The High School Reunion Diet - Younger Thinner And Smarter In 30 Days

Ah, the high school reunion: the only social event powerful enough to make fully grown adults suddenly care about posture, jawlines, and whether “business casual” can conceal existential dread. Enter this book, striding in like an overconfident life coach with a stopwatch and a clipboard, promising you can be “Younger, Thinner and Smarter in 30 Days.” (And honestly, if it also offered “less bothered,” we’d all be on chapter one already.)

The High School Reunion Diet – Younger Thinner and Smarter in 30 Days (2011) by David Colbert, published by Simon & Schuster, ISBN: 9781439128633. Condition: Fair. As sold by Crappy Old Books.

This is diet culture with a very specific deadline and a very specific villain: Kyle from Year 11 who got hot and now owns three gyms. Or perhaps it’s not Kyle. Perhaps it’s your own brain, whispering “what if everyone looks amazing and you turn up looking… like someone who enjoys bread?” Either way, this book understands the reunion panic and weaponises it for motivational purposes. It’s essentially a 30-day glow-up boot camp disguised as a wellness plan, built around the idea that nothing focuses the mind like the prospect of being asked, “So… what have you been up to?” while you’re holding a plastic cup of wine and trying to remember if anyone you once fancied still exists.

The hook is simple: in one month, you can sharpen up physically and mentally — the double threat. Not just thinner, but smarter too, because nothing says “I’m thriving” like casually dropping a well-rested, hydrated insight into conversation while someone else is still discussing their commute.

Expect a mix of:

• practical health and nutrition advice (the “do this, not that” genre)

• encouragement to reset habits, routines, and general life chaos

• the kind of motivational tone that assumes you are ready to become your best self immediately, preferably before breakfast

• an underlying vibe of: you can do this, and also, time is running out

Is it charmingly intense? Yes.
Is it slightly hilarious that “reunion” is used like a medical emergency? Also yes.
But does a clear 30-day plan appeal to the part of the human psyche that loves a countdown? Absolutely.

Condition: Fair. Which, frankly, is thematically perfect. A book about reinvention, second chances, and showing up anyway? A “fair” copy is living the message. It’s been read, handled, possibly highlighted, possibly tossed into a tote bag on the way to a gym that was visited exactly once. Expect visible wear, maybe some creasing, maybe a bit of that lived-in feel — but still perfectly readable, still ready to deliver its brisk little pep talks and 30-day promises.

Perfect for:

• anyone with an upcoming reunion, wedding, holiday, or mild existential crisis

• procrastinators who need a deadline to become a person

• readers who like wellness plans with structure, urgency, and a faint whiff of revenge-glow

• people who enjoy self-improvement with a side of humour (intentional or not)

Less suited to:

• those who have made peace with the concept of ageing (teach us your ways)

• anyone who refuses to measure life in 30-day chunks

• people who think the best reunion strategy is “don’t go and eat nachos instead”

In short: a very specific, very 2011, very “let’s get it together immediately” guide for looking and feeling sharper on a deadline. Buy it, read it, laugh a little, and then maybe do one of the things it suggests — or at least carry it conspicuously like a threat.

Available now from Crappy Old Books, where we specialise in pre-owned ambition, slightly scuffed optimism, and the comforting knowledge that everyone is winging it — even the thin ones.

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