4 Weight Loss Memoirs

Over the past several days, I have read 4 weight loss memoirs, and I think I'm ready to read something different now.  I tend to go through nonfiction like that and devour several books on one topic that I'm really interested in.  I decided to review them here.  All of the books made me feel like a weight loss amateur, being only 50 ponuds overweight at my biggest. 

The first one I read was Half-Assed: A Weight Loss Memoir by Jeanette Fulda.  She lost half her weight in a fairly short amount of time, and she writes about the changes she made to her life, how her life changed, and how it didn't change.  Of all the memoirs reviewed here, hers is the funniest and most irreverent.  As she loses  weight, her self-consciousness fades.  She attributes it to the weight loss, and perhaps it wouldn't have happened without the weight loss, but I think a lot of her story is something that many people in their twenties can relate to as they grow up, gain some perspective, and grow more comfortable with themselves. 

As soon as I finished the book, I went online to google Jeanette to see how she is doing today.  She has a blog.  I learned that she has gained some of her weight back due to depression and chronic pain resulting from a headache that won't go away.  She has written a book about that as well.  My hope for her is that her pain goes away one day.  Half-Assed is funny and inspiring. 

I then read Battle Scars: My Journey from Obesity to Health and Happiness, Fifteen Years and Counting! by Stephen Cremen.  I found this one to be particularly compelling because Stephen has kept most of his weight off for such a long period of time.  Of the four I read, Stephen writes the most about emotional issues relating to his weight, and I think that his introspection is probably one the major keys to his success.  His coming out as a gay man and how keeping that part of himself secret contributed to his eating issues is an interesting part of his story as well.  It was a very enjoyable read and possibly the most inspirational of the four I read, simply because he's managed to be successful for so long.  At the time I bought the book, it was only $1.99 on Kindle--a great bargain! 

After that, I read 703: How I Lost More than a Quarter Ton and Gained a Life by Nancy Makin.  This was the strangest of all four memiors.  Nancy had a childhood that was complicated by a stay in a horriffic Canadian cult.  She became pregnant as a teenager, married the young man, and had a baby at the young age of 16.  Her relationship with her controlling mother was troubled.  She reached the massive weight of 703 pounds (at least) and was completely homebound, waiting to die.  She is vague on exactly how she managed to become that large.  Her method of weight loss was equally vague.  From what I could figure out, she had been eating enormous amounts of calories constantly, and after getting a computer with Internet, she forgot to eat as much.  Her book was the most painful to read--the other books I read were about young people with much more ordinary lives.  After googling her, I found pictures of a strikingly pretty woman, but I could find nothing recent.  I hope that she continues to lead a healthy lifestyle. 

This evening, I finished reading The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl by Shauna Reid.  Of all the books, I enjoyed this one the most, and I could relate to Shauna the most.  She lost half of her body weight as a young woman, like Jeanette Fulda.  She took six years to do so and made peace with her weight about 10 pounds above her original goal.  Also like Jeanette, Shauna's book grew out of her blog.  The book spans about six years of weight loss, begins in Australia, ends in Scotland, and includes a romance.  Shauna grows up a lot as the book progresses.  To me, this one was the most novel-like of all of the memoirs.  I highly recommend it.  Shauna has struggled with a bout of depression and weight gain, and I wish her the best as she takes control of her life again and works on becoming more athletic and eating in a healthy way. 

I think all of these books are worth reading if you're looking for weight loss inspiration, but Battle Scars and The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl are the most worth reading, in my opinion. 

Book Review: Thin for Life

I just finished reading Thin for Life by Anne M. Fletcher.  Overall, I really enjoyed the book, and I recommend it to anyone wanting some encouragement about maintaining their weight loss. 

This book describes people who have maintained a weight loss, describes how they do it, and discusses why these people may not show up in studies.  There is so much negativity out there about how it's "impossible" to keep weight off.  This is contrary to my own experience and that of people I know.  According to the fat acceptance circles, you lose weight, and then you gain even more back, and continue a viscious cycle.  I've yo-yo'd a little over the past 9 years, but each time the string gets shorter.  My husband has kept about 40 pounds off fo the past 9 years.  He'd like to be 180, sometimes gets up to 200, and is generally about 190.  (He's a tall, broad-shouldered and devastatingly handsome man.) 

Anyway, this book is very encouraging.  There were several things that were particularly helpful to me.  The first was that it's okay not to be in love with the way you look in a bathing suit at your goal weight.  It's really okay.  I needed to hear that so badly.  When I got to my goal 2 years ago and didn't have that washboard stomach, I felt like I wasn't done, even though I was within my BMI range for my height, even though I had a healthy amount of muscle, and even though I felt great.  (The tummy didn't go away, by the way, when I continued past my goal.)  I will get to 125 and just keep doing cardio, strength, and work on my core, but I give myself permission to be happy with my weight even if I don't look like someone on TV or in a magazine.  (As my husband reminded me, even those people don't actually look like that.) 

Another thing that was interesting to read was that maintainers eat very similarly to how they ate while they were losing weight.  So, when I go to maintain, I've decided I should keep my calories the same, but have a glass of wine once a day, a sugar free coffee drink, or perhaps another small treat.  This is really helpful. 

Third, it's essential to have a "line in the sand."  I originally was gonig to make it 125, but I've decided to make it 127, although I may change my mind and lower it depending on how my weight loss goes.  If I get up to 127, I have to cut back a little on food, and step up my exercise.  This is so I don't end up with 15 extra pounds to lose, like I did this time.  This is what maintainers do, and what people who have never been overweight do.  They cut back or exercise more when they see the scale creeping up, or their clothes get tight. 

There are a lot more useful ideas in the book, but those were the ones that were particularly helpful to me.  The one thing I didn't like was the emphasis on low-fat eating.  For those of us with insulin resistence, I believe studies have shown that a low-carb approach can be more helpful.  It seems like recent research has shown some people do better with one approach or the other. 

Overall, this is a very useful and motivating book.