You know, that duck in your head that quacks pretty much all day long, telling you how much you suck and just how worthless you are.
We’re all ducked. Some of us have ducks that are louder than others, going out of their way to really duck with us.
The duck is part of the human machinery. You can’t dodge it. You can’t duck it. But you can turn the ducking volume down on it.
I should know. My duck used to quack at full blast. From the moment I woke up until I fell asleep, those negative, self-defeating thoughts raced through my mind. In fact, sleep seemed to be my only reprieve for the quacking. That is, when my duck wasn’t keeping me up all hours of the night.
I wonder at what point will we collective realize that the calories-in/calories-out approach to weight loss is a ginormous FAIL.
Consider this for a moment. According to last Thursday’s UW Radio guest Jonathan Bailor, people who quit smoking cold turkey have a 5.5% chance of success. Meanwhile, losing fat long-term by eating less and exercising more has a success rate of 4.6%.
Ouch.
In other words, the odds of losing weight and keeping it off are worse than if you quit a highly-addictive substance with zero assistance, treatment, or strategy.
Good luck on that 1200-calorie diet and endless treadmill program!
In fact, both factors — the low-cal diet and chronic cardio — are sealing the deal on your eventual rebound weight gain, as they create hormonal turmoil — and malnutrition — within the body.
And fat loss has a whole LOT more to do with hormones than it has to do with calories.
That’s what Mr. Bailor — a former frustrated personal trainer like myself — found while spending ten years of his life hanging out with top researchers and reviewing over 11,000 articles and more than 10,000 pages of fat loss research.
He found the facts.
Fortunately for us, he wrote them all down in a way that just about all of us can comprehend in his mind-blowing book The Smarter Science of Slim.
Just the thought of it gives me a bit of anxiety — the unpredictable behavior, the tantrums, the head-banging.
If I had it my way, I’d have two kids — a boy and a girl. But knowing that — according to the latest figures — one in 54 boys is affected by autism, kinda scares the bejesus out of me.
It should scare the heck out of you, too. Because even if autism does not impact you directly right now, you’re not human if the statistics don’t make you wonder what the heck is going on here. Statistics like…
* One in 88 children are diagnosed with autism by age 8.
* The rate of autism increased 23% between the years 2006 and 2008. (I wonder what the 2012 numbers are!)
* Autism has increased 1000% in the past 40 years.
To give you more understanding as to the magnitude of this issue, the rate of obesity has increased 300% in the past 30 years. Again, autism is up 1000% in the past 40.
It’s a name I’ve been called one, two, maybe 597 times since I launched this website.
To be honest, I’ve embraced the term as my own little badge of courage, as I patiently await the day when I have my own profile page on Quackwatch.org. Sometimes I wonder what’s taking them so darn long! I’m so looking forward to throwing myself a party where we all dress up like ducks.
Considering how dear I hold the word quack to this big heart of mine, you can probably imagine how geeked up I was last week when I opened up a package and found inside of it a book entitled If Naturopaths are Quacks…Then I Guess I’m a Duck: Confessions of a Naturopath by Dr. Shauna K. Young.
If you know me, you know that I have a stack of at least 30 books in what I call my On Deck Circle, each waiting to be read and blogged about. But with such an awesome title, this particular book jumped to the front of the line. Creativity and a sense of humor go a long way with me.
Speaking of a sense of humor, Dr. Young’s wit and rib-tickling personality quickly become apparent through her writing style. Think Robb Wolf’s The Paleo Solution or even my own The Dark Side of Fat Loss. She’s got quite a bit of edu-tainer in her. Which makes for a fun and engaging read.
Comedy aside, If Naturopaths are Quacks is also a serious — and quite surreal — look at the state of our health care system: the quarreling among different kinds of doctors (even those who would appear to be on the same side), the laws that dictate what an alternative practitioner can and cannot say and do, the cost of losing a prescription drug user to a natural protocol, and the ever-growing tension between those solely concerned with empirical evidence and those who care more about getting results.
If you’ve ever wondered what an alternative practitioner — naturopath, chiropractor, acupuncturist, etc. — must go through on a daily basis just to pursue his or her great passion of coaching clients back to health through natural means, Dr. Young pretty much sums it up. The miracles. The frustrations. The stigma. The you’ve-gotta-be-friggin-kidding me moments. They’re all in there.
My team and I have been busy, busy, busy piecing together the upcoming Real Food Summit set to launch on Sunday, July 8. It’s gonna be MAJOR! Stay tuned.
A little over a week ago, my main man Dean Dwyer — author of Make Shift Happen — CRUSHED his appearance on UW Radio.
I can talk about mindset, success strategies, and personal development books all day long.
If you don’t know Dean’s story already, he spent 19 years of his life as a vegan/vegetarian but with little success in terms of his health and fat loss. Eventually, he realized that fat loss went far beyond diet and exercise. And he began to incorporate personal development and success strategies to not only his fat loss goals but to his life in general.
In this episode, Dean reveals a handful of the 20 shifts and strategies he outlines in his outstanding book, including:
* How to step away from the fat loss gurus and instead become an expert on YOU!
* Why you should Log Like Captain Kirk in order to collect the necessary data to uncover what works for you.
* The importance of Getting Your Beta On, or why thinking like a software developer can help you upgrade your health and fat loss program.
* How to eliminate on-the-spot decisions by Deciding in Advance.
* Why a Purpose Driven Workout — having reasons beyond weight loss to work out — may be the missing link to staying consistent with your exercise regimen.
* How a book about writer’s block can help quiet the heckler in your head.
* The Power of Less. How small changes have a HUGE impact on BIG change.
I could interview this guy every week!! Like I told him during the show, he’s like my brother from another mother!
Click the PLAY button below to listen to the entire show. You’ll dig it.
by Sean Croxton
by Sean Croxton
by Sean Croxton
by Sean Croxton
by Sean Croxton
