Excerpt from the Book

Obesity and being overweight have become the standard in this country, not the exception anymore. Fully 2/3 of Americans fall into this category, with devastating consequences for their health and our collective pocket books. Think of annual obesity-related costs of $168 Billion (and rising) in the United States alone. The added cost obesity adds to an individual’s medical bills is estimated to be $2,800.00 p. year! Alarmingly, research has shown that this pattern of being overweight or obese is likely to become deeply ingrained in future generations.

Serious overeating in childhood or as a young adult (even for periods of time less than a year) can affect our genes and predispose the children of overweight people to decades shorter lifespans.

And this epigenetic “switch” can affect even the offspring of their children, and possibly for generations to come.

(This “hereditary” effect seems to be passed on from males to male offspring and from females to female offspring only, which is of little consolation to future parents who cannot pick the sex of their children.)

The future doesn’t look good, unless we act soon to break this deadly cycle. Americans have tried all the diets known to mankind (and more are on the way) and spent billions of dollars in the process. What do we have to show for it? A healthy diet industry – and a sick and overweight population. Clearly something isn’t working here, and quick fixes, minor tweaks, or reliance on cookie-cutter nutritional advice will not fix this mess. No, it’s time we did something about it:

Start our very own, personal Diet Revolution

For one, it’s NOT all your fault, so stop blaming yourself and get off that guilt trip!

Consider this: some of the brightest minds in the country spend millions of their companies’ dollars engineering designed-to-addict foods, throw many more millions into targeted advertising, and make those poor-at-best, empty-calorie-foods at worst, available to you 24/7 wherever you go, at bargain prices. “Real” food has been marginalized, and the odds are heavily stacked against you being able to make healthy food choices. My goal is to arm you to the point where you become immune to temptations of the mighty fast-food / processed-food industrial complex by re-learning what real food is all about, what you really need for optimum health, and how to make informed decisions about your lifestyle. Oh, and fall in love with wholesome food in the process, to the point where a sugar-bomb donut or a cholesterol burger no longer have mind-controlling power over you. (I have not had either for decades, and have zero cravings for them.)

More bad news to consider, and not necessarily your fault either: you may be consuming chemicals that make you fat. Far-fetched? Maybe not. Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) can mess with your weight-regulating system and promote obesity. They are often called a somewhat catchier, but descriptive term – obesogens, and can be found in pesticides (check high pesticide load produce in the Food Ranking Spreadsheet), commercial beef and other meats (grain-fed, and raised in the Big Indoors), unfiltered tap water, and many plastics that get in contact with food. Avoid plastic-wrapped meats, storing or heating or micro-waving food in plastic containers, washing plastic ware in the dishwasher, and in general eliminate as many plastic items that come in contact with your food as possible.

O.K. – I said it is not all your fault, but there is enough blame to go around, and you might as well shoulder part of it. I can help you with that part. How? I have been in your shoes, and I know what works, and what is so much smoke-and-mirrors. I couldn’t have competed at running races and triathlons for the last 20- some years without that knowledge, and the power to apply it. I didn’t do it with yo-yo dieting, quick-loss diets, or magic diet pills. I kept my weight in the perfect range for all those years not by adhering to a rigorous workout regime* (although that helped) that most people can’t maintain for long, but by incorporating my knowledge into a systematic strategy. Trust me - keeping one’s body fat range in the 5% range for over 2 decades is a lot harder than losing any amount of excess body weight – sometimes temporarily only. (Sorry, no biggest-loser credentials on my ‘resume’.) Additionally I gained invaluable knowledge about nutritional and physical activity issues by becoming an ACE-certified Lifestyle and Weight Management Consultant in 1997 and by staying abreast of the latest scientific findings in the fields of nutrition and exercising.