The Fire Within

Ok, so now you understand how the blood sugar works. You must eat a variety of foods every couple of hours from the moment you wake up until the moment you go to sleep. Yet, how do we know how big our portions are supposed to be? Well, don’t worry. I’m covering that too.

There is a little known secret in American culture that is overlooked by so many diets. This secret is on many boxes of food that allow you to easily calculate how big your portions should be. It was designed for diabetics, but why not learn about it before you become diabetic? It is known as Exchanges.

Unlike many diets, I don’t want to narrow your options for foods. Think of this advice as a guideline. If I tell you eating fats will help you lose weight, then you know you have an abundance of options for attaining fat from which to choose. The same applies if I tell you that protein builds muscle.

Furthermore, if I say I want you to eat 20 grams of protein in every meal, then it is up to you to find the protein you feel like eating at the moment and just making sure you get 20g in. Make sense? This is what Exchanges do. Except the Exchange system is a new way of looking at the different food groups. If you are diabetic, then you would know that there are a variety of lists of which to keep track. You have the starches, the fruits, the dairy products, the fats, the free foods and so on. This can get quite overwhelming. I’ve found that by narrowing our options to just three distinct categories, we can eliminate confusion and see the same level of results.

Nothing new here. The three categories as you may have guessed are:

• Carbohydrates
• Proteins
• Fats

Remember how to tell these apart. Don’t confuse legumes as proteins or think soy is a protein. This is a very common mistake!

With the simple rules I explained before, it is easy to categorize all foods. There might be a few exceptions, but 99% of everything falls in here, so why learn crazy subcategories from the very beginning?

Ok, so now you have 3 categories. You know you’re supposed to eat from every category in every sitting, but how much?

First, let’s learn a little bit of science behind the Exchange system before I answer that question. The exchange system can be broken down as seen in the next chart.

An exchange is another way of measuring quantities. There are many calorie counting diets or point systems in place. This is yet another point system meal planning method. The difference is that this method was designed for diabetics and is actually used in many food labels. I’m hoping it will someday become mainstream, as this is a great way to calculate the size of your portion.

Let’s look at the chart above. We have 1 Exchange of Carbs which is the same as saying 15 grams of carbs or even saying 60 calories from carbohydrates. All three of these mean the exact same thing. I don’t want you to use this idea and get crazy about counting calories or counting exchanges. But for about two weeks on my meal plan, you should build your fire with the exact amount of fuel that I recommend.

On my website, in my cookbooks and in other literature found for diabetics, you’ll find the following nomenclature used when referring to Exchanges:

1 3 1 – This means you will be eating 1 Exchange of Carbs, 3 Exchanges of Protein and 1 Exchange of Fat. It can also be written as 15g Carbs, 21g Protein and 5g Fat.

As you can see, it is easier to simply write 1 3 1 than to explain every time what each number means. Let’s look at one more example:

3 1 2 – This example would be 45g Carbs, 7g Protein and 10g Fat. It can also be written as 180 calories of Carbs, 28 Calories of Protein and 90 Calories of Fat.

Does this all make sense? There is no way to tell you exactly how much you should eat without a personal session with me or another nutrition coach, but in my experience I have found that the following recommendation works most of the time.

For a girl who is 5’5” and wishes to be about 120lbs, you will want to have the following:
6 AM    – 1 3 0
7 AM    – Workout
8 AM    – 1 3 1
9 AM    – 1 1 1
12 PM    – 1.5 4 1
2:30 PM    – 1 3 1
5 PM    – 1 3 1
7:30 PM     – 1 3 1
9:30 PM     – 0.5 2 2

A man who is 5’11” and wishes to be 170lbs should have the following:
6 AM    – 2 5 0.5
7 AM    – Workout
8 AM    – 2 6 1
9 AM    – 1 5 1
12 PM    – 2 6 1
2:30 PM    – 1 5 1
5 PM    – 2 6 1
7:30 PM    – 1 5 1
9:30 PM    – 1 3 1.5

This is a brief look at Exchanges and how they can help us measure portions. You may research Exchanges in depth and find a multitude of recipes, diets and food lists on my website or elsewhere that use this wonderful system of portion control.

Well, that wraps up how to fuel your body.  In conclusion, if all you got out of this chapter is that you need to eat every 3 hours no matter what, then you will see a lot of success.

Take it one step further, and eat every 3 hours a balanced meal of 40% carbs, 40% protein, and 20% fat and you’ll be that much better off.

Learn how to use properly balanced meals often throughout your day and you will start to feel the embers growing in as little as two weeks.

Isn’t it highly ironic that most fat people are actually starving themselves? Sad, but true. There is gluttony, but there are also many well-intentioned people who simply do not understand the correlation between caloric intake – what, when and why – and how ignoring their fire by going long stretches without eating is the very thing that robs them of energy, makes them feel lethargic and leaves them cold and listless with little desire or ability to get up and move.

Everybody knows by now not to eat sugar. However, most people don’t know that you can very easily and effectively control your need and desire for sugar, if you know how to build and maintain your fire. Many people say they just have a huge sweet tooth, but this is almost always because they’re just not eating correctly. They wait till their blood sugar level drops to 80 mg/dL or lower in the Danger Zone, then the vagus nerve clamors for sugar, which they’re more than willing to provide. Shoving this sugar in their face without the appropriate proteins and fats to balance it is throwing gasoline on their fire. So, their blood sugar soars as high as 150 mg/dL. It drops back to 80 mg/dL and they toss on more gasoline.

I’ve had some clients tell me, “Well, that’s just how I am. That’s how my whole family is. We like sugar.”

No, your family just doesn’t know how to make a fire. Nobody taught you how to make a real fire. After I teach one of them to make a good fire, they’ll begin to notice how their family eats and realize why obesity is becoming the largest (pun intended) epidemic in America.

However, tossing gasoline on the fire is the only way they know to keep it going. This dangerous method is merely burning down the house. Never toss gasoline on your fire! I show people a new way to eat – how to properly build a fire and maintain it – by knowing what log to place upon the fire at the proper time. By mastering the fire within, you will change your life, your family members’ lives and eventually you’ll change the world. It happens one meal and one mouthful at a time. You no longer need to be a slave to sugar.

Many people think that obesity is genetic. It is more accurate to say that if you’re family is fat, odds are you will be too. However, this has more to do with copying bad habits than any aberration in your DNA. The problem with your jeans popping at the seams is rarely, if ever, caused by faulty genes. The majority of fat people don’t know how to make a fire, having learned their meal-preparation skills from another large person who also has no knowledge of the science behind eating.

If you place an infant in an obese household, regardless of his genetics, he’s going to learn how to build a fire just like the others. You are what you eat and you learn by mimicking others – namely your parents or guardians.

