Healthy as F*ck

3.75⭐️

Really loved that a lot of this book was about the mental journey to get yourself to the place you want to be. A very healthy narrative was framed around not hating yourself to make yourself lean, focusing on mindset and appreciation of your body, and building healthy habits. I really liked her process of putting in 20% effort to get 80% results by focusing on super attainable goals (1/2 plate of veggies, limit alcohol, get enough sleep, limit stressing, exercise in a way that makes sense for your body and be consistent). None of this is a rocket science and all of it makes sense. Thanks for being refreshing in that manner and providing that laid out in a very candid way.

The loss of stars came when addressing food for me. Although the food chapter ends on “there is no good or bad food” there is an insane amount if pages on what to cut out of your diet and only have seldomly. However, this goes against her talk about everything in moderation and you getting to choose your own level of fitness. She says at one point eat everything but eat less- which is way more sustainable and makes more sense- so what is it? What's your real take?

I feel like this book's view on nutrition comes from a shameless vegan plug. And please do not get me wrong- I think that her view on veg is spot on. We should all be eating way more veg and we should all prioritize plant protein, especially with how studies show it is better for your health. But no consideration was given to those people whose diets are limited in choices and her privilege does show. And to be honest, her view on protein I just don't agree with. Do I think everyone should be eating 150g per day ? No. But do I think her reliance on the FDA recommended amount of protein for women being 60g is accurate? Also no. Too much protein is just additional unneeded calories, but too little protein when you are working out will not help muscle growth. This should be researched by each individual and experimented on how much it takes for you to feel your best. Mine is around 130g as a strength trainer 4x a week and active 5-6 days out of the week. Yours will be different. It takes trial and error. In short; you cannot subscribe to the system (FDA recommendations) while also saying they are wrong (what is constituting as bad protein sources because they don't fit your dietary preferences).

Really solid information and a wonderful take on the mental prep it takes to shift focus to healthy habits, and I loved this book for that aspect. 1 chapter on nutrition knocked a star off for me. Again, this is not because I didn't want to hear what she was suggesting. I have been in various levels of ED for my whole life and know what it's like to cut everything out and also to gouge on everything. But finally in the stages of healing, we should not be triggering people to get rid of all foods they love. Because that acknowledges that your cultural, festive and traditional foods don't fit into the definition of whitewashed health. Michael pollen said it best: eat food, not a lot and mostly plants. Skip the chapter on nutrition particulars (beyond her veg comments) if you don't want to be triggered. Book would have been 5⭐️ if not for that section of the book because no one I've read has addressed mindset like she has.

Expect a very direct tone and some casual swearing. Duncan focuses on habit formation and a nutritional style that is “fill up on veg!” rather than low carb or high protein. Recommended workouts are weights and HIIT.