Once upon a time there was a little girl who loved to eat, especially cookies, ice cream, pie, coke floats, and all manner of other sweet things. She grew up in an era when TV was black and white, there were only two or three channels, there were no personal computers, electronic games, personal music devices or other items to keep her entertained. So she spent her childhood playing chase and hopscotch or hide-n-seek, with the other neighborhood kids, climbing trees, and spending lots of energy just being a kid. As she grew older, she learned she loved to read, and began spending more time doing that than playing and running. In college, the food was different from the plain fare at home, and there was plenty of it. The little girl, now a young woman, walked for miles on the college campus from class to class and back and forth from her dormitory. She ate lots of the good food, and learned all about the joys of pizza, ethnic foods (Tex-Mex, mmmmmmm) and french fries. This was long before the age of fast-food, and those things weren’t commonly available to her until she went to college. After college, she got married and began to cook for herself and her husband. She also went to work in an office. And here the problems began. She gained fifteen pounds in her first year of marriage! And dieted to take them off. By the time she became pregnant with her first child, she was dieting every six months or so, and she was proud that she could lose the 5 or 10 pounds she needed to with only a couple of weeks of dieting. Eight years and four kids later, it wasn’t so easy to lose weight. She was now in her mid-thirties and the only exercise she got was looking after the house and kids. She still cooked big meals, baked bread, pies and cookies (for the kids, of course!) and dieted regularly in an increasingly doomed effort to stay slim. After her second son was born, her doctor told her she needed a glucose tolerance test. “You may be at risk for diabetes,” he said, because the baby, though three weeks early, weighed nearly nine pounds. Results were inconclusive, so she kept doing the same old things, although by this time she was beginning to learn about nutrition and wonder if the constant dieting was a good idea. Fast-forward twenty years. The former stay-at-home mom had now worked for more than fifteen of them in an office, first as a corporate employee, then as a real estate agent and office manager. She had given up on dieting, convinced that it was making her fatter and fatter. She had stopped seeing what was in the mirror. But she did know something was wrong. If she ate carbohydrates, especially refined ones, she lost control, either lashing out with anger over nothing, or passing out if she didn’t eat again soon. If she didn't eat carbohydrates, she was miserable and hungry. Her husband and kids were in a constant state of wariness, because mom was often volatile and unpredictable. And she weighed nearly 200 pounds (at 5’3”) but thought it was “only” 180 because her scales weren’t accurate. Fortunately, she was browsing in a bookstore one day, and came across a book that changed her life. It was Jorge Cruise’s Eight Minutes in the Morning, and it addressed all the excuses she had for not dieting and not exercising. At 53 years of age and over sixty pounds overweight, harried and rushed because of career, home and family obligations, the little-girl-now-woman had found the answer! Yes, that’s me, and I’m convinced that this book has saved my life and given me the hope of a healthy future. I won’t say I’m a perfect example even now, but I do recommend it very highly. It begins with an explanation of weight gain, the science and psychology of weight loss and a very easily understood discussion of nutrition. It has a system to track what you are eating (keeps me honest!) and a set of easy muscle-building exercises to work every set of muscles in your body over six days of each week. The exercises are designed to take eight minutes…hence the name. I thought when I started that if I couldn’t take eight minutes for myself, something was terribly wrong. In eight months, I lost 40 pounds. I looked great, felt great, and had stopped having the mood swings associated with blood sugar lows and spikes. Then I fell off the wagon! I went on vacation…that saboteur of diets and exercise. And I allowed a self-limiting belief I had developed over the dieting years (that I could never go back to the same diet) to prevent me from picking up where I left off. In three years, I regained 20 pounds. But only 20! You see, I had learned a new way of eating and dealing with my hypoglycemia, and it wasn’t all lost. I was letting my portion sizes creep up and had learned how to eat sweets without immediate consequences. Recently, I overcame that self-limiting belief (and a few others). I’m back on track and have lost 5 pounds. I’m 56 years old, and I’m here to tell you, it’s never too late. I’ll say one more thing, and then I’ll let you have your say. You are supposed to check with your doctor before beginning a diet or exercise program. And you may have found another of the balanced programs that are now in vogue to be equally effective. Whatever you do, make sure that the eating plan you’re on promotes a life-style change rather than a quick fix. My favorite business philosopher and mentor, Jim Rohn, has this to say: “For things to change, you have to change.” He was talking about financial success, but it is equally true for weight-loss success. Let’s hear your stories! Thanks for visiting! If this thread interests you, you may also want to visit LaNell G's interesting and informative forum on Nutrition and Dieting. LaNell has taken the time to seek out information from highly credible and respected sources on these subjects. I recommend you join her forum! Cheri P.S Get Eight Minutes In the Morning or any of Jorge Cruise's other excellent books right here! These are some of my other favorite success books. Please also visit My Offers.

