Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Caroline starts by telling us that this book is for yo-yo dieters- which was me (until about 18 months ago!). Slimming world, slim fast shakes, ‘skinny coffee’, green tea capsules, CLA capsules... you name it, I’ve tried it (from as young as 16!) If this sounds like you too... Caroline can tell you exactly why these diets don’t work & discuss the social complexities surrounding why we feel the need to diet anyway.
I have read a few anti-diet books &, although they all have similar rationales as to why diets are unhelpful physically & mentally, this book is probably the most accessible I’ve ever read. It’s simple & easy to read, with enough research studies to prove the points but not too many as not to overwhelm with information.
Caroline is chatty throughout this book & it truly is like a catch-up with a very knowledgable friend. Guidance without the preaching!
I particularly found the end chapter about trying not to convert family & friends & instead, setting our own boundaries to protect ourselves. This advice is exactly what I needed right now.
I have read a few anti-diet books &, although they all have similar rationales as to why diets are unhelpful physically & mentally, this book is probably the most accessible I’ve ever read. It’s simple & easy to read, with enough research studies to prove the points but not too many as not to overwhelm with information.
Caroline is chatty throughout this book & it truly is like a catch-up with a very knowledgable friend. Guidance without the preaching!
I particularly found the end chapter about trying not to convert family & friends & instead, setting our own boundaries to protect ourselves. This advice is exactly what I needed right now.
It's a diet book that says it's not a diet book. There is a bit more to it than this, but the diet is basically to eat whatever you want, whenever you want it. LOL. No thanks.
funny
informative
medium-paced
I initially heard about the F*ck-It diet from recommendations from various sources - Audible recommended it based on my current library, and an Anti-Diet Facebook group I’m in speaks strongly about it.
However - honestly I avoided the book for longer than I would have otherwise, because of the “diet” in the title. By this time I’d already broken up with diets, and this sounded like one of those “not a diet” diet books. “Eat all you want, never feel hungry, and still lose weight!”
This is not that book.
Instead, this book is all about the harm that diets do and looks at healing from that harm from a holistic perspective, including physical, emotional, and mental. The F*ck-It Diet book provides scientific evidence behind the claims that diets don’t work, a breakdown of how long we know this, and why diet culture is still SO pervasive. (Hint: follow the money.)
Much of the information included in the F*ck-It Diet, I already knew… as I said, this wasn’t my first foray into anti-diet culture. However, there was still some that was new to me, and so I’m appreciative of that. What I hadn’t expected was the inclusion of tools under each section, to help you work through your food issues, the ‘tapes’ in your head (that are really hard to break!) and some of the psychology around binging (spoiler: it comes from restriction). Again, I found some of these tools I was already using along my own journey (such as writing / “brain dumps”, and in which I’ve already started investigating my own associations and history and feelings around diet culture, fat-shaming, and the like).
Honestly, I think every woman needs this book. There are very, very few women that diet culture hasn’t touched, and I think to some extent we all feel the struggle. Dooner isn’t a fat woman herself but does cover that - her inherent thin privilege, as well as the importance of recognising your own privilege and the effects that has on you - as well as the importance of breaking down some of our deep-set biases by actively changing our exposure. She also mentions the “hijacking” of the “body positivity” term, as there are some groups/companies out there trying to use that for their own diet culture.
Overall I probably haven’t learned as much as someone completely new to the topic… but it was still well worth the read (or listen, as mine was an audiobook). I’ve already ordered a hard-copy so I can more easily refer to the tools, and have them in front of me to help me work through them.
I still have a lot of work to do within myself… but as Dooner points out, this isn’t a quick fix, nor is it a secret recipe to “not feeling hungry”. There is no such thing. We are human, and we need to eat to survive. *That* is the purpose of hunger - it’s not the nasty temptress devised only to sabotage us, as diet culture would have us believe.
