First off I should say I wasn't aware that the book would contain so much about faith and Christianity. However, it was interesting to hear someones views about how their faith related to these issues. Not entirely relevant to me but a different perspective.
I appreciated the authors simple and straightforward approach. The idea that just a few changes were better than not doing anything. I didn't feel as though it was too hard and I wasn't good enough. It was more as though he was listing here are some things to think about as a starting point.
He seems like a sensible person with sensible advice.

Slightly more religious then I thought it would be, but it didn't put me off at all.
Very much a mind body spirit for the soul book! A lot of the information had been written and read before, but I liked the easy way this was written and explained, it was put together well.
A book to keep handy to dip into
Thank you netgalley

A journey looking at physical, mental and spiritual health. Despite having so much we have never been worse off in terms of being fit for purpose. A thought provoking look at how we live our lives and the choices that we make. It made me think of the whole picture instead of individual areas.

Thankyou to #HarperCollins and Metgalley for the arc in return for an honest review.
This was an informative, fresh look at how we can make ourselves fit for the purpose of everyday life.
This book has a Christian slant and looks at how we can take the best from religion, modern medicine and society to make ourselves, physically, mentally and spiritually the strongest people we can be and the most fit for the purpose in the modern world.
An intersting and fresh look at how we can achieve wellbeing as a whole. Well worth a read

Fit for Purpose is a book on how to get the right balance of physical, mental, social and spiritual wellbeing in your life, be that getting the right amount of sleep, or eating the right types of food.

Whilst this book was fairly well written, it looks at a lot of things from the authors own point of view and is rather wordy. I didn’t find the content very new and I wasn’t a fan of the religious aspect nor the quotes at the beginning of the chapters.

I received this book from Netgalley in return for a honest review.

The author says himself that there is nothing absolutely new in the book but info pulled from a lot of sources, and he does at least reference those sources. I hadn't picked up exactly how rooted in Christianity it would be: while he states it's for all, there were large sections in at least the sleep section about how to run your church / church leadership group which weren't relevant to a large section of the potential audience. Then there was a lot from the Bible on what Jesus did about sleep, food, etc., So I did skim the rest of it but am perhaps not really the audience for it. Good references for books that are worth exploring, and I can see he wrote the book with good and kind intentions.

Not quite what I expected.
Certain aspects of it informative and useful but overall just a little bit disappointing.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for a review.

This book was well written but I didn’t find the content new and personally, wasn’t a fan of the religious aspect.

This is not the book I was expecting , I didn’t realise it was meant to be a holistic guide to life, at least I thought it would be more food based.
I did not enjoy the written style and did not finish it I’m afraid.

Some very interesting points made, especially about inflammation which has made me re-think my constant IBS and realise the importance of relaxation. I understand that the author wanted to discuss spirituality but for me the numerous quotations from the bible were superfluous and I found myself skimming over those sections.

This book is by a British GP who comes across as decent and sensible, and wants to help people improve their lives. He defines GPs as generalists and this book is a summary of various wellbeing self-improvement areas from a generalist’s point of view as opposed to scientific research papers. There was nothing new or ground breaking in the chapters that I read, and so readers looking for an entry level overview of these areas should find some useful information as there is plenty of reasonable and sensible advice. Unfortunately for me, I have read further into sleep, food and movement, and so this book was not for me, and I did not read any further, so I admit that I did not finish it, and may have missed something useful to me as a result. I was pleased to see that the author recommends reading Dr Michael Greger, who is an American physician, who specialises in clinical nutrition, and reviews related scientific research. Another good book he mentions is Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari. A large part of what I read was autobiographical / anecdotal, and there were many references regarding the authors faith, and as a result I would expect that this book would best suit like minded people. I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I don't believe that this book had any new information in it that I didn't already know. It also didn't appear to have up-to-date knowledge in it, the author totally dismissed the vegan diet despite recent evidence proving it is one of the healthiest diets around.
I was not keen on the constant links to Christianity, I am not religious in the slightest and these parts of the book made my eyes glaze over.

I am grateful to have received an arc of this publication but I must be honest that I didn't really find it thought provoking. There wasn't really much I didn't already know and have already read.

I really don't like saying that I didn't like a book as I feel really bad for the author. Just my personal opinion and maybe others out there might find it more beneficial than me.

I like self help books mainly because I find them quite motivating and Fit for Purpose, although saying nothing particularly new, was no exception. What I hadn’t realised is that the author was a practising Christian and Christianity was referenced throughout the book with links to the Bible so I just skipped all these parts and went on to the pages I thought were relevant to me. There was still plenty of information to keep me interested and there were a number of chapters that kept me that I enjoyed. I particularly liked the parts that discuss the need to move more and tips on how to do this. Again, nothing that we don’t already know but reinforcement of good habits I personally find helpful. I think the parts on loneliness and mindfulness will be helpful to some but for me the main benefits on reading this were on movement and diet which I will try to put into practice. The book is generally well written and easy to follow Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me an ARC of this book.

