During 3 months in 2012 I lost over 30lbs and dropped from a size 40 to 34 waistline. I had never felt better.
I was so thrilled by my transformation; that I couldn't wait to share the "good news" with my closest friends and family. Sure, I had lost weight before; but this time it was different. This time I knew that, mentally, I was prepared to keep the weight off and continue a more healthy life.
Both my weight loss and personal testimony received an overwhelmingly positive reaction from others. There are few feelings in the world greater than that of walking into a room and listening to everybody go on and on about how great and healthy you look. As a matter of fact, the intense questioning from friends and family who wanted to do what I did because they are struggling with the same issues was the motivation behind my starting this blog.
Amidst all of the positive feedback, however, there was one response in particular; voiced by numerous people, that I found inaccurate and disturbing. The response went something like this, "Yeah this is great and all; but Neil, you were able to change your lifestyle and lose the weight because you are different than most people."
Their implicit implication was that my success was possible only because I was blessed with above average self-control and mental discipline which enabled me to resist certain foods. As far as they were concerned, all that I had to do was decide that I didn't want to be fat anymore; and Wa-la it happen. According to them, once I made up my mind; the will power kicked in and I suddenly gave up cookies and ice cream and other treats and began eating only wholesome healthy foods.
The obvious flip-side to their point was that unhealthy people have little self-control and no discipline when it comes to food and exercise. More damning, even if an unhealthy person were to sincerely try to improve their health; they still would not stand a chance because they don't have what it takes to stay committed.
So when they began seeing me pack apples and nuts and other SNACKS for family gatherings; they would say things like, "See Neil, I told you so; you are a health freak, no wonder you were able to lose all that weight." The reality however, is "that most people are not like you; most people are lazy and don't stand a chance".
Hmm....think about that for a second. Their theory suggests that I was able to lose nearly 40lbs because I have superior self-control and will power when it comes to food?
Interesting? Has the thought ever occurred to them that ONLY people with LITTLE self-control and NO will power when it comes to food are in a position to lose nearly 40lbs!?!?! In other words, if I had extraordinary will power and superior self-control when it came to food; I wouldn't need to lose the nearly 40lbs in the first place!!!
Those closest to me know exactly how much I struggled with portion size (once I learned that portion size was a concept) junk food and treats. From the moment that I was old enough to buy my own food, I found it impossible to resist the TREAT aisle in the grocery store.
As I got older and moved into my own apartment I thought that I could avoid my daily binges by not bringing junk food into the house. Not bringing junk into the house was helpful, but like clockwork I would go a few days or weeks and then eat two or three or four bags of Frito Lays and other junk food, all at once, to make up for the treats I had been depriving myself of.
While all individuals are different, I absolutely reject the notion that losing weight and staying healthy is reserved for people with extraordinary will power and self control; UNLESS you are attempting to stick to a quack DIET which requires you to drastically reduce your caloric intake.
Not only do I feel that way because of my own experience; but studies support the fact that environment, education and income have far greater impact on obesity than personal traits like discipline and self control.
It does require however, (and this is where it gets tough) that the individual understands that they now live in a toxic food environment. Almost NOTHING they see other Americans eat is normal ANYWHERE else in the WORLD.
This understanding is difficult for most people living in the toxic food environment to arrive at on their own. I only realized it upon returning to American from living in England for 10 years. To arrive at this understanding there likely needs to be some sort of intervention or extended time out of the environment. Since leaving the toxic food environment of America is not possible for most people, I hope this blog is the intervention that you need to realize that it is not you it is them. They have created a toxic food environment and are playing us like pawns. You however have the final move. You have the power to determine how the game will in and who will win.
So, when it comes to being healthy and/or unhealthy; nobody is special.
People who are healthy, are healthy, by-in-large for the same reasons; and people who are unhealthy, are unhealthy by-in-large for the same reasons.
So why are healthy people healthy? There are a millions reason right? No! There is only one.
Healthy people tend to rely on a basic set of healthy habits which insulate them from the unhealthy toxic food environment that we live in.
So why are unhealthy people unhealthy? There are a millions reason right? No! There is only one.
Unhealthy people, on the other hand, have not formed these basic healthy habits; so they tend to fall victim to the toxic food environment that we live in.
The implication is that if you could only place an unhealthy eater in a non-toxic food environment they would eat healthy and enjoy it. Unfortunately, in American this is not possible. Your only option is to insulate yourself from the toxic food environment as best you can.
Let's use an example from the far East to illustrate this point. The citizens of China on average are much healthier than US citizens. Traditionally, their diets have been rich in seafood and vegetables with very little processed foods. In essence, because of their environment, the typical Chinese person followed the Five Rules with little thought.
