Book Review: It Was Me All Along by Andie Mitchell

When I started this blog, I meant it to be a diary of sorts, of my experience as a mother, with a hint of "How To" for fellow mommas who wanted to get the real scoop from someone else who hadn't a clue what she was doing!  I started with only posts about my pregnancy, my preferred baby products, and strategies I employ while taking care of Alice in hopes that my trial and error approach to mothering would eliminate some of the "error" part for someone else.

But here's the thing: being a momma isn't just about what you do with your baby.  I was shocked at how it weaved itself into every part of who I am and made me into a completely different, yet completely unchanged person (aww man, I'm getting deep again!).  That's why I've felt like my participation in Project 333 is a fitting topic for blogging, and why I thought I'd try a book review series out as well!

A wonderful writer friend of mine recently gave me the following advice: "Don't underestimate the value in the simplicity of publishing your thoughts."  It was her way of gently telling me my work was over-edited to the point of diminishing my voice.  If you know me, you know that my perfectionism has plagued me when I have discovered typos or spelling errors in this blog in the past, so this advice was extremely difficult to swallow.  However, I'm keeping an open mind, and trying my book review series as chatty, unstructured pieces for practice.  What you read has only been looked over by me once!  Raw, right?!

In this, the first edition of my book reviews, I'll be discussing an audiobook I just finished called, It Was Me All Along, by Andie Mitchell.   The book is a memoir written by a young woman who lived with obesity her whole life, then finally lost one hundred thirty-five pounds in her early twenties.  Her struggles are difficult to read, especially in the beginning of the book, but she has a way of putting her experiences down in words that made me want to keep listening.

The book details her weight gain throughout childhood in direct relation to traumatic experiences, her weight loss in college even through a study abroad in Rome, and her eventual peace-making with food in early adulthood.

Her struggle with disordered eating hit close to home for me (a topic I'm sure I will eventually cover), and inspired me to check in yet again with my relationship with food and drink.  It made me reassess my definition of healthy eating again, and though I made few, if any, changes after having done the same thing countless times before, it's always nice to have new affirmation that I am not the only person dealing with my particular choice of issues.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has ever dealt with body image struggles, or anyone who enjoys a secular biography heavy with descriptive detail that paints a vivid picture in your mind.  Overall, I would put my stamp of approval on this book.

Please let me know what you think about a new book review series, and thanks, as always for reading!