no diets); move your body because it feels good, not because you think it will help you lose weight; and get on with your life (regardless of what the scale says). In this and subsequent chapters, Erdman suggests practical ways to move toward a healthier, happier life. She also suggests topics for possible journalexploration by the reader. She guides the reader into how to become more inner-determining -- that is, listening more to one's own truths than to societal ideas about fat women. She speaks powerfully through statements by various fat women she has known in a professional or personal capacity over the years, and even in the voice of herself as a child. As a therapist myself, I was particularly intrigued by Erdman's cataloguing of body images (how we see ourselves). She found that many fat women have "creative" body images, seeing themselves as thinner than others see them -- and therefore able to do more than if they saw themselves at their full size. Other healthy fat women had a "transfigured" body image, which may be at their full size, but unencumbered by fat stereotypes -- and thus also free to be themselves. Erdman discusses her concept of the spiral of self-acceptance, reminding us that at times in this process we can feel like we are going backwards, but that is just the way the self-acceptance process feels. She believes that we do not usually just decide to accept ourselves and then do so in a linear way. Another of the many aspects of this book which I liked was a chapter about involvement in something larger than oneself. Spirit in action, to Erdman, involves accepting and cherishing one's body, developing all aspects of oneself, and often "going public" -- perhaps, like many NAAFAns, as a leader in size acceptance. She offers tips for therapists and for finding a size-accepting therapist. (I'd also suggest giving your therapist NAAFA's brochure, "Guidelines for Therapists Who Treat Fat Clients.") If you wanted to run your own support group, she offers suggestions for how to do so. Also included are a fairy tale of a girl named Abundia, good footnotes, and a useful resource guide.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but not the best of its kind, January 13, 2002

By 

Bron Mitchell "bronm" (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nothing to Lose: A Guide to Sane Living in a Larger Body (Paperback)

In a culture that daily screams the message to us that thin is in and fat is out, any book that challenges the prevailing cultural attitudes towards size and discrimination deserves praise. A book such as this requires both author and reader to put themselves out there, open their minds and prepare to be challenged, and I have the utmost respect for Cheri Erdman and the trials she has endured throughout her life which have enabled her to write this book. I fundamentally agree with everything she says: that we should stop dieting and regarding food as an enemy; that we should exercise for pleasure, not for the purpose of weight loss; that everyone, regardless of their size or shape, deserves love and respect; and that we shouldn't wait to be thin before we start enjoying life.

Having said that, I give this book only three stars for two reasons. Firstly, I found it to be a bit repetitive, especially towards the end. A couple of times it was if she had made all the points she wanted to and had run out of things to say, so she said it all again, in almost exactly the same way. It loses a second star for the fact that, as brave as her story is, I feel I have read most of what she says before. There are now many books that deal with the topic of fat-acceptance and body image, several of them far more accessible and entertaining to read than this one. Writers such as Marilyn Wann (FAT!SO?), Kaz Cooke (Real Gorgeous) and Camryn Manheim (Wake Up, I'm Fat!) bring more personality to their work, and I would recommend them above this one. Nonetheless, if neither of my objections seem important to you, this is still a well-written, well-researched, informative and necessary book.