Chubster: A Hipster's Guide to Losing Weight While Staying Cool

Recently I was perusing my library system's cache of weight-loss/dieting books (I know that might get people all up in arms, for some reason they always do when I talk about me and dieting -- but hang on for a second before I get all the naknaknakking) and came upon a book by Martin Cizmar called Chubster: A Hipster's Guide to Losing Weight While Staying Cool.

Never mind trimming off fat, did I really just rea that title?! And so, I borrowed the book.

(By the way, apologies to hipsters everywhere. I don't mean to rag on you. I just found the juxtaposition of a dieting book and hipsters kinda funny from the "what how seriously" point of view.)

As much as I thought the book would be a good laugh (as I, for one, do not quite identify with the hipster subculture), it was actually more accessible than I thought it would be. Sure, the narration got snarky and stereotypical hipster-y (something you've probably never heard of--sorry, sorry, I'll stop) at points, since the audience it's aimed it is...well...hipsters, those on the forefront fringe of youth culture, and I couldn't help but giggle when there came a part when a basic caricature of the various stereotypes (the hippie or "granola", a music hipster going to concerts of bands we've never heard of, the trendily nerdy bookworms, the artsy fashionistas, the Twitter prodigies...etc) was given to suggest different ways of going about the "Chubster" plan. But, even the author admitted those stereotypes were...well...stereotypes, extreme cases.

I have to say though, just to get it out there, the Music Snob Hipster was what made me start laughing. The idea of ironic 80's band t-shirts (why they're ironic...I guess 'cause there's no way you'd actually have a shirt firsthand from old bands and they're so old it's ironically being slowpoke.jpg?) and a portable turntable put me in the mind of a character, Dave Strider, from Homestuck, and the ability to concentrate and be mature about things spiraled from there.

If you look past the aim towards being "cool" by the modern standards of being a barista that frequents art galleries and doesn't roll with "The Man," though, the book gives some pretty sound advice. It focuses on calorie counting, and even gives a small sampling of what's calorically better or worse among some fast foods, ethnic foods, and microwaveable meals -- taste taken into consideration as well. Apparently alcohol is a large concern, at least by this book, so there's a whole section discussing the goods/bads of your various recreational drugs (alcohol and marijuana, specifically). There are also some good organizational tips, like creating a database of foods you eat and their nutritional values so that you start to, over time, get a broad picture of what's a better or worse idea in your personal diet.

As exercise, too, is generally considered important for health, the book gives some good alternatives to simply signing up for the nearest gym. Example: walking.

The book tries to drive home that, so long as you're aware of what you're eating and expending energy-wise, you can get a handle on your body. I really liked that it gave a starting point for foods, including defining 'fancier' foods like foi gras and whether it may be a good or bad idea to have (i.e. I would have sworn foi gras was a plant, since gras looks like grass. I was wrong. It's duck fat or something like that. NOT a green like arugula or endive). Not only does it give you a few reference points, it shows in its brief analyses some of the things you should look out for. Another example is the entry on quinoa, where it's pointed out that quinoa IS nutritious, but it's also caloric -- something that has to be taken into consideration with what the meal is.

So, while I sort of took the book out as a shallow joke, it's actually a worthwhile thing to browse through if you're thinking about dieting. It's written by someone who's done the weight loss thing, who has definitely done their research, and who very relatably did not want to glue to a crazy fad diet (never mind if it's too mainstream, those are too ineffective on the whole!).