Half-Assed: A Weight-Loss Memoir
by Jennette Fulda
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jennette FuldaEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-04-29
ISBN: 1580052339
Number of pages: 250
Publisher: Seal Press
Book Reviews of Half-Assed: A Weight-Loss Memoir
Book Review: A Gutsy, Bold, and Honest Ass-Kicking
Summary: 5 Stars
Jennette Fulda's Half-Assed is not your average weight loss memoir. Not only did Fulda lose over half her body weight, but she does not offer any apologies. In some ways, the book is as much pro-fat as pro-thin. This book, based on her blog Half of Me, chronicles how she got so fat, and, to some extent, what she did to lose the weight. Some of her struggles, such as finding clothes and getting around, are obvious, while others were more hidden, which she explores with humor and wisdom.
Fulda's is an easy read, one that I'm glad I read in part on the treadmill. There is no whining here, even when Fulda presents evidence about why it may be harder for the severely overweight to lose weight. She covers the highs and lows of her journey, as well as the way, as she lost weight, readers and others turned to her for advice as she blogged every step of the way.
Though it seems hard to believe that someone could just happen to wind up weighing 372 pounds, she shows how her lack of education about nutrition spiraled into a weight gain that she didn't truly recognize as a problem, let alone know how to handle, until it had reached such massive proportions. "The fat lost its shock value. It didn't scare me like it scares a skinny girl who's just put on ten pounds and can't fit into her favorite jeans. Ten pounds was a trivially small percentage of my overage." This is but one of the ways that even conceptualizing losing weight was a challenge for Fulda, one she wound up meeting head-on. Both her writing and her weight loss path show a woman with determination, independence, and the ability to sort out what worked for her and what didn't on her own.
Fulda also doesn't give you a saccharine "and now I'm thin and happy" ending. She makes the reader feel the true pain of her weight gain, as well as the not-always-perfect life she leads now. While losing the weight (and blogging about it) drastically changed her life, it was not a panacea, and Fulda doesn't try to spin it that way. She also admits that, yes, there is a chance she might gain weight again, and boldly asserts that being fat is not the worst thing in the world (a fact you might not realize from, well, living in the United States). About her former fat girl life, Fulda writes, "Given the choice between that life and the life of a skinny starlet in rehab, I'd put the fat suit back on fast enough to jam the zipper."
I also must add that this book is published by Seal Press, a feminist press (one I publish with as well), and I think adds a feminist spin to the topic of weight loss. Fulda is not talking about trying to conform to some mediagenic image of perfection, and in fact sounds like she had a pretty good sense of self-esteem when she was overweight (before she got obese), one which aids her as she starts to lose weight. To even have the vision that she could lose half her body weight in a healthy way is a provocative idea at a time when many people simply opt for plastic surgery. She reveals her own issues without pandering to the sexist ideal of ultra-skinnyness at all costs.
My one quibble is that she did not elaborate on the specific diet she chose to use (she has revealed on her blog and in interviews it was the South Beach diet), which made some parts of the book less informed than they could be. Though she explains that this would be like "asking Yo-Yo Ma what kind of cello he played and then expecting to buy one and become a brilliant cellist," I think it could have informed her memoir, but that's a small quibble. Anyone who's ever struggled with their weight, or just wants to read an inspiring story of one woman who forged her way through the world of weight loss, should check out Half-Assed.
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