The Fuck It Diet by Caroline Dooner
Dear Caroline, I'm your number one fan.
THE FUCK IT DIET
I read this glorious book while receiving treatment for my eating disorder, and it truly blew me away.
Let's face it, treatment for an eating disorder (actually, treatment for anything) is rough AF, and it's hard to laugh when you're locked up, forced to sit down, and face your fear six times a day.
But Caroline, she made me laugh.
One of the dieticians on the ward recommended this book to me, and that same day while out on pass, wasting absolutely no time at all, I ventured to the, believe it or not — diet section — of my local book store and picked up a copy.
I'm not going to lie to you, it was really temping to pick up a few of the other books in that section while I was there, you know the ones: Complete Guide to Fasting, The Ultimate Keto Diet, and You'll Never Need Sugar Again… but I had to remind myself of where I was and what my goals were.
I am here. At this program. To gain weight. With the ultimate goal to lead a nourished and fulfilled life.
And so, I will purchase this book, and this book only. With the hope to gain some insight into how "eating should be easy" as the cover states.
The truth is, eating has never been easy for me. But I placed hope in my dietician. And was hopeful that I would get at least something out of this book.
Besides, I had little else to do between groups other than crochet blanket after blanket and shop online for dozens of balls of yarn at Michael's.
Eight years ago, the author, Caroline Dooner, started a blog called The Fuck It Diet. She states that what she learned about food and weight changed her life. She started dieting at 14, and as she reached adulthood, she realized that the more she dieted, the more out of control she felt. She became completely consumed with food, dieting, and what she weighed.
She often found herself on the absolute perfect diet, losing the right amount of weight. And then she would, a few weeks later, be shovelling food into her face, in secret, gaining back whatever she had lost.
This pattern of losing and gaining weight is unfortunately a common theme in the dieting world. And an incredibly tough cycle to break.
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| Courtesy of The Fuck It Diet |
Getting back to the book itself. Caroline says it's a mixture of humour, science, and self-help.
For me, it was all three of those things.
It was humourous, because in treatment, it's often hard to laugh, and Caroline's sense of humour definitely made me laugh. To begin with, she dedicates the book to cheese — an item she will never forsake again.
It's also the cold hard scientific facts that made me believe, at certain points, that I could actually, one day, learn to trust my body. The time might not have been right then at that moment as I was reading, but it gave me hope.
Caroline's book is actually so popular that it's been translated into seven languages (French, Turkish, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and German). This fact brings me great joy.
To be honest, I'm not usually one to gorge on self-help books, but from the second I opened The Fuck It Diet, I couldn't put it down. It just seemed to make so much. Walking around the hospital with Caroline's book was like wearing a badge of honour. Other staff and patients told me how incredible it was.
Caroline talks in great detail about how our bodies are hardwired against extreme dieting and restricting, something I have been doing for the past seventeen years of my life.
Not intentionally, of course. Having a eating disorder isn't exactly the same as following the latest health or diet craze, but you could argue that we put our bodies through kind of the same thing. At the end of the day, restriction is restriction.
An individual that goes on a diet deprives themselves of essential nutrients. Through my restrictive eating habits, I am also depriving my body of essential nutrients.
At the end of the day we are both doing the same thing. And at the end of the day, it will catch up to us.
I believe Caroline's offering is an invaluable resource both for chronic dieters, and those, like me, who are struggling with eating disorders.
And if you struggle with an eating disorder, then I think, along with your treatment team, this book can be a starting point, and a stepping stone in the right direction.
Thank you, Caroline, for bringing this book to market, and for making me laugh so hard that it hurt.
You can sign up to receive the first chapter of The Fuck It Diet for free (and no, I'm not getting paid for this). But yes, it's free.
You'll just have to sign up below.
May 2022 Update
Caroline Dooner has a new book out. Tired as F*ck: Burnout at the Hands of Diet, Self-Help, and Hustle Culture. Check out my review.
