Customer Reviews

My Footprint: Carrying the Weight of the World

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Jeff Garlin has created a truly inspiring piece of work. He shines a light on environmental awareness, as well as self improvement. He demonstrates the process of reaching both goals quite effectively, with just the right amount of Garlin-esque humor along the way. The first chapter will have you chuckling aloud before things even get kicked off. My Footprint is a short read but thoroughly entertaining. Curb fans will laugh as they recall the scenes that My Footprint takes them through. However, it's not a Curb-centered book, therefore Non-Curb fans won't find themselves uninterested in the least. The addict in all of us, whatever the addiction, will identify with Garlin and begin to pull for his success. Garlin will manage to motivate the most unmotivated and amuse you in the process.

I have to say I really enjoyed this book so much. I expected it to be a yuck-fest (as in laughs, not grossness) along the lines of most comedic memoirs these days, but in this case Jeff really has something to say. I am impressed at how honest he is about his weight struggles, and yet how funny he can still make that struggle seem. I snorted out loud when I read the passage about a naked Jeff breaking a massage table and passing a little gas on the way down, but felt for him at the same time. All in all, a fast read with lots of humor and heart.

As with some other reviews, I cannot say this book was what I was expecting. On the one hand, Garlin is right: not all struggles to lose weight are success stories. And the process itself is enlightening and creates a basis for understanding the struggle someone goes through and the success or failure they experience. But on the other hand, the audience/reader is looking for some type of conclusion or at least a 'to be continued [in this direction]...' Unfortunately, we're left with neither. While 'going green' makes up a sizable portion of the book, so do Garlin's encounters with friends, family, and strangers. I would have enjoyed this more if he focused on one problem at a time. Otherwise, the story is uneven, and perhaps a reflection of his ADD, the reader has to at times force him/herself to keep up with the various tangents.

For Garlin, this journey was a mixed one with some definite successes by the end. While some of the failures are funny, others are downright depressing. Even so, there are still many questions left unanswered and too much skipped over. While written like 'diary entries' the text is a very quick read, it's quick because so much is being left out. Personally, if you're a fan of Garlin's and you are interested in getting a glimpse into his life and what he as a human being has been fighting to overcome, then you might find this a worthwhile investment. Otherwise, you might want to give this a pass.

Jeff Garlin's "My footprint; carrying the weight of the world" had a couple of stories that were pretty funny. But overall I was disappointed in the book. Perhaps it was my own expectation that he'd come to some major epiphany that I could savor for years to come. However, he vaguely touched on weight loss techniques/strategies while he shamelessly promoted his work, name dropped about celebrities he knows, and sold the merit of energy efficiency. I would not recommend this book to someone looking for inspiration; it's more for someone looking for autobiographical information on the comedian.

This is a really intriguing book for a variety of reasons. Foremost is the authors ongoing challenge to lose weight and keep it off.

And I admit to being mad at times, reading of a well paid, successful celebrity who can afford good healthy, organic food who still chooses to make poor food choices while making poor choices. Mad because I am a widow who has to work hard to eat whole healthy, non junk food on a weekly budget of less than $30.

Some readers may be put off by some of the language, which involves some profanity. But the author is a comic, and is on a popular television series which also is rough around the edges and one probably should assume, readers will know this and not be off put.

Yes the author writes about a few recycling activities he does, which is actually less than what folks in my neighborhood do. Guess if you live in Hollywood and make more money, doing a little is seen as doing a lot. Did like reading of his visiting Ed Begley Jr whom I consider a hero, even though I have never met the man. He inspired me decades ago, and still does. And he is an excellent example of a thoughtful, mature man who walks his talk, when it comes to lifestyle changes.

How he is treated and expects to be treated when because of his poor eating, lifestyle choices, he ends up at one hospital and then leaves and goes to a great hospital, simply reminded me of how a vast number of hard working Americans who either don't have healthcare coverage or access to a top hospital like Cedars Sinai, are treated every day and overall are thankful they even are seen, however long it takes when in the emergency room.