However - honestly I avoided the book for longer than I would have otherwise, because of the “diet” in the title. By this time I’d already broken up with diets, and this sounded like one of those “not a diet” diet books. “Eat all you want, never feel hungry, and still lose weight!”
This is not that book.
Instead, this book is all about the harm that diets do and looks at healing from that harm from a holistic perspective, including physical, emotional, and mental. The F*ck-It Diet book provides scientific evidence behind the claims that diets don’t work, a breakdown of how long we know this, and why diet culture is still SO pervasive. (Hint: follow the money.)
Much of the information included in the F*ck-It Diet, I already knew… as I said, this wasn’t my first foray into anti-diet culture. However, there was still some that was new to me, and so I’m appreciative of that. What I hadn’t expected was the inclusion of tools under each section, to help you work through your food issues, the ‘tapes’ in your head (that are really hard to break!) and some of the psychology around binging (spoiler: it comes from restriction). Again, I found some of these tools I was already using along my own journey (such as writing / “brain dumps”, and in which I’ve already started investigating my own associations and history and feelings around diet culture, fat-shaming, and the like).
Honestly, I think every woman needs this book. There are very, very few women that diet culture hasn’t touched, and I think to some extent we all feel the struggle. Dooner isn’t a fat woman herself but does cover that - her inherent thin privilege, as well as the importance of recognising your own privilege and the effects that has on you - as well as the importance of breaking down some of our deep-set biases by actively changing our exposure. She also mentions the “hijacking” of the “body positivity” term, as there are some groups/companies out there trying to use that for their own diet culture.
Overall I probably haven’t learned as much as someone completely new to the topic… but it was still well worth the read (or listen, as mine was an audiobook). I’ve already ordered a hard-copy so I can more easily refer to the tools, and have them in front of me to help me work through them.
I still have a lot of work to do within myself… but as Dooner points out, this isn’t a quick fix, nor is it a secret recipe to “not feeling hungry”. There is no such thing. We are human, and we need to eat to survive. *That* is the purpose of hunger - it’s not the nasty temptress devised only to sabotage us, as diet culture would have us believe.
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Absolutely amazing
I started looking into and researching fat studies last year, and this is one of the best books I've read on the subject. It goes beyond what might now be a little obsolete, the theories of intuitive eating, and focuses on overall really accepting and doing what is actually best for your body. Just a phenomenal read!
I started looking into and researching fat studies last year, and this is one of the best books I've read on the subject. It goes beyond what might now be a little obsolete, the theories of intuitive eating, and focuses on overall really accepting and doing what is actually best for your body. Just a phenomenal read!
Before I go into anything else, I will say the research on this that Dooner cites does bear out. I am super anti-diet. Diets and diet culture are irredeemably fucked and nobody deserves to be treated like shit based on their weight, or made to feel shame. There is a lot of good information in this book, but you gotta sift through the self-serving self-help rhetoric to get to it, and my personal bias is that I'm extremely wary and highly skeptical of anything that falls under the "self help" umbrella. I understand the genre can't simply be dry science shit because then it wouldn't sell - and that's the thing, at the end of the day this book is meant to make money.
The Peak Millennial Quirky "I'm Relatable and Funny" shit in this book was highly irritating. I too am a millennial but oh my god. I get it's likely a marketing thing but jesus. It didn't make the book more readable. It was actually a bit insufferable. Like "lol I read harry potter" cool so did literally every kid in our generation, good for you, please get back to the actual information.
Also the target demographic of this book is clearly midsized white women who have the access to a variety of food as well as the means to purchase it. There was no taking into consideration of stuff like poverty or food deserts. Which is fine, but like if that's the case don't act like this book is actually for everyone. It's not. It's for specifically women who in all likelihood aren't obese or dealing with issues, either societal or medical or whatever, that come with being fat. Dooner does a half-hearted job addressing this in one chapter where she "recognizes" her "thin privilege" but also like...congratulations you had the baseline health and body type to be able to continue in life eating without restriction and suffer little to no shame or consequences - at least not on the level of folks who are discriminated against fucking daily based on their weight. Not only that, you had the means to feed yourself the variety of food you are craving when you wanted, and a lot of that was likely fresh produce and whole foods. Not everyone has access to that.
