You might be an absolute beginner with regard to nutrition and physical activity, or
you might be a veteran of more weight loss programs than you care to count.
Regardless of your experience, this book can help you make sense of the near constant stream of information you get about nutrition, exercise, and your health.
Unfortunately, weight loss at any cost seems to be the driving force behind most, if
not all, of the health messages we get today. Daily reports on the obesity “epidemic”
and its health consequences are enough to make all of us—overweight, underweight,
and everyone in between—question the status of our physical health. We are inundated with dire statistics about our expanding girths and increased incidence of diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer; but these reports do little
in the way of actually helping us change our behaviors.
So what’s the problem? Why doesn’t information do the job? Because today’s health
messages are based on avoidance, and they cannot address the intricacies of behavior change in the real world. In other words, we are taught that we need to quit eating junk food and start exercising, or we face a litany of diseases that, sooner or
later, are bound to kill us or destroy our quality of life. We know that some foods
have little or no nutritional value, but that doesn’t change the fact that they are
widely available, taste good, and have become stress management tools for many of
us! We know that exercise is good for our bodies and minds, but too many demands
and too little time make regular exercise difficult to accomplish.
Don’t get me wrong—avoidance-based information is powerful if you’ve just suffered
a heart attack, been diagnosed with diabetes or cancer, or been lectured by a health
care professional about the dangers of your high blood pressure (or if any of the
above has happened to a loved one). But if you are fortunate enough to survive,
what happens when you are out of immediate danger? Few people are able to maintain motivation to eat well and be physically active when life settles down again.
Based on the seriousness of your health issues, you might be able to hold on a little
longer than average, but you and I know that ice cream and potato chips still taste
as good as they always have.