Oh hi!
Did you ever have trouble sleeping?
You know, catching 40 winks is sometimes more difficult than most of us think.
Do we really need to sleep?
Well, bears hibernate in the winter, cats sleep all day, rumple still skin slept for
a hundred years.
Yes, we do need to sleep.
But did you ever find yourself almost too tired to fall asleep?
Well it happens, you know.
There are times when your body is so tired that you just can't drift off into a restful
sleep.
You twist and you turn and you doze in and out of sleep.
Sometimes you may not fall into a deep sleep until an hour or two before you're supposed
to get up.
And then when the alarm rings you feel like throwing it against the wall.
There are other times when we're not tired at all.
We get into bed at night and then our mind says, well now's the perfect time to start
thinking and worrying about all the things that are bothering me.
And then your mind is off like a race horse, galloping along as it runs through all the
events of the day, zigzagging this way and out.
You just can't fall asleep.
Now when morning comes, you're exhausted from the ride around your mind's racetrack.
Learning about sleep is very important to all of us and to our well-being.
Getting the proper amount of rest keeps you healthy and if you constantly have trouble
going to sleep, then your health will begin to suffer.
Now we all have occasional bounce with, you know, insomnia and as long as they're occasional,
that's okay.
But learning how to sleep is really an exercise.
Now most people have to get themselves mentally prepared to sleep.
So if you're not one of those lucky few who can fall asleep before their head even touches
the pillow, I have a few suggestions on how to go to sleep.
Now I'm sure you've all seen the advertisements for various types of sleeping pills that promise
that you're going to get your Z's.
That's all well and good, but you can't depend on a little pill every time you need to sleep.
What you need to do is relax your mind.
Let your body know that the day is over and it's now time to rest.
Mentally put an end to your day.
Now here's some of the images I use to relax.
I think about a book closing.
The chapter is ended and the story is over.
I picture a curtain coming down and closing.
It's time to shut out the outside world and feel warm and safe in bed.
I envision a door closing.
Business is over for the day and it's time to turn off the lights.
I imagine the sun setting slowly, slipping behind the horizon.
Sometimes a tune or a phrase from a song plays over and over in my mind and I can't seem
to shut it off.
That's when I imagine I am taking the record off the turntable or a CD out of the disc
player.
The day is over and it's time to go home.
You see how these types of images help your mind to realize that the day has ended and
it's time to replenish your body with rest.
Now there's some also relaxing thoughts so that your mind will slowly kind of wind down
and draw to a close for the day.
Visual imagery is an excellent way to help you get into the right mood for sleeping once
you've relaxed your mind.
Now the relaxation of your body will follow.
Now besides mental preparation for sleep, many of us also need some physical preparations
for sleep.
We need our surroundings to be comfortable to sleep.
For example, most of you know that I travel almost 300 days out of the year.
Can you believe it?
That means I'm sleeping in more strange surroundings than in my own bed.
I can get used to the hotel room but in order for me to sleep, well, I have to have my own
pillows from home.
That way when I travel, I know that I have these two pillows and I've been using these
pillows for over 30 years.
Now if I didn't have these pillows to make my hotel room comfortable and seem like home,
well, I would never sleep.
So if you're used to sleeping with certain pillows, make sure you use them every night
and if you can't sleep, look at the pillows on your bed and see if they're comfortable
or not.
Are they too high?
Are they too low?
Are they too soft or too hard?
It may take a couple of sets of pillows to find out but it will be well worth your while
in the end.
Now, now look at your bed.
I know a lot of people who can't sleep because their bed is uncomfortable.
The mattress may be too hard or too soft and it hurts their back.
If you find you just can't face your bed at night, then you have to get a new one.
It's time to say, hey, I think I'm going to get a new bed.
But you're going to have to really investigate and test the mattress out to see if it's what
you need.
And if you're really adventurous, a lady from Atlanta, Georgia wrote to me and told me she
had the best night's sleep ever since she got a water bed.
So you might want to try that.
Now another way to make your physical environment favorable for sleeping is through music.
A lot of people like to have a radio playing softly in the background.
It almost lulls you to sleep.
Now unless you have nerves of steel, listening to heavy metal won't put you to sleep.
So I suggest some soothing music.
Maybe a favorite movie soundtrack or some classical music to help you sleep like a baby.
Whatever you do, you've got to rest.
You've got to do it.
If you're eating healthy, exercising and not getting the proper rest, you're going to look
old and drawn out and pale and unhealthy.
Now if you were lucky enough to have the time during the day, take a short 15 minute nap.
It'll revitalize you and give you more energy to see you through the day.
Now if you can't nap, then just take a few minutes on a break, maybe during lunch, and
put your head down and rest.
Just don't get caught sleeping on the job.
One more thing about sleeping.
There are a lot of people who believe it or not sleep too much.
If you sleep more than eight hours a night, then you might be sleeping so much that your
body feels tired all the time.
Now I personally don't sleep more than five or six hours, but that's all my body needs.
You have to find the right amount of rest for your own particular metabolism.
Now if you're sleeping more than eight hours and you don't have a medical condition that
requires you to sleep a lot, then try to get up an hour or two earlier and what else?
Exercise.
You'll get more done during your day and you'll fall into bed dog-tired at night.
You know what?
If George Burns and Bob Hope can get some shut eye during the day, I think I'll catch
a little nap myself.
Good night.
It is day number 63 and it's time for another success story.
I can't tell you what a thrill it is for me to be able to share these stories with you.
After all, this is proof the reality of the deal and meal really does work.
And I get thousands of letters like this all the time.
Today we're going to Weir, Massachusetts where we're going to meet Ann who lives with her
husband Ed and their six-year-old daughter Heather.
Ann has written to me several times.
She told me she started to gain weight when she was about 11 or so and she had to endure
the pain of being an overweight teenager.
She remembers only too well the heartbreak of those years, not having very many friends,
not participating in after school activities or sports, feeling sort of different and all
alone.
Then in her early 20s she managed to get thin for a while during which time she met and
married her wonderful husband Ed.
But after they were married she regained all the weight and then some.
She was up to 204 pounds when she started to deal a meal.
And after using my Sweat into the Oldies tapes 116 times and counting her cards each day,
Ann is at her goal weight of 130 pounds.
That's a weight loss of 74 pounds.
Now Ann has written to me several times describing her progress and she said, Richard do you
know why the Deal A Meal Plan worked for me?
It's because your program has taught me not to deprive myself of food.
I always thought to lose weight you couldn't eat anything, right?
Wrong.
Your wonderful program taught me to say it's okay to have a few potato chips, just don't
eat the whole bag at one time.
Before when I deprive myself I would do great for about four or five days but eventually
I'd break down and binge and binge until the whole bag of chips was gone or the pie plate
was empty.
Ann went on to tell me that first it was the exercise that got her motivated and got her
going.
Every day during the long hot summer days Ann was sweating it out to those tapes as
you've seen.
All that hard work does pay off.
Ann said that when she was overweight her husband never ever once made a cruel remark
or told her to lose weight but he also never ever noticed she had a new outfit on.
Now he notices and continues to give her support and lots and lots of encouragement.
Soon Ann's closet, well it was full of clothes she possibly couldn't wear so she bundled
them all up together and she brought them to the Salvation Army except for two outfits
which she decided to keep as a reminder to never go back to that weight.
She says there is a lot of painful memories about being overweight that she never wants
to have to live through again.
Now she loves to shop.
She says here in a letter, I love having a choice of clothing.
I don't have to buy the brown skirt because it's the only size on the rack that'll fit
and I love pants with zippers.
No more elastic waistbands for me.
It feels terrific to fit into a size 9 compared to a size 18.
She went on to say, I even bought myself a treadmill to do your walking tapes with during
the winter months.
See how smart she is?
She is thinking ahead, planning her maintenance strategies and making sure she can continue
to exercise regardless of the weather.
During the summer months, Ann would walk and walk to my walking to the classic tapes and
just recently a lady stepped out of her house as Ann went by to congratulate her on her
weight loss.
It makes her feel pretty good to think that even strangers were noticing her progress.
Not just strangers, her doctor couldn't believe how much weight she'd lost and even reduced
her blood pressure medication which she's been on for 18 years.
Then a nurse who was rather overweight looked at her chart and noticed her weight loss.
When Ann told her she had done it on Deal & Meal, the nurse said, well I have those
cards at home collecting dust on my shelf.
She told Ann that her success had inspired her to get on the program.
Now Ann told me her whole outlook and attitude around food is completely different.
She told me, I can't believe it Richard, but now I love salads.
I would never even touch vegetables before.
I was just a junk food junkie.
Then Ann told me the very best part of this whole story.
She said that since she changed her eating habits, her daughter Heather now eats differently
too.
Ann explained that she wouldn't want Heather to grow up overweight like she did in high
school.
She wants Heather's life to be better and you know, this is where it all starts.
Teaching your children about healthy food choices and portion control and being a living
example to them.
This gives hope to a whole new generation of kids and it starts in the home with good
eating habits that are then passed on.
So Ann hasn't just helped herself, her example is having far reaching effects.
Not just with her daughter, but with other people who can't help but be impressed with
what she has accomplished.
Ann said that now when she's in the market, she imagines I'm there at the cash register
with her looking at her cart.
So she is very careful and very selective.
If that's what it takes, I'll happily inspect everything in Ann's cart because what she
buys is affecting the health and longevity of her whole family.
And what could be more important?
Ann is now a powerhouse of energy, which is just as well because she takes care of the
elderly.
She does their shopping and their laundry and their housekeeping.
In fact, whatever they need to have done.
Ann is naturally a very giving person, but she finally learned to give to herself as
well.
She's eating smart, exercising, even taking time off for herself because well, when I
called her on the phone, Ann was taking a bubble bath.
I would say Ann has learned how to balance her life as well as her weight.
She is one very successful lady.
Today we're going to talk about a very unusual word.
It's the word exposure.
Now I'm not talking about what happens to people who were left out in the cold for a
long time, but I'm talking about the exposure you may be feeling as you lose your weight.
