"This book delivers way more than it promises: it’s actually a guide to life and liberation, one bite at a time. Unapologetic Eating? More like unapologetic LIVING. In other words: I loved it. You will, too."
— Kelly Diels
Feminist marketing consultant, writer, and founder of KellyDiels.com
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About the Book
What would your life - and your world - look like if you felt comfortable, confident, and worthy in your here and now body?
If you could stop the endless pursuit of “fixing” - your weight, your body, your appearance, yourself - and allow yourself to just be?
Dieting disconnects us from our body’s wisdom and holds us back from living life to the fullest. The more time we spend trying to “fix” ourselves, the less time we have for the things that really matter.
In my book Unapologetic Eating, I share what I’ve learned from my own experience and through working with my clients: that our food behaviors (and our bodies) are not the problem, they are the symptom of deeper rooted societal issues.
Everything you think you “know” about food, appearance, body size, and more, is something you were taught at some point.
Everything you think you “know” about food, appearance, body size, and more, is something you were taught at some point. In Unapologetic Eating, I will walk you through unpacking and questioning everything society has taught you so that you can let go of dieting, make peace with food, and find your way back to your body, your intuition, and yourself. Using food as the entry point, the book helps you explore more about yourself, your beliefs, your values, and what you truly want out of life.
You will learn how to reconnect with your body and yourself using your relationship to food as the entry point—going from trying to “fix” or change yourself to unapologetic eating and finally to unapologetic living.
I’ve broken down this process into four segments:
Fixing
Allowing
Feeling
Growing
Each step of the way I provide reflection prompts, practical exercise, and actionable tools you can use to learn how to confidently nourish yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally.
You’ll learn how to make peace with food, improve your body image, trust your intuition, and reclaim the space
to eat and live unapologetically.
“Alissa's four-phase framework is the multifaceted approach we need to understand the nuanced ways in which we are indoctrinated into diet culture, on both an individual and cultural level. Readers will walk away from these pages with tools, knowledge, and confidence that they can too start to eat unapologetically, and live unapologetically.”
Cara Harbstreet
author of HEALTHY EATING FOR LIFE: AN INTUITIVE EATING WORKBOOK
Unapologetic Eating is more than just a book about intuitive
eating or food freedom:
it is a full on guide to liberation.
Which is why the book includes:
Dozens of reflection tools and journaling exercises so you can go deeper and unpack your own history with food and your body.
Thought provoking prompts to encourage you to question everything you “know” about food, bodies and appearance so that you can figure out what the real truth is inside you.
Practical tools and step-by-step suggestions on how to put the concepts into the book into practice, so you can not just read by actually do.
Personal stories, struggles, and triumphs from many of my clients.
Detailed research about health, weight, nutrition, and eating behaviors for all of the people who love to nerd out on the science.
Acknowledgement of my own privilege and limitations as well as citations of the Black and Brown women of color and fat activists who have been in the trenches doing this work for decades.
More Praise for
Unapologetic Eating:
“Eating is one of the great joys of life! But when diet culture makes you question every bite of food in the name of “health,” you need to take a complete 180. Rumsey’s Unapologetic Eating offers the science, stories, and tools to step you through the process of finding food freedom with kindness. She teaches you how to eat unapologetically by questioning everything you’ve believed and bring back a joyful relationship to food and your body.”
Rebecca Scritchfield, RDN
Author of Body Kindness®
“A stunning portrayal of diet culture in the United States that doesn’t fail to speak honestly about the whiteness and thinness of the author herself. We need more white people being this explicit about the power and privilege they hold in this world and how they’re seeking to give power back that has been taken from BIPOC people through diet culture.”
McKensie Mack
Founder of McKensie Mack Group Anti-Oppression Consultant and Racial Justice Leader
“Wow! This book delivers way more than it promises. It’s actually a guide to life and liberation, one bite at a time. Unapologetic Eating? More like unapologetic LIVING. In other words: I loved it. You will, too.”
Kelly Diels
Feminist marketing consultant, writer, and founder of KellyDiels.com
“Unapologetic Eating is a brilliant and exceptionally well-researched read, an important and much-needed addition to the anti-diet space. Alissa Rumsey dives deep into the problematic history that’s fueled our modern diet culture, and it’s obsession with controlling women’s bodies and what they eat. With nuance, compassion, and humor, Alissa provides tools and practical advice to untangle ourselves from diet cultures’ web of deception, and truly make peace with food and our bodies.”
Rachael Hartley, RD
owner of Rachael Hartley Nutrition and author of Gentle Nutrition
“If you are tired of the endless pursuit of “fixing” your weight, shape, and/or physical appearance, then Unapologetic Eating is for you! This book both dismantles the colonialist roots of diet culture and provides practical tips for healing your relationship with food and your body. A must-read for anyone who is feeling trapped in diet culture and wanting to live a better and more fulfilling life– on their own terms.”
Jessica Jones MS, RD, CDE
Co-founder of Food Heaven and host of the Food Heaven Podcast
“Alissa Rumsey’s Unapologetic Eating is more than an exposé of the harmful shapeshifter that is diet culture. It is a practical tool to unlearn and ultimately heal from the faulty programming that causes us pain and confusion and a hands-on guide to reclaiming body trust and becoming truly embodied. The book’s sections touch on the myriad facets of body image and our relationship with food and then the reflection questions support readers to expose and understand their own unique thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors so that they can be examined, reframed, and reimagined to align with their true values.”
Jenna Hollenstein MS, RDN
author of Eat to Love: A Mindful Guide to Transforming Your Relationship with Food, Body, and Life
“Alissa Rumsey brings both her rich personal experiences and professional expertise to the pages of Unapologetic Eating. Her four-phase framework is the multifaceted approach we need to understand the nuanced ways in which we are indoctrinated into diet culture, on both an individual and cultural level. Readers will walk away from these pages with tools, knowledge, and confidence that they can too start to eat unapologetically, and live unapologetically.”
Cara Harbstreet, MS, RD
owner of Street Smart Nutrition and author of Healthy Eating for Life: An Intuitive Eating Workbook to Stop Dieting Forever
“This is exactly the book that we need to take us from “huh?” to “aahhhh!” when it comes to navigating our relationship with food, eating, and our body. In Unapologetic Eating, Alissa has done a brilliant job of supporting us to unpack the suitcase, take a compassionate and curious look around, then re-pack it in ways that make sense to US. This will be a go-to on my bookshelf for sure.”