Big Girl (Miller)

Big Girl:  How I Gave Up Dieting and Got a Life
Kelsey Miller, 2016
Grand Central Publishing
288 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781455532636


Summary
A hilarious and inspiring memoir about one young woman's journey to find a better path to both physical and mental health.

At twenty-nine, Kelsey Miller had done it all: crash diets, healthy diets, and nutritionist-prescribed "eating plans," which are diets that you pay more money for. She'd been fighting her un-thin body since early childhood, and after a lifetime of failure, finally hit bottom.

No diet could transform her body or her life. There was no shortcut to skinny salvation. She'd dug herself into this hole, and now it was time to climb out of it.

With the help of an Intuitive Eating coach and fitness professionals, she learned how to eat based on her body's instincts and exercise sustainably, without obsessing over calories burned and thighs gapped. But, with each thrilling step toward a healthy future, she had to contend with the painful truths of her past.

Big Girl chronicles Kelsey's journey into self-loathing and disordered eating—and out of it. This is a memoir for anyone who's dealt with a distorted body image, food issues, or a dysfunctional family. It's for the late-bloomers and the not-yet-bloomed.

It's a book for everyone who's tried and failed and felt like a big, fat loser. So, basically, everyone. (From the publiosher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1985
• Where—N/A
• Education—B.S., Boston University
• Currently—lives in Brooklyn, New York City, New York


Kelsey Miller graduated from Boston University with a BS in Film & Television. She began her career in the film production industry before transitioning to full-time writing. Soon after joining the staff of Refinery29, she created The Anti-Diet Project, one of the website's most popular franchises. She is currently a Senior Features Writer and lives in Brooklyn. (From the pubisher.)

Book Reviews
This chronicle of [Miller's] journey from childhood through hard-won revelations is hilarious and brutally honest, offering plenty of wisdom for anyone who's struggled with issues of her own.
People


Readers of all sizes, shapes and backgrounds can relate to Big Girl. It's a tour de force on growing up, learning how to be healthy in mind, body and spirit, and coming to terms with the fact that life is fast, but it is OK to stop for a moment to bring home, smell and eat the bacon."
New York Daily News


Miller has shed her self-destructive bingeing and dieting habits...and gained the ability to recognize and embrace who she is. Her honestly, hilariously told story will appeal to any readers who have ever felt dissatisfaction with their bodies and will move them to tears of sorrow, laughter, and joy.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review.) This is not a diet book, it's an antidiet book, as well as a memoir of one woman's lifelong struggle to lose weight and journey through mindful eating.... [C]ompelling and deeply felt.
Library Journal


Miller does take a look at some of the deeper reasons behind her compulsive eating, and it's in these passages that her vulnerability comes through and her story becomes truly compelling. Readers will cheer for Miller to succeed on her "anti-diet" diet of intuitive eating.
Kirkus Reviews

Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:

• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)

Also, consider these LitLovers talking points to get a discussion started for Big Girl...then take off on your own:

1. Talk about Kelsey Miller's struggle with food and weight loss. How does that compare with your own food issues? How are your experiences with eating and dieting similar to, or different from, Kelsey's?

2. Do you...or did you ever...have the "Food Police" watching over and judging you?

3. Talk about Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resche and their Intuitive Eating program. How does it differ from all the other approaches that Kelsey has tried? Do you think Intuitive Eating would work for you?

4. Miller talks about doing stints with Weight Watchers, Atkins, Jenny Craig, or the Type O Diet. What diet programs have you been on...and with what degree of success?

5. Miller writes about the deeper reasons at the root of her bingeing and dieting? What are those deeper reasons; what does she suggest drives her compulsive eating? If you, too, are a compulsive eater, have you considered any underlying causes?

6. Do you think Miller tends to substitute one obsession for another? If so, in what way? And is that a pattern that feels familiar to you?

7. What does Miller mean when she says losing weight is more about process than product?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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