Now let's look at the word exposure a little further.
The definition says exposure, to open up, to exhibit, to disclose or unmask something.
Well we know that fat has always been used as a sort of comfort thing.
If you had your fat on, people wouldn't bother you because well, you were all wrapped up
in your comfort of fat.
Fat is sometimes looked at as a clothing to hide in so that people don't have to face
something they don't want to.
And now you're losing weight.
You may be feeling a little exposed.
You know it's so great for me when I see someone come into my exercise class.
The first time they come in, they've got all these clothes on.
They've got a sweatshirt on and then another sweatshirt over that one and it's always black.
All you can see is their face, their hands and everything else is covered.
They look sort of generic, very inconspicuous and very protected because nobody can really
see anything that makes them look different or unique.
They're always at the back of the room and they never join into the group discussion.
They sort of keep to themselves and observe what's going on.
Then, as the weeks pass by, I begin to see a transformation in that person, kind of like
the caterpillar changing to the butterfly.
I see that person slowly change the type of clothing they wear.
The double layer of sweatshirts is reduced to a single layer.
The color changes from black to brighter, more fun colors and they start to move closer
to the front of the class while we're doing our aerobics.
That change takes place slowly, but as that person begins to lose weight, I see them exposing
a little more of themselves each day.
They start to talk to the other members of the class.
They make friends.
They're not so shy about coming up to me and talking to me.
Honey, you know if you're shy, you won't be shy around me for very long.
Well, I think you're probably seeing this type of transformation happening to you now.
I mean, after 64 days in this program, I know you're seeing a change in your body.
Your old clothes are probably too big for you now, so you have to get new ones.
And I'll bet you're finding that you can even wear some of the more fashionable styles and
loving them too.
You're probably saying to yourself now, gosh, I don't want to hide anymore.
Look, I can see my neck.
Look, I have shoulders.
Wow.
I really can wear red and look good in it.
What's happening is that you are now discovering who you are and you're beginning to like the
change.
You know what?
As you feel more comfortable with yourself, you're becoming less afraid to let other people
in.
Now, exposure can be risky business because remember, if you've been hiding in your fat
for a long time and using it to keep yourself from going out or meeting new people, this
is going to be a change for you because maybe for the first time in a very long time, you're
now letting people in, maybe forming new relationships and uncovering yourself physically and emotionally.
That takes courage and it also means that you can't be afraid of being hurt because
remember, the more we open ourselves up to other people, the greater the chance of being
hurt.
But the rewards of living your life free from hiding, making new friends, going out and
enjoying yourself or wearing clothes you've never worn before, well, I think that far
outweighs the risks.
It's worth taking the chance by opening yourself up, by exposing yourself, you're becoming
more independent.
You're becoming free to lead the life you always wanted to and you're not making your
lifetime decisions based on your weight.
You can't be afraid of opening up.
You cannot live in fear by hiding in fat clothes and you cannot deny how you were changing.
So enjoy it.
Adventure is a very positive experience because now you are asserting yourself.
You're stepping out of that cocoon you've lived in for so long and it's time to spread
your wings.
Take advantage of this opportunity and make the most of your new life.
I told you before that you deserve happiness but no one can possibly be happy if they're
hiding out like a criminal from other people and hiding out from themselves.
I don't ever want you to be afraid of your appearance.
You were changing every day.
You were changing for the better so have fun with it.
Try a new look, get a new hairstyle, a makeover.
You'll feel wonderful about yourself but most of all, now's the time to take off your mask
and show the world that a wonderful person is right there.
That wonderful person is you.
I'm sure you all have heard about the Earl of Sandwich.
Well he was the first person to put a piece of meat between two slices of bread.
Notice I said a piece of meat.
Somehow since the sandwich caught on in America, the slices of bread have been pushed further
and further apart as the filling gets bigger and bigger.
I've seen a sandwich that only a hippopotamus mouth could accommodate.
You know the kind I mean.
In those popular delis where they use a whole cow to make two pastrami sandwiches.
When you bring it to your mouth and it hits your nose and your chin, there's just no way
you can wrap your mouth around it without needing jaw surgery afterwards.
A far cry from those little tiny cucumber sandwiches that the Queen of England eats.
Yet the sandwich is one of the most versatile meals ever invented.
Imagine a picnic or a brown bag lunch without a sandwich.
Everyone has their favorite sandwich.
How many times while you were growing up did you think you ate peanut butter and jelly
or a grilled cheese sandwich?
Probably hundreds of times.
My favorite was always just mayonnaise by itself on white bread.
I was a purist.
A sandwich is what we always go for when we want something convenient and quick.
Sandwiches were probably the first takeout meals.
They're so easy to take along with you.
Now let's look at some of these all American sandwiches.
First of all, ooh la la, the grilled cheese sandwich.
It doesn't sound so bad does it?
A couple slices of white bread, a couple ounces of cheese.
But wait, that's not all.
They butter the outside of the bread so that it will be brown nicely on the grill.
So these are the cards you would have to count for a grilled cheese sandwich.
Two bread, two meat, and four fats, two for the cheese and two for the butter.
I don't know about you, but grilled cheese always made me thirsty and it often gave me
heartburn.
That can happen with cheese that's very hot and melted.
How about the popular club sandwich?
Do you love that one?
Here we have three slices of bread, some turkey, bacon, lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise or maybe
Thousand Island.
So what do we have to count here?
Get ready.
Three bread cards, two meat cards, and at least four fat cards for the bacon and the
dressing.
Thousand Island even sounds fattening.
If only they could learn how to make 300 Island dressing, that would be better.
Look at this.
This is our tuna salad sandwich.
But I want you to come close.
Look at it.
Is this tuna salad or is this mayonnaise salad?
Is this mayonnaise with little tuna tossed in for flavor or is it really tuna with little
mayonnaise?
The only way you can really know for sure is when you make it yourself.
Every restaurant you order it in, it's going to be different, but you can be fairly sure
they're going to use more mayonnaise than less.
So to be on the safe side, when you order a tuna salad sandwich, you need to count two
bread cards, two meat cards, and three fat cards.
Now we have the good old sub.
Now why do they call it a sub?
Two reasons.
One, because it looks like a sub and second, you feel like a submarine after you've eaten
one.
It's practically a loaf of bread and look at all the stuff inside.
I think that people who make sub sandwiches will used to work in gift wrapping.
Look how nicely they folded those little cute cold cuts.
There's layers of ham, bologna, salami, pepperoni, and a couple of other luncheon meats as well
as cheese, mayonnaise or dressing, and they add a bit of token lettuce and a slice of
tomato.
You have to count at least.
Get ready.
Eight fat cards, six meat cards, and four bread cards.
Well quite frankly, I just don't think it's worth it.
But don't give up.
Sandwiches can be terrific as long as you keep track of a few things.
Remove the top slice of bread and eat your sandwich open face.
Now it takes a little assertive of a person to do this, but it will save you a bread card.
Don't ever let them put mayonnaise on your sandwich.
Ask for it on the side if you like and measure out what you can have.
Remember this, one teaspoon, that's a little spoon, is a fat card.
Here's something else you can do.
Take half of the filling out.
It's usually way too much anyway.
Order half a sandwich with soup or a green salad for a good lunch.
Now when you order a sandwich in a restaurant, the waitress nearly always says fries, coleslaw,
potato salad, or fruit.
And what springs first to your lips in reply?
Well it usually starts with F and it isn't fruit.
You know you can always get potato chips and a pickle.
Remember how we counted out 12 tortilla chips?
Well we did the same thing with potato chips and you get 16 potato chips and that's one
ounce and that equals one bread and two fats.
And that pickle over there, well it's a joker card.
While making sandwiches at home, you should be using the nonfat mayo, water packed tuna,
low fat luncheon meats, and low fat or even nonfat cheeses.
Now those nonfat cheeses don't melt too well so use mozzarella cheese if you want an open
faced grilled cheese sandwich.
Or here's something else.
Mash one eighth of a ripe avocado, that's one fat card, onto your bread instead of using
mayonnaise.
Try some of the exotic strong mustards on the market.
Or maybe some horseradish.
It can heighten the flavor and clear up your sinuses at the same time.
So if you're hungry and there's bread in the house, build a healthy deal a meal sandwich.
Oh and don't forget that thin slice bread we talked about before, you can have a whole
sandwich and it will only count one bread card.
Now let me see, if the Earl of Sandwich was coming for lunch, I wonder what kind of sandwich
he'd like.
You know I wish I could have met him.
In my opinion, the sandwich is one of the greatest inventions of all time.
Like Velcro, the safety pin, and the zipper.
See all the most important inventions hold something together and the sandwich is no
exception.
Perhaps the Earl would like maybe a sandwich with water packed tuna, little non fat mayonnaise
on whole wheat bread.
Before I make the sandwich, what do I say to the Earl?
Hello Earl, you wonderful man who invented the sandwich, you worth mild man, you high
Earl, you Earl ship.
And keep the heart going and stretch it and pull it and keep the heart, oh hi.
You know you've heard the word aerobics tossed around so much.
I mean every article you read about fitness always talks about the benefits of aerobic
exercise.
Well my Sweat into the Oldie tapes are low impact aerobic workouts.
And my walking tapes, well they are aerobic fitness walking programs.
Well a lot of people don't know what aerobic really means.
So today I want to explain aerobics that you are very clear about the type of exercising
you should be doing.
Aerobic exercise is any type of vigorous activity that improves your body's use of oxygen.
That's what the word aerobic means.
It's the use of oxygen in the cells of your muscle tissues in your body.
When you increase your circulation through exercise, you increase the use of oxygen in
your body.
With this type of exercising, you burn energy, you burn fat and calories, your muscles tone
up and you become healthier and more fit.
Activities like swimming or jogging or cycling, well they are all aerobic.
For the most part, there's a lot of people who simply don't exercise.
Can you believe it?
A lot of people don't understand that exercise is not a program just to lose weight.
Exercise is a program for fitness as well as weight loss.
Men people need to exercise just like overweight people need to exercise.