Bodybuilders and top athletes know how to make excellent fires. This allows all body types to compete. If you know how to build an effective and efficient furnace, then you will be able to rise to that top 1% – the crème de la crème. Only then will genetics play a more significant role, for it is true that some people are genetically predisposed to being “great.” The rest is science, experience and the wisdom to wield what you’ve been given at a master’s level. I do sympathize with those who’ve made it 98% of the way only to realize they are capped genetically. But no sympathy is given to someone at 50% who just doesn’t build the right type of fire. If you are obese, you CAN lose weight. Everyone can. I challenge you to test this knowledge!

Now, let’s check that fire. Whenever you throw that log on at night, you have to be careful. At nighttime, there can be dew, fog or an overnight drizzle or wind that could flare up which might put out your fire, especially since no one may be watching it.

You should look for a safe log for your fire at night, to help bank it till morning. You need a solid, dry log that will last a long time. Green, wet or rotten wood…isn’t good. Gasoline on an unattended fire is catastrophic! So, the log that is put upon your fire just before bedtime is the most crucial log of the day.

One of the best logs to use in properly banking your nighttime fire is cottage cheese. Why? Because it’s high in calcium caseinate. This is an excellent, slow-burning protein that will help bank that big log from your last meal and burn it all the way to its core. Toss in a few walnuts to help you get to sleep since they have tryptophan. They also help balance the cottage cheese and you are left with one of the best logs for banking your fire. Any other log low in sugar or carbs while high in protein and fat should work, too.

With this approach, you are well on your way to a successful lifestyle. I don’t believe you have to eat organic tofu to lose weight or any other insane food. Yet, you do have to eat properly balanced meals never more than 3 hours apart and you must limit your sugar intake. Remember my tips on how to keep yourself from craving sugars.

Our fuel is the heart of our fire. It makes a world of difference, and I attribute 80% of success in losing weight to proper meal planning.

My meal plan is not a diet, per se. It is a lifestyle change and requires discipline. Later, I’ll explain some motivating factors to help you want to change your eating habits. Hopefully, by buying this book, you are already motivated to take the first step on this life-changing journey. If this book was a gift – then be warned! I’ve helped many people in my life and 99% of them paid their hard-earned cash to see success. It is rare that someone who gets free advice actually takes it. Go give whoever gave you this book $100 before trying anything! My experience tells me you’ll have more success if you do.

Many people expect immediate results due to the fast food mentality that permeates our society. Fast food mentality has helped us achieve the status of fattest nation on the planet. You will see results on my program and some will occur within a few weeks, but learning how to build and maintain a proper fire will take some time and dedication.

You will quickly notice some weight loss, but the changes in your face, your skin, your eyes and your hair will take up to a year to become apparent. Think of how long you’ve been eating poorly and not exercising. If it’s taken you years to get here, then don’t believe you can change that overnight. That is unrealistic. Every time you eat something, think of how you want to look a year from now and you may choose differently.

During the course of fire-starting and fire maintenance, some people don’t read the instructions or apply them properly. They try to take shortcuts or think they know best how to feed a flame. Some will throw several logs onto the fire at once, and then wonder why it’s smoldering, smoking and burning their eyes. So, they give up and go back to the city vowing to never camp again.

Some campers aren’t so happy when they’ve been chucking logs onto the fire and there’s still a little flame there. They are lethargic and never seem to have any energy, growing colder by the minute, so they decide to do something drastic. These “bright” ones think they can throw a can of gasoline on the fire. Won’t that be fun and get the job done? Suddenly, they’re surrounded by an out-of-control blaze that threatens to burn down the whole forest. The doctor tells them they have Type II Diabetes now, and they’ll have to control it for life. This is the same as letting our bodies go for 6 hours without food, then all of a sudden we’re starved. We decide to have an “energy drink” to fuel us back up. I can’t believe those are considered a health food. What a crock! Tend to your fire before it gets down to embers and you’ll never have to throw gasoline on it.
Throwing gasoline on your fire will only cause you to singe your eyebrows off and burn up all the twigs you were using during the course of properly building it. A small, smoldering flame in our body equates to low metabolism and low blood sugar. This means we haven’t eaten in a long time and we haven’t been properly feeding the fire or have been using poor fuels. If we haven’t eaten in a long time and are starting to get the shakes or a headache, one of the first things most people reach for is sugar. Sure, grab a candy bar and throw on that fire! Just like the energy drink, this is equal to throwing gasoline into the flames or lighter fluid onto the barbecue coals. It’s stupid and dangerous and no way to build or maintain a fire. Preventive maintenance is the key to controlling sugar cravings.

Type II Diabetics don’t realize that their “disease” is 100% curable and preventable if they just stop dousing their fire with gasoline. Relating this to the diabetic’s blood sugar level, they let it get really low and flat line, and then they douse it with sugar. The blood sugar spikes really high, but only lasts for a short time, then drops again, drastically low. So, they toss on another can of gasoline. Not only does this cause the system to sputter, cough and stall, but it is starving the body of a proper balance of the elements it needs to maintain a healthy immune system, provide enough energy to finish the day’s chores, plus repair itself during its overnight fast. Their blood sugar ends up in the Danger Zone for nearly 24 hours a day.

When you toss gasoline on your fire and it flares up out-of-control, the body has a natural fire-fighting system called insulin. These super fire-fighters notice the wildfire and are released, rushing to the blaze. Effectively doing their job, they put out the fire, but this means your body is left feeling sluggish and cold. So, you toss on more gasoline and the insulin fire-fighters rush right back to soak down the coals. Now, they’re conditioned to freak out every time you do. If you toss anything onto the fire, they’re afraid it’s going to flare up out-of-control, so they’re quick on the hose trigger to water that beast down before it can do any major damage. They also get worn out after fighting so many fires and give up far earlier than your peers. Hence, one reason your peers can eat all those brownies without a trace going to their waistline.

Learning how to properly build and maintain the fire within, especially for diabetics, is all about training those insulin firefighters to not fear that your flames are going to burn out-of-control. After about three days of proper fire maintenance eating small and consistent meals, they’ll calm down and won’t knee-jerk react to your tossing good fuel onto the fire. But if you throw on another can of gasoline, you’re back to square one. Once a diabetic has conditioned their insulin firefighters from previous poor fire maintenance, then the insulin will always resort to rushing to put out their fire whenever they feel threatened. This is a condition that is set for life, simply due to poor fire control. The diabetic, in the eyes of the super insulin firefighters, can’t be completely trusted with their flame.

