ABOUT THE BOOK
ABOUT THE BOOK
Statistics tell us that dieting is the path most women choose to help “fix” what they don’t like about their bodies. Since weight loss is a 55-billion-dollar industry (!!!) in North America alone, it’s clear that diets really only work for weight loss companies.
What’s even more sad than the financial toll this takes on us though, is the emotional toll. It’s this diet mentality that keeps so many women stuck in emotional battles with food, weight and body image, at the expense of real joy, freedom, and self-love.
So it’s time for a new approach.
Imagine the emotional freedom of breaking the vicious diet cycle. Of never again having to count, measure or obsess over your food…Of never again worrying about changing or “fixing” your body for swimsuit season, an upcoming event, or – and this is a big one – for loving what you see in the mirror each day.
That’s a Forever Body.
And Finding Your Forever Body is your “body-love GPS” to help you get there.
After years of body-weight obsession, calorie-counting, and a relentless focus on my imperfections – which began for me when I was just three years old – I finally broke the diet cycle for good. I’m now proud to say that I have no idea how much I weigh.
Writing this book felt like a calling – because I truly want all women with similar struggles to find this same freedom. As a mom to a young girl, I also wanted to provide a preventative tool for her and other children as they grow up with even more pressures to meet impossible beauty standards.
In Finding Your Forever Body, I’ve shared the secrets to my life-altering journey to unconditional body love. Whether you’re a constant-dieter, a binge-eater, a fit-fanatic, or have tried each of them along the way, you can learn to achieve – and love – your Forever Body, now.
I expose the truth about dieting, uncover problems with the food industry, and unpack stereotypes that lead to negative body image. And the solution is not just about food and nutrition! This 10-Step process is a journey that also includes fitness and good mental, emotional and spiritual health.
Finding Your Forever Body is packed with encouraging anecdotes, as well as supportive tools, positive resources, and generous bonus material – and some light humour to keep it fun! My hope is that it will help you transform the way you think and feel about your body and your life, for good.
THE AUTHOR
REGISTERED HOLISTIC NUTRITIONIST & BODY LOVE COACH
I want to be very upfront with you: I’m on a mission. A mission to redefine beauty as we know it and to help women break-up with the scale, diets, and the quest for “perfection”—for good.
It’s this mission that guides me through everything. It shapes my work, my relationships, and in being a role-model to my daughter, Eve.
Because it breaks my heart to see women with such beautiful souls and inner gifts to offer the world, hold themselves back for not feeling like they’re enough. Not pretty enough, not skinny enough, not tall enough, not successful enough, not smart enough…and the list goes on.
I know well the impact of this because I did it for over 15 years of my life.
Looking in the mirror, I’d feel disgust – for every pimple, dimple or imperfection I’d see. Stepping on the scale, I’d feel shame and guilt – for every morsel of food I’d eaten, no matter what it was.
When I came out on the other side of all this, the most important thing I discovered was that:
There’s no such thing as the perfect body, and the only way to truly love our bodies is to first love who we are.
I realized that the reason I’d never felt beautiful enough, successful enough – and definitely not happy enough – was that I’d been completely disconnected from who I was. I’d been buying into everyone else’s standards of what beauty, success, and happiness “should” be, and disregarding my own inner voice and guidance.
Today, it’s a very different story.
But it wasn’t easy to get to where I am. Where I can now smile in the mirror and love what I see. Where I have no idea how much I weigh – and have no desire to step on a scale to find out. Where I can eat for nourishment and pleasure without consulting a diet book or menu plan. Where I can invest my energy into the things that are truly meaningful to me, rather than into trying to figure out my “ideal” diet and beating myself up through the process.
Looking back, I see that the journey to get here has been my greatest accomplishment, but learning how to always be true to – and love – myself has also been my greatest challenge and greatest source of grief and struggle.
Deeply grateful for my long and difficult journey, I’ve developed the tools for building and maintaining my self-acceptance, self-care, and self-empowerment, which I’ve come to define as the 3 key pillars of Body Love.
I now get fired up to help other women build their foundation for true body love – from the inside-out.
This is a question I’ve heard more than once in the years since I’ve begun writing and coaching on the subject. Admittedly, it’s a fair question – so please allow me to share a bit of my story with you.
Unfortunately, as women, we’re exposed every day to (unrealistic and harmful) standards of beauty, body size, shape, and weight. And I was no exception.
While I admit I did pretty well in the “genetic lottery” (thanks Mom and Dad), this didn’t stop me from hating my body for much of my life.
My emotional relationship with food and body image was a huge, distracting struggle for me from a very early age. One might even say that it was a problem I was born with…
From the time I was just three years old, I was insecure about my body. I’d developed the belief from a very young age that my body should be different and “better” because I compared myself to other children with smaller frames. Even though I was a healthy and active kid, I complained regularly – to my mom’s dismay – of having “fat thighs” (that’s me on the right with my “fat thighs”).
This led me to jump on the diet train quite early as well, thanks to the “help” of teen fashion magazines. I was 11 years old when I first experienced the discomfort of starving from calorie restriction and feeling out of control with bingeing.