But overweight people need to choose an exercise program that will burn fat.
Low impact aerobics like the sweat and tapes helps you burn fat.
And the core to any exercise program is the heart and your heart rate.
Now everybody out there has a heart rate.
Here, let's find yours right now.
Put your fingers here.
This is your carotid artery.
You should feel a pulsing or beating sensation right here.
Do you feel it?
Now if you can't find it here, because sometimes it's kind of tough, then take your hand and
wrap it around this, like your wrist here.
Use your two fingers and place them on your wrist here and you'll be able to feel your
pulse.
Now, let's count.
Did you get it?
Whether it's here or here.
Find it right now.
Now let's count how many beats you will hear in 10 seconds.
Alright?
Ready?
Go.
Stop right now.
Now look, you're not exercising now, so the numbers you heard, that's called your resting
heart rate.
If you heard between 9 and 12 beats, that means your resting heart rate is perfect.
Now when you exercise, your heart rate increases.
As your heart rate increases, you burn fat.
It takes about 21 minutes for the heart to warm up to burn fat.
So if you're taking a 20 minute walk, you're warming up the body, but you haven't reached
the point where you're burning fat.
The first 20 minutes warms up the body.
The next 30 minutes of exercise keeps the body at a constant heart rate, so you'll be
able to burn that fat.
Now in my Sweatin' 1, 2, and 3 tapes, there is a leaflet that explains your target heart
rate.
It also gives you a chart to show you where your target heart rate should be.
So when you're about 30 minutes into your exercise program, you should take a minute
to count the number of pulses you feel in a 10 second period, just like we did a few
minutes ago.
Only now, you'll be measuring your heart rate during aerobic exercise.
Compare your number with the range listed nearest your age on this chart.
If your number is higher than the one listed on the chart, slow down.
You're working too hard, and then you're not burning fat.
You're tearing down your muscles.
If your number is lower than the number of the chart, pick up your pace.
You're not working hard enough to burn that fat.
Remember, you will get the most benefits out of your aerobic workout if your target heart
rate is consistent.
Now try to stay in the range listed on the chart, and then you'll know for sure that
your body is really burning fat.
Now in your Sweatin' to the Oldies 4 tape, there is this flyer that explains something
brand new called perceived exertion.
This is similar to target heart rate, but it's a simpler way to tell you if you're
working hard enough to burn fat and calories.
This is how it works.
As you begin to work out, look over here.
You know, you start slow, and that's a warm up.
Then you gradually increase your pace.
Your heart will beat faster, and your breathing will become heavier.
The muscles in your legs will begin to feel warm, and your body will feel as if it really
is working harder.
Now look at the chart here, okay?
And this is coming in your Sweatin' to the Olds flyer.
Do you see the numbers 1 through 6?
This is a scale to indicate how hard you are working.
Number 1 is total rest.
You can speak easily, and breathing is comfortable.
Level 2 is casual exercise, like strolling along window shopping.
Now when you get to number 3, you see that the level of exercise increases.
You're at a good steady pace, and your breathing is faster, but you can still talk.
Number 4 is vigorous exercise.
Now you're really sweating, but you're not pushing it.
You're moving faster and breathing heavier, but this is where you're also burning fat
and calories, because you are working hard, but you're not straining yourself.
Now if you go past level 4 into level 5 and 6, then you are doing more harm than good.
If you can't breathe, you're panting.
If you're dizzy, or you start to see these little white specks in front of you, or if
you're sweating so much you can't even see, then you're not in an aerobic state anymore.
You're breaking down muscle instead of burning fat.
So back off, and stay around that 3 or 4 level, and you will get the most out of your low-impact
aerobic workout.
Understanding what these levels mean will help you to perceive how hard you are working.
So now that you know all about aerobic exercise, what is the next step?
Well I think you really know the answer to that.
This day is finished, so stop this tape and start sweating.
Ooh, it's day 67 and time again to weigh in.
How are you doing?
Well Audrey in Trenton, New Jersey has lost 13 pounds.
Yay Audrey!
And congratulations to Barbara in Charleston, South Carolina because she has lost 16 pounds.
And Debbie from Anaheim, California has lost 56 pounds!
Whoa!
Every single pound lost is a reason to celebrate.
So you can see I do a lot of celebrating.
I love to swing.
It's so relaxing just swinging back and forth.
A great stress breaker too.
Now maybe you don't have a swing in your house like I have in my home, but I bet you have
mood swings.
Remember in the 70s you could actually buy mood rings and mood watches that would change
color when your moods changed?
That way you could keep track.
Now we all know people who are moody.
You never know how they're going to be.
Maybe this even describes you.
Everyone has mood swings to some extent.
It just wouldn't be normal to stay in the same mood all the time.
After all, our whole planet has changes in mood.
Just look at day versus night.
Well the ocean has high tides and low tides.
Then there's the moon, which is probably the cause of it all.
How often have you blamed your behavior on the full moon?
When the moon is new and like just a teeny toenail hanging in the sky, you're expected
to act normal.
But if you're acting weird and it's a full moon, well somehow you're always excused.
So moods and mood swings, high and low, are part of our everyday life.
I mean, take this scenario for example.
You wake up in the morning and you feel just great.
Then something happens.
Like a car cuts in front of you on the way to work, or all the traffic lights are red,
or you spill coffee on the outfit you just got out of the cleaners.
You know what I mean.
A zillion things can happen in a day that can change your mood from good to bad.
Mad to glad.
Happy to sad.
It can happen the other way around too.
You get out of bed on the wrong side, but then a friend calls and cheers you up.
Or you get an unexpected check in the mail.
Or maybe you get a parking place right outside the market.
And before you know it, you're smiling at complete strangers and whistling as you go
along.
You can have mood swings for lots of reasons.
If you happen to be on medication, it can sometimes change the way you react to things.
And of course, there are definite mood swings that are caused by food.
I don't have to tell you how you feel when you have too much sugar or chocolate or even
coffee.
Too much food, period, can cause a terrible mood swing.
Sometimes it's hard to know what came first.
The food or the mood swing.
Because if you're really feeling down and sorry for yourself or very alone, that's the
kind of mood swing that can often lead to overeating or out and out binging.
And sometimes when you're feeling fantastic and everything is great, that can also lead
to eating.
Because you feel like celebrating.
And to you, that always means food.
So while mood swings up and down can be brought on by lots of different things, even the chemistry
in our own body, they can also start a spiral of overeating which keeps you going in circles.
Now you've been following these tapes, I hope you have.
And I hope you've been using your dealer meal long enough to know that food doesn't fix
anything.
Not in the long run, anyhow.
It can't solve your problems.
It doesn't make a single thing in your life better.
In fact, too much food does exactly the opposite.
So next time you're upset about something, take a deep breath and make a conscious effort
to find a solution that doesn't involve food.
And next time you're feeling over the moon about something, remember there are other
ways to celebrate than F-O-O-D.
Oh, one last thing.
You probably know which foods specifically trigger your mood swings.
If you don't, start keeping track.
You'll find out soon enough.
And when you do, just stop eating those foods.
When you have a mood swing, your body is telling you something.
Don't ignore those messages.
Learn to work with your body and not against it.
And if you feel stuck in a down mood, just remember that day always follows night.
And a low tide is always followed by a high tide.
So just as spring always follows winter, there's a good chance that your gloomy mood will be
followed by a more cheerful one.
Keep reassuring yourself that it's normal for feelings to go up and to go down.
It's just not normal to try to fix your moods with food.
Don't ever think that food is going to get you in a good mood.
If you're having a mood swing, face it, confront it, question it, and solve it.
But leave food out of it.
It's just not going to help.
And I'm going to keep swinging.
Day number 68, and I have a treat for you.
A while back, QVC and I thought of a way to bring a group of people together to spend
time exercising, getting to know each other, learning the Deal and Meal program, and generally
having a good time.
We planned the Richard Simmons cruise to lose.
And since most of you weren't able to be there, today I want to share with you what has to
be one of the most wonderful weeks of my entire life.
Just imagine, if you will, 325 people all with the same thing in common, spending a
glorious week together on the SS Norway, one of the largest and most magnificent ships
on the ocean.
They say a photo can speak a thousand words, but I have a thousand photos that speak just
one word, and that word is success.
Every single person who came on the cruise with me was successful.
First of all, for just getting themselves there.
For many, this was their very first time on an airplane and their very first time on a
ship.
So they had to overcome all these fears just to get out of the house.
Then there was the fear of not knowing anyone, of having to share a cabin with a complete
stranger.
Add to that the fear of being around so much food, because as you know, cruise ships are
known for the huge quantities of food they serve all day and all night.
But the biggest fear for many was the exercise.
Some of these people had never exercised before in their lives, yet every day they grew stronger.
As they walked a little further and exercised a little more, they really did grow stronger.
There are simply no words to describe how it felt for me to see so many beautiful people
reaching beyond their fears and meeting challenges head on.
It was quite incredible.
There were so many special moments.
We started each day with a brisk 45 minute walk around the deck of the ship and continued
on with exercise, nutrition, and motivational classes.
You just can't imagine how it felt for me to see the progress people made in just one
short week.
But more than that, friendships were made that will last a lifetime.
We laughed together.
We cried together because we all knew and understood each other's pain.
We felt safe enough during the daily project and motivational meetings to share our deepest,
darkest feelings and fears, as well as our many successes.
This gut level sharing made us all feel a lot closer and a lot stronger.
For the very first time, many people realized they were not alone, that there really were
other people who could genuinely understand.
This was a voyage that literally changed lives.
One person told me we should have called it a cruise to win, not a cruise to lose.
See this pile of letters?
These are just some of the letters that people wrote me on the cruise.
I wish I could share each and every one of them with you.
They would move you deeply as they did me.
Total strangers reached out to each other on this cruise, offering love, encouragement,
and support.
Many of the regular passengers wanted to be part of our group.
They could see that something good was happening and they wanted to be part of it.
A beautiful lady named Michelle had gone from 415 pounds down to 290, and she is determined
to keep going all the way to her goal.