By properly building and maintaining their fire, however, they can control their insulin’s urge to put out the flames, but they must never drop their guard or resort to old bad habits. If they eat and exercise correctly, they can cure themselves of Type II Diabetes, completely. Except, they must remain forever vigilant and not relapse into poor patterns of eating. This is why a diabetic may do really well for a long time, then slip up for a few weeks. Suddenly, the past comes back to haunt them. Lesson learned? Never pour gasoline on your fire!

Now that you’re aware that throwing gasoline on your fire is a very bad idea, what exactly is this gasoline? We need to look at simple sugars. The worst simple sugar is pure honey because we can actually absorb it through our gums. Pure honey can be a diabetic’s downfall and should be avoided. The only reason anyone reaches for any sugar as a fuel is to get that sugar rush or high, which happens when the blood sugar level spikes up as depicted in our earlier chart. When we let our blood sugar get down to the 80 level, our brain will tell us to eat pure sugar to raise the blood sugar back to a manageable level. To prevent this sugar craving, we simply need to eat healthy foods before our blood sugar reaches too low. This is why it is important to eat frequently. I prefer to never go more than 3 hours without eating to prevent the sugar cravings to which everyone seems to be a victim.

The best way to attain that “sugar high” in a much healthier manner is by eating the proper balance of carbs-proteins-fats, which will raise your blood sugar yet give you the feeling of being full and satisfied. Humans have a nerve, the vagus nerve, which extends to the stomach and sends signals to the brain, telling it when to raise our blood sugar level. This nerve is only wired for sugar, however, and we don’t have any other nerves for either fats or proteins, because the body turns everything to sugar – our fuel. This is a problem if you aren’t aware of it and only feed your body sugar. Give your body well-rounded meals before the nerve has a chance to send the signal and you’ll never again crave sugar!

Again, without balancing the sugar or high carb intake with the proper ratio of proteins and fats, as well, you are a Type II Diabetic waiting to happen and the insulin firefighters are just foaming at the mouth waiting to put out your fire. Everything can be turned into sugar by our bodies. Unfortunately, we interpret that as, “I want some sweets, right now.” The key is to never let your blood sugar level get down so low that your sugar nerve will be activated, causing you to crave sugar.

You should always eat a small and complete meal of well-balanced carbs-proteins-fats whenever your blood sugar reaches 90 mg/dL. By doing this, you prevent the vagus nerve from sending an alarm to the brain, which will cause you to crave sugars. The small meal will send your blood sugar back up to approximately 120 mg/dL. In a healthy person, the blood sugar level can go from 120 to 140 mg/dL, which causes blood to rush to the stomach to aid in digestion. That’s when you feel full – sated – and you just want to relax or take a nap.

So, eat when your blood sugar level drops to 90 mg/dL and stop when it reaches 110 mg/dL. At a blood sugar level of 110 mg/dL, it will take about another half hour for your digestive system to break the food down further, causing you to feel full and raising your blood sugar level to 120 mg/dL. This is also why you’ve always been told to wait 20 minutes or more after eating a properly proportioned meal so you don’t over-eat.

Remember, start eating before you’re hungry and stop eating before you’re full. Eat by 90 and stop by 110. After you’ve done this for awhile, you’ll be able to just tell when you’re body needs to eat and when to stop eating. In two weeks time on my plan, you will be in tune with your body. This is the hardest thing for people to grasp and achieve. You don’t need to know your actual blood sugar level, so don’t give me that excuse! Just understand the concept and apply it. Look at the example charts earlier in the book and you will get a feeling for how much sugar is in your system after various meals.

When I talk to any bodybuilder, this is the main skill that they’ve mastered. Their workout routines always vary from bodybuilder to bodybuilder, but this nutritional concept never waivers. You don’t have to be a bodybuilder to be healthy, but if you don’t master this concept, you will always be a slave to working out.

No matter where these athletes go, whether on the road for tournaments or just in their daily training regimens, they always take a gym bag full of fuel with them. They know that there is never any excuse to not feed their fire. The exceptional athlete will stop whatever she is doing and eat at the proper time. She will always drink plenty of water to help keep her systems flushed out and she never waivers from the 90-110 eating pattern, which regulates her blood sugar level and keeps her sugar in the Fat Burning Zone. Even if you don’t follow her exercise routine, you can still achieve incredible health by implementing and perfecting this nutritional truth.

For the average person who doesn’t need to be a bodybuilder or extreme athlete, mastering the 90-110 routine of blood sugar maintenance is still the most effective method to keeping the fire burning. You may not micro-manage your meal plan down to the minute like these professionals, but you will benefit from this scientifically-proven rhythm, no matter how little of it you apply. Should you recognize that you’re not going to be able to eat for up to four hours, once your fire has been properly built and maintained for awhile, then it will be okay to toss on a big log that burns a little longer. This will kick your blood sugar up to 135 mg/dL and it will slowly burn off. Again, this is only after you have learned how to effectively build your fire from scratch and maintain it with the small meals first. It’s also not a habit you will want to form, but may be used on occasion in situations of no food for long periods of time.

An example of one of these bigger logs for your fire is: Salmon with brown ice in a little bit of olive oil, maybe a squeeze of lemon, at a portion size of about 400 calories. When your fire has been properly maintained, this larger log should last in your system for about 3.5 hours. At 3 hours, though – when your blood sugar has fallen to 90 mg/dL – you want to eat another small meal, like grapes and cheese or a half apple with peanut butter on it. These twigs weigh in at about 150 calories, which pop your blood sugar level back up to about 120 mg/dL. Then, when your blood sugar falls back down to 90 mg/dL, eat some cottage cheese with a couple walnuts. This may only be 90 minutes after you ate the apple and peanut butter since the only thing fueling your flame was a small twig. See the routine?

By this time, the salmon and brown rice have worn off and it’s time to have another big meal, but it’s already 7 pm. You want the same balanced meal you had in the salmon and rice, with the calories around 350. Your blood sugar will climb back up to 125, but this time it won’t burn off quite as quickly since it’s later at night and your metabolism is preparing to sleep. Besides, most people are more sedentary, at night, anyway. This log should last until midnight.

However, to maintain your fire and ensure that the big log will burn completely, at 9 pm you’re going to eat a small meal. This is called banking your fire for the night. The small log you toss on just before you go to bed – within an hour of slipping under the covers – will help burn the big log and ensure your fire remains toasty till morning. If you don’t toss on the small leg before bed time and properly bank your fire, then by morning there will be no heat of flame and you’re left with the residue from the big log. You need the small log to help burn the big log to its core.

