MeaningFULL: 23 Life-Changing Stories of Conquering Dieting, Weight, & Body Image Issues by Alli Spotts-De Lazzer

Publisher:  Unsolicited Press (January 26, 2021)
Category: Self-help, Non-Fiction, psychology, memoir, health/wellness, inspirational, eating disorder recovery, weight loss, & body positivity
Tour dates: March-April, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-950730-69-8
Available in Print and ebook, 282 pages

Description MeaningFULL by Alli Spotts-De Lazzer

“MeaningFULL: 23 Life-Changing Stories of Conquering Dieting, Weight, & Body Image Issues” is a blend of motivational self-help, memoir, psychology, and health and wellness. Alli Spotts-De Lazzer is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, an expert in eating and body image issues, and a woman on the other side of her own decades-long struggle with food and body.

A $702 billion global diet/nutrition and weight loss industry shows that people worldwide are devoted to achieving maximum health and their desired bodies. Yet mainstream approaches are failing these individuals, and sadly, science proves this. Intent on gaining the “health” and “happiness” that diets promise, consumers keep trying. They become sad and frustrated, believing they’re failing when they’re not. They simply need a legitimate, alternative path, which “MeaningFULL” offers. Through the contributors’ diverse, real-life mini-memoirs followed by Spotts-De Lazzer’s commentaries, readers will learn about themselves and discover their unique, unconventional formulas for conquering their issues. Along the way, “MeaningFULL” will also guide them towards more self-appreciation, wellness, and fulfillment.

Review MeaningFULL by Alli Spotts-De Lazzer

Alli Spotts- De Lazzer is therapist who specializes in family therapy and eating disorders. In this book she has collected 23 stories from people about their struggles with weight and body image issues.

From the day we are born, society inundates us with the message that we must strive for perfection. Supermodels, movie stars, even today’s internet sensations begin programming us from a very young age with the idea that we must fit into a certain mold in order to be acceptable. And that mold is one of a thin, shapely young women. There is a reason Barbie dolls looked the way they did.  Girls grow up striving to have that kind of figure.  Sadly, many with do anything to try to achieve it.

But a supermodel’s body is, obviously difficult to achieve and as such, many of us will spend a lifetime struggling with our weight and body image, desperate to obtain a standard that is almost unobtainable. Some of us may only toy with dieting occasionally, but the people in this book made dieting into an everyday (and sometimes every moment) war on themselves.

Reading these stories, I felt such sympathy for these people who have struggled so much to achieve what they believe to be their own ideal look. For the woman who gained weight during her pregnancy only to fall back on food as a comfort when her baby was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and her husband left her. For the woman who started a business at a young age and became so obsessed with achieving perfection that she began drinking Ipecac to induce vomiting. For every story that represented another life and another hand over hand climb out of the rock bottom pit of misery.

Every story is concluded with a note from Spotts-De Lazzer analyzing the story and providing a therapist’s viewpoint, which was very welcome.

I personally grew up with a family struggling with weight issues.  Most of my family must have tried every diet out there.  I was the only one who had trouble actually gaining weight.  Besides my family, I have known so many people struggling weight and body image issues, especially in my work as a social worker in mental health.

I am giving 5 stars to this moving look at diet culture and body image. This is the kind of self-help book that we need more of in the world! I am mostly retired from social work now however, I will recommend this book to my collogues, for their clients in the struggle.

About Alli Spotts-De Lazzer

Alli Spotts-De Lazzer is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor, and a “CEDS” Certified Eating Disorders Specialist, and a person on the other side of her own decades-long struggle with food battles and body dislike. She has presented educational workshops at international conferences, hospitals, and graduate schools and has published articles in trade magazines, academic journals, and online information hubs.

A believer in service and advocacy, Alli serves on multiple committees and created #ShakeIt for Self-Acceptance!—a movement embodying its message.

Website: https://www.meaningfullread.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MeaningFULLread/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/meaningFULLread
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meaningfullread/

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Giveaway MeaningFULL by Alli Spotts-De Lazzer

This giveaway is for one print copy with 2 winners. It is open to the U.S. only and ends on March 31, 2021,midnight pacific time. Entries are accepted via Rafflecopter only.

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