So many of the diet and exercise books I have read and reviewed over the past few years have really been geared to people who are already somewhat health conscious. They require huge major lifestyle shifts including throwing out all the food in your kitchen and replacing it with healthier items, exercising at least an hour a day, and taking many supplements.
So I was interested in fellow Pilates Teacher Kathi Casey's Get Off the Couch, Potato! How to Lose Inches while Watching Oprah... if only because it is a 30 day program geared to the super de-conditioned obese lazy person who is not going to get up, throw out the potato chips, and suddenly eat brown rice and exercise an hour a day. From my experience most people fit into this latter category and are looking for the easiest way possible to make a change.
Casey uses a very pleasant, funny, simple, and slow approach to lifestyle change that incorporates daily affirmations, exercises done on the couch (except for a few walks to the kitchen and back - really!), and a few minor diet changes. Casey's premise is that making tiny simple changes every day will create larger changes in the long run, and this approach generally works.
Whether it is doing five leg lifts on the couch while watching Oprah or marching in place while brushing your teeth, the activities probably eat up about 10 minutes per day but after 30 days I can see that they would make a difference. This is not a book for anyone who is even partly active, but is a great introduction to movement and feeling good about yourself for the primarily home-bound, inactive, obese person.
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