There are some diets and sources that are proclaiming “Detox” (detoxification) as a good start. Personally, I don’t approve of detox – here’s why. What does “breakfast” mean? Breakfast means breaking your fast cycle. If you’ve eaten properly – healthy fuels at the proper ratios – your body will naturally fast at night and burn off any toxins or residues. A proper exercise routine will also assist in this process. By breakfast time, you should be hungry. Check out all the blood sugar charts listed on previous pages. You’ll notice the decline in blood sugar overnight – let’s assume these clients are sound asleep. You still need fuel while you sleep. If timed properly, your blood sugar will just be reaching the danger zone by the time you wake up. You’ll break your natural fast with your first meal of the day.

A body that is already eating the proper foods at the proper ratios and times throughout the day, plus getting the exercise it needs to burn off excess calories and toxins, will not need to use a detox program. You have a naturally-occurring detoxification system built in, if you’ll learn about it and use it wisely.

If you want to make sure that your fire lasts throughout the night so it’s still burning and ready to cook breakfast the next morning, then you need to tend to it right before bedtime. You’ll want to bank your fire by putting another log on it and banking hot coals around it. So, within one hour of bedtime, you should eat another meal. This ensures that your blood sugar level doesn’t drop too low overnight – it helps feed the flames. If you put a dry log on that is very dense, then you know by morning it may even be so pure and burn so clean that it also burns the coals around it and cleans the fire up a little. We don’t have the luxury of moving our campfire every morning. For years and even decades people will build a fire in the same body day after day. So, while I showed you in the last chapter how you can sneak chocolate covered nuts into your meal and still lose weight, it will leave a residue behind. For proper detoxing, I recommend eating frequent small meals throughout the day that will burn efficiently. There is no need to go on a 2 week liquid diet. That is asinine! A diet consisting of no-nonsense foods high in antioxidants, clean proteins without additives and fats free of saturation or partial hydrogenation will naturally cause you to fast and burn away the toxins and remaining residues as you slumber.

The reason so many people feel the need to do detox programs is because the logs they toss into their fires throughout the day, but especially at night, are ice cream, junk foods, beer, wine, cocaine and an assortment of other nasty fuels they think help them get through the night. Nothing could be further from the truth. They binge and purge, which is a horrible way to feed a flame, and they rush to detox to lose all the crap they put there in the first place. The detox programmers will say, “Don’t eat anything for 2 days!” or “This is a week-long fast and you’ll only be drinking liquids.”

All this does is kill your flame and it is your fire that gives you energy to fight off disease. If you don’t have a strong fire and healthy immune system already, it is highly unlikely that you’re going to emerge from such a program intact or improved. Even if you’ve so ravaged your system by shoving impurities into every vein and orifice, you would do better to simply start feeding your flame properly and watch the magic that it works.

What you need to do is eat pure foods and then when your fire is burning hotter and brighter, you cut off the fuel for a few hours and it starts to burn off the inner impurities by itself. So, every night you detoxify if you’re putting the proper foods into your body at the proper intervals. You nourish your body with wholesome fuels and let it naturally detoxify in its own fashion – quietly and peacefully at night, while you sleep.

After you do this natural detox program for about a month, you will rid your system of most impurities. Think of a glass of water that has clumps of dirt in it. If you start pouring clear, fresh water into the glass, what happens? The water rises to the rim and begins to overflow. Keep pouring. Eventually, the new water will replace all of the old water in the glass, plus lift the impurities to the surface and wash them over the edge. You’ll be left with a clean, clear glass of pure water. Drink up!

With this in mind, let’s check that fire. How can we prevent toxins from ever forming in the first place? Well, you only want to add two big logs a day to your fire. I eat out every day, for nearly all meals, but that doesn’t mean I’m eating big logs. I know better than to eat fast food and super-size my portions. I wouldn’t recommend most fast food though, because of the high sodium content, preservatives and the lack of fresh ingredients. You’ll always do better preparing your own meals or carefully watching where you eat and what the restaurant puts into the meal.

I’ll go out to eat at one of my favorite places and get two eggs, walnuts and two slices of apple and that’s my meal. Yes, the whole meal and nothing but the meal. Most people consider going out to be a treat, so they gorge themselves, and the restaurants are more than willing to support this unhealthy behavior. When you go out to eat, it doesn’t have to equate to a vacation mentality where you let your belt out and strap on the feed bag. Going out to eat is just part of my daily life and I know how to take care of my body, so I don’t allow the restaurants to dictate what I put into it. If that’s the case, then I’ll find a new restaurant.

When you go out to dinner and you indulge in bread, butter, a cocktail before the main entree, perhaps, the salad, the main course with a glass of wine and then have dessert, the whole meal might run $30. Then, you go home and try to sleep it off, but there’s no way you can detoxify that overnight. So, the next day, you call me and want me to work you out – at $80. The workout is pointless after having that meal. At best, it’s a minimum maintenance program to support your gluttony.

I would prefer – and it would be smarter – if you go out for dinner, but don’t treat it like it’s a rare privilege, which lends itself to a gourmet mindset. Not only will it save money, but your health will improve. Each time you go out, treat it as simply a part of your regular routine. What’s special is that you’re taking care of your fire and not taxing your system or wallet.

It’s really hard for Americans to have just a couple sips of wine, and then push the glass away. After paying seven dollars for that glass, they feel compelled to guzzle all of it. We’ve always been told to clean our plates, because of starving kids in a third world country. I don’t see how us having a bigger gut is going to help out kids around the world. This has always baffled me. Instead, ask for a to-go box and take half your meal home. Better yet, share a meal with someone. Get everything you want in a portion size for one person, and then just split it. Wait staff are more than happy to prep meals for two. By practicing this, you and your spouse can enjoy going out to eat twice as often.

Portion control in America is the single biggest culprit in this epidemic of obesity. Push away from the table earlier and live longer.

I’ve been to many restaurants that charge a fair price, yet their portion size is more appropriate: 4 ounces of meat, a small side item and a drink. A complete and balanced meal at a restaurant will not break your piggy bank, but a super-sized meal will make you a pig – and you can bank on that. Most Americans would contest that these restaurants are ripping you off. These same Americans are the ones dropping like flies from heart attacks because their arteries are so clogged from the past two decades of super-sizing on fast food. I applaud restaurants on a new approach of putting the time and energy to follow nutritionist recommendations by offering smaller, well-rounded portions. This is worth the extra price you pay even if it is a smaller meal.

When we eat a large meal, this is like putting a large log on the fire. You can still have amazing meals, just cut the calories down to manageable sizes. It’s better to put 4 small logs on a fire than an entire tree stump. The stump could smother the fire completely. The same goes for our body. Be careful how big your meals are.

