What's Going On? Why Are So Many Failing?

by Phil Kaplan

This Three-Part Article Might Lead to Some Much-Needed Clarity

 

Contents

Part I - Eat Right and Exercise – the Challenges

Part II - The 21 Day Journey To Excellence

Part III - The Perilous Shortcuts

 

Part I

Here’s the challenge.  Eat right and exercise. 

What’s so challenging about that?  In concept, nothing, but try translating those words into real life activity for the average, or even the greater-than-average American, and the questions begin. 

How often should I exercise?  There’s an easy one, and if you ask six different people, you’ll hear everything from “every day for 20 minutes,” to “you can’t do more than three times a week because the muscles need at least 48 hours to recuperate."

Now, with just a bit of minor confusion, you might pursue the next question. 

Should I do cardio, weights, or both?  Try another six people, and why not, just to make it interesting, make sure at least two of them are "certified personal trainers."  I assure you you’ll hear all of the following: 

"Warm up with cardio, then do weights."

"Weight training doesn’t burn fat so focus on cardio."

"Cardio is good for the heart and weights are for toning, so alternate days."

Follow that with a visit to the health club.  The “floor trainers” will tell you to go through the circuit of machines.  The group ex people (formerly titled aerobic instructors”) will direct you to the body bar class which mixes weights and cardio, the functional step class which mixes traditional step with stability ball movements, or perhaps they’ll shuttle you off to the Spinning Room where you’ll pedal a bike like a raving maniac for 45 – 60 minutes and find you can fill a large bucket with the sweat that you wring out of your workout clothes. 

"High intensity for cardio?"

"Low end of the target zone for fat burning?"

"Interval training??  Superslow training?"

At this point you figure it’s better to do something physical than to spend the rest of your life trying to decipher “what’s right,” so you go through a few machines you recognize. Then, in an attempt to look like you know what you're doing, you pick up a pair of dumbbells and do a few sets of the few exercises you know you won't embarrass yourself with. Finally, you walk on the treadmill at about 3.5 mph at an incline that reads “2” and you find your heart rate comes up to 136, although you’re not really sure if that’s good, not good, or if your heart is even aware of the confusion your poor brain is going through. 

You’re not all that exhausted, but you feel as if you started, and now it’s time to leave the health club and get a meal.

 

Get A Meal? You Thought That Would be Easy?!?!

Just for the sake of consistency, why not ask six people what you should have for lunch if you want to “eat right.”

"Have a salad, dressing on the side, no cheese no croutons."

"Have protein.  Don’t worry about the fat, just avoid the carbs.  Get a burger and some cottage cheese and don’t put the burger on a bun."

"Get a wrap with turkey breast and spinach."

"Soup!  It will make you feel full and satisfied without loading you up on calories."

"Skip lunch.  Have a nutri-grain bar, or a low-carb energy bar."

"Stop by Jamba Juice and get a smoothie with a shot of wheat grass juice."

If you’re not ready to throw in the towel at this point, if you're not ready to just turn the steering wheel until your car ambles into that familiar place where you scream “I’ll have a #2 please,” and proceed to talk to that nice lady in the little window who hands you a bag in exchange for $6.29, you’re among the rare few with the fortitude to plunge ahead through the maze. 

Let me stop here to make a statement. 

I know.  I know what “eat right and exercise means.” 

If you read through all of the articles at my website, you’ll better understand it.  If you attend a seminar of mine, you’ll at least have some guidelines to lead you beyond confusion.  If you begin my TRANSFORM! program and proceed through the entire 17 weeks, you’ll have mastery over this “eat right and exercise” thing (at the conclusion of this article I'll direct you to a follow up sharing some of the foundational elements that make "exercise and eat right" simpler to grasp).

Interestingly, I’m not writing this to discuss TRANSFORM! or an upcoming seminar.  I’m writing it to share my excitement.  I now have the ability to take three weeks of your life and turn those 21 days into the most empowering experience related to “eating right and exercise” you’ve ever known.

 

Part II - The 21 Day Journey

There are two parts of my business.  One rides upon a commitment to help people find the fitness and weight loss results they desire, the second relies on my ability to reach fitness professionals and empower them to spread the vital message of Fitness Truth.  These are the means to an end, that end being awareness.  Once people learn to separate reality from nonsense, once they learn to decipher misinformation and pull out those elements that may have some semblance of truth, once they recognize that the public is ripe and gullible at the hands of anyone seeking to generate tens of millions of dollars at the expense of individuals seeking physical change, our obesity and health issues begin to move toward acceptable levels, and ultimately we may have a fit, healthy society.  Perhaps I’m egomaniacal in believing that I can have that sort of impact upon the health of a deconditioned nation, but judging by my track record where “results” have been the mainstay of my career, I forge on ahead with the absolute belief that a positive change in our population’s mindset is a must. 

