Always Too Much and Never Enough

by Jasmin Singer

One woman’s journey to find herself through juicing, veganism, and love, as she went from fat to thin and from feeding her emotions to feeding her soul.
 
From the extra pounds and unrelenting bullies that left her eating lunch alone in a bathroom stall at school to the low self-esteem that left her both physically and emotionally vulnerable to abuse, Jasmin Singer’s struggle with weight defined her life.
 
Most people think there’s no such thing as a fat vegan. Most people don’t realize that deep-fried tofu tastes amazing and that Oreos are, in fact, vegan. So, even after Jasmin embraced a vegan lifestyle, having discovered her passion in advocating for the rights of animals, she defied any “skinny vegan” stereotypes by getting even heavier.
 
More importantly, she realized that her compassion for animals didn’t extend to her own body, and that her low self-esteem was affecting her health. She needed a change. By committing to monthly juice fasts and a diet of whole, unprocessed foods, Jasmin lost almost a hundred pounds, gained an understanding of her destructive relationship with food, and finally realized what it means to be truly full.
 
Told with humble humor and heartbreaking honesty, this is Jasmin’s story of how she went from finding solace in a box of cheese crackers to finding peace within herself.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Vegan, Food, Biography, Mental Health, Health

336 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 2, 2016

About the author

With over 10 years of experience presenting workshops on subjects including veganism and animal rights, Jasmin’s unique ability to connect to an audience with humor, personal stories, and information presented in a friendly, accessible way is what makes her a favorite at events throughout the country and beyond. She has spoken at hundreds of events, including VegFests, conferences, bookstores, and more.

Reviews

[Lisa Vegan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The 4-1/2 stars is for the superb memoir. 5 full stars for her early years and coming to veganism and only a half star off for the latter part describing how she achieves weight loss and better health through juice fasting. If this were written as a diet book, it would pain me but I couldn’t give it more than 3 stars. But it’s a memoir and I can’t argue with someone’s personal experience.

This is a wonderful memoir. It’s funny, poignant, and extremely honest all the way through. I was so impressed. I loved reading a memoir by a fellow vegan. I was able to identify with the author so much in many ways, but not every way. She’s lucky she’s had a lifelong loving family, though definitely not free of problems in their relationships. I felt as though I got to know her really well and could see being friends with her. Her early life and coming to veganism was really interesting and interesting for me to read about. Her becoming vegan was what I most identified with but I also identified with many of her issues with food and eating and weight. I admire how she was driven and accomplished and took risks throughout her life. Her life has been interesting and worthy as a subject of this book.

She expresses so well how being fat (and then thin) and her food addictions have affected her and how all her life experiences have shaped her.

Speaking of addictiveness, this book was so hard to put down, even in the last parts when I had personal problems with the solutions presented.

I do want to say that I was mightily triggered by this book, and not just with food, eating, not eating, fat phobia, and other such issues. Any reader who has issues that can act as triggers should know they might feel triggered when reading this book. (Feel free to ask if you want specifics.) It was worth it to me to have read this but at times it was trigger after trigger after trigger. This is true of triggers re things that have affected me personally and also those that have not but incited strong painful feelings in me anyway.

On my personal stance: I cannot stress too strongly how much I do not believe in juice fasts, especially when they’re done for 10 or even 3 days every month and not simply made the occasional meal. I cannot and will not argue with what has been effective for this author and her wife, and many others. For me, I don’t do well with diet culture at all and yes this is a diet. Better for sure than vegan junk food but still interfering with living life on the juice days. Also for me I believe in eating whole foods and not drinking my calories. Yes, this author and her wife evolved over time, including sometimes leaving the fiber in the juices, which is healthier, and all but one of their juices are vegetable vs. fruit based so maybe not so risky for diabetes, and once again, definitely better than junk and processed foods, and it’s made clear on eating days they eat mostly whole foods vegan. Can’t argue with that. This is just a personal rant. Spending so much time and effort on (not) eating would be bad for me personally, actually destructive, and perhaps I’m a tad jealous that even if I could afford to juice this way, I don’t have the money or the space for the needed equipment, nor a partner to do it with, which I think would be easier.

I’m happy for them that juice fasts helped maintain a good weight and good health. I do think that (within reason) people have to do what’s best for them, and after reading all the pain the author had endured I’m happy for her.