Whatever you eat is reflected in your body. How you look now can be traced to what you ate as far back as a year ago. Some cells in the body regenerate more quickly, but others take a much longer time. So, don’t do anything stupid and put something in your system that you don’t want lingering for that long. If you toss an aluminum soda can in your campfire, it is highly doubtful that it will burn completely and the next camper will see it years later. Unless you build a bonfire which could burn down the whole forest, you’re not going to completely incinerate that aluminum can. It’s better to never put it in your fire at all.

Though each person’s body may be slightly different in how it reacts to caloric intake, there are not enough differences that would cause any concern about recommending this technique to anyone. Clients come back to me with two simple words – “This works.” There is a little bit of science involved, so pay attention. This section will change the way you look at food for the rest of your life. You may need to take a break from reading if you’ve read straight through and let the fire analogy soak in.

Ok, here goes: If we eat 100% carbs as our meal, then it’s going to last in our system for one hour. If we eat 100% proteins as our meal, then it will last up to two hours. If we eat 100% fats as our meal, then it’s going to last in our system for five hours. By properly combining all three of these elements within each meal in the ratios I mentioned, earlier, it will last three to four hours in our system, depending upon the size of the meal.

Where your body’s functioning is concerned, all fuel that you ingest will be turned to sugar that the body can use in every area of cell creation and maintenance. This doesn’t mean that eating simple sugars – as a fuel – is appropriate. However, if you study a blood sugar chart based upon the isolated percentage of carbs, proteins and fats I mentioned a moment ago, you will notice that for the 100% carb meal I say lasts for one hour, your blood sugar level will look like a pulse. It will spike straight up and come straight back down, just like looking at a pulse rate monitor. This is how carbs affect your system.

The 100% protein meal will arc up and over, lasting about two hours. Your blood sugar level will rise more slowly and evenly, and then lower in the same manner.

And for the 100% fat meal, you will notice that your blood sugar chart shows a low mesa or table-top effect. The fat will not raise your blood sugar very high, but it will plateau and last that way for up to five hours. This is why, when you eat only fats, you usually don’t feel as full, but their affects take longer to wear off.

Let’s look at a few different blood sugar charts that help identify how carbs, proteins and fats affect our sugar levels. I’ll also give you an idea where you want this level to be and how to get it there. Keep this data in mind when trying to figure out which of the three diets listed above is the best choice. I’ll display charts for those as well.

In the Sample Chart we have three different changes to our line. At 8am, this person eats 100% carbs. This is reflected with an extreme spike up and straight back down as mentioned before. The carbohydrates will also only last up to one hour no matter how many we eat. The bump between noon and 2pm is an indication of what pure protein does to our body. It still has a significant rise, but it’s a little more rounded. Pure protein can last up to two hours by itself. The third representation is what fat does in the body. Though it barely raises the blood sugar, it lasts up to five hours in our system.

The above chart would be an example of the following diet:

8 am - Cup of Coffee with Sugar

12 pm - 4oz Piece of Chicken

3 pm - 10 Almonds

While this is an unrealistic diet, it shows how each type of food changes our blood sugar when eaten entirely by itself. The cup of coffee with sugar is pure carbohydrates. The 12 pm meal is pure protein. The 3 pm handful of nuts is pure fat. It is important to know what category our food is in so that we can combine them appropriately when eating. You may also think of this as the 8 am meal being tinder, the 12 pm meal being a few twigs and the 3 pm meal being a wet log that we put on the fire. Try and visualize what each would do to your flame and you’ll see exactly what happens to our blood sugar level.

In the real world, we combine different categories. For example, we’ll have coffee with cream in the morning. We then have toast with butter before we head out the door. We then have bread with chicken for lunch and then a few pieces of cheese for a snack in the afternoon. Later, we grill salmon with veggies for dinner. Let’s look at the next chart to see how these meals would alter our blood sugar level. This concept is a crucial part of my meal plan.

This gives you a great visualization as to how different foods are used by your body. As you can see, the carb + fat combine the spike of the carbs with the tapering of the fat. As expected, the carb + protein shows a combination of those two categories as well. The lines are now seen as if you meshed the blood sugar lines together with properties of each.

Let’s take a close look at the last one. It doesn’t have the same properties as the first examples. This is a combination of all three and is an ideal meal. All three categories combined can last in our system three to four hours. This is ideal in controlling blood sugar level.

There is actually a zone we want to keep the blood sugar in for as long as possible. The longer the blood sugar is in this zone, the more weight can be lost. I call it the Fat Burning Zone. There are a few other zones as well. Let’s look at another chart which depicts the various blood sugar zones.

In this chart, I’ve depicted 3 different zones. The very top and bottom grey areas are designated as Danger Zones. As you can see, the higher or lower we go, the darker the zone becomes. Our blood sugar zones are dynamic and get progressively worse as we neglect our fire. When our blood sugar gets too high, our bodies begin storing fat. So, you’d think we’d lose fat if we let it get too low, right? No! We actually lose muscle if it gets too low and this is overlooked by so many fad diets. The third zone is the magical weight loss zone that I mentioned before. It is the bright white area right in the middle – the Fat Burning Zone.

For the most success, we want our blood sugar to be in the Fat Burning Zone as much as possible. This zone is between 95-105mg/dL (5.3-5.8 mmol/L). What do the numbers mean? Instead of worrying about the science, let’s picture three different jars of liquid sugar and trying to drink them through a straw.

In the first jar, we have fruit juice. This is primarily sugar and water. This is a typical drink for us and is easy to drink through a straw.

The second jar has a chocolate milkshake in it. It would be a little harder to get through the straw than the fruit juice, but still manageable. The sugar only makes up about 20% of what is coming through the straw. This means it keeps a nice thick consistency, but not so much sugar that the liquid can’t move.

Our last jar has molasses in it. You try to suck the molasses out, but your face turns blue. It’s practically impossible to get any up the straw because it is so thick.

This is exactly what happens in our arteries. When our blood sugar is too thin, our blood can race all over the place just like the fruit juice going up the straw. This isn’t a good thing as it can make us feel jittery, lose focus and feel very weak. When our blood sugar is too high, it’s just like molasses trying to go through the arteries. Not a pretty picture, huh? No wonder diabetics are so prone to heart attacks. Try telling your heart to pump pure molasses and see how well it works! When our blood sugar is this high, we feel lethargic, our limbs get cold since the blood can’t reach all the way to the end and we lose focus and just want to sleep. This is known as “sugar high” or even a food coma. I’m sure you’ve felt it before.

The last area is the Fat Burning Zone. This is like that nice summer time milkshake that melts in your mouth. It is too thick to drink, but not quite thick enough to eat with a spoon. When your arteries have blood pumping through them with this consistency, they can get the most work done.

