Are You Ready!: To Take Charge, Lose Weight, Get in Shape, and Change Your Life Forever [Hardcover]

Bob Harper (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2008

The world-renowned fitness coach on the hit TV show The Biggest Loser presents his winning approach to lasting weight loss by showing how to get at the root of your overeating problem, followed by a nutritionally savvy diet and unique exercise plan.
On The Biggest Loser, Bob Harper gives contestants the practical tools and psychological insights they need to get into the best shape of their lives. The key to his success is the emotional connection he makes with each participant, and he brings that same spirit to Are You Ready!

Harper starts with a four-step strategy for getting at the root of negative thought patterns and destructive behaviors, replacing both with a clear way to build self-worth and confidence. With these tools in place, people are empowered to make real, lasting changes in their lives. In an easy-to-follow eating plan, he provides lists of foods that are nutrient-dense and naturally low in calories, more than twenty sample menus, and tips on eating on the run, in restaurants, and on vacation. His fitness plan is geared to making exercise an integral part of daily life with workouts (ranging from 20 to 60 minutes) based on training techniques that tone and strengthen, burn calories, and reshape the body.

Woven throughout Are You Ready! are true-life success stories that will keep readers engaged and motivated; bulleted tips, tools, and coping strategies; and sidebars debunking common myths about food and fitness. Whether your goal is losing ten pounds or a hundred, you will find Harper’s message inspiring and his methods a proven path to finally achieving your dream of weight loss and fitness.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Are you ready to take charge, lose weight, get in shape, and change your life forever? These Biggest Loser contestants were.

“There is no other time than now to begin your life, and there is no other person than Bob Harper to get you started.”
—Nicole Michalik


“Bob Harper has truly been the answer to all my prayers! His knowledge, experience, and outright will to change people’s lives is the real solution to the world’s struggle with being overweight.”
—Neil Tejwani


“Bob not only gave me the tools to achieve my goals, but gave me the reasons why. He pushed me to do things I never knew or thought I could do. Thank you, Bob, for giving me the tools to be a better me!”
—Suzy Hoover


“This book gives people a chance to bring Bob home.”
—Eric Chopin
--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

About the Author

BOB HARPER is a world-renowned fitness trainer and one of the stars of the TV reality series The Biggest Loser, which is ending its fifth season this spring. He lives in Los Angeles, California.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Broadway Books (April 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767928679
• ISBN-13: 978-0767928670
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 1 x 9.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #329,349 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

133 of 134 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A nice change for fitness/diet books, May 26, 2008

By 

Paladin08 (Folsom, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Are You Ready!: To Take Charge, Lose Weight, Get in Shape, and Change Your Life Forever (Hardcover)

First off, if you've every seen the show, then you know how Bob talks. This book seemed to ring with his voice on every page. It really does feel like you get a bit of Bob with you when reading this book.

What makes this book different from many other fitness/diet books is Bob deals with the emotional-mental side of things. He tries to get at the root of why we do what we do to ourselves and how to overcome that. For most people where emotions and food share a common thread, this helps you identify that thread and break it!

WHAT'S INSIDE:

Chapter 1 - Are you Really Ready? Step One = he deals with your baggage and fears that are keeping you fat

Chapter 2 - Accept Where You Are and Forgive: Step Two = You learn to reconnect with your body and forgive yourself for what you've done to it

Chapter 3 - Love Yourself: Step Three = Building confidence and setting goals then staying positive

Chapter 4 - Change Your Internal Tape Recorder, Change Yourself: Step Four = This is where he deals with emotional eating, mental hunger vs. physical hunger and provides a proactive formula

Chapter 5 - It's an Eating Plan, Not a Diet = he explains a bit about foods and their relationship to weight loss. He then provides a great food list and then seven(7) options for a quick breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks

Chapter 6 - Your Food Journal = Yes you need to start counting calories. You can photocopy the pages in this chapter to get you going with your own journal.

Chapter 7 - Stress Busters = How to deal with dinning/eating out while on your plan; shopping strategies and then staying on course with your eating while in the real world

Chapter 8 - Getting Started: Phase One = Introduction to exercise, including why monitor your heart rate. Also levels of exertion defined, basic equipment needed then his words on Cardio workouts

Chapter 9 - My Master List = With over 65 exercises described and with most pictures of Bob performing the steps to the exercise. Though black & white, the photos are clear and easy to see what he describes the exercise performing

Chapter 10 - The Workout = Three options for a week's worth of working out or you could look at it as 3 weeks of workouts. The options get progressively tougher. As someone like myself who is already fairly fit, Option 1 was too easy but Option 3 was a very good challenge.

OVERALL:

I liked this book, though the workout Bob puts together in the Biggest Loser book that came out first was a lot tougher (5 minutes of walking lunges and 7 minutes of crunches. Ack!).

This is a nice comprehensive book that hits the holistic experience of eating and working out and the challenges we go through starting and continuing a healthy process.

This book is a good addition to anyone's library.

72 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great for beginners, April 7, 2008

By 

C. Valentine (SLC, UT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Are You Ready!: To Take Charge, Lose Weight, Get in Shape, and Change Your Life Forever (Hardcover)

I read this book, cover to cover, in 2 days and really enjoyed it. I think it is the perfect book for anyone who has a lot of weight to lose or for someone who is relatively new to working out. The book has a huge section of strength training exercises, which is great-especially for someone who is new to the weight room or concept of training with weights. I also enjoyed the food lists and recipe ideas.
I'm not sure how helpful this book is to someone who is already accustomed to working out and knows a lot about nutrition, but it a GREAT book for anyone in the beginner, intermediate range. I love how Bob combines mind and soul to make the weight loss a true, life-changing event.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Charming Presentation of the Same Old Same Old, April 30, 2008

By 

V. Webb "Seeker of Conscious Contact" (Lakewood, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Are You Ready!: To Take Charge, Lose Weight, Get in Shape, and Change Your Life Forever (Audio CD)

I'm a huge fan of The Biggest Loser. I cry when the contestants lose weight. Bob Harper is a great guy - the perfect counterpoint to Jillian Michaels drill sargeant persona. He appears to be kind, gentle, understanding, yet able to influence huge weight losses from the shows participants. I couldn't wait to get this CD and actually get a dose of the whole "Change Your Life" package. The truth is, there's really nothing new here. Bob tells us that we must get our insides together in order to be successful at changing our outsides; that we need to eat healthy foods and exercise at least 5 days a week. He tells us that if we screw up, we don't beat ourselves up. All this is delivered in Bob's charming, encouraging style. There is an enhancement to the CD that allows you to read his food list, sample menus & all of his prescribed exercises (or download the PDF version & print it out). I think that if you ordered the CD you will still want to get the book. There's too much information on supplements, exercise plans and implementation stages. I suspect that the book may have more details. My 4 star rating has nothing to do with what I think of Bob Harper. However, if you've been dieting/exercising for any length of time, you've probably already got this.