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. Fitness, 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.
Adopting a New Lifestyle
I stopped eating so much dairy and red meat, switched from processed foods to whole grains and veggies, started drinking more water and eating soy products, and stopped eating supersize hot dogs and hamburgers. One day, I realized that my headaches were gone, and so was my asthma. I was feeling healthy and energetic. I started to exercise, and I enrolled in the University of California, San Diego, to study exercise science and nutrition.
Dad and I weren't the only ones in my family to change our ways. Everyone was turning over a new leaf. Like me, my sister, Marta, had also been an overweight child. She continued to gain weight as she grew older, especially during college. Her weight left her depressed, and her lack of confidence was apparent to everyone who met her. But when she changed her eating habits and started exercising, the weight just fell off. Every time I see her, she's looking more fit and toned.
A Second Chance
In Pennsylvania, my paternal grandparents were dealing with their own problems. They had always followed an unhealthful diet, and when my grandfather retired, they ate even more. They were both significantly overweight, but they didn't think anything of it until my grandmother suffered her first stroke. While she was recovering in the hospital, my grandfather went in for a checkup. The doctor told him to get his affairs in order. At 5 foot 7 inches and 210 pounds, his blood pressure was 180/110, and the doctor assumed that in a short time, he'd be next to have a stroke.
That shook my grandparents up. They knew about my dad's success and decided that adopting his new lifestyle might help them as well. Unfortunately, it was a little too late for my grandmother. They had decided to move to San Diego, but shortly after they arrived, she suffered a second stroke and died.
The new lifestyle showed dramatic results for Grandpa, however. Within months, he dropped more than 50 pounds and lowered his blood pressure to 139/89. He had been given a second chance. At age 95, he feels great, and he and my dad look more like brothers.
A Message of Love
At college, I was busy studying exercise science and swiftly moving from one extreme to the other. I would hit the gym every day, lifting weights that worked the same muscle groups. I knew that exercise was good, but I didn't know that too much could be bad.
I ended up constantly tearing down my muscles and not giving them enough time to recover between sessions. Even though I was eating well and working out, I felt tired all the time. But as my exercise science knowledge grew, I realized that there can be too much of a good thing.
I learned that lesson again a few years later, when my mom-the one person in our family who had lived a fit lifestyle-developed hip problems. In Mexico City, she had been a professional dancer, and in her early sixties, she started feeling more and more hip pain. She was diagnosed with osteoarthritis. Essentially, the high-impact dancing she had done most of her life had damaged the cartilage that cushioned her hip joints. Doctors gave her high dosages of painkillers for a year before operating. The painkillers ate away at her kidneys and other body organs. Two years after her hip replacement, my mother died in my arms.
Her death reinforced even more my calling to study exercise science and nutrition. I now know in my heart that my mission in life is to help people get healthy and stay healthy. I want to create a revolution, so I have dedicated my life to empowering others with the best and most effective weight-loss information. This is why I became certified as a fitness trainer by the Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), and the American Council on Exercise (ACE).
About the Program
After getting the know-how, I created www.jorgecruise.com, my weight-loss Web site. Within weeks of launching it, I was helping thousands make the same lifestyle changes that had worked for me and for my family. My site became so successful that Oprah Winfrey invited me to appear on her show. She surprised me by inviting two people to appear on the show who had transformed their lives with the help of the information on my site.
After that show, my online business and career took off. Soon, millions visited the site regularly, trying the techniques I suggested and giving me feedback about what worked for them and what didn't. People told me that with their work and families, they just didn't have time for long trips to the gym, hour-long aerobics sessions, or complicated eating plans. They wanted simplicity.
I made a deal with some of these clients. I would train them personally as long as they allowed me to experiment on them. They would have to try exercises, eating plans, and a motivational program that I would give them. In exchange, they had to let me know what worked and what did not. The result was 8 Minutes in the Morning.
My Web site also started to address the needs of busy people. I wrote articles and did Webcasts about time-efficient exercise programs and then sought feedback from my clients. Together, we shaped the program into an overwhelming success.
Will 8 Minutes in the Morning do the same for you? Absolutely. You will see guaranteed rapid weight loss when you follow my program. It does not take a lot of time to get lean as long as you consistently use the most effective exercises. 8 Minutes in the Morning is all you need.
How It Works
Follow my 8 Minutes in the Morning program and you will see amazing weight-loss results in just 28 days. But it doesn't stop there. I will also give you the tools you need to stay lean for the rest of your life. You will be working on three things every day:
Your emotional fitness. Before your 8 Minutes in the Morning routine, I will help you build your own inner motivation with my daily Wake-Up Talk. It will give you the Emotional Advantage you need to move beyond self-sabotaging thinking and motivate yourself to love your new fit lifestyle.
Your physical fitness. My proven "two superquick moves" are the center of the program. They take only 8 minutes a day, but the results are tremendous. Each day, I will give you two new strength-training moves specifically designed to help you speed up your metabolism, get firm, and burn fat as efficiently as possible.
Your eating habits. My Eat Fat to Get Fit nutrition program is simple to follow and will never leave you feeling deprived. You won't have to count calories or cut out your favorite foods.
Finally, 8 Minutes in the Morning connects you to a community of your peers. I invite you to visit my Web site at www.jorgecruise.com to get more advice from me and to chat with the millions of others who, like you, are well on their way to achieving new health and happiness.
You "8 Minutes" Edge
By training with me in the morning, you will:
• Drop 2 pounds of fat per week on a average!
• Feel your muscles getting firm!
• See your body develop curves-in all the right places!
• Gain the confidence to go out and do the things you've always wanted to do!
Chapter Two
Why You Are Fat
We Have All Been Misled
Since the early 1980s, when the term aerobics came into vogue, hundreds of exercise programs have been launched to help people get lean. Perhaps you've tried step aerobics, slide aerobics, kickbox aerobics, or even just walking, jogging, or running.
Despite all the publicity these different aerobics programs have received over the years, Americans are still fat-and they're getting fatter at an alarming rate. According to Newsweek, in 1991, only four states had obesity rates of more than 14 percent of their populations. By 1998, 37 of 50 states had surpassed that threshold. Currently, more than 65 percent of the total U.S. population is overweight And nearly one-quarter are clinically obese.
And it's not just here in America. According to the Worldwatch Institute, the figure is 54 percent in Russia; in the United Kingdom, 51 percent; and in Germany, 50 percent. What is even sadder is that juvenile obesity is also rising rapidly. In the United States, the incidence of obesity among children has more than doubled over the last 30 years.
According to former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 300,000 Americans die each year from obesity-related illnesses-second only to 400,000 for tobacco. This means each day, over 800 Americans die from problems related to obesity.
That is the equivalent of 6 airliners with 133 people on board fatally crashing daily. This means that just within this next hour, 34 Americans will die. Think about it ... about every 5 minutes, three people die due to problems related to obesity. And according to Jeffrey D. Koplan, M.D., director of the CDC, "This dramatic new evidence signals the unfolding of an epidemic in the United States."
Continues...
Excerpted from 8 Minutes in the Morning by Jorge Cruise Copyright © 2001 by Jorge Cruise, Inc.
Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
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