Drop Dead Healthy: One Man's Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection

A J Jacobs

May 2012 · Random House

About this ebook

After sharpening his mind in The Know-It-All and achieving spiritual enlightenment in The Year of Living Biblically, A.J. Jacobs had only one thing left to tackle in the self-improvement trinity: the body. But his mission wasn't just to lose a couple of pounds, but to turn his current self - 'a mushy, easily winded, moderately sickly blob' - into a paragon of health and vitality.

Armed with a team of medical advisers and a 53-page task list, Jacobs set to work. He subjected his body to a brutal regime of exercise programmes - extreme chewing, anti-gravity yoga and shoeless jogging to name only a few; sampled every miracle diet going, beginning with the 'coffee, booze and chocolate' plan through the 'Rastafarian diet' to raw foodism; as well as sharpening his eyes and mind, testing every known method, and the patience of his long-suffering wife, in his quest to become as healthy as humanly possible.

Drop Dead Healthy is a hilarious account of one man's painful journey from slob to superman, and a fascinating and eye-opening examination of what it really means to be healthy. Revealing the ugly truth about the assumptions and obsessions we have about our bodies, this might just be the healthiest book you'll ever read.

About the author

A. J. Jacobs is the editor at large at Esquire. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Know-It-All. He has contributed to the New York Times, New York magazine, and NPR's Weekend Edition, among others. He lives in New York. See ajjacobs.com for more information.