So the idea is to eat just enough that gets our blood sugar raised, but not so much that it goes past the Fat Burning Zone. Just like our fireplace, we don’t want to put too many logs on at a time or it will smother the flame. Too little logs and they will burn up too quickly. Let’s look at another chart that has an ideal diet.

Now, it is impossible to have the diet stay in the right zone constantly. But with small meals eaten frequently, we can get very close! As you can see, this person ate a pure carb meal when they woke up, then they worked out (that’s why there was a sudden drop). Then, they ate another carb + protein meal. For the rest of the day, they had well-rounded meals with combined carbs, proteins and fats that never exceeded 300 calories for the total meal.

Their blood sugar never went above 120 and it never went below 80. They steered clear of the danger zones and saw two pounds weight loss after doing so for only one week! I’ve seen success with this type of plan so many times. If you understand how to control your blood sugar, you will succeed!

Now that you understand the basics of blood sugar and how different meals affect how blood sugar highs and lows, let’s take another look at the three example diets I listed earlier.

Ok, so Diet 1 isn’t anything like our “Ideal Diet.” But I have to say, I don’t see this guy in the danger zone that much – what do you think? He goes slightly into the danger zone at about 3pm. This is where he was snacking on some chocolate covered peanuts. Believe it or not, if you control your portions right and make sure they don’t overload your blood sugar, you can sneak fun snacks like these into your plan. While this diet isn’t perfect, it does go in the Fat Burning Zone quite often. Let’s look at the others and see how they compare.

When looking at the Diet 2 from afar, you can see that the majority of the day this person is below 80 mg/dL. This isn’t healthy! This person will be cold the majority of the day, unfocused and prone to getting sick. They may be eating all organic and “healthy” items, but if they are pure carbs then they will do them no good. To bump their blood sugar up, they need to add more fat into their diet. If they continue this routine, they’re prone to diabetes. In the meantime, they are definitely burning off muscle. Once muscle mass is lost, their body will start to become lethargic and they will get sick. This is definitely not the best of the three diets.

Diet 3 is from an average American. I put this in here to give you an idea of what I face when I talk with the majority of clients who are overweight. They usually have coffee in the morning for a quick boost, then nothing until lunch and everything else you see on the list. As you can tell, this person has the opposite problem of the one on Diet 2.

His blood sugar is above 120 mg/dL for over half the day. This means they have molasses sitting in their bloodstream – not a good sign. They will feel lethargic – possibly experience a food coma around midday and then another one right after dinner. It seems they’re addicted to the sugar high even while eating very little sugar. If he ate smaller portions, his blood sugar would not go up so high. He could easily eat half the chicken sandwich at noon and the other half of it at 2pm. Then do the same with the pizza by having one slice at 5pm and the other at 7pm. This will keep the blood sugar from spiking and they can still indulge in the “bad” foods they so much enjoy.

So out of the three diets listed, Diet 1 is the winner. Even though the person is having a hamburger, chocolate covered peanuts and ice cream all in the same day, they are maintaining the most time in the Fat Burning Zone, and they’re only in the upper extreme for a few minutes out of the day. Again, this isn’t ideal, but it does work.

Use this knowledge to your advantage. Knowing how to control your flame and having the right amount of logs on the fire at all times is crucial for success. It is my opinion that portion size and having a well-rounded meal are much more important in attaining weight loss than whether something is organic, fat-free, or any other marketing scheme.

Now, back to our fire. We must never forget to tend to our fire, no matter what arises during the day. The fire must be maintained first, or you will have no energy for the challenges and problems of each day. Too many people say they’re too busy to eat. That’s a crock. If you don’t feed your fire, it will go out. Then, where will you get the energy to maintain your hectic schedule? On my plan, you’ll have more energy and will be able to accomplish much more anyway. However, if you just want someone to feel sorry for you, then keep playing it your way.

Let’s say you’re a day care worker or a school teacher and the little snot-nosed rug rats are running about your feet, all day long. Suddenly, you’re sick and you blame the children. I constantly hear this excuse. “Oh, I’m around sick kids all day, no wonder I feel bad.” That’s ridiculous. I’m a personal coach, I work with sick people every day and I never get sick. Why? Because I have big logs on my fire and I tend to my flame, always, before nature’s nasty elements have a chance to put it out. It’s raining everyday, where I am, so I can’t afford to miss a meal or the rain and wind will get the upper hand.

If you have big logs on your fire and have created a glowing bed of hot coals, then it can withstand Mother Nature’s fierce attempts to snuff it out. Tend your fire first, before you tend to others. Big logs on your fire equate to more muscle on your body. The less muscle mass you have, then the greater chance you have of not being able to fight off the bugs that would do you harm. Big logs squish big bugs.

Big logs, alone, won’t cut it, either. Smaller fuel is still needed, from time to time, to help burn the big logs. You’re beyond the twig stage of starting the fire, but a good handful of twigs and small logs will keep that fire burning. More importantly, the quality of fuel that you burn becomes a high priority. If you want the most efficient, clean-burning and hottest fire, you won’t throw rotten, green or wet wood on the fire. Instead, you’ll look for a solid dry piece of slow-burning fuel to toss into those hungry flames.

Some woods leave a tar or residue which gums up the works. Other woods have no energy value, being rotten to the core. Still, some fuels burn off too quickly or cause the fire to burn out of control. Think before you toss just any fuel into your fire. Find the best log and place it well and at the appropriate time to maximize its energy potential. A bag of chips is not a sound choice, if you’ve been burning excess carbs and fats all day. A good source of protein might be better. The best choice will always have a balanced ratio of carbs, proteins and fats.
Sure, a roaring and well-maintained fire may burn up most everything that gets tossed into it, but remember that this is just an analogy and our bodies are far more complex machines which need highly refined fuel for optimum performance. Besides, it is only by knowing how to properly build and maintain your fire that you can even get to such a roaring stage of metabolism anyway. So, why gunk it up now, just because you can?

Certain additives to your fire will help it burn more brightly, more efficiently, make it last longer and burn away all the impurities that, by nature, seem inherent to the majority of fuels out there. So, I recommend supplements, and Omega-3 (fatty acids) is high on my list. This type of oil can help your fire burn far more efficiently and rid your body of impurities that are not fully consumed in your fire. Also, a good multi-vitamin is a great way to supplement your fire on the way to a better balanced metabolism.

Using supplements with both fatty acids and antioxidants will ensure that your logs are being burned at their greatest efficiency – cleaner, hotter and more thorough.

There are many fad diets that proclaim “Fats are awesome! Cut out the carbs, so you can get the fat.” Another famous diet says, “Get the protein! Cut out fats and carbs.” I disagree with both of these approaches to weight loss and better nutrition. In reality, you need a well-balanced, well-built fire that burns long, hot and clean. Remember, if it’s fad, it’s bad.