She isn't offended anymore when people tell her she has a pretty face, because she understands
now.
She's forgiven all those who have hurt her in the past, and Michelle is looking towards
the future with a positive attitude and strong determination.
In her letter she said, I went to the 50s dance tonight and I danced in public for the
very first time in my life.
Michelle was an inspiration to lots of others on the cruise.
Her level of confidence is soaring with every pound lost.
She was able to go up to complete strangers, introduce herself, and start a conversation.
Not an easy task for anyone but Michelle.
But Michelle is now sailing through difficult days every single day because she loves herself.
It was amazing to me how much people learned.
This is what Diana wrote, I learned this week to give myself permission to lose weight.
That it is alright to put myself first for one hour a day while I exercise.
To like myself right this very moment.
Not to wait till I lose X amount of weight.
That there is a pretty person inside all the time.
That I have to make me a project.
It will take some time, but the word start is now very important in my vocabulary.
And Celia, another lady wrote, my overweight condition is not the first thing I should
focus on when I think about myself.
It's just a small part.
Losing weight and keeping it off isn't impossible.
Now I look forward to the challenge.
I see the results in the lives of ordinary people like me with problems like mine.
Control is up to me.
Listen to this.
Control is up to me.
Take it or leave it.
Food doesn't have any magic.
Being on a cruise with the most luscious food I've ever tasted.
And not stuffing myself, but rather saying no thank you.
Then there was Florence who always wore a different cheerful hat and wow could she dance.
Florence, she just had so much rhythm.
And another lady I want you to see.
This is Phyllis.
And Phyllis wrote me every day on the cruise.
Letters filled with renewed hope as she realized it is never too late to start to lose weight.
Well, I could go on and on.
I could talk and read these letters to you for hours and not even scratch the surface
of what this cruise was really like.
But believe me, it was magical.
For all these beautiful people to finally realize they were not alone.
That they were all linked by the same feelings.
Hurt, hopes, and goals.
And that the possibility of losing weight is real.
There were people who had already achieved large weight losses and were maintaining their
weight goal.
And there were people who had all but given up until they came on the cruise.
Yes, we had some people there in all shapes and sizes.
Yet we were all joined by this common thread that made us feel as if we'd known each other
for years.
It was just fabulous.
Right down to the deal-a-meal menus that the chef prepared straight out of my cookbook.
We had the time of our lives and none of us will ever be quite the same.
We'll carry these special memories forever.
Hi.
Did you ever think that God put thin people on the earth as a punishment to people who
were overweight?
I mean, how many times do you look around, whether you're at the mall or at the market,
grocery shopping or at the movies, and you notice how skinny everyone is?
I didn't have any fat friends growing up.
All my friends were thin.
I don't know why it just happened that way.
Sometimes I used to just hate them, even though they were my friends, because they would sit
there and they would eat more than I was eating and they stayed skinny.
Well, as I told you before, God has a lot of cookie cutters up there.
And some people were cut out to be thin and some people were cut out to be overweight.
Now that doesn't mean it can't be changed, but it also doesn't mean that just because
you're heavy, you have the right to hate people who are thin.
Here's an example.
Suppose you're married to someone who's thin.
Should your thin spouse suffer just because you're on dealer meal?
I mean, there they are.
They can pretty much eat anything they want and they don't gain an ouch.
Should you hate that spouse for that?
Of course not.
Should you punish all the people in your home because you're trying to lose weight?
No.
Should you ban all snacks or forbid all the foods that tempt you, even though your family
can eat them?
Come on.
Be realistic.
Your family is there to support you and help you if you're really committed to losing this
weight.
You can't turn on them and think that they are the enemy just because they're thin.
I got this letter from a man who wrote to me and was really complaining because his
wife was on dealer meal.
Now he was happy she was trying to lose weight, but he said he couldn't stand me.
Well, I was so upset I had to pick up the phone and call him.
He said, I can't stand you.
I can't stand dealer meal because my wife has forbidden me to bring ice cream in the
house or any of the other things I like to eat.
The entire family is being punished because she's on dealer meal.
If you're doing the same thing to your family that this lady was doing, you've got to stop
that.
You can't hate or punish your thin friends or family members just because you're trying
to lose weight.
If you think that they should suffer just because you can't be as thin as they are,
then you're being very unfair to people who really do care about you.
You can't stop your family from having the foods they like because it might tempt you.
If the kids want pizza one night for dinner for crying out loud, it's not fair to forbid
them from having it.
You can have some too as long as you remember your portion control.
You know we've talked about how people sometimes put down fat people.
We've talked about forgiving people who have hurt you, but it goes both ways.
Poor people sometimes put down thin people too, and that is just as bad.
Have you ever heard yourself saying any of these things?
Well, look at her.
She's skinny as a rail.
There must be something wrong with her.
Or no one can possibly be that thin.
I bet that woman over there, I bet she's anorexic.
Or how about she's so skinny I can't stand her.
If you've ever said these things, then I want you to take a minute and think about what
you're saying.
First of all, hate is a negative word, so it shouldn't even be in your vocabulary.
Second, if a person is anorexic, they need your help, not your sarcasm.
And finally, most thin people are thin because they watch what they eat and they exercise.
You can't hate a person for doing the right thing.
When you say that you hate someone because they're skinny, what you're really saying
is that you're angry with yourself for being overweight.
Now think back and remember how hurt you were when people said rude things about your weight.
Imagine how a thin person must feel when you say something unkind about them.
Now there's lots of reasons why people are thin, just like there's lots of reasons why
people are overweight.
Some people are just naturally thin.
They have a metabolism that burns up energy and fat faster than most people.
A lot of times people who are very thin would love to put on some weight.
You may even know someone, a family member or a friend who has tried and tried but just
can't gain any more weight.
You may know someone who is anorexic or bulimic.
Believe me, these are serious problems which often need to be treated by a doctor or sometimes
even in a hospital.
So you see, being so thin that you can't gain an ounce isn't as glamorous as you might think.
There's one more thing I'd like to talk to you about on this subject of thin friends
and family.
I know that all of you, no matter how much weight you have to lose, don't want people
to hate you because you're overweight.
Isn't that true?
We want people to accept us for who we are, the kind of person we are deep inside.
Now, it's not what we look like, that's not what it's all about.
If this is true for overweight people, then the same thing is true for thin people.
Look at your thin family members and friends and love them for who they are and look to
them as inspiration to help you reach your goals because fat and thin, well, they're
just words.
It's who you are inside that really counts.
Hello!
It's story time again and this time we're going to Dublin, Ohio to meet 25-year-old
Jenny.
When Jenny graduated from college with a degree in communications in May of 1991, she weighed
260 pounds and was miserable.
Jenny was overweight even as a child.
Let me share a little bit of this letter with you.
As a little girl, I used to watch you on TV and I desperately wanted your help but didn't
know how to get it.
So here I am many years later at age 25 and thanks to you Richard, I've finally done it.
You see, timing is everything.
By the time she graduated from college, Jenny was more than ready.
Her letter goes on, I've stuck to the plan which has become a way of life to me and I
have lost, get ready for this, 90 pounds so far.
I am so excited about the new me, I couldn't believe it that I finally had a chin and for
the first time ever, I like myself.
Richard, I live by three rules, motivation, exercise and eating correct portions of food.
I'm always telling people about Deal & Meal and showing them proof that it worked for
me.
Here's the best news, my mom lost 35 pounds and my brother has lost 25 pounds on Deal
& Meal.
I really want to thank you Richard for creating Deal & Meal and having all those inspirational
exercise videos and tapes.
You've given a whole new life to me.
It is definitely the way to go.
Just looking at Jenny's before and after photos is proof of that.
Just look at all that new found beauty radiating out of her.
When I talked with Jenny on the phone, she was just about to put in her exercise tape.
Jenny is just getting back on track again after gaining back eight of the 90 pounds
she lost and she now realized that this isn't something you can just start and stop without
any consequences.
Jenny said she now has actually 35 more pounds to lose before she reaches her true goal weight.
She said that after she had lost the 90 pounds, she took some time out and got rather complacent
because she weighed more in the seventh grade than she does now.
She was feeling pretty good.
But this is a plan for life, not a diet.
So exercise and card counting has to be part of the daily routine.
Jenny thought she could rest on her laurels and she gained back eight pounds.
Unfortunately, there's no such thing as good time off for good behavior.
It just doesn't work that way.
Well, not without a price anyway.
Jenny knows this now and is focused in the right direction again.
The good part is that she only gained back eight pounds before realizing all her hard
work would be lost if she didn't get back in gear.
Now I know it is difficult staying with this kind of discipline day in and day out.
It's just plain tough.
But you've got to hang in there because if you take time out to rest on your laurels,
as Jenny did, you'll gain weight back too.
I wish I could say there's an easier way that there was a shot or a pill or something, but
there isn't.
It just takes daily dedication and daily determination.
Now Jenny says that making the time to exercise is her biggest problem, but she's doing it
– you know what she's doing?
She gets up at five o'clock in the morning to do her exercise.
Jenny, you are a real success.
It isn't easy to get back on track when you take time out, as Jenny did.
I am very proud of her for taking charge again before things got too far out of hand.
With her skills in communication, she is motivating friends and family to follow her powerful
example and get on that road to health.
So at 25, fresh out of college, Jenny has made the decision to take control of her life
and become the healthy, thin, energetic person she always wanted to be.
And I just know without a doubt that the next time I get a letter from Jenny, she's going
to tell me that she has reached her goal.
What a truly beautiful result that will be.
Every week I get literally hundreds and hundreds of letters from people all over the country.
Thanks.
Some of the letters have been our success stories.
A lot of letters come from people who are checking in with their progress.
But I get lots of letters from people with questions about Deal & Meal or exercise or
about good nutrition in general.
So I thought it would be interesting to check in our mail every couple of weeks and see
what kind of questions you all have and we'll try to answer them.
So I'm going to reach right in here and let's see some questions.
Here's one.
Dear Richard, about three months ago I started on Deal & Meal and I love it.
Hey, question for you.