I agree with several other reviewers that this book contains nothing new. I was irritated from the start that the writer defined some pretty commonplace vocabulary. Did he expect an uneducated audience?

I stopped reading during the diet chapter because it is not based on sound research. There is massive evidence for the vegan diet being extremely healthy, but it is dismissed as 'extreme'. And vitamin B12 deficiency is just as much a problem in meat-based as in plant-based diets. Perhaps he needs to read Drs Greger and Klaper for a crash course on nutrition.

I read to learn but there is nothing here for me. I thought maybe the spiritual aspect might add something but a few Bible references are at best superficial.

Sermon on the stump: a Book in search of an audience!

This book is yet another to add to the ever-growing ‘pile’ that purport to tell us, best, how best to live our lives, living them, as we currently are, in one of the most bizarre and alienating situations that could ever have been anticipated by ordinary mortals, (as opposed to governments!) But, leaving that aside, even in relatively ‘normal’ times, obsessing about our health and well-being, is contributing to lots of financial well-being for fitness gurus of all stripes, be they ‘New-Age’ types, or the bearers of somewhat more stolid, traditional, fayre, as in the present case.

It seems, we have a plethora of problems unique to us, because the modern World is unique to us. One latest estimate is that 11 million of us are starving, while the rest are storing up fat like there’s no tomorrow (British population is getting too fat for the planet (yahoo.com)). There is almost, quite literally, an explosion in the incidence of obesity in people across the developed world, and its accompanying health problems: e.g. Type II Diabetes. If you look at the statistics and plot the figures you can see that this appears to correlate with the growth in the number of world-wide McDonalds outlets. Okay, that was supposed to be ‘tongue-in-cheek’; we can’t blame it all on McDonalds; Burger King and Colonel Saunders et. al should take at least part of the blame. The fact is that burger munching, cola guzzling, fast (highly processed) food addicts have rapidly been swelling the numbers of those considered to be afflicted with ‘Syndrome X’; i.e. those with high everything; e.g. blood pressure, triglycerides; cholesterol and blood sugar. Our ‘couch-potato’ mentality has put many of us in danger of remaining horizontal on a permanent basis, earlier than might otherwise have been the case. Essentially, humans evolved at a time when food was scarce, and were forced to ‘starvation’ diet, in between gorging on the odd woolly mammoth. Our body biochemistry hasn’t evolved much beyond that in the 50,000 or so years since. However, our capacity to produce food on tap has, along with a growing propensity to stuff it into our faces as quickly as possible; hence the current increase in food related problems such as heart disease, various cancers, diabetes and so on.

The author is a GP and a practising Christian. And here we have, possibly, the main reason why his book is a bit of a mess. He simply cannot make up his mind who his audience is. What, or who, is it that is not ‘Fit for Purpose’: is it we, as individuals, or as a collective, or as constituents of the various communities of which we are apart: e.g. society, ‘organized’ religious faith groups – or their leaders, individual medical practitioners – or their practices, the NHS, or, the government? Each of these is examined – and found wanting. But the somewhat preachy and pompous style of writing; part apologist, part autobiographical, part polemical, part pleading, is often so down-beat that this reader, at any rate, never felt convinced by his arguments, which are somewhat prosaic and utterly unoriginal. Possibly the worst tactic to adopt if you want to convince is to preach. Only the ‘converted’ usually swallow it!

When at last I reached the end, I simply felt like an understandably stroppy teenager enduring yet another teacher-diatribe, dying for the bell to go and thinking, ‘yeah, whatever’.

Another self help book however this book explains in detail the importance of well being and living a stress free life to assist with some of the physical ailments we suffer. How to look after your heart, fitness, happiness and where to seek the answers. There are Christian references through the book, they neither add of take anything away from the facts. If you are looking to make changes in your life to improve fitness, health and happiness then this is an excellent reference book for you. It’s not a diet book or trying to get you to follow a particular way of life but an self awareness book, you decide if you use the knowledge or not. Thank you #NetGalley for the copy.

Did not particularly enjoy this book. There was nothing new in it for me and the tone was rather patronising.

Fit for Purpose takes you through lifestyle choices and the importance of wellbeing. Dr Richard Pile explains the value of sleep, a healthy and balanced diet, maintaining stress levels, making positive choices and sticking to them. I always enjoy reading advice and suggestions on these subjects and seeing where and how I can incorporate these and stick to them each day.

Thank you to NetGalley for letting me read this #gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was really looking forward to this book, however it was nothing new to me and I didn’t gain a great deal from it.
Sorry this one wasn’t for me.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.