Tales From The Scale

by Erin J Shea

Overview

If you’ve ever struggled with your weight, if you’ve ever been told you have “such a pretty face,” if you’ve ever felt like giving up—you’re not alone...

Seven Women. One Goal. 350 Pounds to Go.

Meet the women...

Julie, Heather, Erin, Lori, Monique, Shauna, Robyn

...join these “Big Girls” as they chronicle their diet travails, struggling to lose pounds and find themselves. With each new story, you’ll explore the underworld of weight gain, weight loss, and the truth behind the meaning of “goal weight.” You’ll find all the issues that Big Girls face in today’s world in these funny, bittersweet, and true stories.

Author Erin J. Shea—creator of the immensely popular Lose the Buddha weight-loss blog—gives voice to the Big Girl in all of us. She’s raw, real, and radically different—and will forever change the way you look at losing weight.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781593373283
Publisher:	Adams Media
Publication date:	04/01/2005
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Erin J. Shea's weight-loss blog "Lose the Buddha" has been featured in The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. Erin's work has been published in BUST Magazine and the Chicago Sun Times' Red Streak. She has appeared on Good Morning America.

Editorial Reviews

Shea, who gained national attention with her weight-loss blog "Lose the Buddha" in 2003, presents a zesty, honest collection of stories following the triumphs and trials of several overweight women who "got to The Point and found their own map out of Big Girl Town." The book's format is similar to a blog, with short, informal entries, but rather than just sharing a lone blogger's struggle to shed pounds, it brings together tales by Shea and six of her girlfriends who also have diet blogs. Some of the pieces are tinged with bitterness, especially in their descriptions of other people's reactions to the writers' diet attempts and subsequent lack of support. Mainly, though, the women find humor and encouragement through shared experience. Shauna Marsh wonders why department stores always put plus-size clothes in inconvenient locations, like the basement or the top floor: "Perhaps the more remote the location, the less they have to acknowledge that the plus-size section even exists. Or maybe they think, The walk will do you good, fatty!" The writers take on other issues, too, like sex, fat camp, identity and life after weight loss. The savvy, amusing voices will provide a refreshing treat for any diet-weary woman. Agent, Stephanie Lee. (May) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Combining her own writings from her weight-loss blog, Lose the Buddha (www. ejshea.com), with those of six fellow weight-loss bloggers, Shea offers readers a personal look at the day-to-day trials of struggling with food, body image, and social interaction. Alternately witty, angry, heart-wrenching, and ultimately upbeat, the topically arranged blog entries of these self-described "Fat Girls" cover their personal histories, sex, weight loss, clothing, setbacks, and weight maintenance. All dieters will easily see themselves in these essays despite the fact that all the writers are women. As Shea writes on her blog, "Nowhere [do we] tell you how to lose weight, but [we do] speak to just about anyone who has or who is trying or who has tried in the past." A worthy addition to any public library with self-help or consumer health collections.-Rachel M. Minkin, Graduate Theological Union Lib., Berkeley, CA Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

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