10/10/2010 - Half-Assed Book Review and link!

I love to read while I am working out. Working out is my all-in-one me time. In fact, I love to read anytime I have time. This is why, for instance, I go to the library every Saturday and pick up the books on my request list that are waiting for me. (For anyone who doesn't do this, you should! It is completely free except for the fees wrapped up in your taxes. So, really, you are already paying for the services, so you might as well take advantage of them.) And also why I keep those library books that are on deck in my car...just in case I get a moment or two of spare time.

So, a book I recently read is Half-Assed by Jenette Fulda (http://www.pastaqueen.com/). The book and corresponding website are a real look at a real person going through a real struggle. Like me, she likes to eat and has learned to cook healthy recipes to reach her goals. She found, to her dismay, that she likes to workout after shedding copious amounts of weight. She is funny and very candid with her quirks. An example is when she ran home to read her blog after discovering that her mother had found it online, scouring it for things that were humiliating and realizing, in turn, that her journey through 2 years of blogs had been very long and treacherous. Her story is very inspiring and her candid insights are at once warm and often observationally perplexing. Describing how people disappear from her blogisphere, Jeanette talks about how she often makes up a back-story...filling in the blank of WHERE THEY COULD HAVE GONE...and knowing, in the health and fitness world, that they probably fell off the wagon and were too embarrassed to stay online. She then discusses how awful it is to be embarrassed in your real world AND in the online world. I love how she discovers her confidence online and translates it into her real world, true moments of empowerment that are an example for all of us. I highly recommend this book! I love this book! How many stars? 5-star book since I have been referencing hotels all week...

Here is a picture of the cover, find this book! There is a link on Jeanette's website (http://www.pastaqueen.com/) if you want to order it or, you can borrow a copy from your public library like I did.