Wellmania: Extreme Misadventures in the Search for Wellness

Bridget Jones meets AJ Jacobs in Wellmania, an in-depth, laugh-out-loud exploration of the best and worst of the wellness industry.

Cold-pressed juices, 'clean' eating, colonic vacations, mindfulness apps, and Paleo: health-care trends and miracle diets seem to be more plentiful each year. But do any of these tactics actually work? What does 'wellness' even mean?

In Wellmania, longtime journalist Brigid Delaney tackles the good, the bad, and the just-a-little-ridiculous of the wellness industry, using herself as the guinea pig. Starting with a brutal 101-day fast, she leaves behind her thirty-something-year-old lifestyle of late-night parties and all-day hangovers to test the things that are supposed to make us healthy and whole: yoga classes, meditation, CBT, Balinese healing, silent retreats, group psychotherapy, and more. Writing with self-deprecating wit and refreshing honesty, she sorts through the fads and expensive hype to find out what actually works, while asking, What does all this say about us? Is total wellness even possible? And why do you start to smell so bad when you haven't eaten in seven days? According to comedian Judith Lucy, the result is 'bloody entertaining' and 'leaves you wondering whether you want to do yoga or get mindlessly drunk and despair at the state of the world.'