That said, I don’t even believe “detoxing” and “cleansing” are even things. Our livers, kidneys, etc. do that for us no matter what we ingest. So I can’t recommend this as a health or diet book, but I can heartily recommend this as a memoir. For me, doing what she’s doing, would be trading in one form of disordered eating for another, even if a much healthier version. I can’t do the diet culture thing. It’s simply not for me. I do admit that it seems as though Jasmin and Mariann are making it work well for them. Kudos to them!

I loved reading about her grandmother and it highlights how it’s never too late to make changes in our lives. I appreciated how her coming to veganism is seamlessly woven into the rest of her story. The discrimination she faced in being fat AND her reactions to how people treated her when she became thin and so much else about her life experiences definitely resonated with me.

I do hold her in great esteem and am so glad she wrote this book. I think it might be inspirational to many people and I can’t imagine vegans not identifying with it and appreciating it.

I was entertained by it but it was also painful for me to read, the latter often true when I read autobiographical and biographical accounts. If this review seems to be a bit of the mess I think it is, it’s because I’m a bit of a mess after reading it. It’s a powerful and beautifully told memoir and a great read so I’m upping it to 5 stars.

[Alex Greenwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

What is it like to be fat your whole life, with all the health and social issues that go along with that, and then to find a sustainable and healthy way to overcome your addiction to food, to lose 100lb and to experience life as a thin person?

In this coming of age book, Jasmin Singer has created a fascinating look into her addictive relationship with food and how she overcame her disordered eating using juice fasting and a whole food vegan way of eating which is healthy, delicious and satisfying and leads to sustainable weight loss, losing 100lb along the way.

Not many of us get to jump the fence and to see how the other half lives, so it is particularly interesting to hear about the reactions of people around her as she transitions from a fat child, teenager, and young adult to a newly slim person.

It is also an expose of the weight loss industries and how they are designed to maximize their own profits at the expense of those (mostly) women who use them, and about how women are expected to live a life of deprivation to be thin, and of how overweight people, particularly women and girls are treated in our society.

Along the way, Jasmin finds her calling as an animal advocate, discovers her lesbianism and meets the love of her life.

A must read for anyone who eats, has struggled with being treated unfairly, wants to know the way to health and sustainable weight loss, or cares about social justice issues.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A memoir from one of my favorite podcasters (a vegan activist), Jasmin Singer. She is so charismatic and entertaining in her podcast that I had to read her memoir.

This is her coming-of-age story, about going from an overweight/obese teenager and young adult, and then discovering veganism and juice fasting and getting thin. The book covers the plethora of low self-esteem issues and bullying from society that one gets as a fat person (which I remember all too well from my overweight teenage years), the advent of her veganism, and how that "something bigger than myself" cause of compassion helped her work through and get beyond her personal issues.

The only big thing I really couldn't get into was the whole juice fasting/detox thing. I get that it helped her lose the weight, but there is no such thing as "detox" and that's pretty well-known at this point... the kidneys and liver do that all the time - you don't need to detox and I'm surprised she seemed to wholeheartedly believe that.

[Jean WL · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a tale of two books. The first part I'd rate a five--great insight to what being obese is like, her relationships, her emotions growing up overweight with a mom who didn't accept her as she was. The second part is one star--it's pseudo-science foodbabe type stuff about detoxing your body with juice cleanses and it's very PETA. I skimmed the second part to avoid all that. While she was detailed about why she overate, she never discussed how she overcame all that. It seemed almost magical and easy that she juiced and lost over 100 lbs. It was an easy read but if you're looking for insight on how she did it, on the emotional and commitment end, it's not in the book. It is worth reading for people who've never been obese to learn about the discrimination they face daily.

[Elena Marmiroli · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,25

La prima parte di questo libro è un buonissimo scorcio sull'aspetto mentale e quello che c'è dietro psicologicamente ai disturbi alimentare, a come l'ambiente circostante possa sia influenzarli, sia come fallisca a riconoscerli. In aggiunta a ciò, riesce a mostrare anche l'impatto del "fat shaming" su un individuo.

