I can’t sleep so I’m going to blog in the hopes that I’ll get tired enough to fall back asleep! Last night, I finished reading Half-Assed by Jennette Fulda. It is a weight loss memoir that I stumbled upon last weekend at Borders (apparently there is a whole genre of weight loss memoirs). Fulda lost about 200 pounds (!!) through diet and exercise and the book talks about her life as an obese young woman and then what she learned about herself as she was losing weight. The book is very honest but is is also a fun, fast read. Her story felt very authentic — I could identify with a lot of what she talks about in the book. I think I found her story especially inspiring because she lost an incredible amount of weight and did it the hard way. I do my fair share of complaining but I don’t have 200 pounds to lose. A couple of years ago, I read a few books by Geneen Roth but then just wanted to toss them across the room when I found out that she was never really all that heavy to begin with. I have a hard time taking advice from somebody who’s never really struggled with their weight. She may have had issues with her body, but so do anorexics and that’s just not the same thing. And I think that’s why I really appreciated Fulda’s story. She did something that most people would assume you could only do through surgery but she did it the natural way anyway.

Highly recommended, even if you’re not trying to lose weight (because it is funny and smart and you won’t want to put it down).