Megan is a wonderful person and influencer who I have followed for a while now. I really enjoyed reading her book as an extension of this, and appreciate all the time, advice, and work that has gone into it.

Having never got caught in the diet web of despair, I wasn't really the target audience for this - but I imagine a lot of people would have got a lot out of this on the road to body positivity.
Still, really interesting about the diet industry, eating disorders etc.

I didn't end up finishing this book. I felt like the author made chapters/topics longer than necessary and drones on a bit which made me struggle to keep my attention. I will still support the author through instagram etc but unfortunately, not through her book!

great positive book, and very funny must read, this book has had great reviews on YouTube.

This is a fantastic book by a fantastically inspiring woman. Megan Jayne Crabbe has spent most of her life on diets, battling a weight "problem" she believed she had, before finally learning to accept herself for who she is.

As someone who has dieted over the years - lost weight, put more back on over and over - I had my own epiphany recently too and finally learned to accept that this is who I am and actually be happy with it. What I can tell you is that it is incredibly liberating!

This book explores the how we have come to be a world obsessed by image and what companies do to exploit that. The diet industry is booming and yet only a tiny percentage of people keep off the weight they lost off long-term, marketing companies constantly find ways to make us feel inadequate and get us spending our money in order to attain perfection. The book is backed up by a lot of facts and rather than being a rant it's an incredibly well-written and engaging piece of work that opens your eyes wide.

Read this book and you will learn to not just accept who you are and what you look like but also to embrace it. A really fantastic read.

Whilst it can feel a little repetitive in places, I really enjoyed the message behind this book. I think it's empowering and it changes the way we think about women in society and the way we as women want to be treated.
We need more people like Megan please!

In the face of ‘clean eating’, diet pills and ‘thinspo’ comes Megan, aka @bodyposipanda, and the power of body positivity. I first came across Megan through her Instagram page and I’ve had a lot of respect for her ever since. Having struggled with body image issues since the age of 5, Megan spent her childhood chasing thinness and was diagnosed with anorexia at age 14. Even after recovery, she fell into the trap of constant yo-yo dieting and struggled to have a healthy relationship with food and her body. Then, three years ago, she found body positivity and it changed everything. This book is her attempt to educate others that our happiness and health is not dependent on hitting our goal weight, sculpting our abs to perfection or getting that ‘bikini body’.

The message of this book is that our bodies are not the problem. The problem is how we have been taught to see them. Megan shines a light on the almost inescapable cult of thinness that exists in our society, shows fatphobia for what it is, explains how dangerous diet pills and ‘detox tea’ can be and reveals that almost every piece of research into how health and weight correlate is conducted by the diet industry itself.

Combining research, reflection and personal story, this book is full of quotes and facts that I couldn’t help but highlight and return to. For me, a standout part of the book was the discussion of how female beauty ideals have been a way of limiting women and the space we take up in the world. Whilst the historic examples – such as female foot binding in China and the use of corsets – may not seem directly relevant to your life, perhaps the amount of time, money and mental energy you, as a woman, are expected to spend on makeup and hair removal to just pass as being ‘smartly dressed’ in many workplaces will. As Megan states, ‘on the surface it’s about looks, but underneath it’s about controlling what a woman can be’.

Megan also, importantly, includes practical advice for being more comfortable in your own skin. In her witty, kick-ass tone, she clearly states that ‘hating our bodies is something that we learn, and it sure as hell is something that we can unlearn’. Giving quick tips and more long-term advice, she explains intuitive eating, reveals the difference made by not assigning moral value to types of food and encourages us to find joy in movement again.

My only criticism of the book is that it could have benefited from being shorter. For me, the arguments and advice would have been more persuasive if presented more succinctly. Having said that, I can see how the repetition could be helpful for people who have been yo-yo dieting for much of their life and who are coming to the book primarily for the self-help angle.

If anything I’ve said above has left you with questions (perhaps, most likely, the common and unnecessary concern that body positivity encourages people to be unhealthy), please get a copy of the book and listen to what Megan has to say. I really hope that this book is a step towards greater uptake of body positivity, giving people the freedom to live their lives. In Megan’s words, ‘it means not thinking that you’re flawless and bootylicious 24/7, but also not thinking that you’re hideous and need to change. Actually, it’s not thinking about your body very much at all, just accepting that how it looks is how it looks, and getting on with your days.’

Megan is a girl with a huge following on Instagram where she posts and promotes body positivity which has resulted in this book coming to life.

As a young girl Megan suffered with anorexia and body image issues which she goes into in detail in the book. She shares her tips on body love and how to change your mentality by looking into the history of bodies and attitudes towards them.

She teaches us to challenge our mind set and dare ourselves to embrace who we are despite anything we may deem as imperfect.

This is a truly needed and helpful book for anyone ever affected by the power of their mind vs their body.

Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!