Sometimes, someone can say just a few words – and those words end up having a huge influence on someone else’s health and life.
I’d like to publicly thank someone whose words had that sort of influence on me. (I also recently thanked him in person.) I hope that this newspaper’s readers can also benefit from reading what he said.
The person who deserves thanks is a fellow named Jared De Canbia.
About two years ago, around this time of year, Jared was my designated trainer for a free “fitness analysis” and training session at Great Neck’s Equinox health club.
During the analysis, Jared asked me what my fitness goals were. A major goal of mine was to lose weight.
Although I had been very slim throughout the first few decades of my life, my weight had crept up in recent years. (Eating two or three chocolate-and-nut-covered Haagen Daaz ice cream bars and similar fare while sitting all day, into the wee hours of the morning, writing legal briefs, can do that to you.)
Towards the end of the fitness analysis, Jared turned to me and said: “So, let me ask you something. What are you waiting for? When are you going to lose the weight? When are you going to get started? You’re already . . .” (Ahem, let’s not mention my age at the time in a public forum.)
He continued: “Are you going to wait until you’re 57? Are you going to wait until you’re 60? Or until you’re 65? Or 70? It’s only going to get harder later.”
Quoting Rabbi Hillel’s famous phrase, Jared asked, “If not now, then when?”
Jared’s “tough love” questions somehow struck a chord. I kept remembering our conversation: “When? When? What are you waiting for? When are you going to get started?”
After a few months of this, I finally realized that “when” meant “now.”
I started eating a healthy, refined-sugar-free diet.
I devoured (excuse the pun) food policy and nutrition books, including Marion Nestle’s meticulous 500-page tome, “What To Eat,” and law-school classmate (former FDA chairman) Dr. David Kessler fascinating “The End Of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite.”
I watched Dr. Robert Lustig’s lectures (on youtube) about the deleterious effects of high fructose corn syrup and other refined sugars. I read the nutrition information on the back of food packages. The sweetened yogurts and “health food bars” that I had been eating were packed full of sugar – so I switched to fresh fruit mixed into plain low-fat yogurt, and eliminated the misleadingly touted “health bars” (as well as the Haagen-Daaz). I did a lot of walking.
The excess pounds disappeared, slowly, steadily and in a healthy way.
Reflecting on all this, it seems that the realization that “now is the time” can be an important key to successfully making whatever improvements we’d like to make in our lives.
For instance, one of the reasons why New Years’ resolutions can work is that the beginning of the year is a time when we stop delaying, and instead say “let’s begin now.”
Thank you again, Jared.
Wishing everyone a very Happy and Healthy New Year!
Liz Berney, Esq.
Great Neck