Sfortunatamente, la seconda parte, quella che riguarda i "juice fasting", a mio parere, è affrontata in maniera estremante sbagliata, in particolare perché l'autrice spinge molto l'uso questa pratica al pubblico, trattandola quasi come una cura meravigliosa, senza stressare abbastanza la pericolosità di questa tecnica e senza evidenziare abbastanza come questa pratica possa portare a disturbi alimentare o accentuarli se già esistenti. Inoltre, da come ne parla, sembra che lei stessa abbia sostituito un disturbo alimentare con un altro, senza realmente esplorare ulteriormente il rapporto con il cibo.

Inoltre, l'accenno all'associazione di Peta, soprattutto da parte di un animalista, senza riconoscere i chiari aspetti negati della società, mi ha fatto storcere il naso.

[Eileen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I could not finish this book. I had to give up near the beginning of part 2, with the unnecessary descriptions of horrible animal abuse in the food industry. I've read Animal Liberation and know these awful stories. I was not prepared for this in this book and was left crushed, just as Animal Liberation had done. I wish there had been a warning on the cover. I now know Ms. Singer's veganism is a big part of her recovery from food addiction and how she leads her life now. But, I felt clobbered over the head, and her entire point was lost on me. It was 'too much'.

[Peacegal · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars-- Jasmin Singer has written a unique and engaging memoir. She writes movingly of a variety of topics including experiencing intense bullying, discovering her true self as a member of the LGBT community, finding her niche in the art/theater community, becoming an animal advocate, and her lifelong battle with her weight and the societal mess that surrounds body image and size in this country. Along the way, we meet a variety of people who have impacted Singer’s life—although everybody thinks that they had the best grandmother on the planet, she might just be in the running to make that claim official.

ENOUGH examines topics that I don’t think anyone who isn’t already part of a particular community would notice, and I appreciated that. For example, the vegan foodie culture—holy vegan schnitzel, is that a thing. Each time I hear someone depicting plant-based cuisine as bland and lacking, I want to fall down laughing. We love our rich and decadent meals in the vegan community—and with so many new plant-based products and new veg-friendly restaurants opening all of the time, over-indulging can be pretty tempting. As Singer sagely points out, animals and their advocates have a lot of tragedy in this world and relatively few wins, but the creation and celebration of awesome cruelty-free foods is one of those positive things that’s a guaranteed boost. In addition, we might feel motivated to support new plant-based products and restaurants because their success could translate to mainstream eaters adding these products to their diets and thus, fewer animals having to endure the factory farming industry. And so, you find yourself eating vegan Ben & Jerry’s (wonderful!) while thinking “I am helping animals.”

Being vegan did not erase the author’s struggles with food addiction, but radical changes to her lifestyle and eating habits helped her lose 100 lbs. The middle section of the book contains a lot of talk about juicing and detoxing—so if this is not your scene, be forewarned. I am glad this regimen worked for the author and has helped her get her life back on track and improve her health. However, the detoxing stuff has been roundly debunked since its heyday, and belief in some of the more esoteric health claims isn’t necessary to choose a plant-based diet. But as I said, I’m happy it helped her.

And since she’s seen both sides of the treatment society metes out to people based on size/weight, all I could think was, wow. These people are supposed to be adults. What is wrong with them?

[Brigitte · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m so disappointed in this. I was excited to read a memoir focused on a vegan who struggled with binge eating before going vegan, because that was my experience and veganism helped with my eating disorder. But this memoir was so fatphobic, and it’s clear that the author has just replaced one eating disorder with another (orthorexia)- I had to skip the entire section focused on juice fasts because it was so triggering and so scientifically inaccurate that I wanted to throw the book across the room. I feel sorry her her because it��s quite clear she has zero compassion for the person she was before she lost weight. Ugh.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book's title really says it all for many of us who have struggled with food addiction and body image issues throughout our lives. Often, we choose food as a way to comfort ourselves or to feel better or heal the wounds inflicted intentionally and sometimes unintentionally by those around us. Sadly, no matter how much we may eat, it is never enough to make us feel okay other than for a brief time and it never begins to fill the huge holes many of us have inside. The title also made me think about how the author and yes, many of us, have big, larger than life personalities that we are told to tamp down or to hide, and we often end up feeling that we are too much for regular situations and yet, somehow not worthy in other respects. In this book, the author explores her own relationship with food in an honest, amusing way. She pokes gentle fun at herself at times and also ponders her own prejudices about body size, fat, and self-image as well as how society treats those--including Jasmine herself--who have lost a great deal of weight. These elements are the book's strengths as is the author's awareness of the dichotomy between her animal rights activism and how she treats her own body. Many readers will be surprised to learn that vegans like Jasmine can be overweight. However, despite the book's strong points, I became a bit tired of reading all the details of her juice fasts that led to her losing more than 100 pounds. The way she describes it, juicing is expensive and time-consuming, and while it just might be my own reluctance to let go of my own unhealthy eating habits, I felt tired just reading about all the work that went into trying to get healthy. Still, I'll give her credit for making this huge life change. I just wish she'd also shared more of the emotional and psychological work that went into reaching this healthy place. A lifetime of unhealthy eating doesn't change overnight, and those cravings for unhealthy processed foods are hard to resist. Clearly, hers is the journey of a lifetime and one that will continue and is likely to inspire others. The book jacket touts her journey from eating to feel better to inner peace, and I would have loved to have learned more about that process. And yes, clearly, being extremely overweight is unhealthy, but what does how we treat fat men and women, even how we look at them, say about our culture? There's a lot to think about here.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had some time ago listened to the vegan podcast My Hen House for a while but had no idea what Jasmin Singer’s life was about. This was an interesting story of a young girl/woman who had a lot of weight to lose and was a bullied relentlessly as a young girl because of it, as well as all the things an overweight person suffers that most normal people would never even be aware of. It didn’t help that her mother was always a size 4 or 6 and bemoaned her tiny size for being over weight.