I know the Deal & Meal cards have all the portions listed right on the card, but what
is the average caloric count of each of the cards?
Also, should I be looking at calories or should I be looking at fat grams?
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Love Amber.
Well Amber, my advice to you is that you really have to look at everything.
Thirty-five years ago when I started dieting, the only thing we really had to look at was
calories.
I've been on 500 calories a day, I've been on 800 calories a day, and for a long time
all I did was count calories.
Now in the late 70s we began to look at fat grams.
Some people didn't think you needed to count calories any longer because everybody was
counting the amount of fat grams they were consuming.
With the Deal & Meal, we look at both.
Now here I have the Deal & Meal cards, so let's go over how many calories are in each.
Let's start with the bread card.
Each bread card is worth 80 calories.
No matter what you choose from that card, it will cost you 80 calories.
The meat card is 75 calories.
Now here's the green card, that's the vegetable card.
This is worth 25 calories.
So one cup of raw green beans is 25 calories.
A fruit card is 60 calories, and a dairy card, the blue one over here, is 90 calories.
The fat card, and this is the one you have to watch out for, is 45 calories and 5 grams
of fat.
So you have to be very careful.
Now the joker card, which most people use as a snack, is 35 calories.
So if you're on 1200 or 1400 calories, you can see how I divided the portions.
So the Deal & Meal is counting your calories and your fat grams at the same time.
And as I told you before, everything counts.
Alright, I hope you got your questions answered amber.
Alright let's go to the next one.
Dear Richard, I've been on Deal & Meal for a week now and I've gained 6 pounds.
Oh my goodness.
I was so excited when I got on my Deal & Meal Plan the Mail.
I set up my wallet and cards exactly as you told me to do.
I just couldn't believe how much food there is to eat.
I started with the fruit card.
I had a half a banana, an apple, and some grapes.
Then I had a pear and a half a cantaloupe and I was so stuffed.
It's hard to believe that you can eat everything on the card.
I just don't know if I can eat this much food.
What am I doing wrong?
Sincerely, Henrietta.
Well Henrietta, you didn't read your manual correctly.
You get to have one of the foods listed on each card.
Not all of the foods.
I'm surprised you only gained 6 pounds.
I was putting on weight just reading your letter and listening to everything you ate.
Instead of eating 1,000 calories in one day, you were probably eating about 10 times that
much.
Remember, you select one of the foods listed on each card to plan out your meal.
By following the caloric count that I just gave you for each card, you can see that your
first week adds up to 1,000 calories.
Now I hope none of you are having the same problem out like poor dear Henrietta and putting
weight on the first week.
If you are, please check and be sure you are following these cards correctly.
Now the last thing I want you to do is to put on weight the very first week on Daily
Meal and then give up.
Well we'll come back to the mailbag.
You keep those letters coming.
And Henrietta, read these cards.
You get one choice.
You get like a half a banana or a little bit of cantaloupe or you get a pear.
One of the secrets of maintaining my weight is that a couple of nights a week all I have
for dinner is a big salad.
Sometimes with a baked potato or some bread or crackers.
I use lots of iceberg lettuce.
That was always my favorite growing up and it still is.
To me it's the crispiest lettuce and I just love it.
And you know what?
Lettuce is on the freebie card.
You can eat as much of it as you like.
Now I may add up to two cups of raw chopped vegetables like cucumbers, tomatoes, celery,
mushrooms and it's a whole meal.
Satisfying and very nutritious.
Sometimes I make a salad out of just chopped vegetables with no lettuce.
I take a box of frozen mixed vegetables and I marinate it in a little oil and vinegar.
It's delicious.
Those mixed veggies have corn, peas and lima beans in them which are on the bread card.
So the first time I made this I separated all the vegetables and measured them so I
know how to count them.
It works out as one vegetable card and one bread card for one cup serving.
Now here's what I like to do to make a salad look really pretty.
I just cut off the bottom of the iceberg lettuce.
I separate all the leaves into a little cup.
I stack them in a bag in the refrigerator.
Then when I make my salad I serve it and look in these little lettuce cups right inside.
Now when I bring lettuce home from the market the first thing I do is I run water in the
sink.
Separate the leaves and soak them.
I make sure all the leaves are completely clean and then I spin them.
What?
You don't have a lettuce spinner?
I look upon my lettuce spinner like one of my kitchen staples but till you get one you
can always put the lettuce in a clean pillowcase and spin it around outside all around your
head.
Now your neighbors may have you committed but it will get the excess moisture out of
your lettuce.
Why all the big deal about drying lettuce?
There is nothing worse than a wet salad.
The dressing won't even stick to the leaves and it's just awful.
If you wash and spin your lettuce then place the leaves between layers of paper towel
or clean dish towels in a plastic bag in the fridge.
The next time you want a salad it will be all ready to go and best of all it will be
dry, cold and crisp the way a salad should be.
It keeps longer like that too.
Now if you make a salad ahead of time don't leave it sitting out on the counter.
Cover it with a damp paper towel and set it in the fridge until you're ready to serve.
Now of course we really can't talk about salads without mentioning salad dressing.
If all we were eating was a salad part we'd never have to worry but let's face it most
of us only put up with the lettuce so we can taste the dressing.
Now nothing is ever going to taste like rope for dressing or ranch or Thousand Island.
It just ain't going to happen.
We absolutely, positively have to get beyond our taste buds and get rid of those cravings.
We have to train ourselves like a parrot to say dressing on the side please, dressing
on the side please.
You got to do that.
I mean sometimes you have like a memory lapse on purpose so that when you get the salad
all loaded with dressing you say oh well just eating this salad with 7,000 calories of dressing
well it's just this once, maybe not.
But if you make a practice of doing that then it's going to hurt you.
It'll hurt a lot.
Salad dressing is loaded with fat.
Why else would it taste so good?
You've really got to watch it.
I've told you before I think that I make this great salad dressing and it has no fat at
all.
It's just a mixture of balsamic vinegar and some salsa.
It's not Roquefort but I don't have to pay the price of Roquefort either and I'd rather
be thin and healthy than have the temporary short-lived satisfaction of a high fat salad
dressing.
You know we are so lucky in America to have such a variety of fresh salad ingredients
available.
I doubt if there's another country in the world that knows so much about making and
serving salads.
So make sure you are part of this.
Add salad to your list of new healthy daily habits and please get yourself a salad spinner
because these are so fat.
Alright who put their panty hose in my salad spinner?
Come on fess up.
What size is this?
Who does these?
Did you ever suck your thumb when you were a child?
Come on don't be afraid to admit it.
I bet most of you used to suck your thumb all the time.
I sucked my thumb until I was 11 years old.
Now you may not believe this but it's true.
I used to curl up in my bed with the bed sheets wrapped around my hand and suck my thumb.
In fact I think one of my thumbs looks different than the other.
Do you remember your little baby blankie?
Did you ever drag around that favorite little blankie wherever you went?
Kind of like lioness from Charlie Brown?
Did your mother have to sneak your blankie away from you in the middle of the night just
to get it washed?
Did you drag your blankie around with so much fervor that by the time you were five years
old all that was left was this little 2 by 2 inch square material that you wouldn't let
go of?
Well you might be wondering why we're talking about sucking our thumbs and baby blankets
when these are supposed to be motivational tapes not maternity tapes.
But if you think about why we used to do these things as a child you'll see why you do certain
things as an adult.
Here's what I mean.
Thumb sucking and baby blankets are symbols of security.
We need those things as a child because they make us feel secure in this very uncertain
world.
We were afraid that if we let go of that blankie something terrible would happen to us.
We needed to feel safe and protected and we needed to feel secure.
Now I'm going to be honest with you and tell you that I've always been insecure.
All my life.
Not just because I was fat.
It was just because I was always wondering am I doing the best?
Am I going to make it?
Am I going to be laughed at?
The way I figured it I think everyone's a little insecure.
It's just that some people hide it better than others.
It doesn't matter what you look like, what your weight is, how successful you may be.
I just think insecurity is part of human nature and we all deal with it differently.
So what is insecurity?
It's not believing that you can do things and not believing in yourself.
It's also a fear of what other people think about us even though it really doesn't matter
what other people think.
As adults we worry that everyone is looking at us, everyone is judging us and that we're
not the best or we're never going to be the best and if somehow we fail at what we're
doing people will think that there's something wrong with us.
We're always looking for approval or acceptance from our peers.
That's a true sign of insecurity.
People thought I was funny and they liked me because I made them laugh.
The jokes and the pranks and the funny things I used to do were a way of hiding the fact
that I was fat.
But deep down inside I always worried what if they stopped liking me?
What if they thought I didn't fit in?
Well even though we're grown up we never really grow out of our insecurities.
Some people manage to keep their insecurities under control and are able to face the world
head on.
These people have been able to build their self confidence and are more concerned about
how they feel about themselves and not what other people think.
But I know there are a lot of you out there who are still very insecure and even though
you're not dragging that blanket around with you anymore you've turned to something else
to make you feel more secure and that is food.
I know that somehow you think that food is going to make you feel secure that will protect
you from the rest of the world.
You use food as the shield to wrap around you so that nothing can hurt you.
But no matter how safe and secure you think you can be with food you can't hide your insecurities
between two slices of bread.
You can't make them disappear in a bag of pretzels and they won't melt away in a chocolate
bar.
Becoming a more secure person takes every bit of fortitude you can muster up.
It takes courage to step out of that shell to come out of hiding and say to yourself
I have to rely on me now.
I have to believe in myself.
I have to stop being afraid of what other people think because quite frankly my dear
who cares what other people think.
Those other people are battling their own insecurities.
Well I admit it I'm still insecure sometimes.
I haven't stopped being funny.
I haven't stopped playing jokes on people and I haven't really ever stopped being the
class clown.
But I have stopped using food to shield me from the rest of the world and you have to
do the same thing that I did.
You have the power within yourself to reach your goals.
You just have to believe in you.
I'm sure you can do it.
After all you finally got rid of that shredded old piece of blanket didn't you?
Hey guess what it's weigh in day again.
