Adultish: The Body Image Book for Life

“Adultish is packed full of cutting-edge science and evidence-based, achievable strategies that can improve how you think and feel about your body and shape how you care for, nourish, and move your body. You’ll realize why working toward a more positive body image can enhance your life in other ways you may not have even considered—-such as your relationships, confidence, health, well-being, body trust, self-compassion, and joy in life itself. It is authored by a prominent expert, Charlotte Markey, who is passionate about enhancing body image and interweaves stories about others’ body image journeys throughout, which illustrate that these are issues that we all can relate to. From beginning to end, you’ll learn to decipher myths from facts when it comes to eating, body image, and health. It is certainly an impactful read! ”

“Feeling good about your body—or even at peace with it—has never been more challenging. Parents are always looking for resources for their adult children to help them understand and improve their body image. And now I can add Adultish: The Body Image Book for Life to my list of go-to recommendations. Dr. Markey’s book combines powerful personal stories, expert voices, and the latest research on a range of topics that affect body image. Her compassionate tone and interactive self-reflection exercises will make this a supportive and useful guide for young adults navigating the world’s appearance pressures.”

“Dr. Markey does it again! It’s another book that can help guide folks through confusing years of life—this time, the adult “ish” ones. By sharing what science cumulatively says about real-life questions that often come up during those years, she provides a way for young people to honor their independence and find support for themselves and their well-being. She starts by letting her readers “in” that she had similar eating and body image confusions in her own adultish years. And as I read, I could feel that guiding her content. So, for a path to understanding what science currently says about eating, increasing body- and self-acceptance, discerning many nuances of “healthy” habits, and outmanoeuvring social media’s impact, Adultish is an important, useful, and empowering read. And it’s not limited to only young folks, btw. There’s so much misinformation out there, and Markey wrangles the science that can shed light.”

“In the non-shaming voice of a knowledgeable best friend, Charlotte Markey helps us to understand that the baggage we carry about our bodies is not our fault. At the same time, she reminds us that cultivating a healthy adult relationship with our bodies is in our power. In Adultish, Dr. Markey emboldens us to sluff off the weight of negative body culture and embrace trust, self-love, and appreciation for different shapes and sizes. It’s in these changes that we truly feed us all.”

“Adultish: The Body Image Book for Life invites you to join legions of people worldwide who continually revisit this scenario: You take a job where signs proclaim that your boss and “work culture” are, first and foremost, interested in the well-being and success of all employees. But your immediate supervisor monitors every detail of your performance, constantly criticizes you, fiercely exhorts you to do better, and blames you when you inevitably come up short. How long would you endure this before quitting? If this were one of your children or best friends, what would you advise them to do? The answers are clear and emphatic for most people. Yet when it comes to our own body image, we are socialized not only to think of weight and shape control as our critically important job, but to be our own supervisor and our own target, keep at it despite inevitable failure, and dutifully endorse and pass along this culture. Adultish: The Body Image Book for Life, written by distinguished researcher, educator, and multifaceted advocate Dr. Charlotte Markey, uses her characteristically kind, compassionate, clear, and authoritative style to provide a focused yet flexible set of principles and practices for escaping this debilitating trap. This book offers scores of small, easily individualized, and practical steps for rebuilding one’s body image and constructing cultures that support body positivity and body neutrality. This book will inspire you to re-envision and re-spect your body, improve how you take care of it and your image of it, and enable you to appreciate some aspects of your body, accept other aspects, and develop yet other aspects, all in ways that support health and joy instead of guilt, shame, and self-consciousness.”

“In a society where so much misinformation about health is swirling around and the conversation about “wellness” has become more and more confusing, this book is a breath of fresh air and should be a requirement for all to read. It is so important for people of all ages to hear and understand how complex body image is and how to tangibly work towards body acceptance and an improved relationship with yourself. Learning how to nourish your body through all seasons is so important and so valuable! I love the way Dr. Charlotte Markey provides insight, empathy, education and action items in this incredible book. One I will be recommending to all my clients!”

“Adultish: The Body Image Book for Life is an excellent resource on body image for people of every age! Dr. Charlotte Markey has done a remarkable job of synthesizing research and connecting her readers to experts in the field, to create a very readable, understandable and thorough discussion of all topics on body image today. I am very grateful to Charlotte for bringing this must-read book into the world.”