Fitness Junkie by Lucy Sykes, Jo Piazza

Fitness Junkie

by Lucy Sykes, Jo Piazza

My rating: 4 stars

Publisher: Doubleday (July 11, 2017)

Publication Date: July 11, 2017

Genre: Women's Fiction

Print Length: 304 pages

Available from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

 

 When Janey Sweet, CEO of a couture wedding dress company, is photographed in the front row of a fashion show eating a bruffin—the delicious lovechild of a brioche and a muffin—her best friend and business partner, Beau, gives her an ultimatum: Lose thirty pounds or lose your job. Sure, Janey has gained some weight since her divorce, and no, her beautifully cut trousers don't fit like they used to, so Janey throws herself headlong into the world of the fitness revolution, signing up for a shockingly expensive workout pass, baring it all for Free the Nipple yoga, sweating through boot camp classes run by Sri Lankan militants and spinning to the screams of a Lycra-clad instructor with rage issues. At a juice shop she meets Jacob, a cute young guy who takes her dumpster-diving outside Whole Foods on their first date. At a shaman's tea ceremony she meets Hugh, a silver fox who holds her hand through an ayahuasca hallucination And at a secret exercise studio Janey meets Sara Strong, the wildly popular workout guru whose special dance routine has starlets and wealthy women flocking to her for results that seem too good to be true. As Janey eschews delicious carbs, pays thousands of dollars to charlatans, and is harassed by her very own fitness bracelet, she can't help but wonder: Did she really need to lose weight in the first place? A hilarious send-up of the health and wellness industry, Fitness Junkie is a glorious romp through the absurd landscape of our weight-obsessed culture.

 

Fitness Junkie by Lucy Sykes, Jo Piazza

Welcome to one of the true horrors of our society…weight. Get ready to see our weight obsession through the eyes of humor, attitude and snark when Janey’s world crashed around her and she fell for the, “I’ll be happier, healthier, more successful and more likable if I am thinner,” garbage she was fed, along with a good dose of clay.

Janey’s sometimes painful, sometimes comical journey to weight loss all began with an unspoken lie from her best friend. Get ready to laugh out loud, and witness the extremes our looks-conscious society will go to in search of shedding just one more pound. Sure, this is fiction, but I think Lucy Sykes and Jo Piazza nailed more truths than meet the eye! FITNESS JUNKIE is a wonderful satire that showcases the absurdity of a society that would kill itself for a number on a scale or the size tag on a dress.

I’m not sure Janey felt real to me, but she did feel like the tool used to make the weight loss industry look pretty outlandish. Sure her miracle diets, programs and exercises were over the top, but that is what amps up the humor.

Sometimes a little overdone, but always entertaining, especially if one eats a bruffin while reading. Did Janey learn a lesson? What did she take away from the horrors she put her self through? Satire or not....this hits some pretty hot topics without apology!

I received an ARC edition from Doubleday in exchange for my honest review.