Decent read. You are not a before picture is a book by Alex Light, a body confidence and anti-diet advocate. The book is a guide to help you tackle diet culture, find self-acceptance, and make peace with your body.

I have never been given a book to read and then proceed to buy it in several formats. Until now. I want to give a copy of this book to most women in my life, and I want to read it at least once every six months.

Alex has completely changed how I think about things. I’m working on changing my internal monologue, and how I talk about myself with my child around. This is the bite sized encouragement I needed.

I expected this to be another generic book about acceptance. I’m glad to be proven wrong. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

ALL the stars!!

* ARC from Netgalley *

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.

This book 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.

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 NHS practise was so 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.

This book is full of positivity and empowerment through advice, simple messages and a wealth of resources. This includes a long list of positive social media accounts, wonderful advice on auditing your social media feed, on how to address unwelcome comments about your weight, how to see yourself as more than a before photo..

This book should be read by everyone whatever shape, whatever size. Whether they have ever dieted or not. Yesterday in a phone call to my Dad he mentioned a librarian and told me she was fat. This descriptor had absolutely no relevance. The fact that he chose to tell me that rather than tell me about the colour of her hair or whether she was wearing glasses, demonstrates how conditioned we are to judge or describe someone in terms of their size. We are not a before picture, we are not an after picture, we are not defined by our size.

Will this book change me? I hope so, but in truth I have been brainwashed for over 50 years and it will take me so long to shake off the messaging, I have been fat shamed, I have judged happiness by my size. The author is candid about her own journey and where she finds things particularly difficult and I know that change will be difficult for me. If anything can help me this book can. Having listened on audiobook I have now bought a copy of the book and I will be reading it again and again.

I particularly enjoy a book narrated by its own author and especially when the book contains so much of the author’s own journey. Alex speaks with passion, emotion, integrity, with encouragement and can do. This book is an inspiration.

I would recommend purchasing a physical copy of the book to accompany the audiobook simply for the ease of dipping in and for the multitude of brilliant references and resources included. I also want to go through and write myself some positivity notes to put on my fridge based on the wonderful and empowering messaging.

Many thanks to Harper Collins Audio for my digital copy of this wonderful audiobook.

Thank you NetGalley, Hapercollins UK Audio and Alex Light for providing me with a copy of the Audiobook for 'You Are Not a Before Picture' for review.

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Now I want to be completely honest, I was a little hesitant to pick this up as the author is a cis white woman of average body size with social media advocacy being the primary source of authority. I felt that the risk of 'just love your body' being the only output of this book was very high. But I was extremely shocked and actually delighted by the constant acknowledgement of privilege, highlighting of research and continuous attempts to center more marginalised bodies. The author does an amazing job on this front and I can absolutely recommend the book for people concerned about a body positive/neutral book from a person with a 'passing body'.

I loved this book. It was everything for me in this moment. I have soooo many reflections that I could be here for hours writing about them. As an individual in eating disorder recovery it was just perfect and hit soooo many relatable moments. I suggest that EVERYONE reads the 'History of Diet Culture' section if they never read anything else in the world.

I really enjoyed this take on embracing body positivity and how the images we consume daily can have a negative effect on our own wellbeing.
I am a follower of Alex on her instagram page and podcast so was definitely invested in the book before reading. I received an audio copy of this and felt like I maybe would have preferred a paper copy as I read it consecutively rather than picking up chapters here and there. I think it works as a self-help/self awareness tool, reminding us that you are not alone and most people will have had or will experience body image worries in their lifetime. It was slightly cringey to hear the word "fat" being used so freely throughout the book but then I suppose that part of the diet problem is shying away from these words and making them out to feel bad and dirty when really it is a descriptive word just the same as it's more glamorous counterparts ie "slender" and "petite"
I did find the messages slightly repetitive although I do feel self help books translate a little differently over audio.

As someone who has in recent years struggled with body image it is a most definite worthwhile read and one of my most important take aways from the book is to curate my social media and follow people with different body types to normalise them in daily life rather than view their images for shock value.

You are Not a Before Picture - Alex Light

A breath of fresh air. I loved every second of the audio book and raced through it super quick, I even went back to certain chapters for a re-listen ( which I never do). The author did a fabulous job with the narration, and includes some fantastic information in the book. Definitely worth a read or listen as it is so informative, and I found so much of it shocking and eye opening. Thanks so much Netgalley, HarperCollins UK Audio and HQ for this advanced copy in return for my honest thoughts and opinions.

A self love declaration: it was refreshing to listen to Alex Light talk so openly about difficult topics that I myself have struggled with, alongside so many other women. It’s a guide and a biography along with being confirmation that you’re not alone in these feelings and how to overcome them. Delightfully pleased and listened to the audiobook in what felt like record time.

I liked the premise and some of the messages in this, as i believe everyone should love themselves even though i find it hard to myself, i did enjoy this but there was just something that it was missing. Maybe i wanted more?

Very informative of the history of body image with clear information on what you can do about it on a personal level