Dear Friend,
If you are reading this book, you are more than likely one of millions of Americans who suffer from obesity and/or some of the health-related issues which result from a poor diet. You also likely belong to the growing number of Americans who have tried and failed at every diet known to man; fueling a 40 billion dollar weight lost industry. I suspect that during the best of times, you have managed to lose considerable weight in preparation for a special occasion such as a class reunion or a family member's wedding. Needless to say, however, that afterwards, you piled the weight back on, two-fold, as a result of what seemed to be uncontrollable binge eating.
By now you are probably thinking, "How does he know me so well?" The reality is that I don't know you. We have never met and will likely never have the opportunity to fellowship in person. I do however, know your despair like a twin brother or sister. I feel your frustration searing through my body like a bolt of lightening.
My name is Neil Crawford and I am a spokesperson for the concept "5 Rules for Healthy Living" ("Five Rules").
Why do I describe myself as simply a "spokesperson"? Why not Founder, Co-founder, Inventor or some other fancy title?
The answer is straight forward. I didn't create the Five Rules. The Five Rules are natural principles that govern the way in which each of our bodies is meant to be fueled. As a matter of fact, billions of healthy people around the world incorporate the Five Rules into their daily routine without giving the process serious thought. I would go even further to say that you will rarely find a physically healthy individual who doesn't at least follow a close variation of the Five Rules daily.
Don't believe me? Try it. Ask a few friends that consider themselves healthy about how they spend their week and what they typically eat. Then compare their answers to the Five Rules. Bear in mind that there are always exceptions to any rule, but more likely than not if they are not following a variation of the Five Rules; they are not as healthy as they think they are.
Ancient Greeks philosophers and scholars, articulated the Five Rules which greatly influenced their local diet and their approach to physical fitness. Today, the weight management industry tweaks these ancient discoveries a little and promotes these same simple truths as new concepts like "The Mediterranean Diet Plan", or P90-X or some other fad diet and/or exercise plan. They then have the audacity to charge unsuspecting people a small fortune for special cookbooks, lectures and fitness videos based for the most part on the same Five Rules which have existed since the beginning of time.
An individual claiming ownership and then selling a so-called unique program to eat healthy and stay fit, would be like Moses rearranging the sequence of the 10 Commandments and then selling them back to the Children of Israel!
Even though the Five Rules are simple and intuitive, my realization of the Five Rules did not come easy. In fact, it took nearly 10 years of weight gain, poor health; along with a lot of trial & error before I reluctantly stumbled into the light.
My lowest point came while I was living in London. At that time, the British pound was very strong against the dollar. So like many Europeans, I squirreled away money for several months in order to enjoy a massive shopping spree while on vacation in New York.
I vividly remember it like it was yesterday. After a long flight, I touched down in the Big Apple, met my younger brother (who is a little fashionista in his own right) and headed to my favorite boutique shop; ready to "shop until I dropped". Because I hadn't shopped in so long, I first began trying on clothes that would have fit perfectly 3 or 4 years before. Time after time I found myself doing that two leg halfway twist in front of the dressing room mirror (afraid to come out and show my brother) with a pile of jeans behind me stacked in graduated order; one size larger than the one before. (Yes ladies mean cry in dressing rooms as well).
I will never forget, the comment from the sales clerk after I tried on a X-Large T-shirt that was too small; “Son, you are kinda big..”; and the way he looked at me was even worst. He looked at me with a sort of sympathy that only an experienced department store salesman could have. It was surreal, almost like a fat guy intervention. He seemed to recognized my denial; as if I had been viewing myself through one of those amusement park skinny mirrors; not realizing that I had become overweight.
In less than a second, his look basically said without saying as much, "Mr., I know you like our store. Your familiarity with our layout and products let's me know that you have shopped with us many times." "I really wish that I could help you, but we don't have anything for your kind anymore." "It is time for both of us to move on; I'm afraid." "Try Mike's Big & Tall department store next door."
His comment hit me like a lightning bolt. What happened? How did I let myself go? I always worked out; so how did I managed to gain nearly 50lbs since high school? After buying "big boy" clothes at the Big & Tall store (which should be renamed to "Big and Big People that Happen to be Tall") in NY and feeling uncomfortable all week; I told my wife that I was determined to lose the weight.
I began to spend countless hours in the gym. I even became a run fanatic (a passion that I still hold today). But despite swimming, running marathons, training for triathlons and doing extensive weight training; I still could not loss over 10lbs at any particular time. Also, I ALWAYS gained the weight back if I lowered my exercise routine the least bit.
After my SEVENTH marathon, it became abundantly clear that exercise ALONE was not enough to lose weight and stay healthy (boy I miss my 20s). Ironically, my intense exercise regiment gave me a false sense of security regarding my overall health. I still suffered from fatigued, wore size 40 inch jeans (up from 34 since high school) and had a BMI of over 30; which meant that I was clinically obese!
Out of sheer frustration, I embarked on something that millions of Americans are all too familiar with. The DIET. During the next few years, I tried every diet plan under the sun. Here are just a few of them:
The first diet that I tried was the online weight watchers (WW).
In theory WW works well. Drastically reduce your caloric intake while exercising will ALWAYS result in weight lose. So following a detailed guide to do so should be easy. Right? Wrong!
I still remember, checking the website for points and EXCLUSIVELY buying the weight watchers products for lunch and dinner. Early on, I experienced success. I managed to lose a few pounds in the first few weeks. I was feeling good about myself.
