I BLEW MY DIET! NOW WHAT?

Bennett investigates the underlying causes of dieting relapses in this health guide.

Even the most health-conscious eaters sometimes crack. Bennett was already a professional health coach, author, and antisugar crusader when she moved to California to care for her dying mother; when her mother died a year later, the exhausted, grieving Bennett turned to carbohydrates for emotional support. “While movie popcorn was my hands-down favorite,” recalls Bennett, “I also went hog-wild over corn-anything, especially popped, fried, toasted, ultra-processed crunchy nibbles and other so-called comfort foods.” Each binge ended in promises to eat right the next day, but each new day led inevitably to backsliding. Within six months—a period during which one of her health books became a bestseller—she had gained 21 pounds. “It was impossible to escape the humbling irony,” she writes. “I felt like a Huge Health Hypocrite.” With this book, Bennett describes how she pulled herself out of her junk food nosedive while offering readers a roadmap to curbing their own self-destructive eating habits. She gets not just at the “what” of an unhealthy diet—the usual suspects of sugars, carbs, and highly processed foods—but the “why.” Why do we blow our diets? Why do we eat to assuage negative feelings? Why do we take comfort in foods that make us so uncomfortable? A healthy diet begins in the mind, and Bennet offers a three-week regimen to get readers in the right headspace to protect their bodies—and their emotions—in a sustainable way. “Coach Connie” writes energetic prose that makes the whole book feel like a conversation. “Admittedly, I’m biased, because I’m a professional writer and author,” she writes in a section about journaling, “but I’ve found tremendous relief, eye-opening insights, and much-needed peace of mind just by putting my thoughts, feelings, and worries on paper.” Bennett is perhaps overly fond of capitalizations and acronyms (like FEASTS—Fast, Easy, Awesome, Simple, Tested Strategies) and she advocates for the controversial ketogenic diet. Even so, much here will prove useful for chronic diet-breakers.

A lively dieting guide that takes mental health into account.