By now, we should know how to get our fire within started and burning with proper care and maintenance. We started out with good tinder, then added some small twigs and then tossed on our first small logs. With a log on your fire, it’s going to burn for a longer time and you won’t have to tend to it as diligently as you did during the start-up phase when it was fragile and could be easily snuffed out. You won’t have to put another log on for a while, but don’t think you can just walk away from your fire for the rest of the day and expect it to keep burning.

Depending on the quality of log that you’ve placed on your fire, it will burn for up to five hours. Let’s say you eat lunch at noon and toss a big log on your fire. At 3 o’clock, you should put another twig on the fire. The twig will burn up in about an hour and a half, but that lunch-time log will still be burning hot. The reason you keep placing twigs on the fire is to help burn those big logs. Big logs should only be placed on your fire twice a day. That’s very important. Only two big logs per day, especially in this crucial starting phase of learning how to properly build and tend to your fire.

Here are three example diets. See if you can determine the best diet before reading the explanation (I’ll explain as we go along):

Diet 1:

8 AM  -    Bagel w/ Cream Cheese
10 AM  -    Graham Crackers and Peanut Butter
12 PM  -    ½ a Hamburger w/ Ketchup
2:30 PM -    Handful of Chocolate Covered Peanuts
4 PM -    Another Handful of Chocolate Covered Peanuts
6 PM -    Spaghetti and Meatballs
9 PM   -    ½ Cup Vanilla Ice Cream with ground almonds

Diet 2:

8 AM  -    Orange Juice and Slice Whole Wheat Toast
10 AM  -    Organic Tea
12 PM  -    Salad with Baby Spinach, Carrots, Cucumbers,
Croutons and a glass of Fresh Squeezed Lemonade
5 PM  -    Tofu with Mixed Greens
8 PM   -    Chai Latte

Diet 3:

9 AM  -    Cup of Coffee w/ Sugar
12 PM  -    Chicken Sandwich, French Fries and Diet Soda
3 PM  -    Diet Soda
6 PM  -    2 Slices of Pizza
10 PM  -    Fat Free Chocolate Ice Cream

So, what do you think? Which is the healthiest? Well, let me explain how blood sugar works so you can make an educated decision.

The concept of my meal plan applies to everyone, regardless of their physical size. The only thing that changes is the size of each portion. We must start out with a small flame and build it up. I see two main problems in meal plans:

The Low Flame: Your flame is not hot enough to burn the poor fuel you’re throwing at it. This is why fat people can eat less, but never lose any weight.

The High Flame: You eat anything and everything in sight. You have a crazy metabolism, but you don’t have the discipline to eat the correct portions.

You can tell how high your flame is by checking the temperature of your palms. I’ve been a professional ballroom dancer for a few years now. After dancing with literally hundreds of different people, I’ve realized that the people with fast metabolisms are warm to the touch and those who have a little extra cushion have cold hands. My only explanation is that the body is warmed by what we eat. You can ensure your metabolism is running at its optimum by measuring your palm’s temperature. This is a clear sign that there is a fire within our bodies! When your palms are cold, it means danger! There are a few scenarios that will cause your hands to be cold. The most common is a recently missed meal. If you’ve gone more than 4 hours without eating, you’re sure to have cold palms. If your immune system is low for whatever reason, you’ll also find your body is lacking in its ability to keep your hands warm. Lastly, if you’re in a cold environment, your hands may become cold. You should do whatever is needed to keep them warm. Here are a few tips:

• Dress appropriately – wear a jacket when outdoors. Wear socks, gloves and hats if needed. Our bodies release the majority of our heat from these three areas.
• Eat every three hours whether hungry or not. Too often, I see people going for extended periods of time without food. Our bodies weren’t designed for this. Eat up!
• Drink water in between meals. This will help in digestion and the rapid digestion will mean a warmer body.

The other extreme is someone who always has extremely hot hands. This person has a rapid metabolism and needs to find moderation in the opposite direction. They are doing one of the following which is wrong:

• Wearing too many clothes
• Eating too often
• Eating too much
• Drinking too much
• Working out and eating too much

As you can see, it is an exact opposite of what the other person is doing wrong. Too often, you see a big guy with a skinny girlfriend. He complains that he’s hot all the time. She complains that she’s always cold. If she would eat more often and add in fats and proteins, they could solve the issue. On the other hand, if he would eat less and work out less he could also solve the problem. Ideally, I think they both should find a happy medium. Their bodies will thank them in the long run.

I want you to eat more often, but with proper balance within each small meal – not snacks. Here are just a few examples of properly balanced meals.

As you can see, each meal is complete with a carbohydrate, a protein and a fat. How can you tell the difference? Let’s not make this complicated. Just follow these simple rules:

• If it walks, swims, or flies – it’s a protein!
• If it is a nut, oil, or avocado – it’s a fat!
• Anything and EVERYTHING else is a carb!

This is a huge mistake made by people. Yes, beans are carbs. Yes, soy is a carb. Fruit, juice, veggies, plants, dirt, rocks, wood, pens, carpet – they are all carbs! Ok, so you get the point. Know how to categorize foods prior to attempting any type of meal plan. You want to make sure to always couple carbs with proteins and fats to stay away from merely throwing tinder onto your flame. If you put too many carbs on without anything else, you’ll have the equivalent of gasoline on the flame – an immediate high flame that scorches everything around it, but doesn’t give long-lasting warmth.

Too often, I see people reach for a bag of “fat free” food, thinking they are doing their body a service. Believe it or not, excess carbs turn into fat in the body. Not only are these people starving their bodies of the proper ratio of carbs, proteins and fats that they need, they substitute with an abundance of carbs and don’t work out to burn this excess energy away. So, the body stores it as fat.

Their cry for help is, “I’m not eating any fats, but I can’t lose any weight.” Well, we need to awaken from what the media is throwing at us. No longer go to the grocery store and look at a label with the idea that fat is bad. Believe it or not, when we consume 60g of carbohydrates in one meal, even when no fat is present, we are much more likely to gain weight as opposed to a meal where we have 5g of fat while eating 15g of carbs even if those 15g come from pure sugar. An example of the differences would be as follows:

Good Meal:

Chocolate covered peanuts

“Here , we have fat and carbs combined, not a bad option.”

Bad Meal:

20 Grapes

“Sure, grapes are fruit. But they are pure carbs! This sky rockets your blood sugar!”

Good Meal:

Bagel w/ Cream Cheese

“I don’t think cream cheese is the best option, but at least it adds fat into the meal to help slow down the absorption of sugar into the blood stream.”