Jasmin eventually became a vegan (for ethical reasons), still over sized, until she went on a juice fast after seeing the documentary Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead (recommended). This eventually led her to learn how to eat high quality vegan food and get rid of the vegan junk food.She also did the inner work to care for herself more and found she was a natural runner.

She has maintained a normal weight for years now. Most interesting was how the world reacts to her as a normal sized person and the attention she receives from people who would never have given her the time of day previously. Also interesting are the unintentional and well meaning “compliments” from family and friends (and Mom) which were quite painful. There was a lot to unpack here and I’m glad I read this book.

[Noelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for the VSDC book club. This is a memoir of one woman's journey from regularly eating Burger King, being overweight, getting bullied, and not knowing herself, to eating a whole food plant based diet, regularly juicing, finding love and a greater purpose. I enjoyed the second half, once she "found herself" and I am impressed that she convinced both her mom and grandma to become vegan.

[Anna McClaugherty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous memoir. I literally could not put it down. This is great read whether vegan or not, and whether interested in a plant-based diet or not. This is really about a woman finding herself, learning to be safe in her own body, learning to trust and relationships, and learning not to use food to fill her needs and the emptiness inside of her. Not only was this book very well written, it was also hilarious. Jasmin is a great writer, authentic, heartfelt and genuine. Read this book!

[Robin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book started off well - Jasmine is overweight as a child and she and her thin Mom work to 1) lose weight, and 2) keep the bullies in perspective. This is the first third of the book and what I expected about a book where someone starts overweight and learns to live their life, whether they lose the weight or figure out how to live with their bodies.

But once Jasmine starts to learn how to manage her own weight, she also become vegan. And begins "juicing." These have become two of the biggest diets in the health industries where you are either on board, or preached at, because how could anyone possibly not understand about the animals and about how great it is to eat whole foods and, and, and ... blah, blah, blah. To Jasmine's credit, she does acknowledge that her method is not for everyone. And then she continues her crusade in the next sentence. She does warn us. Before getting too deep into becoming vegan, she tells us she became an activist. I should have heeded her warning.

Note: The Goodreads book description includes comments about veganism, but I didn't read the description when I picked this one up - my fault!

Skip to the last couple of chapters and we can get a more confident Jasmine, learning to live with her new slimmer body. But right to the end, we still have to hear about converting her Grandm to preaching animal rights, and Jasmine continues her crusade about how veganism is THE way to a healthy life.

If you are interested in veganism or animal rights or juicing, there are useful guides specific for each of these. If you are interested in ideas about losing weight or how to handle having lost weight, Jasmine offers a couple of insights, but for me, not enough to warrant so much of the book to be devoted to the church of veganism.

I'm glad Jasmine found something that works for her. Sadly, I did not pick up this book to find a new religion, and I still don't understand why so many vegans feel the need to preach because Jasmine doesn't explain that. She says, several times, that she's "vegan but not the mean kind." Whoops! Might need to edit those parts, cuz... yeah...

