Eat Food, Eat Less, and Move More

The current culture of political correctness and circling around issues to assure no one has a chance to find anything offensive in our words have me often feeling powerless. I want to help people understand health and weight loss and it seems that plenty of people still want to get healthy and would like to lose weight. However, I feel that it's just so easy to end up the target of an attack, if you give unsolicited or public advice. Your words can be taken out-of-context and your well meaning advice be labeled extremist.

Yet, now at 42, my friends and family are getting sick. They're not just getting randomly sick either. They're getting the ailments that their lifestyle would predict. Those who always ate a lot of meat are getting cancer and they have intestinal issues ranging from constipation and diverticulitis, to IBS. Those who drank a lot of alcohol have elevated liver enzymes, cancer, and auto-immune diseases. Those who have been overweight get diabetes, fatty liver disease, and cancer and depending on what types of foods they ate too much of, they often also get high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and auto-immune diseases. Those who eat a lot of salty snacks and fast food have high blood pressure.

Seeing so many people get unnecessarily ill is difficult to process when you know that had those people wanted your help, you could very well have prevented their suffering. It's like having a bunch of drug addict friends who tell you, "Listen, I know, I know... My habit is hurting me but it's none of your business. So back off and let me live my life"

And that is 100% true. There are multiple ways of living a beautiful, happy life but it doesn't make it easier for me to ignore their pain. Sure, today it's just high blood pressure but in 5 more years, it might end up becoming a stroke. Then I'll be there next to that person trying to reassure them that they'll be able to walk again after a lot of rehab. I just feel like quitting salt is a lot better long-term plan than waiting to rehabilitate the entire left side of a paralyzed body.

Meanwhile, the media has somehow convinced people that when it comes to nutrition and fitness, science has it all wrong. There are all these way more important "hidden secrets" about health you need to focus your attention on and there are special programs and products to purchase, if you truly want to get healthy. For some reason people much prefer these expensive special programs than the simplest of health advice - eat real food, don't eat too much, and move more.

It's like watching someone who knows no better chop their finger off. When you run to them to grab the knife out of their hands, they get upset at you because they claim they know what they're doing.

"Give me back my knife! I'm trying to lose weight! What do you mean this isn't a good way to lose weight? This works! It works! Last time I cut off a finger, I lost an 1/8 of a pound - immediately!"

This is where I realize I'm talking to someone who has misunderstood something, so I try kindness and logic, "I see why you would make that assumption but listen, you wanted to lose fat, right?"

"Yes, of course!"

So, I cautiously go on, "I hate to tell you this... But you didn't lose 1/8 pound of fat in an instant, you actually lost a finger."

This is where their irritation flairs up, "I know I lost a finger too but some of that weight was fat! And this program promises that I can lose weight every day, as long as I keep cutting off fingers"

"But there are much better ways of losing fat than cutting off fingers. What are you going to do when you run out of fingers to cut? Also, if you keep eating what you have been eating, you'll keep gaining fat in the rest of the body and gain back all the weight you lost in fingers..." This is where I get interrupted with an angry grunt.

"You don't understand this! My body is different! You're naturally skinny, so you don't get it but none of your advice would work for me and nothing makes me lose fat as fast as cutting off body parts and besides, I've seen a lot of online articles and TV shows that show that this is perfectly safe and works for millions of people!

That's where I give up because no amount of education, experience, and knowledge can ever beat the power of millions and millions of satisfied customers on an infomercial or a "paid for" segment on a talk show or the morning "news".