I hope you're ready to get on the scale and record where you are.
I have some fabulous weight loss results to share with you.
Karen in Flint Michigan has lost 77 pounds.
And Pat in Phoenix Arizona has lost 78 pounds.
And Cookie who named you Cookie from Tampa Florida has lost 20 pounds.
Wow.
You all are all terrific and thank you for sharing your success with me.
I just love knowing how you all are doing.
Well it's day number 74 and by now some of you would have already reached your goal weight.
Well of course there are still many of you who have a way to go yet to that magical sometimes
elusive number that you're working for and heading towards.
It is what this whole business is all about.
It is why you are counting out your cards every day.
It's why you're exercising because you are on a journey to meet up with your goal weight.
Remember when I asked you to fill this little contract in that came with your manual.
Remember that?
It was at the beginning of the tapes and I asked you to write down your goal weight.
What did you write down?
Was it a realistic number?
Is it really the best weight for you?
Now that you've been on Deal and Meal for 74 days you may have a better feel for what
your goal weight should be.
Now years ago when I first lost my weight I thought my goal weight was 135 pounds.
It was very difficult for me to maintain it.
I did some starving and a couple of things I wasn't proud of but I stayed at 135 pounds.
As a matter of fact I got sick.
I had made my goal weight really too low.
For someone 5 feet 6 inches 135 pounds is quite thin.
In fact I don't even know where I got that number from.
It was a number that just sort of popped up in my head.
And then as I started eating correctly and exercising I began to level off at 150 to
155 pounds and that was a lot better for me.
I would sleep better.
My energy level was better.
I could teach more classes.
I didn't get any heartburn or indigestion.
I was a happier person so that became my goal weight.
And yes there's been times when I've gotten a little up or a little down with my weight
but I'm usually somewhere close to my goal weight because this is where I function at
my best level and I feel the healthiest.
Maybe you've made that same mistake that I made.
Maybe you're looking at those magazines and you're saying well I've got to weigh 115
pounds.
But that's not being realistic.
You have to go by your own build, your height, your bones, a lot of factors.
You have to find the best weight that is comfortable for you and it may take some trial and some
error.
You've got to remember this isn't about seeing how skinny you can get.
Don't you do that.
It's about finding the level where you feel the healthiest.
Now whatever you do don't set a goal weight that is impossible to achieve.
That is just setting yourself up for disappointment and for failure.
If you have a lot of weight to lose maybe you'd prefer to set yourself some mini goals
along the way so you can feel your progress and rejoice in your success in increments.
Now some of you have written to me and shared some of these along the way successes.
One lady wrote and she was exercising to one of my sweat and tapes and when she got up
to the leg lifts she couldn't lift her leg.
Well she looked down to see why and found that her jeans had fallen completely off her
hips and had wrapped themselves around her ankles.
Needless to say she had a couple good laughs and so did I when I read her letter.
It goes without saying that as you keep exercising and counting those cards and doing the very
best you can do every day you will be getting closer and closer to your goal weight and
feeling more energy and more flexibility than you have in years.
You are on a very exciting journey probably the most rewarding one of your whole life.
You were giving yourself a gift that no one else could give you.
It had to come from your own determination and your own strength.
Every day that you stay on this positive track is a day of success and a day that will lead
you closer to your final destination and that destination is your goal weight.
Hallelujah I'm almost there.
Chocolate chocolate chocolate.
The word has such a sensuous sound to it doesn't it.
Yes.
I love chocolate.
In fact I absolutely adore it.
I haven't met too many people who don't love chocolate.
I can't tell you how many letters I get from people who tell me that they are addicted
to chocolate.
Even in the movies you know those old James Cagney movies there was always a woman who
sat in bed eating chocolates.
It's almost stereotyped but as sweet and rich and delicious as chocolate is it is loaded
with fat.
Do you know where chocolate comes from?
Well chocolate is made by grinding roasted beans from the cocoa tree.
As the beans are ground a liquid is produced and the liquid is called chocolate liqueur.
Now this chocolate liqueur is made up of fat called cocoa butter.
I'm sure you heard of that.
Just about every piece of chocolate you eat whether it's milk chocolate or sweet chocolate
contains cocoa butter.
So the calories you get from chocolate are almost all fat.
But for most of it it doesn't matter how much fat is in the chocolate.
We eat it anyway.
Did you ever notice how it is accustomed to celebrate all the major holidays or special
occasions with chocolate?
I mean there's Christmas and when you're really stuck for a gift you can always run
out and buy a five pound box of candy from someone.
There's Valentine's Day, hearts and flowers and chocolate.
At Easter time the bunny hops down the trail with more chocolate, more chocolate than in
any other place in the world.
And what would Mother's Day be like without handing your mother, I love you mom, a sweet
delicious box of chocolate.
And how about Halloween?
People don't give out caramel apples and popcorn anymore.
It's those miniature sized chocolate bars.
Even when people are sick and dying when you go to the hospital you bring them a box of
candy.
What kind?
Chocolate candy.
When I was in Belgium I remember seeing this sweet lady hand dipping chocolates.
Candy making is an art.
I mean they make chocolate in the shape of nuts and tennis rackets and leaves.
Well I even saw a chocolate nativity scene.
Now I don't know about you but as much as I love chocolate I just couldn't bring myself
to eat that nativity scene.
And fine chocolates are not cheap.
It was almost $28 for that box of Belgian chocolate.
In America alone the amount of chocolate and cocoa that is consumed is over 330,000 tons
a year.
Think about that, over 330,000 tons.
That is equal to about three and a half pounds of chocolate per person.
Our love affair with chocolate is so intense that we are the leading producers of chocolate
in the whole world.
Of course that's why we're so sweet.
Now did you know which state makes the most chocolate here in the whole United States?
Well I'll give you a little hint.
It's this.
It's a Hershey bar.
It's where they come from you know.
Hershey, Pennsylvania.
The chocolate capital of the world.
The sweetest place on earth.
And our friend Milton Hershey was the first person to introduce the chocolate candy bar
to America.
Aren't we glad he did.
So let's look at this delicious Hershey chocolate bar and let's see how many of your deal-o-meal
cards you need.
This harmless looking little treat cost you, are you ready for this?
Three fat cards and two fruit cards.
This one little chocolate bar will cost you an entire day's supply of fat cards.
That's pretty expensive.
Don't you think?
Now let's look at another chocolate delight.
Oh my favorite.
Chocolate covered raisins.
These used to be one of my favorite snacks when I used to go to the movies.
Now you would think raisins, well that's okay.
They're fruit and they're not so big and there's only a little bit of chocolate on them.
But here's the shocker.
A six ounce package of chocolate covered raisins will cost you, take a deep breath, six fat
cards.
Can you believe it?
Six fat cards and six fruit cards.
That's two days worth of fat cards.
Now I'll be honest with you.
I do eat chocolate.
I can't help it.
There are times when I just have to have a piece of chocolate.
But the point is I limit myself to a couple of pieces of chocolate at one time.
I have to consciously stop myself from eating anymore because if I didn't I know that I
could overdose on chocolate.
So if you must have some chocolate then you must limit what you eat.
Cut that Hershey bar in half.
Wrap up the rest and put it away.
I mean if somebody gives you a five pound box of chocolates, guess what?
It's five pounds of chocolate.
If you ate the whole thing you'd probably be eating 18,000 calories.
You have to portion out what you're eating and then put the rest away.
Better yet, if someone gives you a five pound box of candy, give it away.
Now some of you may have heard of carob, which is a sweeter, a sweetener that's sometimes
used as a substitute for chocolate.
Carob doesn't have the high fat content that chocolate does.
And personally, well carob isn't chocolate.
I mean they don't sound the same.
They're certainly not spelled the same.
And you can be sure that if you're a true chocolate lover, carob is not going to taste
the same either.
But there are these new fat free hot chocolate drinks that are pretty satisfying and so you
might want to try those.
Nothing, nothing my friends, will ever taste like chocolate.
And I just hope that when God says it's time for me to go, this sweet little lady from
Belgium is up in heaven with a box of chocolates just waiting for me.
You know years ago people lived a totally different lifestyle than we do today.
They got up in the morning, had breakfast and instead of heading out to the office,
they headed out to the fields.
People used to take care of huge farms and before the invention of the tractor and combine,
there was the horse and plow.
People didn't hire a builder to build their house, they built their own house.
Children walked to school every day.
When trees needed to be cut down, people used an axe and chopped the trees down.
There was no such thing as a chainsaw.
People hunted and fished for their meals and traveling was an expedition over rugged terrain.
Now this is not a summary of early Americana.
These are simple examples of how exercise was a part of everyday life.
All these activities, farming, lumberjacking, building houses, hunting, are all forms of
physical exertion.
And while it's true that people years ago didn't live very long, it wasn't from a lack
of exercise.
These people worked hard doing strenuous manual labor.
Well today, things in this country are a bit different.
We have all this modern technology and although there are still jobs that require physical
labor, they're becoming fewer and fewer.
Most people don't physically build their own home.
Farmers who still work very hard now have all types of machines to increase production.
Hunting is a sport and not a necessity.
And most children today ride the bus to school.
Because our lifestyle has changed, we have to make a conscious effort to put exercise
back into our lives.
And it has to be through other types of activity.
I mean, let's do a little assessment here.
Do you have a treadmill?
If you do, do you use it to exercise?
Or do you hang your laundry on it?
Do you have one of those ski machines that you fold up and store under your bed?
When was the last time you unfolded it and took it out?
How about one of those stretching machines that you keep on the doorknob?
Or a rowing machine?
How about one of those stair climbers?
Do you ever use one of those?
If by now, on day 76, you're not losing the weight you want to lose, then maybe you're
not exercising like you should, people.
People always ask me, why should I exercise three to four times a week?
Well, because if you don't, you're not going to lose weight and keep it off.
It's a simple rule of cause and effect.
If you eat, you gain weight.
If you exercise, you burn it off.
Now, there's no rule that says you can't exercise every day either.
I do.
I mean, I eat every day.
I want to burn calories every day.
