I first chose to read this book mainly because I recently picked up the hobby of working out to get in shape. I thought learning a bit more on what's healthy for you and what the most efficient ways of exercising would be both enlightening and useful for in the future. Exercising and staying healthy is very important to living a long life and looking decent at the same time. This kind of book would not just give me a good workout but life lessons that I can use to stay in shape for the rest of my life. Although this book seemed extremely cheesy and dumb from the cover, I used reverse psychology and thought maybe this could be a good book to read.
To sum this book up, I can say this book was about the sources of obesity, why most American's are overweight, and good tips that can help you get in shape. There were a number of themes within the book. An example of a very common theme was inactivity. One quote out of many that supports this theme is "...the single greatest contributor to America's sorest shame is that we're a nation that no longer moves...". America is obsessed with the idea that food determines our weight. In the past 10 years, technology has exceeded expectations and rapidly evolved from block size phones to slim touch screens. The advancement in technology and the laziness of the citizens has caused Americans to not move around and be active since everything conveniently comes to them or is nearby. This leads to no exercise or burning of calories and a buildup of fat. Overall, inactivity and laziness were the major causes of obesity in the opinions of the author Charles LaSalle. These two factors are also the major road blocks that you have to go over if you are to really get in shape. A term I found used often in this book was diet. The definition that the author used was "of or relating to a food regimen designed to promote weight loss". Diet was emphasized numerous times throughout this book and was a big part in losing weight. But many Americans focus too much on diet and aren't active enough. The author stressed diet and exercise together majority of the time. I do agree with the things that this book teaches and I felt it gave enough background information and an easy workout section towards the end of the book. It gave, "practical advice on everything from diet to turning household objects into workout tools". Body weight workouts are ones that anybody can do and this book provided a healthy diet, great easy tips, and background on the causes of obesity so that we don't repeat those mistakes.
I would recommend this book to most people because it provides a good workout to do at home or anywhere for a period of time, had a good background on obesity so that whoever read the book wouldn't repeat the same mistakes, and had a clear easy workout section that wasn't difficult to follow.
TJHS 12th grade student