[Bunnyhugger]

I don't think the blurb does this book justice. The juice fasting is relatively small part of it (although crucial in the end). I found this memoir an uncomfortable and at times painful read. The way overweight/obese people are treated is quite shameful. Jasmin Singer is "relentlessly honest", as one reviewer wrote, as she describes her rape and the conflicted feelings about what actually happened and whether she was to blame (which so many sexual assault victims experience.) The struggle with food, always wanting more to assuage difficult emotions, and the guaranteed comfort it offers is something I can identify with all too well. About halfway through, Jasmine describes her journey to veganism with her realization of the horrors of animal agricultural, which is why she became an animal rights activist. She didn't lose weight after transitioning (even gained more) because the deep-rooted habits and and unhealthy relationship with her body didn't just disappear. It was after becoming vegan that she met her wife - this was such a sweet and uplifting story. It was as a couple that they decided to try juicing, alternating 10 days fasting and 3 days fasting a month, which is how she lost 100lbs. Juicing clearly worked for her, although I must admit I didn't feel as engaged with this part. All in all, there is so much in this book: about surviving bullying, finding your identity, learning to love and care for yourself, and looking beyond yourself to fight for those who have no voice.

[Happyreader · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tale of rebirth with an engaged vegan perspective. While a good chunk of the book focuses on her self-proclaimed food addiction, like all successful recovery memoirs, it’s more about the awakening that results once she’s brave enough to be brutally honest. So many times, she states that she didn’t want to look at her reality – about her body size, eating habits, sexual preference, etc – and that she sought comfort in excess food. Those moments when she truly sees what’s in front of her – the dead animal flesh in her Philly cheesesteak, the pain of forced insemination in dairy cows, the emotional and physical toll of her excessive, non-nourishing consumption – are the moments that move her towards healing. Once she’s fully immersed in animal rights, a cause bigger than herself, and involved with the love of her life and comrade in arms, she’s safe to cast off the pounds and take full ownership of her body. Now that she’s shed her old denial and embraced her life fully, I hope her next book is more focused on her fabulous partnership with her wife Mariann Sullivan and their work at Our Hen House. Very happy she’s created a healthy, fulfilling life for herself protecting the well-being of all sentient beings.

[Amanda · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a solid 3 star for me until a little over halfway into the book when she started in on her juice fasts. I nearly DNF'd this book but I wanted to give her a chance and hear her entire perspective.

I'm not against juice fasts, but I find it very irresponsible for an author to describe juice fasts as "detoxing" and "cleansing" to her readers. She also recommends most people should try a juice fast (at least a 3 day fast) to jump start their health. This wouldn't be so bad if she wrote a disclaimer before her juice chapters, and also recommend that her readers check with their doctor before trying it, but she doesn't do that. It severely irks me that she constantly uses the word detox when describing her fasting experience. Like it's the juice itself causing the detox, and not the fact that she has a pair of kidneys and our bodies detox every single day.

Overall, I was very disappointed in this one. I was looking forward to reading a memoir about an animal activist and vegan who dealt with serious body image and bullying issues. Though I appreciate her sharing her experiences and what she learned, and the rest of her story was moving, I cannot get past the misinformation spread throughout her juicing chapters.

[Bonnie G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now I’m not sure if I’m underwhelmed bc our lives have been on parallel tracks (same age) and therefore had already processed information she went through chapters discussing? Or if it was a memoir that had some glaring oversights?

I read this back really fast- like 2 days! As someone who is a bombastic personality who had been vegetarian for decades now and from the tri-state area, it was like talking to an old friend. But I was truly bewildered by some big gaps in her memoir. Like how did she get into her activism and get paid for it? How did she start the podcasts? Did she ever talk to the guy whose juice fasting became her life? What the hell does her mother do for a living? Why does she think she doesn’t befriend easily anymore? How did she find good clothing to work out in?

I think I wanted more specifics instead of endless chapters about veganism and how beautiful her mom is. I actually sighed out loud a couple times. Where was her editor?

I dunno, maybe just re-read Shrill again.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a complicated relationship with this book. I listened to the author read it through Audible, and although I enjoyed parts of it and identified with her in some ways, it ultimately felt too long and too preachy. I do think Singer is a good memoirist and interesting person, but her story became tedious in places, especially the long diatribes about the food industry, factory farming and pharmaceutical companies, which I eventually started fast-forwarding through. She's a vegan lesbian who is passionate about juice fasting, so if you don't want to hear about those things, you may want to skip this. I'd recommend it to select people, but not to most people.