Within a few months however I began to realize some major problems. First my food bill had increased substantially. This was due mainly to my buying premium WW products for lunch and dinner. Also, the variety of foods that I used to enjoy were difficult to fit into a WW calorie calculated formula. Finally, I didn't have the time nor the energy to count the calories of EVERY SINGLE piece of food I ate. Most importantly, I didn't realize it at the time, but my poor relationship with food had not changed. I was simply trying to follow a program that I didn't believe in.
Also I didn't know a single healthy person that used WW. Think about that for a second. I was trying to do something to get healthy that no other healthy person was doing? Needless to say, after the first month, WW was gone. All the while Eden, my wife, was watching and laughing...
My next grand idea was the Master Cleanse Lemonade diet.
Remember this one?.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deuSw3RnNLU
I started on New Years day 2005. I thought that if I managed to lose 10 or 15 pounds in 10 days then that would give me the boost that I needed to continue to lose the weight. Also a good detox never hurt. If it was good enough for Beyonce; surely it was good enough for me? Right? Wrong!
I followed the instructions to the letter. After ten days, I lost 12lbs. In retrospect, it is pretty predictable that if you only drink hot lemon tea for 10 days you will lose weight.
What should have also been as clear was the fact that I would gain the weight back IMMEDIATELY after the diet was over. Why was it not apparent to me that unless you are planning for a video shoot or a wedding in the next 10 days the Beyonce Master Cleanse diet was stupid?
Also, during the process I had absolutely NO energy. After work, all that I could manage to do was go to sleep. Going to the gym was out of the question. The Master Cleanse was gone! All the while Eden was watching and laughing...
Next I tried Herbalife. Herbalife is one liquid diet product within a billion dollar industry of meal replacement diets. I was introduced to Herbalife by my my cousin-in-law who sold the product on commission.
NEWS FLASH!!!!! IF YOU REPLACE A MEAL WITH A LOW CALORIE SHAKE, YOU WILL LOSE WEIGHT! HELL, IF YOU REPLACE A MEAL WITH A MILKSHAKE YOU WILL PROBABLY LOSE WEIGHT!
The problem is that replacing a meal with anything other than another sensible meal is unsustainable, impractical and in many cases unhealthy. I became hungry, irritable and frustrated. Needless to say, Herbalife was gone! All the while Eden was watching and laughing...
My most sound diet plan was the 8 ounces every three hours diet. This concept was a major step in the right direction because it did address one of the biggest issues in America's obesity epidemic; portion size. Unfortunately, that is the only issue that the 8 ounce diet addressed.
Before the 8 ounces diet however, I had never really thought about proper portion sizes. That probably sounds weird considering that I tried WW before. I guess the best way to think about it is to compare it to a math student who knows how to solve a complicated math problem by using an equation; but doesn't understand the answers underlying concept or real world application. Simply put, as far as I was concerned, the maximum daily calorie allotment was an arbitrary food punishment put on fat people that needed food rehabilitation; sort of like the proverbial one hour of yard time given to inmates serving time in maximum security prisons.
While the 8 ounce diet had its merits, it failed to provide a strategy for eating smaller portions. Hence even though I ate every three hours, I was still hungry between meals. As you will learn later in this blog, hunger is like a stiff shot of Jack Daniels to the recovering alcoholic.
In retrospect, I now know that my insatiable hunger was due less to the size of my meals and much more to the composition of what went into those meals. This made the 8 ounce diet unsustainable because HUNGER IS UNDEFEATED AGAINST WILL POWER.
Eventually, I was back to my normal eating habits and the 8 ounce diet was gone! All the while Eden was watching and laughing...
A few honorable mentions are the South Beach diet, the Raw Foods diet, the Atkins diet and my personal favorite the Half-way diet.
The Half-way diet was my personal favourite because I invented it! I am sure that many of you have invented a few of your own diets in your quest to lose weight.
As my own spin-off of the 8 ounce diet, the instructions were simple, make your normal portion size; then leave half of that portion on another plate in the kitchen. If you were still hungry after eating the first half; eat the second. More than likely you would realize that you didn't need the second portion.
Looking back, this was one of many unsuccessful attempts to deal with unfavourable Reactionay Habits; a concept that we will explore in-depht during this blog. Nevertheless, I still have fond memories of the Half-way diet, but just like the other diets, this fad was soon gone! And yes...all the while Eden was watching and laughing...
While different in approach; all of these diets (and most diets for that matter) share a common flaw which make them nearly impossible for the average person to follow.
All of them require that we unnaturally and/or unsustainablly alter the way our bodies should be fueled in order to achieve weight reduction. It is sort of like driving 100mph during your morning commute because you are running late; it is very possible to do that; and baring an accident, you arrive to the office earlier; but is that safe? Is driving 100mph sustainable? Wouldn't it be better to spend a few minutes the day before preparing for the trip?
Diets are like driving 100mph. They ALL work in much the same way as driving fast works; but for most people driving 100mph is not practical just like going hungry all day is impractical.
So with diet failure after diet failure, and Eden watching and laughing and watching and laughing; the question still remains as to how did I manage to lose 35lbs in four months and drop from a size 40 to a size 34?
Also, why do I have more energy now than ever before in my life? How do I cope with hunger given the fact that HUNGER IS UNDEFEATED AGAINST WILL POWER? Finally, why am I sure that I won't regain the weight and revert back to an unhealthy lifestyle again?
Stay tuned to to this blog to learn the answers to these questions and how the 5 Rules of Healthy Living changed my life and can do the same for you!
No comments:
Post a Comment