Why you should become a vegan

It’s Sunday morning.  It’s beautiful out.  And I feel great.  One month ago I decided to become a full-blown vegetarian/almost vegan.  I say “almost vegan” because I’m just about there.  My consumption of dairy is almost zero.  I would say that around 99 percent of everything going into my body is plant based.

The reason I’ve decided to this is for my health.  Anyone who knows me knows that I consider health to be the single most important thing.  That’s why I wrote Losing Weight When Diets Fail. Without health what do really have?   Monday-Friday, my day begins at the gym at 5:30 A.M.  Forty-five minutes of strength training followed by a four mile run on the treadmill.  I’ve been doing this routine for 11 years straight and on the outside I’m in peek physical condition, especially for my age.  According to my physician, I’m in amazing shape on the inside too.  My cholesterol is 154 with an unbelievable ratio.

I began reading this book, The China Study, about a month ago and after reading about 50 pages I was hooked and I decided to go veggie.  Although I gave up red meat 3 years ago, it was time to give-up chicken, pork and all other animal products.  The China Study is the largest study ever conducted on health and nutrition and most of the research was done by accident.  Basically, the findings show with 99.9 percent accuracy that just about every form of cancer is the result of casein, the chemical found in animal protein.  And furthermore, the elimination of animal products from your diet brings the likelihood of developing heart disease almost to zero.  How can this be you wonder?

Well, let’s take a look at the picture of America first:

  1. 70 percent of all of the food we consume comes from an animal.  Hence, the majority of our protein comes from an animal.
  2. The number one cause of death is in America is heart disease and we have the highest rate of any nation
  3. 67 percent of Americans are overweight, the highest of any nation
  4. The cancer rate in America is the highest of any nation
  5. Type 2 diabetes is off the charts

So I got to thinking about the bullshit we are fed from the food industry, the media and politicians about “proper diet.”  All of this diet crap that is being rammed into our heads is a lot of crap.  Let’s take advice from Dr. Atkins, a man who died of heart disease as a result of being obese.  Yeah that makes sense.  Or let’s listen to Dr. Phil about diet, a man who is no slim chicken.  That makes sense too.  Wake-up people!!!

When the China Study was being conducted, the researchers studied various communities throughout Asia that were total vegan.  Not by choice but because that’s what they were born into.  Not only was it impossible to find a single overweight individual among thousands of people, the researchers couldn’t find a single cancer or heart disease victim.  Not one… This is just one example that you’ll find in The China Study.  Furthermore, when the researchers took their research to the lab using live rats (the closest mammal to the human as far as genetic composition), there findings were mind-boggling.   All of the rats in the study had the same cancerous tumor.  In one group of rats, the researchers fed them a diet of 30 percent animal protein (much less than our 70 percent) and in every case, the tumor grew and the rat died.  In the control group, the researchers fed the rats a diet that was 100 percent plant based.  In every case the tumor shrunk and went away and the rat lived.  Pretty amazing.

I could go on and on about the China Study but I want to conclude with this:  The cholesterol range in America is 180-300.  We’re told that if you’re cholesterol is under 200 you’re ok.  More bull.   In the Asian communities in these studies, the range was 80-150.  You heard right.  That means that my “amazing” 154 cholesterol would be off-the-charts high over there.  That might explain why 39-year-old men with a cholesterol level of 150 can still get a heart attack and die.  Who the hell comes up with these numbers in our country—the beef industry?  I’m shooting for under 100 and I’ll keep you posted.  I do not want to die yet.

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The Law of Attraction

So I’m trying to figure out where to begin.  How did I get to this place in my life where I’ll be staring in a new television series on a major cable network?  My new series, Monster In-Laws, premiere’s Monday, 10/24 at 10:00 p.m. on A&E.  One thing is for sure, this opportunity didn’t just fall into my lap.

My media career began back in the Spring of 2007 after my first book, Losing Weight When Diets Fail, hit the shelves.  I was fortunate that my publisher believed in me and dropped some cash to hire Booth Media to do the PR.  I found myself doing countless radio interviews, magazine and newspaper interviews to promote the book.  My first on-camera experience took place in NYC, as most do.  My publicist called me and told me that Gary Null, a famous health guru was taping a segment for PBS and wanted to interview me.  I trekked into the city and found myself in some small studio with a camera in my face.  I spoke for about an hour and then did a hypnosis demonstration with this overweight guy.  When I was done, the camera woman came over to me and asked me, “have you ever been on-camera before?   Because you are a natural on camera.  It’s a sort-of gift that some people have, so you better pursue TV.” Although the segment never aired, it was a very inspiring experience.   I couldn’t get this TV stuff out of my head and I was praying like hell that my publicist was going to call me and tell me that they locked in and interview on Good Morning America or something.