[Keetha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jasmin Singer struggled with her weight and body image since she was a young child. Because of her love of animals, she became a vegan and promptly gained even more weight. She tried juicing and that worked beautifully for her. That's the short version; Jasmin's writing is lovely and wry and funny. I was staggered by the bullying she endured as an overweight woman, not only as a child but through college and well on into adulthood. She writes about how the world treats her as a thin woman versus how it did as someone who was obese, something I haven't seen or heard much about. A great read.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Relateable, Funny, and Real - a wonderful memoir of triumph and self discovery

This memoir is one of the best books I've ever read. Jasmin speaks about her experiences with being overweight and society's reaction, overcoming food addiction, and finding herself and her purpose in life. Her story is very open, honest, and funny--you feel like her good friend by the end of the book. I had a chance to meet Jasmin and hear her speak at a local vegan event. She's as awesome as she comes across in the book.

[Jessica Ruff · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love reading memoirs from people who are passionate about the same things I am. I appreciate that the author of this book is a passionate vegan and has a focus on health/wellness, and I admire the guts it takes to bare one's soul in the process of writing a memoir. But to be totally honest, this memoir got to be so neurotic, indulgent, and self-absorbed that it was a bore to read. Less navel-gazing and complaining and more talk about veganism would have made it a better read, in my opinion.

[Elizabeth Good · Rating 3 out of 5]

I want to begin by saying that I always appreciate reading from those who have struggled with fat or body shame, and are brave enough to share about their experience with society’s last acceptable prejudice.

Insofar as this one: Sort of interesting, sort of not…her growing up fat enough to be bullied, and what life was like, was well explained and written decently, but lacked depth. As her life moved into directions of her passions, such as theater, guys (then later gals), activism, being tattooed, then veganism—with food always at her side to comfort and overeat—there were so many aspects that seemed as if they could have been riveting. But they somehow were not.

As she moves into meeting her will-be-wife, also an overweight vegan, and they eventually jump into an intermittent juice fasting lifestyle, everything in her life changes in a year. How she looks, how she is treated, how people see her, her cravings and relation to food, her sense of satiety, how her time is spent, and more. That was somewhat interesting to read about also, but again lacking punch. There was little depth to how she felt. The complexity and emotional aspects of this process were mostly not addressed, and it was repetitive and scattered. A bit interesting and instructive on the process of juice fasting and how it was so helpful. Though not for everyone, the amount of nutrients in the elixirs of our magical vegetables worked wonders for her, eliminating the need to binge eat. Certainly a wonderfully radical type of activism (her jam, though I don’t know if she thinks of this aspect as that) from a society which often thinks doctors or therapy or 12-step is the way out of foood addiction. No, it’s the nutrients, dummy!

The last third or fourth I felt more insight; it was deeper and flowed more. But, all over the map…even more than before. Her relationship to her mother (& her thin, gorgeous mother’s obsessive dieting lifestyle and body dysphoria) is explored, and her own life more. So it’s a little deeper but not especially cohesive.

My favorite line in the book is about the grandma she loved so much. “I once asked grandma how she got through the deaths of so many important people in her life, including two husbands. “I don’t think ‘I lost them’ she replied. I think, ‘I had them.’

The last thing I’ll say about this book is it’s curious why so many vegans feel a need to proselytize. It’s very alienating and her passion for veganism definitely did not move me. As with so many vegans the delivery was more alienating than anything. Just know this is a big part of her book if you wish to read it.

[Rehreh · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book fell flat for several reasons -

One, it hurt to read how she seems to hate the girl she used to be, the way she writes about her former self is lacking in compassion. The way the book talks about her past self and other fat characters, as well as the idolatry for good looking and thin people weaved in between was shallow. People were their body and not much deeper than that. It was heartbreaking to read about the harassment and bullying she suffered due to her size, it made me want to hug all the wonderful fluffy people in my life, but the book didn't take the story much further, and that was disappointing. The solution was that she lost weight? Plenty of people eat their vegetables and are larger than a size 12, and they love themselves and do not need to size down.