I’ve developed my 21 Day Journey to Excellence in line with my dual pursuits.  21 Days is a short enough period of time that people are willing to “try,” to put aside disempowering habits, and to even step away from those false beliefs they might have mistakenly held as truths.  21 Days is enough time to show indisputable evidence of improvement.  21 Days is the length of time it took for those 150 individuals who I worked with personally to go from a place of hope and doubt to a place of clarity, a place where they new they now have complete control over the way their bodies look and feel.  Ask any one of them what “eat right and exercise” means, and then sit down with a notebook.  They realize they can’t deliver “tips,” but they become almost evangelical in their desire to help others “understand.” 

My growth has come from meeting frustration head on, from strategizing, calculating, and figuring out how I can move forward, even when the diet centers, the infomercial folks, and the unethical operators of membership driven health clubs wish I’d crawl into a cave and stay there.  When I developed the 21 day program, I felt a responsibility to take people through it personally, and while every one I worked with was thrilled with their outcome, the frustration started to kick in.  I knew I had to replicate the personal contact if this exciting new approach were ever going to reach the masses.  I started speaking to trainers, coaches, and . . . internet people.  Surprisingly, it was the “web” people who gave me the a-ha. 

I can deliver my words via the internet in text form. 

I can “instruct” using photos, illustrations, explanations, and video clips.  I can also broadcast the same PowerPoint presentations I used in my group sessions. 

I’ve created the program with exercises that can be performed at home with nothing more than resistance tubing and a stability ball ($36), and if you want to go one step further, get a set of dumbbells you can purchase in any sporting goods store. 

I can “speak” to “remote clients” via email and discussion boards, and they can speak to each other just as they would in my weekly group sessions. 

I’m thrilled to say that now the “remote’ version of my 21 day Journey to Excellence is now available, in it’s entirety, as an on-line program, and your investment is only half of what people invested to drive to my office and go through the sessions in groups with me. 

I’m ready now to announce . . . the 21 Day Journey to Excellence is here!  If you’re ready to enroll, just register for $200 and within 48 hours you’ll receive the preliminary information you need to understand before you begin.  Then, you’ll connect with a representative in my office who will schedule you so every seven days, for three weeks, you receive new information in audio, text, illustration, and animation formats.  You’ll also gain password access to a special site I’ve created specifically for those individuals going through the program. 

If you have a high speed connection and a little bit of patience (it takes about 4-5 minutes for the entire presentation to download before you can watch it without interruption), access the “First Glance” presentation where I describe the 21 Day Program in some depth.

We all know we should “eat right and exercise.”  I’m going to make that concept crystal clear!!!

 

Part III  
The Perilous Shortcuts

This is a third part of a 3-part article. Scroll up or click here to read it from the beginning.

21 Days . . . does it sound like a long time?  In fourth grade, in a heated football game, Elliott Glantz came down on my right leg causing the femur to pop out of the hip socket and tearing connective tissue.  I was in the hospital for 6 weeks in traction and every once in awhile someone in a white coat would come in with some sort of a needle and drain what they called  synovial fluid out of an area that 10-year-old boys don’t like people probing around.  It wasn’t fun, but what was even worse was when I was released from the hospital they told me I shouldn’t even think about playing competitive sports for at least 3-4 months.  I wasn’t happy about it, but I understood, at least intellectually.  That’s how long it was going to take for tissue to rebuild, for things to change "back to normal," for human material to heal.  I remember my parents and the doctor assuring me four months would fly by.  Two weeks later I convinced my parents it was OK for me to dribble a basketball.  I wasn’t going to get hit; I just needed to do something physical.  The next step, only three weeks after I got out of the hospital, was I began shooting, not playing a game, but shooting a basketball.  Six weeks after I was released from the hospital . . . I was back.  No, I don't mean "back, like my old self," I mean I was wheeled right back through those Emergency Room doors. The little voice of anxiety in my head, the one that ignored rational thought, assured me, “Phil if you can shoot a basketball, and you can walk just fine, and you can even pick it up into a jog without pain, then you can get right back in the game.”  I did, and ultimately right back in the hospital.  Thankfully the second stay was shorter, but that was a life lesson for me.  You can’t fight nature. 

Intellectually I know that you know that finding exercise and nutritional clarity in 21 days would be a wonderful gift, and I also know that you know that shifting body composition takes time, and I also know that you recognize that you can only bring about the changes nature will allow in the time period in which nature dictates it’s possible. 

