A surprisingly easy way eat healthy and lose excess weight

Two years ago [I wrote about my experiment][eta] with trying [The Master Cleanse][master], which is a radical way to lose weight and/or cleanse your digestive system. As I said back then, I did it on a whim but learned a few useful things. Such as:

* Most of my unhealthy eating habits were based on mental cravings.
* My body knows what it needs, and if I supply it then the cravings go away.
* Eating healthy foods requires more thought because there are less "fast food" options for healthy food, and 99% of the advertising and marketing is for crappy food.

The problem for me was that, while I learned those lessons on the Master Cleanse diet, I didn't learn how to incorporate healthy eating into my life. So I quickly returned to my bad habits. And my weight kept creeping upwards.

I happened upon Kathy Freston's interview on Charlie Rose a few weeks ago, and heard her talk about her book The Lean. The idea is that to make a real shift towards healthy eating you have to "lean" into it. The name of the book is based on that principle. I got the book and started applying the principles, and found it incredibly easy to do (unlike The Master Cleanse).

Every day you do something new and healthy, only after reading Freston's explanation of why the new thing is healthy and helpful. Freston is an excellent writer; the book is devoid of the usual stern finger-wagging. She imparts good information that's easy to incorporate and she's often funny in describing the process.

For example, Day 1 is about drinking 8 glasses of water. Day 2 inspires you to eat a hearty breakfast (something like steel cut oats with walnuts). Day 3 is about learning to eat one apple every day. Then Day 4 you learn to snack on nuts instead of junk food. Those four things were enough for me to make the shift.

After a week of basically doing those four things I lost my cravings for junk food and sodas. I don't even crave meat, which is weird because I loved meat and couldn't imagine ever giving it up completely. My weight is dropping, but not quickly. Which is fine since I can see that I'm learning how to keep it off, so once it's down to the right level it's likely to stay there.

In addition to reading The Lean, I also read The China Study. This book was brought to my attention by a Wall St. executive whose youngest daughter read it. She became a vegan after learning about the importance of nutrition in avoiding major health problems such as heart disease and cancer. The Wall St. dad is not the sort of fellow to lightly take up the vegan lifestyle, but the book convinced him to go vegan. So, I was curious enough to read it (it was referenced once or twice in Kathy Freston's book). The book is easy to read, but will shock you. Fortunately, I had already made significant changes to my food intake. If I hadn't read The China Study I'd probably be tempted to go back to eating meat once in awhile.

Some people will dismiss these books and the information that they put forth. I probably would have too, except that having done The Master Cleanse I was made aware of what it feels like to be free of mental food cravings. Our minds are the ultimate gate-keeper when it comes to new information. Right now, my body is telling me what it likes. Weirdly, meat and cheese aren't on the list.

I have no doubt that nutrition plays a pivotal role in personal health, more so than genetics and environmental factors. Food is our staple fuel, and if you put bad fuel into your engine for twenty or forty years, it's going to have a corrosive effect. The number of overweight Americans is staggering (66%), and steadily rising. Obesity is at 33% of the population, and that's rising too.

I was bordering on being overweight. And this despite doing yoga regularly. Why? Because I was steadily consuming a lot of bad fuel. That's changed without a lot of effort and in a very short time.

Now, I feel as good as I've ever felt in my life. And the only thing I've had to do is pay attention to what I eat and make strategic shifts towards different foods. The shift isn't hard because there are lots of good foods that are healthy and taste good. Will I never again eat a piece of meat or partake of dairy products? No, but it won't be a common occurrence. I don't crave things any more, so it's been amazingly easy to drop the unhealthy stuff.

What I crave is being healthy and feeling good. And now I've found a way to satisfy that craving.

To go paperless with a Mac or iPad get this book

If you use a Mac you probably have an iPad. And probably, like many people with iPads, you're thinking it'd be nice to be paperless. If so, then you need to order a copy of David Sparks new book (Paperless: The MacSparky Field Guide) right now. It's available in the iBook Store for $4.99.