Cheri, Great story. I will check out your 8 Min. book. I have always thought of my self as fat, but when I look back at my younger pictures, I realize that just wasn't true. At 21, I weighed 125 lbs and was 5'7". Not too bad. But I thought I was fat. Sweets and Desserts have always been my downfall. After 4 kids and years of working in offices in front of Typewriters and now Computers, the weight has just accumulated. Now I am twice the woman I was at 21. :) At least in size. I have tried many diets, but never stayed with any of them. The most success I had was with the Adkins Diet. My husband and I went on that program. It made sense to me. I learned about carbs and insulin and many things that just helped me become aware. We stayed with this program for approximately 6 months and lost 20 lbs or so. We felt better than we had in years. Jim even quit snoring and his sleep apnea went away. Also, his indigestion quit being a problem and his Blood Pressure normalized. We realized that improper food combinations caused the indigestion. Starches combined with Protein, or meat and potatoes, are a bad combination. Whether you agree with the Adkins Diet or not, the fact that we had cut out sugar and startches, and increased vegetables and proteins, caused us to look and feel better than we had in years. Of course, then we got careless. We fell off the wagon and put back on the weight. This program is ok, if you have the time to cook and plan meals. But if you are traveling and vacationing or working, this is difficult to keep up with. We do eat much healthier now, but we have to get remotivated to climb back on that wagon.

Kathy, I'm glad your post made it...when I approved it with my reply, there was an error, so all my words of wisdom were lost :-( lol. Thanks very much for your story. It sounds very familiar, except that the programs we fell off of were very different. IMHO, Atkins isn't very healthy. We were designed to consume a balanced portion of all the food groups, so I don't think we should cut out an entire group. But there is a lot to be learned about what kind of carbs to eat, as well as how much! I learned that my portions were way too large, so although I was eating a balanced diet, I was consuming far too many calories for my activity level. I think most of us here in the US have the same problem, certainly if we're eating out. That's why now more than 60% of us are overweight. A standard restaurant meal packs enough calories for the entire day! I also learned that I had at least been conscious of the right kinds of carbs for many years, even though I often indulged in those that were the wrong kinds. I had learned to bake and eat whole grain bread at my grandmother's knee, and always chose whole grain cereals. Later in life, I had to learn to stop at one slice of bread, or two cookies (rather than six!). Also, that potatoes or other highly-starchy foods weren't required at dinner, and that not every meal had to end with dessert. Then I had to break the habit of cleaning my plate even at restaurants. (I now ask for a to-go box to be delivered with my meal. I remove the excess food before I start eating.) I think if you will look at the good habits you gained, even on an eating plan you ultimately couldn't stick to, you'll find you've come a long way, baby! I know I have. It really is never too late, and you can never learn too much about it. I'm reading a Prevention Magazine book now, called The Sugar Solution. Very informative, especially for people who don't realize they may have a sugar problem. Unfortunately, I don't know how to get it except through an offer that they sent me unsolicited. If anyone is interested, I'll try to find out where it can be obtained. Thanks for visiting. Here's to happy, healthy eating! Cheri

Hi there. Very relatable stuff. The first book I read was the 8 minute book you were talking about. It turned out I didn't enjoy the exercise program. They always took me more than 8 minutes to do - more like 20 minutes - and were often uncomfortable to do. (I'm not very flexible). I did the Atkins as well. Lost weight while I was on it, but gained back more when I stopped. But like Kathy said, it introduced me to a new understanding of carbs and refined sugars. My biggest problem on that diet was it felt like all I was eating was meat, meat, meat, and Atkins bars/candy. It just didn't feel like healthy eating. It wasn't until I read the Fat Flush Diet, and followed their first 2 week meal plan (that included recipes) that I learned how to incorporate vegetables, in particular dark leafy greens, into my diet. I would recommend that book to anyone. It introduced me to both new diet and excerise concepts that I still incorporate today and it's a very well rounded program. My last endeavor has been with Bragg's Apple Cider Vineagar, and their "Apple Cider Vinegar Miracle Health System", which focused on incorporating more raw foods into my diet. Right now I'm not on any plan, but still incorporate different aspects of the ones I've been on. And interestingly, I weigh more now than when I started my first "diet" a couple of years back. I probably could have done nothing, and still weigh what I do now. The irony!! I can definitely relate to falling off the wagon. Even the excercising that I started last spring has fallen to the wayside since June. The club is literally right around the corner, but I lost my rountine when I got sick, just like Cheri did when she went on vacation, and haven't been back since. My son is just a ball of energy from morning 'til night. Surely he could spare a bit for his dear ole mom!!

Hi, Lise, welcome to the discussion! Thanks for the added information. I know people who swear by Atkins, and others who swear it will kill you (I lean toward the latter). I guess what it comes down to is, what will you stick to? In my opinion, that's a lifestyle change, such as we have all picked up to some extent. I completely agree with adding vegetables, particularly raw ones. I bought a VitaMix food processor a couple of weeks ago and have been having a blast adding carrots to my morning orange juice, cabbage to my strawberry ice cream (made myself with frozen strawberries, skim milk, ice cubes and a bit of sugar--oh, and cabbage) and all sorts of other peculiar mixtures. Some taste better than others. :-} By the way, there's some scientific evidence to back up the efficacy of adding vinegar to your diet (that is, the food you eat, not a weight loss plan diet). Seems it lowers the glycemic index of whatever food you add it to. That keeps your blood sugar from dipping or spiking. It sounds as if you are still relatively young. Best thing I can recommend is DON'T diet. You have already seen the result of that. Find the motivation to go back to the club, learn what portion sizes and calorie intake are reasonable for someone of your basic build, and make the lifestyle changes you need to stay healthy. By the way, I'm no nutrition expert, just a well-read layperson, so if an expert steps up to contradict me, I'll defer to him or her. Hope you're feeling better now. Thanks for visiting. Cheri