Kimber Simpkins - 52 Ways to Love Your Body

Kimber Simpkins is an authentic force for change on this planet, and this book is her torch. She leads the way in a new generation of women committed to removing the veil of shame and secrecy around our relationship to our body, food, and feelings. This book resonated with me on a deep level as a woman and a spiritual practitioner. I highly recommend Kimbers book for any woman who is ready to let down the burden of food and self-esteem issues. It has the potential to act as a catalytic force toward healing, and ultimately to living a more authentic life.

Katie Silcox, author of the New York Times bestseller Healthy Happy Sexy

Kimber Simpkinss inspiring journey to finding peace with food and her body lays an amazing groundwork for 52 Ways to Love Your Body, and her insights and suggestions within this book are powerful and practical to implement. So many of us know the body image struggle all too well, and Im so glad Kimber shines a bright light of hope and inspiration in her work!

Dina Proctor, author of Madly Chasing Peace

What a powerful, practical, and heartfelt handbook on how to shift the inner conversation to compassion. Kimber speaks to us in the most supportive guiding voicethat of a trusted friend, which to me is a true love guru.

Melanie Salvatore-August, author of Kitchen Yoga

Think its impossible to love your body? Think again! The compassion and wisdom Kimber brings to her fifty-two strategies is sure to convince you to end the war with your body and, instead, treat it the way you would a best friend. This gem of a book is going straight to my waiting room, and I hope all of my clients will read it.

Judith Matz, LCSW, coauthor of The Diet Survivors Handbook and Beyond a Shadow of a Diet, and author of Amandas Big Dream

52 Ways to Love Your Body offers dozens of powerful exercises to help you love the skin youre in, and live a happier, fuller life as a result. Try even a handful of Kimbers suggestions and youll likely feel a lot better about what you see in the mirrorand about yourself.

Lori Deschene, founder of www.tinybuddha.com, and author of Tiny Buddhas 365 Tiny Love Challenges

52 Ways to Love Your Body outlines the path to sustaining body acceptance. Kimber brings in just the right amounts of spirituality, wisdom, and compassion to the timely topic of weight. This book will help individuals ditch the diet culture for good.

Signe Darpinian, MFT, author of Knock Out Dieting

Only once in a while do I pick up a book that speaks truths to me on so many levels. Ive been involved in social work and the body acceptance movement for years, and there is a reoccurring challenge we face above all else: the want to love and treasure your own body exists, but the knowledge on how to go about it isnt as easily grasped. Kimber fills this need for practical ways to learn that love with 52 Ways to Love Your Body. Throughout the book, she furnishes the reader with positive ways to embrace ourselves just as we are, and exercises to strengthen that appreciation for our friend, our body. I firmly believe this book will redefine how readers approach their relationships with their bodies, and what it means to nurture themselves. Ive already recommended it to a client and it isnt available yetthats how strongly I feel about this book. Its a resource for all women like myself, those of us learning to love ourselves in a world telling us we have no reason to; this book is a calm voice of reason reminding us of all the reasons we should.

Kai Hibbard, body acceptance activist, writer, and weight loss reality TV survivor

52 Ways to Love Your Body offers an excellent step-by-step guide to inspire and support readers in the process of cultivating and nurturing love for the bodies theyre in right now.

Melanie Klein, professor of sociology and womens studies, and coeditor of Yoga and Body Image

Once again, Kimber has brought to light probably the most insidious and damaging effect of modern media on young women and girlsa distrust and dislike for their own bodies. With humor and honesty, she describes incidents of self-hatred in her own life and her healing journey that led her to find a healthy relationship with her own body. Her new book offers guidelines and help through gentle and effective exercises to begin the process of discovering your greatest friend in lifeyour own body.

Angela Farmer, world-renowned yoga teacher

Publishers Note

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering psychological, financial, legal, or other professional services. If expert assistance or counseling is needed, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

Distributed in Canada by Raincoast Books

Copyright 2016 by Kimber Simpkins

New Harbinger Publications, Inc.

5674 Shattuck Avenue

Oakland, CA 94609

www.newharbinger.com

Cover design by Debbie Berne

Acquired by Catharine Meyers

Edited by Rona Bernstein

All Rights Reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Simpkins, Kimber, author.

Title: 52 ways to love your body / Kimber Simpkins.

Other titles: Fifty-two ways to love your body

Description: Oakland, CA : New Harbinger Publications, Inc., [2015] |

Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015032694| ISBN 9781626253797 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN

9781626253803 (pdf e-book) | ISBN 9781626253810 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Body image in women. | Self-acceptance in women.

Classification: LCC BF697.5.B63 S555 2015 | DDC 306.4/613--dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015032694

Standing at my locker one day in middle school, a friend shoved a torn advertisement into my hand. Its Laura, she said. Look. Shes a model for Mallstroms. The black and white newsprint photos showed a fresh-faced Laura, a girl one grade above us, frolicking in a series of perfectly fitted string bikinis. Dont you hate her? my friend whispered. My mouth dropped open, but nothing came out. She pulled the scrap loose from my fingers and turned to another friend to commiserate.

Shoving my books around the lockers messy shelf, my mind whirled. I didnt hate Laura. I hated myself. Why did Laura get to be a model and not me? What was desirable about her body and hopelessly flawed about mine? Clearly I was wrongand she was right.

Shame crept up my neck and over my cheekbones. I wasnt good enough, wasnt pretty enough, wasnt enough, period. The urge flooded me to empty my locker of books and climb inside it to hide for the rest of the day, but I was too big to fit between the metal walls. Laura could probably hide in her locker, but why would she? She was a freaking model!

Worst of all, I had no one to tell. There was not a single person in the world I trusted to hear not only the shame I felt about my body, but also the added layer of self-disgust over hating my body to begin with, and the fact that I would have gladly gift-wrapped my soul to be in Lauras place. My only consolation was the thought, Just one more hour until lunch. Its mac and cheese day. And a bake sale later. Maybe theyll have mint brownies.