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{{infobox
|title= How to Get a Celeb's Body: Discover the Secrets of the Stars with Your Own Personal Trainer
|author= Elise Lindsay
|reviewer= Ekaterina Rodyunina
|genre=Home and Family
|summary= I am positive that if you do it all - detox, probitiocs instead of booze, then meticulous food diary, then gruelling exercises for hours per day, cooking your own health food, - yes, it will work. It is in fact inevitable. It has to. Low calorie healthy diet and sport work. We did not need Elise Lindsay to tell us that, which is why the book leaves a bad impression.
|rating=2
|buy= No
|borrow= Maybe
|format= Paperback
|pages=224
|publisher= Michael Joseph Ltd
|date= January 2008
|isbn=978-0718153373
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718153375</amazonuk>
|amazonus=<amazonus>0718153375</amazonus>
}}

I do not know Elise Lindsay - neither by name or reputation. I am optimistic and therefore think she must be a great coach. A hundred plus pages with pictures show her posing very confidently in flattering sport outfits and she does seem quite fit. I am sure she can motivate her clients and make them do their best. Quite frankly though, I do not believe that should in any way have motivated anyone to write a book.

Making a workout DVD is one thing, writing is another. People actually have time in between stretches and pushups to stop and wonder at what they are reading. Here is where the literary gems come in. On the back cover, the book promises to make you ''lose a couple of inches from your waist in just seconds''. I will save you fifteen quid and tell you how to do it: straighten your back and suck your stomach in - amazing, isn't it? All right - we all know about marketing, and how hard it is to sell books these days, so let's forgive that and move on.

About page fouteen Elise advises us to get a food diary - a very fresh and exciting idea none of you have, no doubt, ever tried before. Page twenty seven gives you tips about how to avoid food temptation - ''cut down ayour portion sizes'' and ''don't order super-sized meals when eating out''. One would assume that is is very obvious that you should avoid overeating to lose weight, but apparently it deserves attention.

''Swap Bacardi Breezers for Probiotics'' another page cheerfully suggests. There is no chance on Earth I am swapping my Bacardis for probiotics. Not even close. Now, whoever is with me on that one, see you next AA meeting.

The book continues with the healthy and calorie-conscious meal recipes, which made me shrink in horror - spicy vegetable pot takes more that an hour to prepare. Most of us barely have time for a sitting-at-my-desk-working-and-eating-a-carrot lunch these days, but obviously that does not bother Elise.

If you still did not throw away the book by then, that's where the hundred plus pages of exercises start. I really tried to understand what has to be done in what sequence, but there is not much clear indication: ''you can choose and vary your exercise regime''. Right, well, thanks.

To cut the sacrcasm though - I am positive it works wonders. I am positive that if you do it all - detox, probitiocs instead of booze, then meticulous food diary, then gruelling exercises for hours per day, cooking your own health food, - yes, it will work. It is in fact inevitable. It has to. Low calorie healthy diet and sport work. We did not need Elise Lindsay to tell us that, which is why the book leaves a bad impression.

One other tiny detail - the foreword by Coleen McLoughlin, whose name I actually had to google to figure out who she is - amounts to a page and includes the following words ''I first met Elise when we were training for my fitness DVD''. Thanks for the honesty, but sorry to hear you issue a fitness DVD for people who want your body, and have to train to look good on it. Where is this world going?

Thanks to Penguin Books for sending this book to The Bookbag.

For a book that seems to work through mind rather than body, but still make you slim and happy, check out [[You Can Think Yourself Thin by Ursula James]].

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[[Category:Lifestyle]]