Kathy Freston
The Lean: A Revolutionary (and Simple!) 30-Day Plan for Healthy, Lasting Weight Loss
Weinstein Books
US Hardcover First Edition
ISBN 978-1-60286-173-2
Publication Date: 03-27-2012
332 Pages; $25
Date Reviewed:12-22-2014
Reviewed by: Rick Kleffel © 2014


Index:  Non-Fiction

Ever since reading what was then called 'The Confessions of Zeno' (but has since been re-translated and-retitled 'Zeno's Conscience') by Italo Svevo, I've been a fan of what I understood as "Zeno's paradox." I understood this to mean that in order to get anywhere, you have to go halfway there. You then have to cover half the remaining distance, and so on, infinitely, assuring that you can never arrive.

Svevo is a fantastic and highly under-rated writer, but I digress, assuring you that I have not yet even actually begun to review the book at hand. I shall, by increments, get to the point, for increments are themselves the point in the latest work from Kathy Freston, author of 'Quantum Wellness.' For all that the former was a Mission Statement for incremental self-improvement, this time around Freston offers the polar opposite.

'The Lean' proves to also be a deceptive title, though the follow on, 'A Revolutionary (and Simple!) 30-Day Plan for Healthy, Lasting Weight Loss,' gives a better idea. Still, Freston is not talking about "lean" as in "thin" or "low in fat." She's talking bout "leaning into" change, one do-able bit at a time. In this book, she takes a very practical how-to approach. For each of thirty days, Freston suggests one simple change you can make to your behavior or your diet. The upshot of all these half-journeys may not cover the hole distance but it is quite likely to get you somewhere.

Freston starts out simple — drink water. She pretty much keeps it simple as well, but she's definitely leaning into a vegan lifestyle. While I am thoroughly omnivorous st this point in my eating career, her inclinations in this direction manage to be thoughtful without being strident. For that alone, I have to think that there's more here than the sum of the parts — but that is the point.

Freston's chapters are short, easily read, and her changes are not difficult to implement. She emphasizes flexibility, not rigidity. She offers and suggests change across a wide variety of platforms, many of which will be familiar to readers of 'Quantum Wellness.' If you like the ideas in 'Quantum Wellness' then you'll like the practical approach in 'The Lean.' Even if you don't end up with runway model good looks, the chances are you'll make some sort of pleasing changes. And that, according to Zeno, will get you halfway there.