Fearing he was falling into a fitness rut, marathoner and entrepreneur Jesse Itzler hired a taciturn, tough-as-nails Navy SEAL to spice up his routine and whip him into military-grade shape. The mysterious SEAL (his name is never revealed) moves into the home that Itzler shares with his wife, Spanx founder Sara Blakely. Itzler chronicles the month the SEAL spent as his live-in personal trainer. He describes the punishing daily regimen of pushups, pullups and all-weather runs occasionally punctuated by the SEAL’s pithy life lessons, such as “Fear is one of the best motivators; anger is the other.”
Living with a SEAL is an exercise in self-indulgence that also happens to be an entertaining, guilty pleasure kind of read.
By Jesse Itzler
November; Center Street; $26