The book is a deep dive on paperless workflows for the Mac, iPad, and iPhone. The book includes screenshots, interactive images, and short movies. Not only does this book tell you how to go paperless, it also shows you. Trust me, you can do a lot with this book. I can't believe it only costs $5.

(Oh, and it's a large file so don't panic if it takes a little longer than usual to download).

Our paperless lawyering seminar coming to Baton Rouge in early July

Do you want to learn to take your law practice to a new level of efficiency? Becoming paperless is the path you want to take, and it's not as hard as you'd imagine. Dane Ciolino and I are going to do a 3 hour live CLE seminar in Lafayette, Louisiana this Thursday from 1 – 4 pm (April 19th). So, if you're able to attend, please click here for more details on the topics we'll cover, and to sign up.

If you're not able to attend, then you can still watch our free online videos. If you're a Louisiana attorney and want CLE credit then you can pay us and we'll get you credit for watching the videos, two of which supply Ethics credit. We have many more free videos on advanced paperless processes over here.

Information is power, but knowing how to process digital information is like having "superpowers." We teach people how to acquire these superpowers (and lawyers get CLE credit). Wouldn't you like to learn how to become paperless and take your practice to an amazing new level of efficiency?

Are you suffering from too much information? Here's a quick, simple cure

Everyone talks about "information overload" as though it's an unavoidable problem of our modern society. Too much information is out there and it's coming at us faster than we can digest it. Few people ask: how much of that information is meaningful to me, and how can I filter out the stuff I don't find useful?

Clay Shirky astutely points out that what have have isn't "information overload," but rather "filter failure." We've had more information being produced than any one human could consume in a lifetime for centuries. So, the question isn't "how much information is out there?" but instead: how much of it do we want (or need) to consume?

If you don't want meaningless information to cloud your life then learn how to filter. Start by examining all of the information sources you access (e.g. TV, radio, print media, Internet etc.). Which programs and information sources are you accessing out of mindless habit? Which ones are delivering interesting and useful information that you tend to act on?

Next time you watch a local TV news broadcast and they're blabbering about some misfortune that happened to someone who lives across town that you don't know, ask yourself: is this information actionable? That is, how will it help you in a specific way?

The answer is it probably won't. Most news is really just mindless gossip. And the weird thing is many of us pay attention to this gossip even though we don't know the people involved. It's like that experiment where they put soap operas on a TV in a cage full of monkeys and guess what? Yeah, the monkeys started watching the soap operas.

Do monkeys need to watch soap operas about another species? Is this relevant to their lives? Will it help them forage for food? No, but if you are stuck in a cage and bored you'll watch anything.

You're probably not stuck in a cage, and yet you might be letting a lot of useless information into your life. If so, then don't complain that you are suffering from information overload. Filter out the useless junk. You'd be surprised how much of it there is.

Eating healthier (and losing weight) the easy way

About two years ago I tried a radical "diet" called The Master Cleanse, which was, indeed, quite radical. Somehow I managed to complete the 10 day program, and that led to some major insights about my food intake, and how compulsive most of it was.

The Master Cleanse is interesting, and I'm glad I did it, but I'll never do it again and I can't recommend it to anyone who wants to make a lasting healthy change in their diet. It's too radical, and too hard.

The other day I saw Kathy Freston on Charlie Rose, and she was talking about her new book The Lean, which is about how to make a gradual shift into healthier food choices. I liked what she had to say, and I was already aware (from my Master Cleanse experience) that my body doesn't really want most of the junk that I tend to feed it.

So I bought the book and have started her 30 day program, which is easy and already is making me feel better. The first step is so easy, and yet so powerful. Weird how giving your body most of what it needs restores balance quickly.

I'll let you know how I fare with the whole 30 day program, but I can see that if you just do the first 3 things over 3 days you'll be making a significant shift. Did I mention how easy this program is? I'm all about making a good change that's easy.