Title: Fat Girl Walking: Sex, Food, Love and Being Comfortable in Your Skin… Every Inch of It
Author: Brittany Gibbons
Publication Date: May 19, 2015
Publisher: HarperCollins
Source: Publisher
SYNOPSIS: (From Goodreads)
Told through a series of larger-than-life snapshots, a hilarious memoir in essays about love, sex, marriage, motherhood, bikinis, and loving your body, no matter what size you are from the acclaimed blogger and body image advocate.
Brittany Gibbons has been a plus size her whole life. But instead of hiding herself in the shadows of thinner women, Brittany became a wildly popular blogger and national spokesmodel–known for stripping on stage at TedX and standing in Times Square in a bikini on national television, and making skinny people everywhere uncomfortable.
Talking honestly about size and body image on her popular blog, brittanyherself.com, she has ignited a national conversation. Now in her first book, she shares hilarious and painfully true stories about her life as a weird overweight girl growing up in rural Ohio, struggling with dating and relationships, giving the middle finger to dieting, finding love with a man smaller than her, accidentally having three kids, and figuring out the secret to loving her curves and becoming a nationally recognized body image advocate. And there’s sex, lots of it!
Fat Girl Walking isn’t a diet book. It isn’t one of those former fat people memoirs about how someone battled, and won, in the fight against fat. Brittany doesn’t lose all the weight and reveal the happy, skinny girl that’s been hiding inside her. Instead, she reminds us that being chubby doesn’t mean you’ll end up alone, unhappy, or the subject of a cable medical show. What’s important is learning to love your shape. With her infectious humor and soul-baring honesty, Fat Girl Walking reveals a life full of the same heartbreak, joy, oddity, awkwardness, and wonder as anyone else’s. Just with better snacks.
REVIEW:
**A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.**
Brittany Gibbons is my new hero. At least someone I look up to. “Fat Girl Walking” is not a guide to becoming a skinny girl. In my opinion, the book is about how to make the readers realize they are not alone.
Whether you are larger or smaller, this book is full of stories that allow you to relax about your flaws, embarrassing moments, and realize your struggles are not anything to be upset about. Everyone has them. Big or small. Gibbons is incredibly relatable. She writes “Fat Girl Walking” as a tell all to her embarrassing moments and her lightbulb moments. All from realizing boys do like curvier girls just as much as skinnier girls to embarrassment from your parents. If you cannot relate to Gibbons stories, you must be living under a rock.
I love the method she uses to get people nodding along with her. She had to have picked out her most embarrassing moments and packed them into this book. She also voices a lot of fears and feelings the average woman has. You’ll laugh with her at her own expense just as much as you will learn from her how to accept yourself, flaws and all. An inspirational and engaging book filled with love, acceptance, and passion. This is what the world needs right now! Five stars to you Brittany Gibbons!
Make sure to check out Brittany’s page BrittanyHerself.com. Also make sure to pick up “Fat Girl Walking” in a book store near you, Amazon, or Barnes and Noble. Also add it to your Goodreads TO READ list.
Enter below to win a copy of the book. And check out below to read an excerpt from the book! It’s amazing. You’ll definitely want to pick it up after!
EXCERPT (From Chapter 13: Now What)
My fitness and body aspirations at thirty are different from my aspirations at twenty. At twenty, I just assumed I’d work out until I was so tiny, people became concerned for my health and I’d roll my eyes at them from my Victoria’s Secret bras and Abercrombie jeans. Now I just want to maintain my current weight so I don’t need to buy new clothes. When you look at weight loss, it’s often clothing driven. Weddings, vacations, and high school reunions, all things you are supposed to be thin for. But what if you have a gorgeous wedding dress in your current size, loads of flattering bathing suits, and a killer pair of jeans? Starving myself has suddenly become a moot point. I have options; I’m no longer a fashion pariah. So where does that leave my weight? Well, unless I’m sitting atop you, what I weigh is really none of your business.
I like to put good food in my mouth, and while I am aware of the calories I ingest, instead of cutting them I make them count. I have a full-on love affair with food, appreciating the different cultures and processes within it. In fact, I take entire vacations around eating. It’s how I remember where I’ve been; I’ve either eaten, thrown up, or started my period without the proper supplies there.
Beignets with my best friend in New Orleans. Too much rum on the beaches of Playa del Carmen on our second honeymoon. Orlando, Florida, the city of emergency men’s tube sock maxi-pads.
You see, these flabby parts aren’t problem areas; they’re parts of a scrapbook.