On top of that, in the latter half of the book Dooner suddenly starts talking about energy work. I'm sorry but what the fuck? Get reiki to stop feeling fat-shamed? I'm sorry but absolutely fuck off. Even IF, and a big IF, that was helpful to someone (and maybe it is!) once again, Dooner assumes access to these 'therapies'. Again, not everyone can afford to drop money on someone to wave their hands around them to help 'energy heal' when, say, they need to buy groceries or pay their rent or bills. The fucking caucasity. And I say that as a white woman. Jeeeeesus.
Also, as is an issue with many self-help books: there's a metric fuckton of repetition. Honestly. This book could have been half the length - and I wish it was, and then dedicated the 50% cut to going more deeply into the studies, etc referenced instead of just saying "oh this study said this thing." That's great but I want more? And the average person who likely won't follow up on everything cited because who has time deserves more and to know something hasn't been simply taken out of context to further book sales.
tl;dr maybe I'm an asshole, but the actual helpful content of this book was so mired in "i'm so quirky" rhetoric and then some weird-ass energy healing shit that excavating that to get to the stuff that mattered and was legitimate was a pain in the ass. I do hope, however, that this book did help people tell diet culture to shove it up its collective ass, and it seems it has. So hey, I'll give it that!
The Peak Millennial Quirky "I'm Relatable and Funny" shit in this book was highly irritating. I too am a millennial but oh my god. I get it's likely a marketing thing but jesus. It didn't make the book more readable. It was actually a bit insufferable. Like "lol I read harry potter" cool so did literally every kid in our generation, good for you, please get back to the actual information.
Also the target demographic of this book is clearly midsized white women who have the access to a variety of food as well as the means to purchase it. There was no taking into consideration of stuff like poverty or food deserts. Which is fine, but like if that's the case don't act like this book is actually for everyone. It's not. It's for specifically women who in all likelihood aren't obese or dealing with issues, either societal or medical or whatever, that come with being fat. Dooner does a half-hearted job addressing this in one chapter where she "recognizes" her "thin privilege" but also like...congratulations you had the baseline health and body type to be able to continue in life eating without restriction and suffer little to no shame or consequences - at least not on the level of folks who are discriminated against fucking daily based on their weight. Not only that, you had the means to feed yourself the variety of food you are craving when you wanted, and a lot of that was likely fresh produce and whole foods. Not everyone has access to that.
On top of that, in the latter half of the book Dooner suddenly starts talking about energy work. I'm sorry but what the fuck? Get reiki to stop feeling fat-shamed? I'm sorry but absolutely fuck off. Even IF, and a big IF, that was helpful to someone (and maybe it is!) once again, Dooner assumes access to these 'therapies'. Again, not everyone can afford to drop money on someone to wave their hands around them to help 'energy heal' when, say, they need to buy groceries or pay their rent or bills. The fucking caucasity. And I say that as a white woman. Jeeeeesus.
Also, as is an issue with many self-help books: there's a metric fuckton of repetition. Honestly. This book could have been half the length - and I wish it was, and then dedicated the 50% cut to going more deeply into the studies, etc referenced instead of just saying "oh this study said this thing." That's great but I want more? And the average person who likely won't follow up on everything cited because who has time deserves more and to know something hasn't been simply taken out of context to further book sales.
tl;dr maybe I'm an asshole, but the actual helpful content of this book was so mired in "i'm so quirky" rhetoric and then some weird-ass energy healing shit that excavating that to get to the stuff that mattered and was legitimate was a pain in the ass. I do hope, however, that this book did help people tell diet culture to shove it up its collective ass, and it seems it has. So hey, I'll give it that!