Add to that, I started modeling at age 15 – which was a fun extracurricular pursuit, until I was rejected at 17 for being too short and overweight, at 137lbs on my 5’8-1/2″ frame. An event that shattered my self-esteem and self-worth.
That was the end of my modeling pursuit, but it was the beginning of many years of body-weight obsession, calorie-counting, and a relentless focus on my imperfections.
ALL areas of my life suffered, and it was only when I realized that my life was on hold because I’d subscribed to others’ standards that things began to turn around.
My body became a secondary focus to learning about who I was, what I was passionate about, and what kind of life I wanted to create for myself. However, each step closer I got to feeling my true self, my body did indeed change – as nutrition, fitness, and good mental, emotional and spiritual health became foundational elements for helping me move forward.
Each step I took, especially in the beginning, required more energy, focus, and strength than I even knew was possible, and I learned that I needed to support my body so that it could support me through them.
Today, I know that my body is nothing more than the physical vehicle that transports me through my life’s journey. I respect it for the role it plays in helping me express who I am, but it’s not who I am.
As a bonus, I can also now enjoy food and the pleasure of eating, I haven’t touched a diet book in more than ten years, and I’ll confidently don a swimsuit any time of year, no matter what!
Though this mindset requires on-going maintenance (I’m still human after all!), it’s been worth the effort to develop the right maintenance tools – especially now as a mom and role model to my daughter, Eve.
Amidst societal pressures, I want her to grow up with the tools that allow her to separate her size from her self-worth; to nourish her body because she loves it; to enjoy and appreciate nutritious food; and to be confident in who she is, no matter what opinion anyone may express about her looks.
I love helping my daughter—and my clients—build up their own “Body Love toolbox”. And since I want this for everyone, I wrote Finding Your Forever Body as a DIY body-love guide, so you too can create, sharpen, and maximize your own tools through a step-by-step, permanent approach for falling in love with your body and your life.
A free download of my Self-Talk Detox guided body-love meditation with BONUS Body Love Journal.
My own exclusive online Nutrition Resource based on my experience as a Registered Holistic Nutritionist (RHN).
My Food, Fitness and Sleep Tracker helps you become the expert of YOU!
52 small, weekly, actionable steps that you can easily implement in your life to start seeing results right away (based on the three key pillars of Body Love: Self-Care, Self-Empowerment, and Self-Acceptance.)
READ AN EXCERPT
An excerpt from Finding Your Forever Body:
My Forever Body is what I’ve affectionately come to call my body after overcoming years of food and body image struggles: it’s the body I’ll willingly put a bikini on any time of year, no matter what. This is what I want for you too.
A Forever Body is not a bikini or beach body, or a wedding body, or a New Year’s resolution body, but rather a body that you can be proud to nurture and nourish for life.
It’s a body that consistently improves over time in health, function, and appearance as you add each new positive, health-supportive habit to your life.
It’s a body that may be ten, twenty or more pounds away from your “ideal weight” but that speaks to you intuitively about what size and weight is the most supportive for your optimally functioning body and mind, at that time.
It’s a body that’s easy to maintain because it feels good to do things that support it—and when you’re not doing them, it feels very uncomfortable, even painful.
It’s a body that makes you still feel healthy and energetic 10, 20, 40, 60 years from now, no matter what’s going on in your life—not one that gets “punished” with each new season, diet, job, relationship, or any life stress.
It’s a body that, when in balance, will reward you with energy, vitality, and an inner glow you will be proud to shine, no matter your size. (When it’s out of balance, you will feel like crap and be constantly searching for how to feel better. You may even indulge in temporary “pleasure fixes,” which all leave you feeling worse after overindulging.)
The most important thing to know, trust, and deeply believe is that your Forever Body is yours. You get to set the standards and determine the path that’s right for you. Therefore, I’m not going to tell you what and how much to eat. That is up to you to discover.
Sound like too much work? Trust me, it’s not—once you master how to really listen to your body, it’s very simple, and I’m going to show you how to develop the crucial skills you need to do this. And to have fun with it!
“Before you try another diet, I highly recommend you read this. Kimberley’s guide helps take away the overwhelm, frustration and self-criticism we face by living in a diet and “perfection” obsessed culture. Supportive and informative, her passion for nutrition and “body love” shines through every page.”
– Janet Bray Attwood
New York Times bestselling Author of The Passion Test and Your Hidden Riches
“Finding Your Forever Body offers a practical yet transformative approach to help readers develop an entirely new mindset, along with a new set of tools. This book is must-read for anyone who’s been on the diet cycle for many exhausting years!”
– Marci Shimoff
#1 New York Times bestselling author of Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul and Happy for No Reason
“I love that Finding Your Forever Body provides a kinder, gentler way for those who struggle with food and body image. Using her own personal story as an example, Kimberley provides a guide for the reader that’s inspirational, compassionate, and life-changing.”
– Terri Britt
Former Miss USA, Award-winning Author of The Enlightened Mom, and Founder of Women Leaders of Love