Now, however, as their economy begins to expand; an increasing number of Chinese people (especially children) are being introduced to the American diet; which is the antithesis of healthy non-processed food from the East.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2010/06/reporters-notebook-obesity-rising-in-china.html
Umm....you didn't have to read the above article to know that the introduction of more US-style restaurants and US TREATS means that the Chinese waistline will begin expanding faster than their economy!
Now do you think the people of China are becoming fat because they are lazy, lack self control or lack discipline? No!!!
They are getting fat because as their food environment begins to become toxic like ours in American; it will require a slightly higher level of consciousness to adopt the healthy habits which were natural to them up until now. In other words, people that live in toxic food environments don't have the luxury of simply "going through the motions" in order to remain healthy.
Once you decide to be healthy; the Five Rules for Healthy Living will help you re-establish the essential habits for being healthy; that billions of people, like the Chinese, have always understood.
The Rules are not meant to be some sort of "over-hyped diet plan which guarantees dramatic weight lose in the first two weeks with only a few simple steps; one of which includes your credit card".
The Rules are simply telling you that healthy people are no different then you. They neither obsess about food and weight, nor do they hit the Ryan's all you can eat breakfast bar every Sunday morning.
They pretty much let these habits run on auto pilot; applying about the same amount of time and energy that you apply towards your own personal hygiene.
You are not especially good, nor are you especially bad; that is why I know you can live a healthier life.
Allow me to conclude with one more extremely important point.
Big Food and Big Diet are making billions of revenue each year by convincing Americans that eating healthy is an elaborate maze which requires a specialist to navigate on behalf of the consumer. They imply that longer is the wisdom passed down from generation to generation about what to eat good enough. You now need to basically minor in nutrition to prepare healthy meals for your family. This is not true at all!
Walk through the cooking book section of any bookstore (that is left) and you will see the product of all that scientific nutrition advice. The aisle are filled with a selection of low fat cookbooks; low carb cookbooks, high protein cookbooks, foods with high Gi, the flat tummy cookbook, the low sugar treats cookbook, the high fiber cookbook. The perverse list goes on and on.
I got some news for you. Ready? You might want to sit down?
You already know EVERYTHING you need to know about what it takes to eat healthy!!!!
Can you learn more? Yes, but EVERYTHING else you learn from this day forward is BONUS material.
Big Food and Big Diet, have tricked American's into thinking that they need to break food down into obscure components in order to determine if it is healthy.
Food label advertisements are filled with marketing slogans like, High Fat, Low Carb, High in Omega 3's, High Fiber, Low Sugar, XYZ number of essential vitamins; the list goes on and one.
This perverted way of thinking about food has fostered a culture where many eaters choose processed food-like chemical substances based on a misleading marketing slogan over real food that people have eaten for thousands of years.
Just yesterday, I was speaking to someone who refused to eat a baked potato because it was "high in carbs" but had no problems devouring a Jenny Craig meal filled with over 20 chemical abstracts.
Adding insult to injury, after spreading the enormous amount of complicated mis-information; Big Diet has the nerve to recommend that consumers "learn more about food and reading nutrition labels" in order to fight obesity. What a joke.
And then they tell you that YOU are lazy because you don’t want to take the time to understand 50 different ingredients every time you put something in your mouth. Think about that for a second. Did you look at the component label of your phone before you bought it? What about your car? Do you know what type of spark plugs it comes with? No!
The same goes with food. When I buy an orange, just like my phone and car, I know the basics. I know that it looks good, taste goods and serves its purpose. Big Food however tells you that you need to understand that the orange juice that they create and market as 100% fruit juice has an unnatural 20 to 30 grams of sugar or something ridicules like that. Now is the time to remove the mental shackles of nutrition science. You don’t know phone science, or car science and you don’t need to know food science.
I am asking you to take control of your diet by following the Five Rules for Healthy Living and not obsessing about "Good Food vs. Bad Food". While there are exceptions to every rule, the overwhelming majority of Americans are not overweight because they are eating too much wholesome non-processed foods. They are overweight because their behavior is indicative of an individual who lives in a toxic food environment where the main polluters are also providing the food and the instructions!
And don’t let them tell you that you are lazy. You go to work, you raise your kids, you went to school and I am sure you have accomplished a great deal in your life. They have pulled the rug from under our feet and now in a perverse sense of backwards logic or blaming you for buying into the system that they created!
Happy Eating
PS: And we have not even touched on the fact that they have made real food more expensive and food-like processed foods cheaper though government subsidies.
No comments:
Post a Comment