I don't mean that you should kind of hurt yourself every day.
Sometimes when I ask people, what did you exercise?
What kind of exercise did you do today?
They'll say, well, I ran 10 miles up a bunch of steep hills.
I think it was Mount Everest.
And then I got home and I got on the trampoline and I folded the kids' clothes.
And then I rollerbladed to the grocery store.
Now, I'm not saying you have to spend eight hours a day exercising.
You don't have time for that.
But there are other ways to put exercise into your daily routine without killing yourself.
Now, here, I've got a few things to show you.
Activities that burn calories and exert energy.
The calories listed are the number of calories burned per minute for people weighing about
150 pounds.
If you weigh more, you will burn more calories.
But this will be a very good guide.
Okay, let's start.
Swimming at seven miles per hour, you will burn 15.6 calories a minute.
If you like to run, jogging is a great aerobic activity as long as you don't overdo it.
You don't want to hurt your knees or your joints.
How about this one?
Swimming, 8.7 calories.
Do you have a pool?
If you do, start swimming laps.
If not, call the local Y.
They usually have an indoor pool so you can get some exercise in the winter.
Ha!
Tennis, 7.4.
A good workout on the courts is a great way to get your legs and arms in shape.
Dancing, 7.0.
Get your dancing shoes out and go for a night on the town.
Besides burning calories, dancing is great fun and will make you feel like a teenager
all over again.
This one's my favorite.
Scrubbing floors, 7.4.
This is not my favorite chore, but it has to be done.
It's nice to know that even though scrubbing floors is kind of dull, you can still burn
off some calories.
Biking at five miles per hour, 4.4 if you have a good bike.
Go out for a ride.
If you have a stationary bike, do it a couple of times, maybe two to three times a week.
It's a great exercise routine.
General house cleaning, 4.2.
You can take heart in the fact that while you're dusting furniture, mopping floors,
and cleaning the bathroom, you're also getting some exercise.
Vacuuming, 3.1.
Now, if you used a self-propelled vacuum cleaner, then you're cheating.
If it doesn't require any effort, you won't burn any calories.
So you see, you can burn calories while you clean your house.
Now that's being efficient.
And while you're doing these activities, try to do them with a little more intensity, a
little more gusto.
You'll end up burning calories even faster.
But if you're doing things like opening and closing menus, standing around a lot, flossing
your teeth, lying down, you're not going to burn anything.
Well, I think you can see that the more energy you exert during an activity, the more calories
you're going to burn.
So when you're ready to reach for a cookie, just think of how many floors you'll have
to scrub to burn that one little cookie off.
Oh my goodness!
No!
Do I have a success story for you today?
I'm going to tell you about Lita from Canton, Ohio, who is now 50 pounds lighter because
of D'Alemille and a lot of determination.
I could just tell from Lita's letter that she had a lot of energy and pizzazz.
Lita has always loved to dance.
She was trained as a classical dancer, but she also loved jazz and contemporary dance.
When Lita was dancing, she felt truly happy.
But when she turned 30, something happened.
She said for her 30 was her, ugh, year.
She started to compare herself to other dancers and saw that she wasn't as young and as agile
as some of the others.
She could feel herself getting older and somehow, Lita lost her vision.
She lost sight of why she loved to dance.
She no longer liked to watch herself dancing in the mirrors at the dance studio.
Her self-esteem plummeted and she quit.
She quit smoking at the same time and Lita saw her metabolism just bottom out.
She has a borderline thyroid problem as well and she wasn't eating correctly.
With all these factors combined, Lita started to gain weight more and more until she felt
just worse.
She told me on the phone when we talked recently, Richard, I was depressed all the time.
It just wasn't me.
I'm a fashion bug and I had one foot in regular sizes and one foot in the plus sizes and it
just broke my heart.
But still, Lita did nothing to change the situation and her weight continued to climb
until the day it hovered at 199 pounds.
And suddenly, everything clicked into place for Lita and she said, that's it.
That's it.
I absolutely refused to see 200 pounds on the scale.
That was her turning point.
She did not reach 200 pounds.
Instead, she started to deal a meal and of course, started to lose weight.
But it wasn't all clear sailing.
When she wrote to me last winter, she had reached 175 pounds and was resigned to just
staying there.
She thought she had done well enough and besides, Lita was discouraged.
She'd been staying at 1,200 calories and exercising, yet she hardly managed to lose a full pound
a week.
I sent her a picture with the words, don't you ever give up.
You can really lose that weight.
And she put it on her refrigerator and read it every chance she could.
Every time she was tempted to reach past the carrot sticks to her husband and son's goodies,
she would see my picture and hear those words, you can do it.
So Lita stayed on track.
Then she called someone at my office for advice.
She said, I even have cards left over of 1,200 calories and I exercise three times a week.
What else can I do to get this weight to come off?
Now the answer might surprise you, but I want you to listen very carefully to the advice
Lita got.
She was told to increase her exercise to five times a week and make sure that she used all
of the 1,200 calorie cards, otherwise her metabolism would lower and just readjust.
To quote Lita's letter, she said, bingo Eureka, your total Richard Simmons program clicked
into full action.
I stayed on those 1,200 calories and I exercised five times a week and you know what?
I did do it, just like you said.
As I sit here writing, I am at my goal weight, 50 pounds lighter.
I am healthy and I like myself for the first time in two years.
So Lita learned that it was by eating, not starving, that she could get to her goal weight.
It takes sticking to the same daily intake of calories and just hanging in there no matter
what.
I told Lita's husband Scott he should take his wife out dancing and he said that he had
two left feet, but you know, he is so proud of her and he knows she loves to dance, so
I wouldn't be surprised if he takes a few dancing lessons himself.
He has a gorgeous, energetic wife to keep up with and I know he's delighted.
But Lita, if you're watching this tape, there's something I need to say to you.
Don't wait for Scott to take dancing lessons before you dance again.
You are a dancer, a beautiful, classical dancer.
You can never turn our backs on who we really are.
So Lita, I think it's time to get those dancing shoes out again.
There's a lot of dancing to be done and you're just the one to do it.
You know, I was watching TV the other day and they were interviewing people who were
over 100 years old.
Imagine that, 100 years old and these people were giving a television interview.
Well, I was simply fascinated by that.
Now, I personally have met a few people who were 100 years old, but I thought it was very
interesting to see these wonderful people, so full of life, talking to a television reporter
while they probably never even dreamed that such a thing could ever happen in their lifetime.
And so our word for today is longevity.
Our dictionary says longevity, long life, a great duration of life.
Look, there's even a magazine called Longevity and it's all about how to live longer and
get the most out of life.
Let's face it, we all want to live longer.
Years ago, people really didn't live very long.
Those were the days before Ben Casey, Dr. Kildare, and Marcus Welby.
We've come a long way in the last 50 years to increase our lifespan.
People are living longer now, while the average life expectancy today is 72 years old.
As I was listening to these 100 year old people talk on television, it was clear that they
were so full of vitality because they had a true love of life.
They wanted to live and they wanted to get the most out of every minute of every day
they had.
They never said, well, I've had enough now, it's time to quit.
These people were just so thankful to wake up every day and enjoy the time they had on
earth.
Now, you know, you could take all the medicine in the world to help you live longer, but
if you don't have the will and the drive to get the most out of every day you have, then
I believe you won't live very long.
Because in listening to these people, I learned that medicine is only one aspect of living
longer.
These people taught me that there are three basic things you have to have in order to
live a long and fulfilling life.
First and foremost, you have to have, right here, a positive attitude.
How many times have you heard me say that?
Maybe you didn't believe me back on day 18 when we talked about the power of positive
thinking, but take it from people who are probably two or three times your age.
Having a positive attitude is going to help you live longer.
There's no denying it.
So, even if you don't believe me, listen to the words of some of those very wise people.
Keep a positive mental attitude towards life and you will be around much longer.
Secondly, these people were all passionately involved in something.
They were intensely involved in a project or a job that gave them great satisfaction
and kept them busy.
Whether it was reading or painting, organizing church activities or working at the library,
no matter what, they all simply loved what they were doing.
One time I visited the Norman Rockwell Museum and all the people who worked there were in
their 80s and 90s and they all loved what they were doing.
They found it so exhilarating to be so involved in a part of our American culture.
They had an undeniable passion for their work.
So lesson number two is find a hobby or interest or organization and become intensely involved
with it.
You'll be swept away by your own enthusiasm.
You won't want to give up what you're doing and you'll have a great deal to live for.
Finally, these centurions taught me that when you live a long life, you have to be prepared
to cope with loss.
Boy, that one really hit home with me because I don't deal well with loss or losing the
people that I love.
In fact, I just shut it out of my mind completely.
But you and I can't do that.
You have to learn that the cycle of nature is life and death and the longer you live,
the greater chance there is to see the people you love pass on.
You have to be prepared to face it and you have to recognize that this is the natural
order of things.
Our friends on TV won't ever really know how many people's lives they touched through that
one interview.
Well, there was this one lady who showed a house that was on the National Register of
Historic Houses and she was older than the house.
I hope she knows she is one of our national treasures too.
Another secret these lovely people talked about was how they ate smaller meals and smaller
portions and they all kept as physically active as they could.
One lady was 105 years old and she taught an aerobic class.
A hundred years may seem like a very long time to you, but it's just a tiny second on
God's wrist watch.
We have so precious little time on this earth, so do me a favor.
Live your life to the fullest and live it for as long as you can, as healthy as you
can.
Don't ever look back on your life with regrets.
Look ahead with anticipation and may you live a hundred times, a hundred years.
A toast to all of those hundred years and to your healthy life.
What would you do if you were invited to someone's house for a little party and you walked in
and no one asked you if you wanted something to drink and you looked around and there was
no food?
Now you would think these people were very, very cheap or from another planet.
Don't they know another word for party is F-O-O-D?
Whoever heard of a party or celebration without food?
Whenever the word party is used, there is food always.
If God had made 11 commandments instead of just 10, I know it would have been, thou shall
always serve food at a party.
I just know it.
