When’s the last time a diet book actually made you smile? Have you ever read one that made you laugh and feel better about watching your weight? I bet your answer is never. Most programs are heavy with guilt and ridiculous promises. Lisa Pedace gives readers the opposite in this book. It’s all about information you can really use, understand, and apply to your life-long journey of well-being. 

She gets you started by explaining the relationship between body measurements, calories, diets and metabolism. If you’re not a big science person, don’t worry. Lisa uses entertaining examples to get the information across. Throughout the book you also get tools to discover how you can personally apply all the information to managing your own weight. 

Perhaps the most important point made is about business. Anyone who’s dieted knows it’s really about how much you eat and exercise. Truthfully, weight lost isn’t about eating grapefruit, taking pregnancy hormones, or drinking wheat juice shots. Lisa clarifies that in Western culture food, dieting, and exercise are each actually treated as business, or more accurately business opportunities. 

Your health is not the primary focus; for some programs health is not even a consideration. Sales matter not health: selling you those pre-packaged meals, a miracle supplement, or fancy workout shoes. This is an important point—most of the “information” you get is doing the job of advertising, not any thing health-related. In fact, if you don’t loose weight and keep it off, these businesses make even more money. 

The same is true for food: it’s a business.  Non-profit food stores are rare. Once you understand how these factors affect your weight you are better equipped to change it. Fortunately, Lisa taps your sense of humor in the process. 

Her perspective is sound and helpful. It’s your body, your life, and managing your weight is up to you. No matter what they promise, unless you hire someone to control all your food and movement choices (as some celebrities do) you will have to take over the responsibility. There is no miracle pill or diet.

Lisa also reminds us that “Government exists to protect business and manage people. Not the other way around.” This doesn’t seem right but today it is true.

Rather than despair over the failure of government-issued guidelines and the predations of business, grab “The Diet Joke.” You’ll smile, probably even laugh and discover how you can do this for yourself for the rest of your life. You could literally make the reasonable cost of this book the last money you spend on a diet ever again. “The Diet Joke” is about the truth of food, diet, and exercise—not draining your wallet and keeping you fat. 

Reviewed on 09/30/2011 by ReviewTheBook.com Member Heidi Roth

Author, humorist and actress, Lisa Pedace, takes a humorous approach on the subject of dieting, a stab at commercial/Hollywood dieting schemes, and jabs at the weigh-obsessed culture where we are fed twenty-four hours a day by the media telling us what we should and shouldn’t do. The Diet Joke is meant to be a reprogramming guide to help you jump start pass the culture nonsense and help you get starting on changing your life for the better, which isn’t easy since we are constantly bombarded with messages/commercials about new food products. We have to learn that these companies are here to make money and that they don’t care about out health. We have to be smart and not let the advertisers brainwash us into buying the products we don’t need. Even our own government wants to control our health, but we are the only one’s with the power to do something.

 I was interested in reviewing The Diet Joke because I have been dieting and exercising for the last few months. I found the book to a bit of fresh air from the constant dieting and fitness books that are being released through the media. I loved the reprogramming activities that are at the end of each chapter and the jokes are a riot. I’ll have to pay attention at what commercials are aired during my programs. Overall, I really enjoyed reading The Diet Joke and recommend it to everyone.

Reviewed on 06/04/2011 by ReviewTheBook.com Member Billy Burgess

Reviewed on 09/28/2010 by ReviewTheBook.com Member Kathleen Albertson