In the depths of postpartum depression and alcohol addiction, Anne Marie Chaker found herself obsessing over her next drink during a drive to her daughter’s hockey tournament. It was a moment that would change everything—not just for her, but potentially for countless women chasing the wrong ideal their entire lives.

Chaker’s new book, LIFT, was born from this deeply personal crisis that began after she had a baby and lost her father within weeks. What started as “half a glass of wine to take the edge off” quickly spiraled into an addiction. But it was in a hotel fitness room, watching a muscular hockey mom attack her workout “like a killer,” Chaker glimpsed a different way forward.

The Crisis That Changed Everything

When she entered that hotel gym, everything changed, Chaker recalls. That hockey mom introduced her to bodybuilding coaching, which focused on eating more food.. Combined with strength-based weightlifting workouts, this approach changed Chaker’s life within weeks. She stopped craving alcohol, felt more confident in interviews, and began pushing back at work when situations didn’t feel right.

This personal shift raised bigger questions that drove Chaker to investigate what she calls “the history of the skinny business.” Why hadn’t she been told this approach sooner? Why had she spent her whole life chasing skinny and seemingly failing? These questions became the foundation for LIFT, which examines the harmful history of thinness ideals and their devastating impact on women and society.

What LIFT Contains and Who Needs to Read It

Available for purchase now, LIFT has two approaches: a journalistic investigation into the harmful history of thinness ideals and a practical guide to strength-based nutrition and fitness that doesn’t require expensive tracking or complicated programs. Chaker’s research led her to conclude that women are “historically these buff badass creatures” and that strength represents women’s natural state.

The book argues that fixation on thinness spans only about 150 years, with waves of thinness obsession coinciding with moments when women assert more power. Flappers emerged when women won the right to vote, the “Twiggy” ideal appeared during second-wave feminism, and 1980s diet culture followed women’s infiltration of boardrooms and law firms. 

Chaker draws on Cambridge anthropological research comparing early women’s bones with modern ones, which had rarely been done before. The findings revealed that Paleolithic women’s bones were the size of modern elite female rowers, challenging the myth of women as berry-picking gatherers while men hunted.

The practical sections offer Chaker’s straightforward approach to nutrition and weightlifting. Despite social media marketing, she emphasizes that “you don’t really need any of that shit.” Her method centers on food prep, maintaining a well-stocked fridge, eating whole foods, avoiding excessive restaurant meals, and traditional weight-based workouts. “You don’t need a ton of time, but you do need consistent commitment,” she explains.

The book targets women who have spent years fighting their bodies and anyone interested in understanding how societal messaging shapes our relationship with strength and appearance. Chaker estimates the societal and economic impact of time spent obsessing over scale numbers to be devastatingly high, something all too well-known in society. 

Final Thoughts

Chaker’s reformation from addiction to strength reveals something profound about the disconnect between what women’s bodies can do and what we’ve been told they should look like. Her experience suggests that the pursuit of thinness is working against women’s biological and psychological well-being, creating a cycle of frustration and failure that serves no one except those profiting from women’s insecurities.

LIFT’s most potent aspect is its challenge to question everything we’ve accepted as “normal” about women’s relationship with their bodies. Chaker’s journey was a discovery that strength might be the key that unlocks what women have been searching for all along, hidden beneath layers of harmful messaging that convinced them to pursue something far less powerful than what they’re actually capable of achieving.

About Elisa Edelstein
Elisa is a curious and versatile writer, carving her niche in the health and wellness industry since 2015. Her lens is rooted in real world experience as a personal trainer and competitive bodybuilder and extended out of the gym and on to the page as a writer where she is able to combine her passions for empowering others, promoting wellness, and the power of the written word.