Dee's Book

Thin is Just a Four-Letter Word

Living Fit -- For All Shapes and Sizes

What happens when you stand five feet tall and top the scales at more than 300 pounds? When you've tried every diet on the planet, started dozens of exercise programs, and lost hundreds of pounds -- and then gained them all back again, and more? That was me seven years ago. At age thirty-one, I was morbidly obese and suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure. I couldn't bend over to tie my shoes. I couldn't play with my kids. And I wouldn't leave the house because I could barely breathe. I hated the way I looked. I was obsessed with my weight. And one by one, I gave up on all of it: the diets, the exercise, and finally, even the hope.

But one day a friend offered me a one-month free membership at a local gym, I decided that this time it would be different. I had been killing myself for years. I had nothing left to lose. Although I was scared to death when I walked into that gym, I resolved to stick with it. And slowly but steadily, forcing myself to go each day, I started to feel better, and then the inches began to come off -- even without dieting -- as I discovered the joy of movement, the power of my own body, and the conviction that I belonged in that exercise studio just as much as anyone.

Since 1992, Dee Hakala has lost 100 pounds and 36 inches -- and kept them off. She'd dropped five dress sizes, and her health problems have disappeared. And most important, she's launched a revolutionary fitness program combining exercise, behavior modification, and group support that's designed for people who are overweight, medically supervised, or inactive. The New Face of Fitness is for those thousands of "Americans who, just like Dee, have felt let behind by the diet-and-fitness industry.

This is Dee's own story, a tale of perseverance that explains how she pulled herself out of despair and compulsive eating and began to change, step-by-step -- first her own life, then hundreds, and now thousands, of other lives through her New Face of Fitness programs, launched with the help of Nike's inaugural Fitness Innovation Award and now operating in YWCA's and other facilities across the country. From Tampa to Topeka, from Cleveland to Kauai, Dee is changing the face of fitness. Her message is powerful and exhilarating: You don't have to be a hardbody to be healthy. And self-esteem and well-being begin inside your body and work their way out.

This is the book that will inspire you to get up off the couch and stay off the couch. It will show you how to start feeling happy and energized from the moment you start moving , without expensive equipment or a gym membership. And it will help you train your brain, so that by the end, you will know that you can do it: You can become fit -- at any shape or size. Guaranteed: If you believe it, you will achieve it.

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"Awesome! You Go Girl! This was the first 'health and fitness' book that I could relate to. I felt as if Dee was taking my own experiences and thoughts and putting them down as her own." - a Washington reader.

"Powerful words of healing, truth & love for the obese. Finally a person honest enough to say what being obese can mean to a person. Dee Hakala's words have become a healing force in my life." - a Desoto, Texas reader

Cloth cover by Little, Brown & Company: Retail $19.95 released 1997
Paper back by Dell Publishers: Retail $6.50 released 1998