Several days later I was giving a talk about childhood obesity and at the same time promoting my book. After the talk, this woman came up to me and said, “your going to be on Oprah.” I responded with, “yeah, wouldn’t that be nice.” She then said, “no, you’re supposed to say: YOUR DAMN RIGHT I’M GOING TO BE ON OPRAH.” She then went on to tell me about this new book, The Secret, which is about the law of attraction and that if you want something you’d better believe it, see it and feel it.  I didn’t think much of it at the time.  The next day I was doing a bunch of radio interviews and a couple of the radio hosts asked me if I had read this book, The Secret, because my book reminded them of it.  This continued for about a week and it was very weird.  So I went and picked-up a copy of The Secret and read it in one sitting.  Let me tell you, I was blown away after reading this book because I had been living The Secret all along and didn’t know it.  Everything I had accomplished at that point in my life was a result of The Secret. I was so excited!!!

I decided to take the strategies taught in The Secret to another level.  I desperately wanted that phone to ring and hear my publicist tell me that they locked-down a spot on national TV to promote my book.  So I visualized it intensely over and over again for a few days.  And low and behold, the phone rang.  My publicist told me to get ready because I was going on Fox & Friends the next morning.  And it was the Saturday morning national segment.  They sent a car to pick me up and everything.  I showed-up at the Fox studio in Manhattan and nailed it.  Even the host, Greg Kelly, told me that I was great on camera.  The book sales sky-rocketed for a few days after that appearance.  The weeks went on and not much was happening in TV land for me so I realized that I had better put the pedal to the medal and start pitching ideas to networks and producers myself.  I pitched and pitched and pitched and was able to get myself on The Tyra Banks Show, in January of 2008 for their “Best Diets for the New Year” segment.  I was in the green room (there’s about 5 of them there) and met Jorge Cruz, the Biggest Loser Twins, an American Gladiator woman and Bethanny Frankel (before she was famous).  I remember Bethanny having a bit of an attitude.  I realized later that she was pissed off because she didn’t have the green room with the personal bathroom.  I had that room.  She asked if she could use it and I let her.  I’m a nice guy people.

I continued to get myself out there and did a lot more TV including The Maury Show, Good Day, Fox and many more.  A colleague of mine set-up a meeting for me with Abrams Artists, a very reputable talent agency in the city.  Basically, my agent would send me out on interviews with production companies and network people when show ideas would arise that seemed fitting.  They felt I would be the perfect TV expert/host, with my credentials and camera presence.  I went on a bunch of these things and even got chosen to host a couple of shows that some very well-known production company’s were developing.  Unfortunately most of these shows never got green lit, except for one.

In April of 2009 I interviewed with a very small (at the time) production company called Leftfield Pictures, for a show idea they had about crazy mother-in-laws.  I remember driving into the city at night and sitting down in an interview room with a camera in my face.  A girl named Merideth  asked me random questions related to the topic while the camera rolled.  I remember, at the time, thinking that I was wasting my time.  Exactly one year later in April of 2010 my phone rings and it’s Merideth.  She goes on to tell me that they sold the pilot to A&E Network and that I was one of four finalist to be the expert of the show; two would be selected.  A male and a female.  I had a 50% chance.  You better believe I wanted to get this spot so I practiced my visualization and meditation every morning on the treadmill.  In my mind, I saw the phone ringing and Merideth telling me I got the gig.  In my mind I felt it.  Of course I had to wait in anticipation for 6 weeks before the phone rang.  Talk about stress.  When she told me that me and another woman were selected, I  fist-pumped my way around the office.  Both pilots were filmed in August of 2010 and A&E would determine, based on the pilots, whether or not they would buy the series.  They bought the series.

But I wasn’t done yet.  Just because I filmed one of the pilots didn’t mean that I would be selected as one of the hosts for the series.  They had to re-cast for the experts for the series and naturally I was in the mix.  Of course I had to wait in anticipation for like 6 more weeks (More Stress).  And yes, I visualized, visualized, visualized.  And yes, I attracted what I had been thinking.  The phone rang from the people at Leftfield, A&E had seen my reel, and they love, love, loved it.  I was chosen.  Unfortunately the woman who did the other pilot was not chosen to do the series.  Another woman, Mel Robbins, was and you will see her and I back to back each week.

So, here I am.  It’s September 15th and my new show is premiering in 6 weeks.  Wow, what a ride.  It goes to show-if you put your mind to something (the right way) it will manifest.

I have to conclude by thanking my great friend, Mike Michels.  Although I’m the therapist and  coach, Mike has been my personal coach for the last couple of years.  Trust me, this was a very stressful path and Mike was always there to pick me up when I doubt or discouragement was setting in.  He’s a big part of why all of this has manifested for me and he has no idea how much I owe him for that.

 

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My new TV show on A&E is insanely awesome

Ok, my new television show, Monster In-Laws, is ridiculously awesome.  I just finished watching a bunch of my episodes that the producers sent me.  The show will begin airing sometime this Fall on A&E (still waiting for official premier date).  The show is about married couples who’s marriage is being ripped to shreds because of an overbearing, controlling mother-in-law.  My job:  move in with these dysfunctional families, push their buttons like they’ve never been pushed, and make them face their issues.  The show is very dramatic, entertaining and transformational.  I’ll fill you in once I know the premier date.  And, if I haven’t seen you in say,  the last 10 years, you’re not invited to the premier in New York.  Ha ha………

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