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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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. I loved everything about this book. I was particularly interested in the discussion of the relation between health and weight, exercise and weight. The exploration of BMI, its origins, and embedding in current health practise and narratives was enlightening and worrying. Alex’s messaging around consent to being weighed was for me very powerful. With the same principle as date protection the question should be - what is this information needed for. The author explores how exercise has become purposed in relation to weight loss, submerging messages about the value of exercise for mental health, strength, enjoyment. She encourages us to love our bodies for what they can do rather than their aesthetics.

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. 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.” 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. 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. 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 yearsNone 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) 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?” I want to be happy. I don’t want to wait for a weight or size. 10. “I had let myself go and let myself live, and it was the most powerful thing I have ever done for myself.” (pg. 211) Your guide to staying entertained, from live shows and outdoor fun to the newest in museums, movies, TV, books, dining, and more.

This is a wonderful, well written book that has so much amazing information in it. It points out simple points and explains the manipulative psychology used in the weight loss/beauty industry, but Alex doesn't stop there. She gives a path to follow and thoughts to consider to improve your mental health and break out of the trap. 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. 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” 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)

13. “You know when you look back at an old photo of you and think, ‘Wow, why did I hate my body then?’ - That’s your proof that it has never been about your body.” (pg.270)

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. 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. 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. 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 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.

None of these things will make you happy, at least not for long. Because as Alex says, happiness isn’t something we can discover, it’s something already within ourselves. Your situation does not determine your happiness, you do. On some level, happiness is a choice. And it can be made far more difficult by mental health struggles or toxic influences, but we will never find it outside of ourselves. This book covers a huge amount of ground! It explores the world of dieting - where it started and why. It explores the relationship between health and weight, weight and exercise, social media and body image, body positivity. It explores the power of messaging and the results of societal conditioning. The author charts her own journey with weight gain and loss, offering personal insights and anecdotes. She writes candidly and with great honesty. 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 are living, breathing, multi-faceted, talented human beings whose true beauty cannot be captured in a picture.”

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)