A Book to Help You Through the Holiday Eating Season

Weightless: Making Peace with Your Body, by Kate Wicker, is an amazing book for a lot of reasons. I think, though, that the number of people (women and men) who I hear commenting about holiday eating is as good a reason as any to bring it up today, the day after Thanksgiving.

Kate's been a voice I've been following for a number of years, and she delivers, in Weightless, just what she does in every other venue I've found her. She's honest but empathetic, tender but tough, precise but approachable.

Our bodies are, she reminds us eloquently, a temple of the Holy Spirit. God designed them and gave them to us, and it's HIS image of perfection that we're called to seek, not the world's.

Each chapter includes food for thought on a topic (the impact of media, eating habits, beauty, and aging among them), as well as a brief meditation, a prayer, and a few reflection questions.

It's the kind of book that, once I've read it, I'm completely helpless not to buy extra copies of so that I can share it with the women in my life who so need to hear its heartfelt wisdom. My copy is currently with my mother-in-law, who had asked me to buy her a copy online, not knowing I had a review copy I was just finishing.

"I think it's a book I need to read," she told me. I smiled; she was one of the the first people I thought of when I read it.

I've watched many women in my life struggle with on-and-off dieting, weight issues, and self-loathing. They look in the mirror and see imperfections glaring back at them, begging to be fixed.

I want these women to read Weightless and hear a kindred spirit talk of her own struggles with food and body image. I want them to take in the example of the saints and the love that God has for them just as they are.

And I want that for you, too. Weightless is, hands-down, one of the most needed books of our time, and I can't recommend it highly enough. Even if you don't struggle with body image, there's great insight for you as you interact with those who, inevitably, do.

In the introduction, Kate mentions that she prays that the book "might help you detach yourself from anything--food, the scale, flawless skin, dreams of curvier hips--that keeps you from growing closer to God." It is my hope and prayer, too, that many, many women (and men!) take Kate's words to heart and tap into this tremendous resource.

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