Bad Meal:

Whole Wheat Toast

Fat Free Milk

Cereal

½ Glass of Orange Juice

“What do all these have in common? Sure, they are healthy, organic and great for you. But in such large quantities, they will merely turn to fat. I hope this gives you a better idea what a “healthy” meal is.”

Any plan that is devoid of one of the three crucial elements – carbs-proteins-fats – is not a complete and healthy plan, in my opinion. You need proper balance and better timing in the maintenance of your fire by understanding: What you eat – the quality, type and portion size of the fuel you consume; and when you eat it – how early or late in the day, plus how often. Notice the meals I mentioned above aren’t perfect, but they are a step in the right direction. While they don’t have adequate protein, they are far superior to eating pure carbs.

Have you ever been camping? When you go camping, one of your highest priorities should be starting a campfire. With a fire, you need to start out with tinder. Tinder is anything that burns up very quickly. It’s small, light, dry and burns up really fast. If you pile up a little bit of tinder and light it – without small twigs on top – boom! It’s gone in a flash. You want the small twigs at the exact same time as the tinder. The small twigs won’t burn much initially, but you definitely need them in place.

As soon as the tinder ignites, it’s going to light the small twigs. You’ll want bigger logs on hand, but shouldn’t put them on the fire just yet. After about an hour of small twigs you’ll add one log. It will take about seventy-five percent of the twigs just to get that first log to start burning. You’ll have to put on about twenty small twigs to get one log burning.

Once the first log is burned all the way through, go ahead and put on another log or maybe two logs. You still need to place small twigs in between them as you add other logs to the fire. Eventually, after having several logs in the core of the fire for five or six hours , they will have burned sufficiently to create hot embers. Now, you can put more logs on. If a sudden wind blows hard upon the fire, it’s now going to be safe because the fire has a strong core. If you just have small twigs on your fire, they will burn fast and hot. But if a rude wind or rain blows in, your fire is put out quickly. So, you always need those big logs. You can have a fire and just tend to it every few minutes with small twigs that will keep it burning, but it doesn’t help it grow to be able to fight off the nastier elements of nature like the wind and rain.

That’s the reason for properly building a fire and placing big logs on it. Besides, who wants to have to tend to a fire every few minutes when you could be off exploring the world?

Believe it or not, we all have a core inside our body quite similar to that of a fire. In this chapter, you’ll learn how to provide your fire with the correct fuel. This is essential to creating “the fire within.”

I want you to start with small meals – extremely small meals – and a small “meal” is different than a snack. A meal includes a proper balance or ratio of carbs, proteins and fats. Yes, fats. After a few hours of eating extremely small meals, your metabolism – your fire – is ready for a big log or a big meal. For example, a small and complete meal, for starters, would be a quarter cup of oatmeal with two walnuts and a scoop of protein mix. That will be approximately 180 calories or a small twig for your new fire. The two walnuts, alone, would be the tinder. Your body usually requires small twigs over tinder.

Two hours after you’ve eaten the starter meal of oatmeal, walnuts and protein mix, you’re probably not going to be hungry, but you should throw some more twigs on your fire. I want you to have another meal similar to the first one. Remember, this is about properly and slowly building your fire, or metabolism. Your second meal will consist only of five small cubes of cheese and four grapes. Notice the balance of carbs, proteins and fats. It’s still a meal, not a snack. The size of the meal is important, also, but it’s always more critical to have the proper balance. Otherwise, you’re feeding your flame with green wood, starving it of fresh oxygen, or trying to ignite it with wet matches.

Think meal, not snack. A snack is devoid of, or has a poor ratio of, any of these three elements – carbs, proteins and fats. A true snack would be either 15 grapes or 10 little cubes of cheese. Eating these would be like only throwing tinder on your new fire. And, though you may feel like you’re feeding the flames, your fire will quickly go out. If you sit down and eat a whole bag of Doritos®, that’s a snack. An entire bag of Oreos® is a heart-stopping snack. Or, if you devour an entire box of Cheerios®, it’s still a snack. Why? None of these have the proper ratio of carbs to proteins to fats. They’re mainly carbs and fats and horribly imbalanced at that.

In the beginning, when properly building your fire, you need all three elements at the proper ratio to ensure success. Any fire needs fuel, oxygen and a spark for it to flame. If you skimp on fuel, oxygen or spark, your fire is going out or may never initially light. Should you strike a spark and get your fuels to cooperate, but don’t know how to properly maintain a fire, then your heat will fade and you’re back to square one. Learn how to build and maintain your flame. In this chapter, you’ll learn what type of fuel to use. The next chapters are titled according to the area of the fire they represent – the oxygen and then the spark.

For your next meal, have a graham cracker with peanut butter on top. It may be tiny, but it’s still a complete meal of carbs, proteins and fats. It is properly balanced. This is good fuel for your new fire. Toss it on, feel the glow. Keep feeding your fire these tiny and complete meals every two hours until you’ve been doing so for three meals. I’m assuming there is no fire there, to begin with, so these are the tinder and small twigs we’re using to properly start a fire. This will jump start your metabolism and maintain a healthy and happy blood sugar level, which is critical.

We’ve had three small meals, by this time, consisting of twigs. Now, I’m confident that your fire is burning and ready for its first small log. You should have a good flame and enough heat to burn a bigger meal and create some glowing coals. To be safe, at this early stage of fire-making, you still want to toss on a small, dry log to ensure that it burns completely. Choice of fuel, at the beginning of your fire, is crucial to create that big flame. A nice option for a small dry log would be half of a chicken sandwich.

The exact ingredients are:

1 Slice Whole Wheat Bread
3 oz Chicken Breast
1 Slice of Tomato
1 Cup Lettuce
1 Tbsp Avocado

This small log becomes wet and insufficient for starting a fire if we add a coke to the meal, add mayonnaise, or other similar items. Stick to the ingredients I’ve listed and add nothing else for maximum success. Once you have the fire burning red-hot, then you can throw other things into the furnace. We’ll discuss those items later. Remember – do not deviate from these instructions. Don’t assume you can toss anything extra into your flame. You cannot. If I don’t mention it, don’t add it. For suitable substitutes of food items you may simply detest or to which you have allergies, check our website at www.movfitness.com.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a 100 pound girl or a 350 pound guy, it’s important to build your fire slowly. Until you create the hot burning coals of a higher metabolism that can melt most anything you throw into its flames, don’t toss it in there. How many times do you see partially charred refuse that someone throws in their campfire, thinking it will disintegrate into thin air? That’s poor judgment coupled with a poorly built fire. And, your body is about as forgiving as Mother Earth when you do not properly tend your flames. Have you noticed the epidemic of obesity in America? Someone forgot to teach our children how to build proper fires.