Its also interesting reading of his visits to well paid therapists, for year after year, yet all that therapy seems to have been wasted since the author never gets very serious about making lifelong changes. Yes, the author is funny, but he also is extremely immature for an adult man who is middle aged. How many average American would give anything for the opportunity to have healthy food, personal trainers, healthcare, and all the wonderful things he has, and would make the changes needed, for the rest of their lives? Like the expensive stays at the the Pritikin Longevity Center + Spa whose site notes 'Pritikin's health resort is nestled in a private enclave, a gracious work of Italianate architecture, and is surrounded by 650 acres of tropical paradise at the famed Doral Golf Resort & pa in Miami. Swimming Pools. Five championship golf courses. Tennis courts. Dazzling fountains. Meditative labyrinths. Country Inns Magazine rated Pritikin as "the resort spa of choice in Florida.'

Equally puzzling is the brief meditative quotes he places at the beginning of various diary entries, which are wise and wonderful, yet the author seems to not understand the idea behind a meditation saying. The purpose is to stay still, and think about the saying, in order that it takes root in your mind, so throughout the day when tempted, one will STOP and remember the meditative saying, and thus prevent the negative actions one is wanting to stop. Something many people with ADD have learned to do. The author notes often that he has attention deficit disorder.

After finishing the book all I could think of is how glad I make myself stay focused, which is often hard. The book could well help someone who is struggling with eating issues.

One has to have great empathy for Jeff Garlin's longtime struggle with his weight and health. It clearly defines his life, as he points out in his new book, "My Footprint". I wonder, however, exactly why this book was written.

At the end of the book Garlin suggests that people with similar disorders need an impetus and "My Footprint" is his contribution. That's a noble thought but his book doesn't reflect much of that impetus as largely he seems to continue down the same path of failure. Mostly a narrative with a diary bent, Garlin's book neither picks up much steam along the way nor goes anywhere. He's always suffering. We hear that at the beginning and at the end. It's a loop of angst.

There is a side view of his wanting to be "green" and all the steps he takes to make his own home more liveable to that effect, but that distracts the reader from the author's own weight loss desire. It has almost no bearing on his theme of getting in better shape.

A chapter on his visit to a Pritkin Longevity Center in Miami was the best of the book, but uncharacteristic of the other chapters. I hadn't heard of Jeff Garlin before reading his book but saw him on a tv promotional segment. I guess if you're a fan of his you might connect with "My Footprint" but I found it lacking in much humor for which he seems to be so noted and not very forceful in how to solve those problems which he encounters.

In search of finding a pearl of wisdom about losing weight through a celebrity's experience, I found one, although not the one I expected, since he actually doesn't resolve his issue: The major theme that comes through in this book, which is basically only a diary punctuated with a little stereotypical humor, is Jeff's love of his problem and his love of making it part of his identity--the pearl being that, in order to resolve an issue such as a weight problem, we need to remove it as part of our identity. Ultimately, Jeff's weight is just part of his shtik, and this book will be added to his curriculum vitae as an "author of several books" since there will no doubt be an update printed by a publisher looking to make a quick buck based on a celebrity's travails--especially if he actually loses the weight. Don't waste your time or money on this fluff.

Curb Your Enthusiasm is a clever show so I expected a lot of clever humor and interesting insights in this book. Instead, I found only an occasional chuckle. The use of English is so simple that the reading, while it goes quickly, becomes tedious at times. There is much redundancy and there are no significant conclusions, so feel free to pick any point to start or stop reading and you won't have missed much.

I got this book because I could use a good laugh. I was really looking forward to laughing out loud and making my neighbors wonder what I was laughing at. But, alas, it's just not funny. Not one iota of it. There's something about stand-up comics who write their own material - they need to actually deliver the material in order for it to be funny. There are few writers who can write funny, very, very funny material that will have you fall on the floor laughing, and Erma Bombeck comes to mind. I wanted Erma Bombeck. Sadly, that is not what I got.

...Last night we watched an old Bill Maher episode (2010?) on HBO.GO where Jeff Garlin describes his addiction to sugar, and a brief comment on making a commitment to lifestyle change....We were watching this at a time while developing our own program around the concept of "mindset" change and addiction. Jeff's struggle and ultimate success gives us hope that there are voices out there spreading the message of the dangerous addiction to sugar and carbs.....