The Last Diet was a fantastic book. It is about time that someone talks about dieting myths in a real way. I lived that this book was about self reflection, not about calories!

I like that this book was not just a book about how to lose weight because a dietician or exercise fanatic says that they have the answer to all of your problems. This was refreshing. It also was good to hear the struggle of another person. I felt like someone “got” the struggle

This book is similar to the author's previous book (The Kindness Method) but is solely focused on unpicking an unhealthy relationship with food and body image. I feel that The Kindness Method allowed me to develop the tools to change my life (for the better) and to take (measured) risks in the areas of my life where I was most unhappy.

Since following the methods in this book I have found that I am much more able to be reflective about my relationship with food. And I say that as someone who has tried pretty much every diet going. This is working for me. It's not overnight progress, but that's ok. It took me years to become this unhappy with my body and taking a few months to unpick that is a sensible thing to do.

I can't recommend this book enough!

Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for an eARC (although I do want to say I have now purchased a paper copy because I love it that much!).

I enjoyed that this was not another meal plan "diet" book but rather one that encourages us to look within ourselves and increase our self awareness around eating and our feelings towards food. It is so important to understand our relationship with food and adjust it as needed. The author talks about compassion and self-forgiveness. We are holistic beings and it's important we know our behaviors, our thoughts, health and so much more are all related. Thank you to St. Martin's Essentials and NetGalley for an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed reading this book because it was not a strict plan that you have to follow in order to lose weight. I appreciated reading about the author's own weight lose and her ideas about breaking old habits in order to eat in a healthy manner. I guess that's what it all goes down to; figuring out things in your eating habits that need to be changed and having the will and determination to make those changes. A great companion for anyone who is facing the tough job of changing your life to benefit your body and health forever.

Thank you St. Martin’s Essentials and Netgalley for allowing the opportunity to read this one.

Not your standard weigh loss read, for sure. I enjoyed the worksheets and exercises (written) portions, as they work with what I find the author was attempting to accomplish. Working with your mind, trying to find the reasons folks turn to food or not, and addressing emotional eating.

Good read.

This book is not another eating plan. Izadi assumes, rightly I think, that we readers know diets, foods, calories, nutrition, etc. We've read the books and tried the diets. We don't need to understand dieting. We already do. We've lost weight (and gained it back) many times. What we need to understand is ourselves, why some diets work for us, why we quit, why our motivation changes, and why we over eat in the first place.

Izadi concentrates on helping us look deep within as we move to change eating habits. We become aware of our self beliefs and increase our self awareness over all. She has included many writing exercises to help us become aware of our feelings and thoughts. I really like her mind mapping exercises. They were very helpful in creating my own eating plan, one I know I will follow.

This is a very good book for people who want to understand their relationship with food. It provides the foundation we need to develop our own goals and eating plans we know will be best for us. Izadi offers very practical ideas to help us shape our thinking about our bodies, prevent self sabotage, deal with our beliefs from childhood, and much more.

If you already know the how of losing weight but want to understand the why you do what you do, this book is for you. You'll learn how to treat yourself with forgiveness too.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

"The Last Diet" helps readers replace shame and guilt with self-compassion, and these tools have the potential to change the way we think about weight loss. I appreciate this approach and the fact that author Shahroo Izadi never tells us what or how to eat. Instead, this book provides evidence-based tools and worksheets that help us improve our self-compassion, reduce negative self-talk, and use self-kindness and self-respect as we think about and eat food.
While many of the principles in this book mirror those in Izadi"s "The Kindness Method," this book has the potential to reach a different audience. And the principles of kindness work whether we're addressing addiction, overeating or another issue.
Note: some profanity
Some of my favorite tips/quotes:
"{B}elieving you're entitled to be happy regardless of your size is actually what helps you to be a size you're happy with."
"Design a long-term eating, exercise and wellbeing routine-on purpose."
"What is kindness? {Pa]tience, understanding, consideration, compassion and helpfulness."
"In many cases, riding out a short-term urge or craving isn't an act of unkindness or depriving yourself, it's an opportunity to show yourself how capable you are."
"{S}low down your actions and curiously question the thoughts and feelings that drive them."
Develop a kind attitude toward your whole body, record the amazing things your body has managed to accomplish in the past, and realize that your whole body is capable of achieving weight loss and more.
"This is a person who deserves to be treated well. That is a person I imagine has a lot of self-esteem. That is a person who is capable and worthy of achieving any goal they like."
Practice showing kindness to myself every day. Small kind choices impact the next one and the next one.
"Unless I started feeling happier overall, I wouldn't be motivated to keep up any plan of change. Feeling miserable made me want to eat in ways that made me gain weight."
Use high-risk situations as opportunities to practice noticing the urge and pushing through it.
Write down actual facts to reduce worry, feel calmer and become more in control of actions.
Gratitude can play a big role in helping with feelings of resentment.
Reduce "all or nothing" thinking.
Notice gateway foods. They're "very personal because they're often based in our associations rather than with common sense principles of nutrition and weight loss."

Shahroo's book is a must read for all who have embarked on one failed diet after another.
While this will not be the last diet book I read, it has given me the power to make the necessary changes all centered around self-kindness.

Highly recommended!

Sorry to say that this was a waste of time. Not an easy read, not interesting and I bet most people will feel the same way.

Thanks to publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this. While I got the book for free,it had no bearing on the rating I gave it.

As a woman, I feel as though we are always "dieting". There's always 5 pounds to lose to fit into a dress, feel better, look a certain way, etc.

"So, if the problem isn’t knowing what you need to do, or knowing how to do it, then why haven’t you done it yet? These are the questions that this book is here to help you to answer" Right from the beginning I appreciated Izadi's honesty. This wasn't going to be a book that told me what to do. Add in her background, both in personally losing weight, and professionally working with addiction and as a behavioral change specialist, gave me the assurances that she was qualified in what she was discussing.

I love that she shared her personal story with weight loss. Losing weight is something I think we feel shame over and to read her personal story allows the reader to really connect with Izadi and not feel alone.

This book served as a workbook to me. A way to help focus on my reasons for weight loss, aside from wanting to be a certain size or fit into certain clothes, and really connect with my inner why. The deeper stuff. I found the exercises to be useful and insightful into why I do certain things and how I can make better choices.