I really enjoyed Jacobs' books The Know-It-All and The Guinea Pig Diaries, so I chose this title from my Audible.com audiobook subscription. I got this fair-condition ex-library hardcover from Better World Books so I'd have a copy to review and release. [The end-papers show different pictures of our author, with bullet items relating different parts of his body to different sections of the book - a kind of amusing visual index.]

Here, Jacobs' task is "bodily perfection," to which end he tackles a variety of diets, exercise regimens, and other things - many of them simultaneously, which rather detracts from the ability to tell which, if any, of the changes are helpful. But then, that's part of the fun. I enjoy his breezy style and informative - one way or another - experiments.

His opening list-of-things-to-do is funny in itself, featuring obvious things (eat more green leafy vegetables, exercise) and not-so-obvious ones (win an Academy award - Oscar winners live 3 years longer than non-Oscar winners; become an Okinawan woman ("a long shot", as he notes)).

He gets advice from many sources, including respectable medical professionals, not-so-respectable lifestyle gurus, and (ahem) the Internet. "The trick... is to avoid quackery at the same time as maintaining childlike enthusiasm for innovation."

Some of his experiments proved much more successful than others, with one of the more-bang-for-the-buck ones involving spending more time on his feet instead of sitting. (For this one, he even piles boxes on a table to make a computer-stand he can use while walking on a treadmill.) This, like anything else, can be overdone, but those of us who spend all day sitting - whether at work or as part of a couch-potato/web-surfing lifestyle(!) - could gain some benefit by simply switching from passive seating to sitting on an exercise ball (which requires constant fine-tuning to stay balanced) or by standing up (whether walking or not). Regarding using the treadmill while composing this book online, he notes "this chapter has taken about 1.5 miles to write".

He also tried running errands - as in, literally running whenever he had to perform an errand on foot. (This has its downsides, including making one arrive all sweaty - and freaking people out when they see a fellow dashing down the street apparently in flight from Godzilla or something.)

Other successes - he finds that using a neti pot helps with cold symptoms (after bemoaning the fact that he still caught cold despite doing all these healthful activities). After struggling with portion control, he finds that packaging his favorite snack in tiny quantities in separate zip-lock bags helps him limit his consumption ("My mind thinks that it's getting a full portion, even if the portion is one slice. My mind, in other words, is an idiot."). That one makes sense to me, as I tend to think "container == portion", which is a problem when diving into a big bag of potato chips or an entire quart of ice cream!

There are loads of funny and informative bits here, with some lifestyle changes that seem quite effective and others that are useless or outright harmful. At the end of the book - after a wrenching note about a health-conscious relative's fate - Jacobs sums up his results in several appendices, including a short lists of "tips for normal people" and additional "tips for the obsessed" (I *think* the one about using your children as barbells is facetious, but I'm not sure) for getting more exercise, improving one's eating habits, reducing stress, and living a quieter life (as in reducing noise pollution). There's also a list of "best food advice I've gotten all year," which opens with a quote from the satirical site The Onion - "Just eat a goddam vegetable." Hee!

I really should take some of the advice myself, especially the part about moving more - I do tend to couch-potato-hood too often. Maybe I'll copy those last few lists and attach them to the fridge - and the TV!

I didn't exactly leave this *at* the brewery, as it's hosting the popular Rock'n Ribfest this weekend and all the parking there and in surrounding areas is packed. So I left the book, bagged against the elements, propped up on the Robert Milligan Parkway sign where that street joins old Rt. 3, not far south of the brewery, at around 3:30 or so. There were lots of cars parked along the roadside there, and people were walking in from even farther, so I hope someone finds and enjoys the book!