March 31st

Okay...officially it is April 1st but I am just finishing my day. I need to fall into bed soon but I wanted to let all of you know I am still here. It has been a rough couple of days. I watched the video of my keynote speech from Sunday and saw how enormous my body is. I am trying to remain focused on my health instead of my weight but come on now...I looked like the Frosty the Snowman with these little arms sticking out the sides! Yes, the speech was inspirational and I do seem to have some talent for public speaking...but really! The weight has got to come off. The really weird thing is...I don't actually feel that fat! I don't know why, but I feel slim inside. I have more energy now than I have had in a very long time and I can think clearer and longer. I don't have the carb cravings that I used to have and I don't obsess about food. I have managed to lose almost 15 pounds in the last 3 weeks but there is a really long way to go. This tends to get me down.

Okay...time to focus. Keep the goal in mind...think it; feel it; live it. I am what I am. My body weight is the result of my past habits. As I continue to take my current actions and make the lifestyle shifts, my body will reflect this.

I guess I just want it to all happen right now!

Sometimes I get so darn angry that the knowledge of what our 'typical' diet does to our bodies has been known for quite some time but it hasn't been shared with the rest of society. Why haven't we paid attention? Why has the fast food industry and pharmaceutical companies been allowed to get away with this? Do they really influence our daily lives this much? Imagine what would happen to these industries if we all stopped eating the foods that are slowly killing us...the current fast food business would have to change drastically...and the drug companies would lose an incredible amount of money. However, we would also save a tremendous amount on our health care costs. If we were to eat a balanced diet that included only low glycemic carbs, and included moderate exercise, the number of obese people would drastically reduce...and along with it, the incidence of high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart attacks, stroke...and who knows what else! I wonder if some cancers could be related to the foods we eat?

I have been on the planet for over 50 years now and have formed some rather typical habits regarding food. If we were to provide our children with proper nutrition and teach them the truth from a very young age, what would they feel like by the time they are 50 years old? What habits would they have?

It is difficult to change habits...according to the 'experts' it takes a minimum of 21 days....but in times of stress, we tend to still fall back on 'old habits'. If we do not eradicate these habits, we merely 'minimize' them...like the programs on your computer that you minimize but are stilling running in the background. If we are not consciously aware of our habits, they are still running below our consciousness.

It takes a combination of awareness, a willingness to change the habit, and repeated action of the new habit to remove the old one and replace it with a new one. Not just adding a new behavior...actually changing the old one.

Let me get a little scientific for a moment. Habit forming...and habit breaking...involve alterations to the connections in our brains (the points of connection are called synapses). As we repeat a behavior over and over, specific pathways between brain cells are strengthened. Their points of connection are strengthened so that the next time we experience the same stimuli (such as stomach growling), our brains direct us to follow our established pattern of behavior...our habits. To break an old habit and form a new one, the old synaptic patterns need to be weakened and new patterns need to be established. It is like having two muddy paths on a dirt bike trail. If one path is continually used, the ruts become deeper and deeper so that the next time you travel along it, you become forced to follow the exact same ruts...while the other, barely used path has very little ruts. The trick to changing a habit is to force yourself to follow the other less used pathway and use it over and over again until it forms deep ruts...while the old path has time to fill in the ruts. After a period of time, the new path is the one that will hold you tires in the ruts. But realize, this does take time...and at first, it takes conscious effort to chose the new path...until it becomes a well established habit and the synaptic pathways are strengthened.

The bottom line is...it is possible to change habits...we do have a choice...we are not stuck on the old paths! By keeping our goal in mind...and by continually revisiting our vision in a multi-senses way (feel, touch, taste, hear, see...know!), we can continue to chose the new path each time we are faced with the same stimulus.

This is what keeps me on this path. Thank God I know something about science! And now you do to.

It is not just a matter of will power...your body will actually assist you IF you give it the chance to form the new pathways in your brain...and if you give it the best chance possible...by limiting the carb cravings and feeding it what it needs to thrive...at a macro and cellular level. You can work with your body...and it very much wants to work with you!