Can You Really Think and Grow Thin? Our Thoughts on the Book by President Clinton’s Trainer

If you’ve ever been to this site before, then you know that when it comes to getting healthy, we believe it’s about more than just what you eat and how you move—it also has a lot to do with how you talk to yourself and how you treat yourself. So with the title of the new book Think and Grow Thin: The Revolutionary Diet & Weight-Loss System That Will Change Your Life in 88 Days, well, we were on board. Any book that is focused on how our thoughts can influence our ability to live a healthy lifestyle is A-OK with us. But did the content live up to the title? We dove in to see…

First, you should know that this book is written by former President Bill Clinton’s trainer, Charles D’Angelo, which, while there are a lot of celeb trainers out there, not many can say they’ve trained a president. So there’s that. Also, this book is less book and more magazine, which is a nice change of pace. Full of big photos and graphics and pull-quotes with tons of tips and divided up into easier-to-digest sections, it’s kind of like Choose Your Own Adventure, fitness style. And with sections on tools to transform your mind, how to become motivated, designing your destiny and maintaining your weight (so many books skip what happens when you get “there!”), it does a dang good job of giving you a plan on how to harness the power of your brain to get healthy.

The next things you should know about Think and Grow Thin is that Charles isn’t shy about sharing his successes—or his physique. You hear his full inspirational story of going from self-hating and overweight to fit and self-loving—and there is photo after photo of him in the book. Many with his shirt off. With full-on male Glamour Shot pose. Some are full pages. One is shirtless in front of his hot car. So if you’re into that kind of thing (it got old to me), there’s also that. Additionally, and I hate to criticize a book for this because I’d always rather have too much rather than not enough, but there’s so much info and so many tips and steps in the book that I can imagine a newbie being overwhelmed or not knowing where to start.

So my advice? Digest this one slowly. (That way the glamour shots don’t come in as rapid-fire succession, too.) Because really, the advice and the focus is good. —Jenn