The Healthy Deviant: A Rule Breaker's Guide to Being Healthy in an Unhealthy World

Pilar Gerasimo

Jan 2020 · North Atlantic Books

About this ebook

A RADICAL APPROACH TO WELLNESS: This self-help book rejects ‘one-size-fits-all’ dieting and health advice to offer practical strategies for getting healthy—your way.

What kind of society makes being healthy and happy so difficult that only a small percentage of the population can pull it off? A sick society.
 
And within a sick society—one where illness, anxiety, and depression are the prevailing norms—what does it mean to be one of the few people to beat those unhealthy odds? It means bucking a lot of your society’s norms and rejecting a lot of its conventional health prescriptions. It also means acknowledging a disturbing truth: If you aren’t breaking the rules, you’re probably breaking yourself. That’s the simple, provocative philosophy behind The Healthy Deviant, one seasoned health journalist’s quest to reframe healthy choices as a positive form of social rebellion.
 
Combining hand-drawn infographics and statistics with insights from sociology, psychology, evolutionary biology, functional medicine, and the school of hard knocks, this category-defying book rejects the idea that diet and exercise alone can save us—or are even the best places to start. Gerasimo’s 14-day Healthy-Deviant Adventure Program presents a series of powerful perspective shifts and simple daily practices—plus illustrations, infographics, worksheets, reminders, and progress tracking tools—that put you firmly back in charge of your own wellbeing.
 
Part manifesto, part whispered wake-up call, The Healthy Deviant is a modern-day survival guide for being a healthy person in an unhealthy world. Starting now.

Ratings and reviews

It’s hard to be healthy when you’re living in an unhealthy world. That’s the premise of Pilar Gerasimo’s latest book, The Healthy Deviant. Don’t let the title deter you. Gerasimo’s definition of a deviant isn’t a troublemaker or outcast, it’s simply someone with enough personal oomph not to stay stuck in the status quo. At its heart, healthy deviance is about being willing to break a few social ‘rules’ instead of breaking yourself. Gerasimo urges readers to challenge social conventions as she unpacks the mismatch between our genetic evolution as human beings and the unhealthy social realities constructed around us. It’s all done in a conversational manner with plenty of evidence-based scientific underpinning. You’d expect nothing less from a seasoned health journalist. Gerasimo doesn’t offer any magic-bullet solutions — they are part of the problem she argues — so this is not your typical prescriptive self-help manual. However, for the intelligent and curious, there’s plenty of practical advice to implement within the 300+ pages. Suggestions for daily “renegade rituals” and a 14-day Healthy Deviant Adventure program allow you to structure your long-term behaviour change efforts in the ways that will work for you. There’s even a downloadable workbook available for free if you should need it too. Approach this as a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book, and The Healthy Deviant will equip you with a strong set of tools and techniques to wrest back your health and your life.

Half way through and there's still no real advice or recommendations. The author just continues to ramble on about the importance of defying the American culture but doesn't give specific examples about the most important things to defy. Then he goes on to say that he doesn't recommend a specific diet or exercise regime which is ridiculous. It's not enough to stop eating like the majority you have to know what diet to replace it with. Instead of this book read how not to die and the blue zones.

About the author

PILAR GERASIMO is an award-winning health journalist, founding editor-in-chief of Experience Life magazine (national paid circulation 750,000; estimated reach 3.2 million), and the creative force behind the popular mobile app, "101 Revolutionary Ways to Be Healthy." Gerasimo previously served as the top editor of Healthy Living for Huffington Post, where she was also a longtime blogger. She co-hosts The Living Experiment podcast (livingexperiment.com) with Whole30 founder Dallas Hartwig, which earned a top-five spot on iTunes in its first week. A frequent speaker, workshop leader, and expert guest for radio and TV, Gerasimo is currently serving as Chief Creative Officer for the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She splits her time between New York City and her family's organic farm in western Wisconsin. Learn more at PilarGerasimo.com.