I picked up the book last night and look forward to diving in. Are we going to discuss a chapter a week, kind of like you did with Dr Phil, or is there another planned format?

I also picked up Ultimate Fitness by Gina Kolata. According to the blurb, it discusses fitness trends through the years. Wait, let me quote from the back of the book:

"... From weight lifting for men and women in the early days, to joggingg in the 1970s, cycling in the 1980s, aerobics in the 1990s and now Spinning, Kolata explains the science of conditioning, the research behind the health advice, and the obective evidence behind commonly accepted prescriptions on how to get fit and change the way you look. Ultimate Fitness is also a book about Kolata's own passion ofr exercise and the pleasure it gives her. Kolata's love of exercise and of the truth are equally compelling as she writes about the individuals who have challenged and influenced or failed to influence this multimillion dollar corner of American culture."

Has anyone read this? Any interest in in doing this book, or something similar next? You know, kind of balance things out as we all know you need both to be successful for the long term *sigh*

Kolata is a New York Times reporter and I really enjoyed her book in the 1918 Influenza Epidemic so I look forward to reading this.

I read Kolata's book Flu and I liked it a lot as well. However, from what I've heard, this fitness book is very ... biased and not all that helpful. I usually read her articles in the NYTimes, and I get the impression that she has a thing about overweight people ... it's the common message that fat people are somehow morally or spiritually corrupt coupled with constant reports on how impossible it is for anyone overweight to successfully lose weight and keep it off.

Hmmm - I'll keep that in mind as I read it. On one hand though if the bias is keep in the forefront of our thought it could make an interesting discussion. How about another fitness book suggestion? What is the best book you have read on including exercise and different types of exercise in your personal program?

Hi Ellen! Here's a link to our Thin For Life discussion group: http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=51221 . When you want to find it again, it's in the Maintenance Library section of the new Maintainers secton of the forum, right below Diet Plans. It explains how we're going through the book - yep, chapter by chapter. See you on Monday!

I just finished reading "Ultimate Fitness" and while I didn't pick up a bias towards fat people, it didn't measure up to what I was expecting (which was of course the "ultimate" best thing to do to get fit ). It was, however, very interesting as to the basis for many of the fitness "truths" we've been fed along the way. It's very readable too, which helps a lot.

I got my new Thin for Life in the mail this morning, so I'll be ready on Monday.

I just finished "Ultimate Fitness" as well. Like Pat, I was hoping for something else, but it was quite interesting. In this book, she takes a historical look at fitness. She traces trends and phases and tries to provide a broader context for where we are today. For what it's worth, I did not notice a particiular bias. She's a self-professed fitness junkie and her current love is spinning. But she doesn't try to hide that, nor does she discount other exercise. It's a good book to get from the library, in my opinion, rather that purchase (which is, of course, what I did )

Meg - thanks for the link. I saw "Maintainers" in this forum and stopped. It never occurred to me to page down to look for "Maintainers Library".

And everyone else, thanks for your thoughts on "ultimate Fitness". Based on the back cover and my previous knowledge of Kolata I expected more of a history/retrospective rather than a summary of what is the best fitness program. I still look forward to reading it, but Fletcher goes first so I can talk about it with y'all next week!

Yup, got mine from the library too, though, of course, I buy the books for the library, so my library does always seem to have what I want to read.

Ellen- I really doubt that we could come up with any one book that would give us the "ultimate fitness plan" to discuss. One of the things that is so interesting about this board is that although we've all come to the point where exercise is a daily part of our lives, everyone has their own plan based on their likes and dislikes, physical capabilities, and goals. For me, I'd have to say that Bill Phillips' Body for Life was the most influential fitness book I ever read because it was what got me started on serious weight training. But what I do now bears very little resemblance to BFL. The actual book I open most often is Scwartzenagger's The New Encyclopedia of Modern BodyBuilding, or Juan Carlos Santana's Function Fitness manuals but I doubt those would be of general interest.

Mel

Sorry to have confused you (and probably everyone else! ). We're in the process of moving from this forum to our new and expanded space on the board where we can have subforums and lots of room to grow. That's why there's TWO Maintainers Forums right now, but after this weekend, there will only be one. Tomorrow morning, when I'm fortified by several mugs of coffee, I'm going to move the last three pages of posts to the new forum. Think it will burn any calories??

I totally get what you are saying. I think this thread will help me (http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=50697) and I plan on checking out some of these books after I get through my backlog. Ugg - I'm sure you know what that is like. I did not mean one book would hold "THE" answer and perfect plan. I figure the fitness part is like the diet part and there is not one right thing for all of us. I know my eating is a mix of a number of different things (WW - more core than flex now but flex helped me to understand portion size, SBD after the Induction Phase, SuperFoods Rx). I was looking more for the discussion group than one specific plan.

Thanks for the other suggestions, too. I have read BFL and must tell you that is part of what gave me the courage to start doing weights in a gym. My program does not look like his, but a number of the exercises are the same. I keep thinking that maybe 20 minutes a day will be my maintenance goal. *sigh*