The problem is “the other horse.”

Two Horses

Way back when philosophers philosophized, Plato described "impulse" by associating the human mind with a chariot driven by two horses.  One horse is the weaker horse, reliable, steadfast, and sensible, driven solely by intellect.  The other horse, the stronger of the two, is driven by emotion, propeled by impulse, and when something lures the big horse, the intellectual one is forced to follow. 

Although I know you know it’s going to take time to see a thrilling payoff from the “Eat Right and Exercise” equation, I also know advertisers, marketers, and product promoters have learned to speak to “the other horse,” the big horse.  They approach you not by speaking to your intellect, but by speaking to your emotion.  I remember, during one of my heated arguments with an “account specialist” who worked for an infomercial company creating a campaign for my program, someone sat me down and told me very calmly, “we know you speak to people as if they are intelligent, but that doesn’t work.  You have to get them where they’re weakest.  You have to speak to them as if they’re in eighth grade and you’re selling them a day off of school.”

I remember both horses in my brain agreed at that moment.  They said, “Phil, get out of here, quick!  This is not a place you want to ever be again!”

Despite my recognition of the promotional methods that lure people, misinformation is so abundant people are willing to ignore the little horse and waste not only time and money, but in some cases, jeopardize their health!

Here are two “shortcuts” that speak to “the big horse,” two shortcuts that use “middle men” to communicate to impulse.  The middle men are doctors and booksellers.  Let’s look at them one at a time. 

1. Doctors as big horse middle men.

The drug companies can lure you with the illusion, “all you have to do is take a pill.”  They have a wonderful marketing system in place. 

Doctors, who many not be all that well versed in “eat right and exercise,” are their unwitting sales people.  The attractive “drug reps” visit doctors offices with “samples.”  The doctors are given marketing literature not only to read, but to display in their waiting rooms.  The public holds the doctor in high esteem, so information passed through “the doctor” is perceived as credible.  Weight loss drugs, historically, have proven dangerous, problematic, and largely ineffective, but that doesn’t stop the multi-billion dollar drug machine from moving product.  Phen-Fen came and went.  Meridia is linked with blood pressure issues.  Xenical has not proven effective.  Next you can expect a leptin drug and a new array of appetite suppressants.  These will do little or nothing to positively impact metabolism, and early research on some of the leptin-related drugs in human clinical trials show interruptions in insulin function.  Still, they’ll come out with the “big horse lure” of, “the doctor says, all you have to do now is take a pill . . . and best of all, we can get it covered by insurance!  Speak to a family member of someone who died from PPH after taking Phen-Fen and ask them how trusting you should be of that “just take a pill” message.”

2. Bookstores as big horse hangouts

The bookstores pull you in by putting “Best Sellers” in the window. I am not the least big opposed to bookstores, and if I were a bookstore owner and knew that the lifestyle I provided for my family was based on the number of books I sell, you know I’m putting the “hot sellers” up front.  The challenge is, the bookstores haven’t any responsibility, nor should they, for screening titles and examining content.  They do what they’re supposed to do.  Sell books.  Publishers know that people are willing to buy anything that promises “quick weight loss,” “easy weight loss,” or “miraculous weight loss,” thus the fitness and diet related books that most frequently wind up in the hands of weight loss wanters are those that promise “quick and easy weight loss.”  There’s also another way to sell diet books.  Put a celebrity on the cover and give the “diet” or “program” the celebrity’s name.  Maybe you can even put a book out there by a psychologist who hasn’t any expertise in fitness or nutrition and have him develop a relationship with Oprah.  That’s all it takes to sell books!  Here’s the reality.  If it’s “quick,” if it tells you, “you don’t have to exercise,” if it asks you to cut calories significantly, avoid a given nutrient (i.e. carbs or fat), or suggest a certain food, spice, or compound (apple cider vinegar?) as a weight loss miracle, it’s speaking directly to the big horse.  The poor intellectual little horse is just shaking it’s mane in disgust.

In 17 weeks I can give you mastery (The TRANSFORM! program), in 21 days I can give you extreme progress and evidence and get you started on a lifetime journey of ongoing progress in improving health, performance, confidence, and well-being (The Remote Journey to Excellence) , and if you’re still waiting for science, an author, an athlete, or a sitcom star to come forward with the miracle solution, all I’m going to ask is that every now and then pay a little attention to Plato’s little horse.

If this article raised questions, questions that remain unanswered, and you're not ready to begin the 21 Day Journey, find Solutions in a follow up article titled, Here is the Framework Upon Which Solutions Are Found by clicking here.

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