If Not Dieting Then What?

If Not Dieting Then What? by Rick Kausman
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The best part of this book can be summarized in one sentence, don't eat when you're not hungry, and when you are hungry eat until you are 80% full. Okay, so that's an exaggeration, but you get the point.

I couldn't help but feel much of the information in this book was not only outdated but also overly simplistic. Advice like park your car further away or take the stairs, while not necessarily a bad practice, seems to be missing the mark. In fact, I'd argue that reducing our weight loss struggles to taking the stairs is actually sort of insulting.

And while I agree with Kausman's assertion that we should be emphasizing health not weight, I resented that the book seemed be targeting women. As though women, and women alone, are the only ones who have a difficult time losing weight.

At one point Kausman suggests an exercise in body acceptance in which the reader (clearly believed to be female) stands naked in front of the mirror and rubs lotion over her body, taking note of its peaks and valleys. Sure, I get it. Self-love and body acceptance are important, but really. It's as if he assumes a woman is incapable of loving herself if she is unhappy with her body.

Kausman kindly reminds us that we can't expect to look like we did in our 20s when we're 50. After all. We're wives. Mothers. We've given birth. So just get over it. Give yourself a hug and eat that cookie if you really want it. WTF?

So while Kausman does denounce dieting, he never quite delivers on the alternative beyond loving yourself, parking further away, eating until you're full, and standing in front of the mirror naked, stroking our pudgier parts and repeating, "My thighs are beautiful just they way they are." I guess I just feel if you want women to stop focusing on weight loss than maybe you need to stop treating them as though they are incapable of focusing on anything else.

Overall, while I did not personally care for this book, it still had a few redeeming qualities and why I gave it 2 stars.