I didn’t expect to do this yet, but word from publisher and publicist is go. Wow. It’s real. The Romance Diet: Body Image and The Wars We Wage on Ourselves will be released January 18 from Sunstone Press.
Here’s the jacket blurb:
Brave, raw, and unflinchingly honest, this book is a weight loss journey, a love story, a heart beating loudly on the page. Every day we battle against something–injustice, our spouses, our weight. Seldom do we acknowledge the real wars we wage. Repressing feelings and silencing our voices, we suffer under the surface, attributing emotional distress and unwanted pounds to the inescapable effects of hormones or age.
But weight gain, anxiety, and marital difficulties aren’t always so easy to explain.
In her poignant and touching memoir, Allison doesn’t offer recipes, exercise tips, or advice. Instead, she shows us how to stand up, express what we want, and develop empathy for ourselves and the people we love. In doing so, she provides invaluable insight for those seeking to lose weight, save a marriage, or make a significant life change.
Here’s the inside scoop:
After my back went out and I had to give up my sculpture career, I did what most do. I sat around the house, wrote a few books, and ate too much. I gained a ton of weight, almost destroyed my marriage, and had to find myself again. In the process, my husband and I discovered things we never knew about ourselves and what it means to truly love someone.
This is a short book, spanning a year in my life, and writing it required more courage than I thought I had. But I did it because my husband and I both think the story might save women and the men who love them some real pain.
At its heart, the book explores the undercurrents that determine gender roles, identity issues, and women’s equality. Every woman who read it in its beta stage asked to share it with their significant other so that their men would finally understand who they are. I’m not exaggerating and I’m not bragging. The response this book is getting is amazing to me and, while I’m terrified to tell this story, I’m more determined than ever.
This isn’t Lean In. There are no shoulds to make you feel bad about yourself and it’s definitely NOT a diet book. It’s just our story about loving each other enough to do the hard work. Maybe, if I did it well, it will inspire you.
If you’d like to support this endeavor and be one of the first to read it, you can pre-order a copy here.
Pre-ordering will help the book sell by improving its Amazon ranking. The higher the ranking, the more people will take a look. The goal here isn’t money, though that is necessary. The goal is to help.
If what we live through has a purpose, it is in helping others hurt a little less than we did.
Thanks in advance for your support and I can’t wait to hear your thoughts when it’s released.
