Memoir

[close] When Bill Baroni was twentyyears old, he thought he was having a heart attack.

The chest pains he felt turned out to be indigestion, but they were precisely the wakeup call he needed to change (and probably save) his life. Bill weighed nearly 320 pounds and was hooked on junk food.

In Fat Kid Got Fit, he recounts his relationship with food in startlingly frank terms and explains how he realized the only way to change your body for good is by changing your lifestyle. A year after his quest began, he had lost over 120 pounds, and he’s kept it off for more than fifteen years. Today at 6'2" and 185 pounds, Bill is trim, handsome, healthy, and—best of all—happy.

Bill is not a doctor or personal trainer. He’s not a salesman hawking gym equipment, vitamin supplements, or workout videos. He did not have gastric bypass surgery, nor did he subscribe to the bizarre tabloid slimming regimes used by some Hollywood stars. Bill lost weight using common sense, dedication, and gumption, and made the journey from fat to fit. Anyone trying to manage their weight will find no truer friend, no better guide than someone who’s already been there and done it. Someone like Bill Baroni.

** U.S. Giveaway only!

Library Journal STARRED REVIEW:

“Baroni is neither a trainer, nor a doctor, nor a dietitian, nor a salesman. He’s an ordinary civil servant who lost 120 pounds by following the Duke University Diet & Fitness Center plan. Ten weeks there gave him the knowledge he needed to recognize what the fast-food lifestyle was doing to him. He traces his own path and, with humor and style, passes the information he learned along to readers. This can work for anyone.”

***

"Fat Kid Got Fit is a must read book for anyone battling their weight. It introduces a new role model to the millions of people worldwide who are fighting for healthier lives.Obesity presents a serious and daunting modern health problem, especially for children. Yet Bill Baroni offers solutions.
We can all learn something from his vision, determination, and strength."

The Honorable Tommy G. Thompson,
Former Secretary of Health & Human Services
Former Wisconsin Governor


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[close] Mike Cope’s best teacher was his mentally disabled daughter. Megan taught her father secrets more profound than anything he’d learned in college and seminary. This moving book shares those secrets in a way that will make readers laugh and cry and find new hope.

She was a beautiful pint-sized girl with a big love. And the best scholars in the world couldn’t teach what she did in her brief life. Megan died at age ten. But her life has exposed some of the insanities of the world and revealed four life-giving secrets.

Lovingly written by Megan’s father, this unique inspirational book wraps these four secrets in stories that will restore hope to those grieving a death or second choice, and all who have a heart for a spunky little girl whose only full sentence was, “I’m Megan!”

All readers who long to see modern-day examples of the “little ones” Jesus held on his lap and loved will be inspired and moved to laugh and cry and exult in God’s incredible wisdom spoken through a disabled child. [close]

[close] Alan Kaufman recounts with unvarnished honesty the story of the alcoholism that took him to the brink of death, the PTSD that drove him to the edge of madness, and the love that brought him back. Son of a French Holocaust survivor, Kaufman was a drinker so mauled by his indulgences that it is a marvel that he hung on long enough to get into recovery. With his estranged daughter as inspiration, Kaufman cleaned himself up at age 40, taking full responsibility for nearly destroying himself, his work, and so many loved ones along the way. Kaufman minces no words as he looks back on a life pickled in self-pity, self-loathing, and guilt, delivering a lacerating, cautionary tale of a life wasted and reclaimed. [close]