Half Assed: A Weight Loss Memoir

I have been thinking about product reviews for a long time as an addition to this blog. However I have always found them so subjective. I don't like fake meats for instance. But if someone reviews a fake meat and tells me its great I might trust their opinion and try it. Still since I don't like fake meat its still not going to be very good to me. And the truth is that I dont want to scare people off of good food products that could be their gateway into a whole lot of new and exciting foods.

When I was writing the post "Starting a Veggie Lifestyle" I came to the conclusion that I have a lot of books. Not just cook books either, but educational books of organic foods, juicing, human rights treatment in the factory farm industry and anthropological studies of eating habits. I tend to migrate to health focused weight loss books too. I also happen to watch too many documentaries about health and food.

While I might not be comfortable reviewing products I do like reviewing films and books. So that it one of the things that I am going to start doing on this blog.

First and foremost I have to say that this is not a vegan book like many of the ones that I like. Half Assed is the story of a morbidly obese girl who finds herself in a bad place health wise. She has to undergo a surgery that while routine for many healthy weighing people could be extremely dangerous for a women of her size.

Instead of going through the pain and risk of a weight loss surgery she takes a new mantra: health or death. She learns how to eat healthy, eases her was into exersizing and eventually looses 186 pounds.

Now I know what you are thinking but it is not that kind of book.  The author, who is also a distinguished blogger, is not the positive, crazy and slightly insane character we are used to reading these kinds of stories from.  No, she is 110 % real.  She uses this book like an outlet for her thoughts including everything from how did we get this way? to why do obese people get treated so differently? 


She is sarcastic, witty and thoughtful.

With a staggering number of people gaining girth in our country I would highly recommend this book.  Her talks about will power and holding others up as models of weight losing perfection are especially interesting.