Reviews for 703: How I Lost More Than a Quarter Ton and Gained a Life

The average rating for 703: How I Lost More Than a Quarter Ton and Gained a Life based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-06-04 00:00:00 Lun Lun The outline of this book sounds a lot more coherent than it really was. It reads like an adaptation of one of the author's motivational speeches, and I am guessing it probably was, because that is how the author makes her living these days. So it's not in a conventional autobiographical format. Which is too bad, as there's some fascinating stuff there. The author was raised in an Irish Catholic family of girls in Seattle, only to be yanked out of that environment at a young age to be subjected to a renegade Catholic religious cult near Montreal. And on escaping, turning into a child of the late 1960s, marrying early, becoming a military wife, then a single mom in culinary school. However, the author does not reflect on these events, or depict how they led her to overeat. In fact, she never really says why or even what she eats. It's just something that happens. Other autobiographical elements are also seem underfleshed -- I truly wondered why the author allowed her narcisstic, shrewish mother -- the one who forced the entire family to join the cult -- to remain in her life when any other sane person would have kicked such a toxic parent to the curb. That element still bothers me in fact, as what ultimately happened to the older sister who embraced the cult and became a nun. What the book did well was depict how it feels to be dangerously obese. In one harrowing section, the author at her heaviest moves into a new apartment and lies down for a nap, but is unable to get back on her feet because of her size. It's a page-turner for snippets like that alone. Yet when she does lose the weight, it's disturbingly easy and pat; a reader might feel cheated. In sum, a gripping read, but on reflection, could have been a LOT better.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-04-09 00:00:00 Lara Michell Not a typical weight-loss book, which is a good thing. After getting to an all-time high of 703 pounds, and isolating herself from all social interaction, the author has pretty much given up on life. Until she finds a way to reconnect with the people again through the WWW. Compared to society's negative opinions of the morbidly obese, internet friends don't judge on appearance, and Nancy is slowly able to rebuild her self-esteem. Once she starts caring about herself again and finding joy in living, her weight starts to melt away; friends and interaction become more important than stuffing down negative feelings with food. While I wasn't expecting a detailed memoir of her whole life, her background kinda/sorta helps to explain how she got to be so heavy. The loss of the weight is the shortest part of the book, and felt a bit rushed. But Nancy makes some excellent points about how, for many of us, paradoxically, excess weight is not really about the food. It's about how we deal with our emotions: some scream, some drink or use other addictive substances, and some choose food as the vice of choice. Why not? It's always available, and there's a food to fit every mood... She didn't follow a diet plan as she lost weight, and, even now, doesn't freak out if she eats an extra bite of a sweet one day, and feels that life is more enjoyable when we are not obsessing about everything that goes into our mouths. Once the emotions were under control, for her anyway, the food and activity pieces of the puzzle just fell into place. There was the obligatory (for these types of stories!) appearance on Oprah to end the book, but the life story, while interesting in parts, was a bit of a slog to get to the point of the book.