Half-Assed: A Weight-Loss Memoir
Half-Assed: A Weight-Loss Memoir
Jennette was not born fat. But, by fifth grade, her response to a school questionnaire asking “what would you change about your appearance” was “I would be thinner.” Sound familiar?
Half-Assed is the captivating and incredibly honest story of Jennette’s journey to get in shape, lose weight, and change her life. From the beginning—dusting off her never-used treadmill and steering clear of the donut shop—to the end with her goal weight in sight, Jennette wows readers with her determined persistence to shed pounds and the ability to maintain her ever-present sense of self.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Jennette, you rock!
Your book brought me to tears–tears of joy, sympathy, laughter, you name it. The part at the end of chapter 14 about watching yourself in split-screen as you ran to the zoo was particularly stirring, and the description of your run at the end of “The Secret” was absolutely breathtaking. The last few chapters are brimming with the most impressive confidence and tenacity.
5 Stars A great read! For motivation and entertainment a like!
This is a realistic, no BS account of what a weight loss journey is all about. It relates a story about a real woman losing weight the right way- through hard work, and has a lot of funny and true revelations about what one can learn through change. I would recommend this book to anyone- large or small.
5 Stars eye opening
Though is sounds like a cliche, this book changed my life. Specifically it changed the way I think about food and diets and being overweight. Jennette’s common sense approach to her weight loss was unique among “diet books” - she wasn’t going to make herself crazy with the dieting and exercising - most plans make you feel terrible about yourself if you screw up just a bit. Because of her book I’m going to reduce the huge spare tire I have and hopefully lower my risk of diabetes and heart disease. Thank you Jennette!
1 Stars I am sooo tired of this [..]
Whine whine whine. Look, all diets work - but they are only short term. Unfortunately emotions are the reason why 95% of people can’t sustain weight loss. Dr. Maxwell Maltz and Dr. Norton L. Williams found the only way to sustain weight loss is to change your habits…one at a time (also see Robert Mikkelsen’s book The Story of Big Belly Bob).
Funny how this research gets brushed under the carpet.
Below is some additional info:
Dr. Norton L. Williams, psychiatrist, said recently that modern man’s anxiety and insecurity stemmed from a lack of “self-realization,” and that inner security can only be found “in finding in oneself an individuality, uniqueness and distinctiveness. Our currently held beliefs, whether good or bad, true or false, were formed without effort, with no sense of strain, and without the exercise of “will power.” Our habits, whether good or bad. were formed in the same way. It follows that we must employ the same process in forming new beliefs, or new habits, that is, in a relaxed condition. It has been amply demonstrated that attempting to use effort or will power to cure bad habits has an adverse rather than a beneficial effect.
Emile Coue` The little French pharmacist who astonished the world around 1920 with the results he obtained with “the power of suggestion,” insisted that effort was the one big reason most people failed to utilize their inner powers. “Your suggestions (ideal goals) must be made without effort if they are to be effective,” he said. Another famous Coue` saying was his “Law of Reversed Effort”: “When the will and the imagination are in conflict, the imagination invariably will win.”
http://www.durbinhypnosis.com/maltz.htm
If you want lose weight and keep it off then focus on making one change at a time.
3 Stars Not the best story on the subject
This book was okay, but I really didn’t find it all that inspirational, or even typical of most weight-loss stories. In the first chapters the author gets into her childhood background and what it felt like growing up fat, but she really didn’t suffer too much cruelty from other children, and she got to deal with her self-image without being constantly picked on and put down. I didn’t come away feeling that she truly understood the psychological pain of being a fat child. As an adult she then makes up her mind to lose weight and goes about it in a analytical way that seems to lack the very overwhelming feelings that usually accompany a big weight-loss goal…the strong feelings of knowing that a daunting task of losing a great deal of weight and the long length of time it will take to reach such a goal lay ahead. I’ve known people who’ve had to lose far less struggle harder to reach their goal.
The author writes about a rapid 10 pounds a month weight loss with almost no set-backs. Everything she does seems to spur on a rapid weight-loss. She moves to a new apartment and drops five pounds. She steals desserts or eats cheesecake and gains nothing. She rarely mentions fighting temptation, doesn’t seem to be suffering any self-deprivation and never has to push herself to stick with her excercise regiment. Everything is easy and just keeps getting easier.
She’s lost the weight after the first few chapters and now her story seems focused on how she perceives herself and the world around her from inside her now smaller body. She discusses how she relates to clothes, shopping and interacting with other people. I just didn’t see any real struggle to reach a truly daunting goal. Everything was somewhat quick, easy and went according to plan. She started out facing a health crisis but her motivation for losing weight really just seemed about looking good in nicer clothes.
Filed under: Weight Loss Book Reviews
