Beautiful Bodies - Book Review

I saw so much of myself in the author of this book. Beautiful Bodies is Kimberly Rae Miller's memoir of her weight. From trying to lose weight as a young girl to gaining weight as an adult and yo-yo-ing everywhere in between. I'm sure that most of us have been there, right?

When Miller wrote about getting into modeling as a young girl, it reminded me of the time my friends and I went to an open model call at a hotel and two of my friends were picked but not me. It made me wonder what might have happened if my mom had said "yes" to my dance teachers' request to enter me in beauty pageants as a 5-year-old. Would someone have told me that I needed to go on a diet at that young of an age?

Reading about Miller's dieting struggles as a little girl reminded me of "working out" with my mom to her Jane Fonda exercise videos. (And then I remembered my mom telling me that exercise did not make Jane Fonda look the way she looked. Liposuction did.)

It reminded me of when I was 9 years old and I decided that I needed to go on a diet. I remember cutting out cookies and then weighing myself and seeing that I had lost five pounds. (That diet didn't last long, of course.)

And then again in high school eating half a salami sandwich at lunch instead of a whole one and using mustard instead of mayo in order to cut calories. My mom told me it was what her friend on Weight Watchers was doing.

And then I read the book French Women Don't Get Fat and become obsessed with drinking water all day. I don't know if it was the water or the fact that I was home from college for the summer with not much to do, but I did lose some weight.

I never gained the Freshman 15. Instead, I actually lost weight in college thanks to using my gym pass to take modern dance lessons and walk the track, and taking walks through the neighborhood.

This book reminded me of the time I threw out old jeans because I had gone down a size and thought I wouldn't be needing them again. (I should have listened to my mom who told me to hold onto them. Just in case. She was right.)

Not to mention the fact that the author and I are the same age, were both pregnant around the same time, AND we both had thyroid issues. There was a definite connection for me.

So, even though this doesn't sound like a review of the book, it really is. This is a book that you can relate to. This is a book that makes you take a hard look at yourself and your history with your body. This is a book that every woman should read.

Beautiful Bodies is published by Little A and is on bookstore shelves now. I received an advance review copy from Amazon with no obligation to review.