Janey Sweet, CEO of the fabulous fashion company B, which creates gorgeous high-end wedding dresses for women sized 4 and under, is pictured at a fashion show eating. Not just eating, but eating a bruffin (it's a combination of brioche and muffin). So the dress designer and 51% owner of the company, and her lifelong best friend, Beau asks her to take a step back and re-evaluate her life. Janey realizes that she has put a few extra pounds on, stress eating from her divorce and by working such long hours for the company, so she decides it's time to take on her fears and sugar cravings and lose 30 pounds.
Little does she know what she's getting herself into.
Janey dives headfirst into the world of organic meal delivery services and spinning classes led by rage-filled instructors. There are fitness camps based on Middle Eastern military exercises and juice bars with handsome owners. She meets a shaman and gets an invite to the most exclusive fitness retreat in the city. She watches women eat clay. And drink broccoli water. From Mason jars, preferably vintage ones.
And through it all, as she loses the weight, Janey discovers that what she's gaining is so much better than a smaller waistline. She finds a clarity, a re-connection to her true self, and a knowledge of who she is and what she wants to do with her life.
Fitness Junkie takes you on a wild ride. It starts out shocking, then gets hysterically funny, and ends in with a moving celebration of the power of a good woman. Just like in The Knockoff (which is at least as amazing--if you haven't read it yet, what are you waiting for?), Lucy Sykes and Jo Piazza offer us a powerful satire of a multi-billion dollar industry, and they do without diminishing women. Their women are smart, sassy, strong, connected, and unafraid of the challenges they face.
My only problem with this dynamic writing team is that I read faster than they write.
Fitness Junkie is a charming and funny read with a deep healing quality that both let me laugh at the insanity that we thoughtlessly put ourselves through and cheer for all that's fantastic about humanity. It's as perfect a book as I've been able to find. Read it immediately!
Galleys for Fitness Junkie were provided by Doubleday Books via NetGalley, with all my deep appreciation.