cover image Healthy as F*ck: The Habits You Need to Get Lean, Stay Healthy, and Generally Kick Ass at Life

Healthy as F*ck: The Habits You Need to Get Lean, Stay Healthy, and Generally Kick Ass at Life

Oonagh Duncan. Sourcebooks, $24.99 (288p) ISBN 978-1-4926-9386-4

A speaker on fitness, Duncan offers her own brand of forthright personal coaching in a straight-talking guide that amounts, alas, to little more than a retread of common wellness advice. She argues that, while people who want to lose weight and get healthy perennially seek out new trends, that focus is better directed to the “old news” that changing habits is most important. Her often humorous and on-point directions aim to motivate small shifts that lead to real change, such as through her “7 Habits of Highly Healthy Motherfuckers”: eat more vegetables; get enough sleep; eliminate alcohol; reduce stress; eat everything, but in smaller portions; prep meals and plan ahead; and “exercise consistently.” Duncan’s easy-action, common-sense advice on avoiding trigger foods, using digital reminders, asking friends for support, and redesigning one’s environment to facilitate new habits characterize “the life-changing, magical art of getting your shit together.” Some counterintuitive suggestions crop up, but they ably serve to reinforce the “habit loop.” This approach may not appeal to all, and the profanity-as-gimmick gets tiresome, but Duncan’s sustainable lifetime program makes sense. Agent: Sam Hiyate, the Rights Factory. (Sept.)