Two, the politics are lame. That's my own fault for reading this book, the blurb on the back says it all. At its most enlightened, her veganism is one inch deep into the mess that is our food system. The same way that avoiding animal products does not make you healthy, there needs to be a bright neon sign as a disclaimer here that veganism is not cruelty free. I mean...can we say it? * * * capitalism * * *

Three, the juicing is lame, and her outlining of her discovery of fasting is boring and maybe unhealthy? That people condone living off of sugary drinks, however natural they may be is not good. There's something to be said about a white American "discovering" fasting but zapping it of all spirituality, cultural historical context and tradition in the same book that mentions the attack on the twin towers without a nod to the her privileged place in the heart of the US empire and that event's impact on the Muslim world. The stolen oil that the war in Iraq and Afghanistan facilitated and its place in allowing her to make minimum wage but buy three dinners a day is a large crater in here but I guess that's more related to my politics point. She kind of highlights it as some New York moment, because it's otherwise not relevant to the story. Anyways. This book is very white. Not to mention that she grew up in EDISON but didn't discover Indian food until she became a vegan Manhattanite PETA warrior.

Lastly, the way she framed so much, including her assault, her coming out, it was all just off. Didn't age well.

4 stars for pure entertainment value. If I would have read this in 2005 I would have loved it wholly, though it would have not done well for my impressionable teenage head. However, it was published in 2016, and I would probably not have liked it then either.

[Tessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always Too Much and Never Enough is, all at once, witty, painful, and inspiring. It's Jasmin Singer's coming-of-age story, detailing her issues with food and weight, her journey to veganism (and activism in general), and how juicing allowed her to become the best version of herself. I'm not a juicer - and I'm almost positive I never will be - so my interest was less on Singer's juicing/fasting/detoxing, but I'm happy she found something that worked for her. Apart from the vegan aspects of her story, I especially loved her discussion on fatphobia/fat-shaming. And I would have loved to learn more about her grandma! She seems like she was a fascinating lady.

[Liz B · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have not read (listened to) a book this awful in a long time. The reviewers who said the first half is good and the second half is terrible… I applaud you for getting through the fist half. I could not. I think the book would have been more tolerable if I was reading it, but the author’s reading made all of her negative statements sound that much whinier. The story is not compelling or well written. The timeline is inconsistent and I found myself asking what happened to such and such because certain people, places, feelings were mentioned and then the story abruptly changed. I started fast forwarding after chapter 4 and then quickly gave up. And this is coming from a vegan.

[Bernadette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspiring memoir detailing Ms. Singer's journey to becoming the enjoyable writer and rights activist that she is. Appreciate her candor in sharing her moving experiences with body-shaming throughout her lifetime, and how she dealt with it and persevered. Would recommend to everyone, those who are dealing with and have dealt with body and sexuality issues, and those who, sometimes unknowingly, shame others for who they are, their body size, weight or whatever. The title says it all; Always too much (to some) and never enough (to others).

[A · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not sure what expectations I had going into this book, but whatever they were Singer exceeded them. I would recommend listening the the audiobook because Singer's voice is very animated. It may have something to do with her background in theater that prevents her from sounding monotone. The layout and the diction of the novel is thoughtfully done. She touches on feminism, LGBTQ issues and animal rights without sounding preachy by speaking only from her own experiences. I believe this is a highly underrated memoir that the world desperately needs right now.

[Jill · Rating 2 out of 5]

So much fatphobia (external and internalized). She does talk about struggling with how much of this to include later in the book but I barely got there because it was SO MUCH early on.

Also the juicing section was basically like the book version of every vegetarian/vegan meetup I ever went to thinking I would try a new restaurant & meet new people - fun! - but they always ended up with someone dominating the table conversation with an extensive discussion of their latest juice cleanse. (At least she was a lot more self aware about it than all those dudes were)

[Amber Ross · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was enjoying this until she got deep into animal cruelty, her juice fasts (that seem a little obsessive and unhealthy to me) and how she dropped all the weight, learned to run and gained some acceptance in her thin mother's eyes. I just don't find juice fasting to be sustainable. It's nice it worked for her but it seems like such an extreme way of doing things. I didn't finish this one, just skimmed around the fasting to the end.

[Joan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This could’ve been my story up until the juicing. She lost me after that. It felt like an advertisement to do juice cleanses. The remaining messages that probably exist were then lost on me. I’m sad about that because I was very much enjoying her story. I am glad, however, she found herself, her place, her health!