Nancy Routley, author of Ditch the Diet will be appearing at this year’s Readers and Writers Festival. The festival runs October 17th to 19th. Check out the program and buy tickets on line at www.whistlerwritersfest.com starting on August 8, 2014.

Reviewed by Martin Crosbie. Martin will be teaching an all day session at the Whistler Readers and Writers Festival 2014 on October 17th from 9 to 4 at Millennium Place entitled, A to Z of Self-Publishing.

Ditch the Diet
(and everything else)

Nancy Routley’s Ditch The Diet isn’t about dieting; it’s about changing. As a clinical psychologist, Routley has seen her share of clients with addictions. She’s counselled those suffering from alcoholism and drug addiction, as well as eating disorders. She knows her stuff, and she has a theory – it’s not about the food, and dieting isn’t the answer. It goes much deeper.

In her extremely helpful book, she asks the reader to look further than merely examining the types and frequencies of his or her eating habits. She asks us to investigate why we eat the way we do, and thankfully, she gives us the tools required to make the changes. When I was asked to read this book I cringed at the thought, as the chocolate bars lay hidden in my desk drawer and I looked guiltily down at my waistline. I’ve gone through the yo-yo lifestyle that Routley describes, and I agree with her conclusions. It’s actually fairly easy to lose weight; we all have the willpower somewhere within us. But, like the real-life examples she writes about, I’ve always gained the weight back after running the marathon.

When she writes about her anonymous client who claims she thinks about her weight eighty percent of the time I wondered how many readers suddenly felt as though they weren’t alone. When she suggests writing a Dear John type break-up letter to our food, how many readers (like me), thought what a brilliant idea that was. And, when she analyzes that one of the benefits of exercise isn’t necessarily weight-loss, how many reluctant gym-members breathed a sigh of relief?

Too many times books of this type dwell on the problem and then preach catch-phrases or some other simplistic solution. I was relieved to discover that Ditch The Diet is different. Routley leads us into the tunnel, makes us feel okay about where we’re at, shows us what’s really happening, and guides us out the other end. The writing is crisp, readable, and most of all – sensible. There’s a saying that’s sometimes heard amongst people suffering from addictions. A sponsor will say to their charge – “You do the digging, and I’ll hold your jacket”. In her debut book, that I hesitate to call self-help, Nancy Routley holds the reader’s jacket and allows him or her to do the digging.

This is a book that will hopefully find a larger audience – it deserves it.

This book review first appeared in Pique Newsmagazine on Aug. 7, 2014.

Events

Reading Event 3: Writers of Non-Fiction  with Bruce Grierson, Nancy Routley, Arno Kopecky, Lylnette Loeppky. Moderator: Leslie Anthony

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Martin’s debut novel, My Temporary Life, has been downloaded over one hundred and fifty thousand times and became an Amazon top ten overall bestseller.
In the past two years he’s published: My Name Is Hardly – Book Two of the My Temporary Life Trilogy, Lies I Never Told – A Collection of Short Stories, How I Sold 30,000 eBooks on Amazon’s Kindle – An Easy-To-Follow Self-Publishing Guidebook 2014 Edition, and Believing Again: A Tale Of Two Christmases.

Events

Workshop 1: A to Z of Self-publishing with Martin Crosbie