Getting A Grip: On My Body, My Mind, My Self (2009) - Plot & Excerpts
This book was particularly interesting to me as Monica Seles was the number one women's tennis player in the world around the time I was playing on my high school's tennis team. There is a lot of tennis jargon that the average reader might not enjoy, but if one understands the game, the descriptions create great visual images of some of her matches. It was a treat for me to step inside an elite athlete's mind and examine some of her thought processes (along with the training and some natural abilities) that pushed her to the top. Additionally, we get a glimpse of people, places, events, and even cuisines we might not otherwise experience. What struck me was how totally NORMAL this celebrity is as a person. As a person in the health industry who does not subscribe to the "calories in minus calories out" theory, I found her frustrations to be dead on. Here is an athlete training six to eight hours a day, at times meticulously counting calories, and still not seeing the scales budge. Weight is so much more intricate than that simple, mythical formula being perpetuated by most doctors, trainers, nutritionist, and the public in general. For example, two different foods with exactly the same caloric content can have entirely different impacts on the body. I think her body finally released the weight as she began to tap into these truths, finding balance by choosing to exercise more moderately (enjoying brisk walks outdoors twice a day), eat real foods, be at peace with herself and fill her life with meaning instead of food. This book is so well written that she either has a ghost writer or is almost as talented an author as she is a tennis player! Either way, you feel as though you've gained a close friend by the book's end. So apparently I've become the sort of person who reads sports autobiographies. I was having a hard time getting motivated to go back to roller derby after breaking my leg, and I remembered something Monica Seles wrote once for Glamour in which she basically said all she wanted to do after getting stabbed was sit around and eat ice cream, and I was like, "Yep, that sounds about right." This book did achieve its intended effect of motivating me to go back, but not in the "If Monica Seles can do it, so can I!" way I expected--more along the lines of, "Practicing for two hours a few times a week doesn't seem that bad compared to Monica Seles' training schedule." I found that I enjoyed a lot of this book, particularly the recounting of her tennis career and her eventual attitude toward attaining balance and moderation. My only complaint is that the conclusion felt a bit rushed in comparison to the build-up--after all those scenes of restrictive diets and self-sabotage, it seemed like there wasn't much ink devoted to how she overcame that pattern.
What do You think about Getting A Grip: On My Body, My Mind, My Self (2009)?
I absolutely loved this book. It was heartbreaking and inspiring.
—RayRay
What an inspiration! Really enjoyed it and admire her even more.
—bookluvr
