Get with the Program!: Getting Real about Your Weight, Health, and Emotional Well-Being

by Bob Greene

Book Overview

Losing weight is the easy part; it's keeping it off that's hard. In Get With the Program , bestselling author Bob Greene gives you the keys to losing weight and staying fit for a lifetime.
The four-phase plan in Get With the Program is like having your own personal trainer to take you through the psychological, physical, and emotional challenges that are keeping you from weight loss success. There are no arbitrary deadlines...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743238044
• ISBN13: 9780743238045
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.2" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Couldn't put it down!!

I've been on Weight Watchers for 13 weeks and have lost 27 pounds but I needed a program to get me "going" again because I have reached a plateau. Having seen Bob Greene on Oprah I decided to try his book. I started reading and couldn't put it down. I've never read a "self-help" book that I didn't get totally bored with after the first chapter. This book explains why my body functions as it does, why I gain a couple of pounds after loosing 4, etc. I have a much better understanding of my body and my emotions. I am also a smoker and I feel that this book will be the catalyst I need to stop the nasty habit once and for all. Thanks for such an eye-opening and informative book and thanks to Oprah for really putting it out there.

Realistic advice on how to get fit

Let's be clear up front: there are no major breakthroughs or miracles in this book. Most every American alive knows what it would take to get fit (exercise) and lose weight (eat less fat and junk). To a certain extent, therefore, "Get with the Program" is just a re-formulation of the hard facts we all know. What Bob Greene has devised is a realistic and relatively painless way of adopting those healthy practices into your life on a long-term basis. There are 4 incremental stages to the program which are simple and designed for each person to follow at their own pace. This means that you don't have to wake up tomorrow morning, starve yourself and run out the door for 2 hours at the gym. Step 1 is simple: start a minimum of aerobic exercise, basic stretches and some abdominal exercises a couple of times a week. Easy enough. Once you've thoroughly incorporated that into your life, you move on to stage 2 where exercise picks up a little. Not until you reach stage 4 do you begin to actively change your eating habits; that can be months or years later. This is a fitness program that isn't intimidating and isn't going to require you to drastically change your whole lifestyle immediately in order to get results and start feeling better about yourself. This means that a lot of people who haven't been successful in weightloss or exercise programs before are finally going to succeed in making long-term changes to their lives. Again, this isn't a radical fad diet (in fact, the nutritional advice is rather skimpy - follow Greene's principals, but don't hesitate to supplement the nutritional info if you need to)- it's about making gradual changes at a pace you can live with.

Easy, practical advice for better health

Greene's concept of physical fitness and health is simple: eat less, move more, and you'll lose weight and feel healthier. It's time to throw away stupid fad diets which cannot be maintained for life. Greene is candid and honest about what it takes to lose weight and increase fitness. This is not a diet, nor a strict exercise plan. Rather, the phased approach to gradually increasing health and fitness makes it easy for even a sedentary individual to make a positive lifestyle change. Although my level of cardiovascular fitness is decent (I already do the amount that Greene suggests for the final phase), I have always struggled with emotional eating. So much of this book is devoted to simple, easy-to-understand discussion of why people are emotional eaters, and what can be done to change. It has been so helpful; I have completely curbed my emotional binge eating. It hasn't been easy, but Greene's recommendations on a healthy diet have really made a difference. This book is intended primarily for those who are looking to begin a lifestyle change, but I believe it is appropriate even for those who are already working towards their fitness goals.

Show Up for Yourself and Improve Appearances!

Mr. Greene's book is a delightfully low-impact way to improve your health, appearance, conditioning, and weight. The book is built around his experience as a personal trainer and exercise physiologist to get your body moving in more helpful ways.You set the pace, and you decide how much improvement to make. If you want to make more improvement, the advice is here. Like most books about health, the "solution" reflects the author's perspective and experience. Mr. Greene knows exercise, so you get a lot of exercise. But he fleshes it out with good information on water, food, and mental preparation. If you think you would like to exercise more, this book will please you. If you don't think you want to exercise more, then this book may not appeal to you. In addition, the book focuses on women in the text and in the photographs. So many men won't feel like this book is aimed at them. If you are a man and want exercise advice, try Body for Life which has photographs of women and men. Overall, I suspect that people with Type O blood will benefit the most from this book, as long as they avoid wheat products. The book starts with working on having you drink more water, understand your mental attitudes towards making personal improvements, and make a commitment to get healthier. Before you are done, you will sign a contract with yourself. Personally, I thought that the contract would have been more appealing if it had been rewritten to be more explicit about changes in your life other than food changes. So consider rewriting it to make it more powerful for you.Gradually, you add drinking more water, stretching, aerobic exercise, reducing your alcohol consumption, stopping emotionally driven eating, and finally adopt a better diet and do some light lifting. The whole focus is on increasing your metabolic rate so you burn fat, build some muscle, and get properly hydrated. My prediction is that most people will at least improve their hydration and flexibility as a result of using this book. That would be a fine result. If you get further, that's great!I really liked the way the book combined a spiral binding with a hard cover so that it lies flat. As a result, you can study a page without using your hands to hold the book down. There are also lots of logs to fill out so you can keep track of how you are doing. If you are like me, you will do better by writing down how it's going. Every time I measure my behavior, I am astonished at how much I learn about myself. With this book, there's no excuse for not learning about your behavior patterns in ways that will probably improve your habits.Make progress, one step at a time.

A January AND July Book

"Get With the Program" is the perfect January book. Buy it, though, not because of a New Year's resolution, but because you want to lose weight. Buy it as if you would have bought it in July.Greene's phased approach keeps things realistic. While it is true that your lifestyle must change, it is also true that even if only phase one is complete, you'll be better off. However, each phase not only adds to the previous phase, but multiplies the effect. Intensity increases, and the quality of fitness will increase.Starting is easy. Finishing is hard. Greene is positive and honest, and recognizes that there is more to fitness than eating right and exercise. He avoids the self-help mantras that most of us have mumbled in futility. His system of tracking results will encourage you as you see things improve.I fully recommend "Get With the Program." And when you buy it, follow-through. In July, you'll be recommending the book!Anthony Trendl