Book Review: Shape Up Sisters!

Book: Shape Up Sisters! What It Took for My Town in America's Fattest and Poorest State to Lose 15,000 Pounds by Linda Fondren

Source: Borrowed from Publisher/NetGalley for an honest review

Publication: Available now

Publisher: Rodale Books

Description:

Linda Fondren, one of 11 children born to a single mother in the poorest and fattest state in America, watched the consequences of obesity ruin her sister's life--and was motivated to open an all-female gym in her hometown of Vicksburg, MS, with the motto "positively reshaping women." Then, witnessing how many middle- and low-income Vicksburg residents were brought up short in their fitness and health efforts by limited budgets, time, and access to resources, Fondren responded by striking at the root problem.

In 2009, she spearheaded Shape Up Vicksburg, a City Hall-supported program in which she convinced the local hospital to offer free health screenings, restaurants to create healthy low-cal menu options, and Walmart to host weigh-in stations. Fondren signed up more than 2,500 Vicksburg residents to take charge of their health and nutrition--many of them for the first time. They lost more than 15,000 pounds.

Shape Up Sisters! is a get-healthy prescription for regular people with jobs, budgets, and real-life challenges. Fondren offers tactics to incorporate exercise into daily activities, delicious recipes and menus to for eating healthfully on a budget, and motivation for a major attitude shift. She wraps it all in her empowering personal story and the uplifting tales of women who have changed their lives by following her simple strategies.

With Fondren's approachable personality and practical advice, Shape Up Sisters! is both an easy-to-use guide and a bold statement in the greater national narrative about improving health and weight loss across socioeconomic lines.



Rating: 3 stars

Review:

I wanted to read this because I was interested in knowing how the author encouraged her town to get healthy and get in shape. However, I was a little disappointed because the book spent only a small portion focusing on it.

The majority of this book was a combination of health and fitness and self-help with a little bit of the author's biography sprinkled in. This wasn't a bad read but the information provided is more for someone who is new to the whole health and fitness thing and would like to start getting in shape. It has the basics on what healthy food you should eat and various exercises to use to get in shape. There is also motivational and self-help information to help work on your self-esteem and more.

There is a chapter near the end where the author points out ways that others can create a similar program and get involved in your community as well as ways to encourage others to get healthy.

On a side note, I always wanted to do something to help with illiteracy such as work with an existing program or start my own and this book does give me some suggestions to think about.