Chapter One
Jorge's Story
The Birth of 8 Minutes in the Morning
There isn't a day that goes by that I don't remember what my life was like before I decided to change my body and make weight loss a priority. I am very grateful when I think of how far I've come. Believe me, it's amazing how great your life can be once you feel good inside and out.
This is why I do what I do. I know that the most valuable instrument you can ever own is a healthy and fit body. No matter what riches you may have, if you are unfit and unhealthy, you have nothing. This is why I have dedicated myself to empowering others with the best and most effective exercise program: my 8 Minutes in the Morning.
You may think that I have always been Mr. Weight Loss, that I have always been addicted to being in great shape, but neither of these things is true. I know what it's like to be embarrassed by extra weight -- and worse. I know because I've been there. My dad has been there. So have my sister and my grandfather. We were all fat and unhealthy. And now we're not.
The "King" of Poor Health
I grew up in Southern California with a mother from Mexico City and a father from Pennsylvania. Both sides of my family loved rich foods: cheese, milk, cream, anything fried, sausage, and red meat -- all served up in huge portions.
Basically, my family had two key beliefs that were wrong. First, they believed that how much you ate equaled how much you were loved. And because my mom and grandma loved me so much, they both fed me a lot. My mom would feed me one meal and then my grandma would almost always offer me another. I showed my love by eating those huge portions. I probably ate enough food for three kids. At home, I consumed enormous quesadillas, bologna sandwiches, and nachos. When we ate out, it was usually at fast-food restaurants, where all my meals were supersized.
If I didn't eat everything on my plate, my mom or grandma would take it very personally. I can't explain why love somehow becomes so intertwined with food. Maybe for my grandmother, it dated back to her childhood years when she was poor and sometimes didn't have enough food. Maybe she wanted to make sure that her grandchildren never had to go through the same kind of childhood.
I got so chubby that my mom used to call me el rey, which in Spanish means "the king," and before long, I looked more like King Arthur's table: round.
My family also believed that exercise was hard and time-consuming. My mom and dad were very busy, both working 10-hour days. We never exercised. And I don't think anyone in my family ever thought anything was wrong with the way I looked. To my grandmother, the fat on my bones was a sign of health, not a sign of weakness.
Consequently, by the time I was 15, I was a physical disaster. I had low energy, daily headaches, and severe asthma. No one -- certainly not my family -- ever suspected that my health challenges were caused by my lifestyle.
As I gained weight, I became less active. At school, when it was time to pick teams to play kickball or softball or football, I was always the last kid chosen. I don't think I ever flunked gym class, but I sure didn't do well. I know what it's like to be so unhealthy and unfit that you feel like a reject -- a nothing -- especially when the kids let you know that they think you're no good. I remember those Presidential Physical Fitness Tests where the gym teacher would make us to do as many situps, pullups, and pushups as we could. I never could do one. Not one.
I went along in this state until I almost died. Yes, you read it right. I had been suffering from a bad stomachache for several weeks. I tried drinking lots of water and herbal teas, but it didn't help. I couldn't eat and quickly started dropping weight. A trip to the emergency room when the pain worsened revealed that a piece of meat had become lodged in my appendix, causing it to burst.
From then on, I tried to change the way I ate, but I didn't know how. The whole concept of healthful eating and exercising was completely foreign to me.
Hitting Too Close to Home
At 18, something happened that made me change my eating and exercise habits for good. My dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and the doctors gave him a death sentence. They told him that with no medical intervention, he had 1 year to live. They predicted that if he had his prostate surgically removed and went through a chemotherapy and radiation treatment regimen, he might last 5 to 6 years. My dad knew that surgical removal of his prostate would likely make him incontinent as well as destroy his sex life, so he decided to forgo medical intervention.
That was 1989, and he's still alive and healthy. Instead of undergoing surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation, my dad dramatically changed his lifestyle. He enrolled in an alternative health center in San Diego where people go to learn about lifestyle changes that promote cleansing, rejuvenating, and healing. I was so shaken up about his cancer that I went with him. I figured that the cancer was probably genetic, and if I didn't take action, I could well be facing the same disease.
At the center, Dad and I learned all about nutrition. We learned which foods contain fiber and which ones don't, about the value of whole grains over processed foods, about fruits and vegetables, about healthful fats, and about herbs such as wheat grass. We discovered that dairy products can cause allergic reactions in some people.
Continues...
Excerpted from 8 Minutes in the Morning(r by Cruise, Jorge Copyright © 2004 by Jorge Cruise. Excerpted by permission.
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