The Great Aussie Bloke Slim Down

 

You have a new best mate.

If you, like Fitzsimmons and myself, are a middle aged male carrying way too much weight. Your new best mate is Peter Fitzsimmons, the author of the recently released "The Great Aussie Bloke Slim Down". This isn't a book so much as a conversation between two friends. Fitzsimmons doesn't break the fourth wall so much as he rips it up and throws it away. You and Fitzsimmons are old mates. He tells you that he was with you every time you over ate, he was the one bumping you out of the queue at the “all you can eat buffet”. He makes the point of his book that it is sugar, not fat, that is making us obese within the first half dozen pages and then elaborates on it.

There is very little chance that you are going to read something that you do not already know in this book. I kept hearing myself whilst reading it...and sure enough everything that Fitzsimmons says about the dangers of refined sugar are things that I have already written about in a blog of my own. Fitzsimmons begins each chapter with some stick in your mind quotes…”You can’t outrun a bad diet”.

Where Fitzsimmons is very good is establishing a relationship with his reader. Not for a moment does he pretend to be anything other than a former fatty who lost a lot of weight. And this is where Fitzsimmons makes his claim to credibility…he isn’t asking his reader to do something that he hasn’t. Fitzsimmons repeatedly tells us that he is proud of the fact that he isn't a Nutritionist or Dietician and uses his lack of specialist knowledge to build the readers knowledge base of the composition of food. Fitzsimmons explains what protein, glucose, carbohydrate and high fructose corn syrup are in ordinary language. He also goes through current diet trends and fads at some length…and candour.

Where Fitzsimmons is annoying is his decision to call his reader “Fatty Boomka”. I’ve been called any number of things in my time, but Boomka is one of the most annoying. Having said this, being called “Boomka” repeatedly throughout the 237 pages of this book wasn’t enough to detract from the message or the value of the book.

"The Great Aussie Bloke Slim Down" is easy to read and genuinely useful.