From the books:
I have a
master’s degree in human nutrition from the University of
Bridgeport.
I’m also
a Certified Nutrition Specialist (CNS) and certified Nutritional Therapy
Practitioner. (Other NTPs you might know of are Nora Gedgaudas, Liz Wolfe, Tosca Reno, and Diana Rodgers.)
From my heart:
I know
what it’s like.
I know
how it feels to spend years doing “all the right things” but not see the positive
changes you expect in your health and physique. And worse, I know how it feels
to blame yourself. I know how it
feels to watch your thinner, seemingly healthier friends eat whatever they
want, not exercise, and slink into clothing you could only dream of fitting
into.
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Angry?
Frustrated?
I understand completely.
|
I know
what it’s like to feel like a failure because you are counting calories, and you are
eating low-fat, and you do exercise,
but the weight isn’t budging, your energy’s dragging, and your moods are
still low. Aren't the good things you're doing supposed to make you feel better?
I know how it feels to sweat, count, weigh, measure, discipline, and
white-knuckle yourself into confusion, anger, frustration, and self-loathing
because despite your best efforts—despite all the lettuce, despite the fat-free
dressing, despite the skinny soy lattes, and the hours upon hours at the gym,
you look and feel no better than when you started. Maybe you even look and
feel worse.
Any of
that sound familiar to you?
If so, I’m
glad you’re here. Come, take my hand. Let’s talk.
If the
definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a
different result, then I was downright certifiable. For a smart person, I was
pretty silly. See, I spent years
doing what I thought were “all the right things” in order to lose weight and
optimize my health: I ate low-fat foods, lots of whole grains, reduced my intake of egg yolks and red meat, used light margarine instead of butter, used skim or soy milk instead of whole, and spent lots of time
exercising. Specifically, I spent lots of time running or racking up miles on a
stationary bike. After all, losing weight was just a matter of “burning” more
calories than I was taking in, right?
Well,
no.
It’s not
completely wrong, but it’s far from right. There’s a lot
more to fat loss and health than “calories in/calories out.” Unfortunately,
this myth that the human body—complex, vibrant, and dynamic—works the same way
as a dime store calculator, has pervaded the national
conversation about health
and weight for decades. And where has it gotten us? I’ll tell you where:
saddled with levels of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, dementia, mood
disorders, and other health issues unprecedented in human history.
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| Thanks for nothing, government nutrition guidelines! |
Like
millions of people, I trusted the government and other “authorities” to give me
good advice about nutrition and health. I ate and exercised the way they
recommended, yet I didn’t see any improvements in my health or physique. Call
me a glutton for punishment; when following the standard recommendations for low-calorie,
low-fat diets and lots of exercise didn’t work, I simply did more of them. Ate even fewer calories. Exercised more. And still no fat loss.
My self-esteem took a serious
beating.
Instead
of looking outward and questioning the paradigm I was following, I blamed
myself. Maybe I wasn’t working out enough, or was still eating too much food.
After all, if those weren’t the case, I’d have seen some nice changes, right?
So the problem couldn’t have been the advice I was following; the problem must
have been me.
I can’t
blame myself for coming to that conclusion. When all the messages you hear from
the government, from the mass media—and yes, from medical experts—tell you to
eat less and move more, and you do, when
you don’t see the promised results, the problem can’t be that the messages are wrong, but that you’re not listening to them well
enough. It becomes a moral issue instead of a scientific and biochemical one. This
happens to overweight people every day. We’ve come to see obesity as a
character flaw, as some kind of moral failure. In our politically correct
society, heavy people are the last acceptable targets. We see them as lazy.
Greedy. Gluttonous. Undisciplined. But you know what? I was none of those
things, and I bet you aren't, either. I completed two marathons. I joined the Air Force. I wasn’t afraid of a challenge, and I sure wasn’t afraid of a hard
workout. And I don’t think most other people are, either.
I have more faith in people than that. I
think if it were really as simple as “eat less, move more,” we’d have had this
obesity thing licked a long time ago.
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What I learned shocked me.
The "experts" were so wrong!
|
After years of failing to see results from my
hard work, I finally questioned the way I was doing things. I found a few books
and websites that talked about nutrition, health, and weight loss in ways I’d
never heard before. To put it bluntly, I had my mind blown. Repeatedly. I learned that most of what
“they” tell us about how to lose weight and stay healthy is dead wrong. (Pun
intended.)
Thanks
to the messages of low-fat, low-cholesterol foods and “moving more” we’ve been
bombarded with for the past few decades, many of us have come to believe that
foods that have nourished and sustained healthy, fit people for millennia (like
beef, butter, dark meat chicken, and egg yolks) suddenly started to kill us and
are now unfit for human consumption.
After reading
everything I could get my hands on, I changed my diet radically and changed
my approach to physical movement. I reintroduced many “forbidden foods,”
dropped the processed
junk masquerading as health food, spent a lot less time on the cardio
equipment, got over my fear of the gym’s scary “guy area”—the weights—and
voila! The results finally, finally came.
I was so
fascinated by what I’d learned that I’m now dedicating my career to sharing it
with people who are still fighting this battle—and who maybe feel like they’re
running low on morale and ammunition. I know from my time
in the military that we need battle buddies—people who know what we’re
going through. People we trust to have our backs and stand with us when things
get tough. I may not have been a Marine, but Marines aren’t the only ones who
don’t leave a man behind. I know there are men and women of all ages struggling
to reclaim their health, vitality, and zest for life. And they won’t get left
behind. Not on my watch.
I can’t
get back the years I spent following the road to nowhere, but I can help steer
others to a more productive way. I’ve told myself that if I can spare just
one person the self-esteem nightmare I put myself through when I was younger, I’ll
consider myself a professional success.
SO:
If
you’ve been doing “all the right things,” yet haven’t seen the improvements you
expected, don’t get down on yourself. Get Tuit!
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| Feel
lost in all the conflicting messages? I don’t blame you. Let me help you find your way. |
If, like
me, you’ve spent years banging your head against the wall because you can’t
figure out what you’re doing wrong, don’t lose one more day on something that
isn’t working. Get on a better path. Get Tuit!
If you haven’t been making efforts to improve
your health but know you should, don’t get upset with yourself. We all start
somewhere. Start here. Start now. Don’t
get angry with yourself. Get Tuit!
*Tuit
Nutrition – a source of sanity in the sea of nutritional madness.*