There are certain basics you've got to have for the word party to have any meaning at
all.
Like potato chips and those little yellow cheese puffs, they're my favorite because
if the lights are low, you can always find them in the dark.
They're kind of fluorescent.
Then there are corn chips and bowls of nuts and of course the dips.
Sour cream with onion soup mix or some other seasoning.
I mean now we are talking major party.
Unfortunately we're also talking major fat.
Now here's a good rule of thumb.
Take a handful of nuts or chips and hold them for a while.
Then check out your hand.
Is it kind of shity?
Can you see your face in it?
This is grease guys.
This is grease held together by a few molecules of potatoes.
All of those things are deep fried.
Half an hour at a party like this and you could be in deep debt with your fat cards.
So what can you eat at a party?
Well if you look hard enough, there's sometimes a tray of cut up vegetables all the way in
the back there, there, there.
I mean really you can find them.
But if I were you, I'd call ahead and offer to bring a platter of veggies all thinly
sliced and crunchy.
You'll never be turned down.
And this way you're prepared.
You can ignore all those deep fried artery clogging junk and enjoy those fresh delicious
nutritious vegetables.
And if they're just a bit too pure for you, then how about bringing some breadsticks or
rice cakes or pretzels or crackers?
Oh and I know what else is good.
Fruit kebabs.
You know, little pieces of fruit on a skewer like this.
You can arrange them on like a half a grapefruit or cantaloupe.
And they're funnin'.
And then after you eat them you can always fence with them.
So while a party without food is an insult, remember to serve something in addition to
the food.
Like games for example.
Look here's Monopoly.
Monopoly has no calories.
Look here's Scrabble.
Scrabble has no calories.
So food isn't the whole reason for people coming together.
There are other reasons.
One reason is conversation.
And the best thing about conversation is that you're not supposed to do it with food in
your mouth.
It's rude.
You can't talk and eat so try talking for a while or listen to the music and dance.
Parties are really for people to get together to know each other better.
To have fun and relax.
And while it's necessary to have the snacks there, it isn't a crime if they don't all
get eaten.
So next time you go to a party, eat something before you go so you don't arrive famished.
Bring some food with you that you can eat and also share it.
It's a good idea to bring whatever beverage you want to drink as well.
Just in case they don't have it.
So what do you say?
How about a party?
Gosh, I have this great recipe for a low cal punch.
You just add club soda and a little juice like pineapple juice to iced tea.
It's delicious.
I'll make a dip with nonfat yogurt and nonfat mayonnaise with some chopped herbs.
And I'll make this gorgeous vegetable platter.
Now the party list.
Who are we going to invite?
Oh, it's going to be great.
A lot of music and I'll push all the furniture back and we can...
I was raised with a great sense of humor.
I'm sure that doesn't surprise you.
My parents had a lot of friends in show business so our home was always filled with laughter.
I loved playing practical jokes on people as a kid.
I used to call people up and say, hello, is your refrigerator running?
Well then you better go catch it.
And then I'd hang up real quick.
The joke store was one of my favorite hangouts.
I'd always get those trick gadgets so I could play jokes on people.
And we always seemed to have a joke book in the house.
I was brought up laughing with Lucy whom I got to personally know.
She made me laugh.
I loved Laurel and Hardy.
I loved little rascals.
George Burns and Gracie Allen's just made me howl.
Laughter was good for me in the schoolyard too.
I relied on my humor and silliness to get me through some tough situations.
Like when the big guys were trying to pick fights.
It's hard for kids to be mean to you when you make them laugh.
And as I told you before, being the class clown also helped to take the attention away
from the fact that I was overweight.
Even though humor can't totally change a situation, it will help ease you through some very difficult
times.
Laughter is therapeutic.
When things are looking down, a little humor can help you face a situation with a more
positive point of view.
Think about the origin of vaudeville.
Vaudeville started in this country when things were down.
People needed to laugh even though the country had terrible troubles.
Even during wartime, people always went to the movies to help them forget for just a
few hours about the unhappy things going on in the world.
There's also the story of Norman Cousins who was diagnosed with a terminal disease.
He made his friends go to the store and rent all the funny movies he could find.
He wanted to see all the greats like Abbot and Costello, the Marx Brothers, the Three
Stooges, anyone who could make him laugh.
Watching those movies made him feel better.
Norman Cousins then wrote a book about his experience and he firmly believes that his
positive mental attitude from laughing helped his disease go into remission.
Now believe it or not, a good laugh can burn off calories too.
I mean it, it's true.
Watch a funny movie and laughing for about an hour can really put those stomach muscles
and turn them and kind of burn calories.
I think it's so important that you keep your sense of humor when you're trying to lose
weight.
Sometimes it might be the only way you can keep your sanity too.
Let's face it, there are going to be tough times when you're feeling frustrated and depressed
and you're ready to throw in the towel.
That's when you need to get a humorous book or go see the latest comedists playing at
the movies or go see a friend who makes you laugh.
Laughter will break the negative spell that you were under and help you get moving in
the right direction.
You know, people who are overweight or sometimes the butt of many jokes.
I remember being made fun of, but I use my own humor as my weapon of defense to get with
me and get out of those tough situations.
Pretty soon the kids were laughing with me and not at me and there's a big difference
there because the only good laughter is the one that makes all of us feel good.
Thirty years ago when I was trying to lose weight, everybody was so serious about losing
weight.
The doctors I went to were serious.
The books I read were serious.
There was nothing funny about weight loss.
So I decided I would put a little humor in my profession and help people lose weight
with a smile.
It can't hurt, but it certainly can help making losing weight a little easier to face.
So as you continue on your deal-a-meal plan, remember to laugh.
Keep some joke books around the house and don't be afraid to tell a few jokes now and
then.
Try to be around people who are upbeat, happy people who don't cry in their beer.
They will help to keep you in a good mood.
Go see a funny movie.
A few weeks ago I went to go see Whoopi Goldberg in Sister Act and I laughed so hard my stomach
hurt.
So if you find yourself feeling a little down and you need a lift, remember this.
If Noah had been really wise, he would have swatted those two little flies.
Do you get it?
Oh, well, you see Noah, he had the big arc and the animals came in by toosie-toosie.
It's day 81 and time to weigh in.
Now Margaret in Rocky Point, New York weighed in and she's lost 20 pounds.
Judy from Cudahy, Wisconsin has lost 31 pounds and Nancy in Buffalo, New York has lost 170
pounds.
Congratulations to all of you.
I wonder how you're adjusting to the feeling of being a whole lot thinner.
I looked up the word adjust in the dictionary.
Adjust to change so as to fit, to adapt to oneself.
Being thinner does take some getting used to.
One person described it to me this way.
He said, it's kind of like moving to live in a house that has walls of glass.
All of a sudden people are noticing me, talking to me, including me in a way that they never
did before.
Now I am the center of attention.
I feel sort of exposed to the world.
Whereas before when I was overweight, it was more like living in a big dark house with
drapes over all the windows so that no one could see in.
I was able to hide away inside and live in a private kind of isolation.
Isolated by the protective wall of fat I had built around myself.
Now that this wall of fat is crumbling away, there is a lot of adjusting to do.
One of the good things about deal a meal is that your weight loss is gradual.
So you have a chance to adjust as you go along.
And the more you do your daily exercise, the more in touch you will feel with your new
body shape as it appears.
Now lots of you have written to me about buying new clothes.
One letter said, Richard, it's so strange when I go shopping.
I automatically go to the larger sizes and forget I can now buy from the regular size
racks.
Also belts.
Wow.
I never even thought of wearing a belt before.
And I found one I liked and it was a medium.
It wasn't even large.
Gosh, it felt fantastic.
This is called getting your mind to catch up with your body, adjusting to an amazing
change.
I mean, look at one of your before pictures and look at where you are now.
You're practically a whole new person.
Your legs are trimmer.
You can see your ankle bones and the shape of your calves.
Well, if you can't quite yet, you will.
It's all part of the process.
All part of the adjustment.
While it's exciting to buy new smaller clothes and a thrill when people compliment you on
your weight loss, it can be a little scary too.
After all, you've been wrapped up in a comfortable cocoon for a fairly long time.
You felt safe and visible almost.
Now all of a sudden you're in the limelight.
Can you handle it?
It's so important that you learn to make this adjustment because if you don't feel safe
at your goal weight, you just might sabotage your success and go back to your old familiar
comfort zone and body.
Now you may need to ask yourself why you gained all the weight in the first place.
Why did you need to overeat?
What was missing in your life that made food so important to you?
If you haven't figured any of this out yet, well this may be a good time.
You may have a very close friend you can talk this over with.
Or maybe you'd feel a lot safer by just writing it all down in a journal.
Once you start to write, you might be amazed at what you discover about yourself.
As long as you understand that you're not merely losing weight but adjusting to a whole
lifestyle change, you have an excellent chance of continued and lasting success.
Remember when the Berlin Wall came down?
They hadn't had to rebuild that.
They are surviving the adjustment period.
You know, building a wall is easy because the purpose of a wall is to block something
out or lock something in.
Breaking down a wall takes more of an adjustment because where there are no walls, there are
more choices, more possibilities, and more life.
By being willing to break down your walls and step out of your comfort zone into a whole
new experience, you are proving that you have what it takes to adapt, to adjust, and most
important, to conquer.
Do you remember the old fashioned blue plate special?
Well the blue plate special was an inexpensive meal served at a restaurant with lots of food
at a bargain price.
Oh, I can remember going down to our local Five and Dime store and searching the menu
at the luncheonette counter looking for the daily blue plate special.
Oh, they serve things like southern fried chicken with loads of gravy, mounds of mashed
potatoes and steamy hot biscuits at a price I could afford on my allowance.
Lots of food, home cooked food at a price that couldn't be beat.
Now the blue plate special was a great way for restaurants to fill their seats and for
the customers to fill their tummies.
The only problem with the blue plate special was that the portions they served could feed
more like three people than one.
But hey, when it's on your plate, sitting there in front of you smelling so delicious,
well who's going to turn it away?
That was the beauty of the blue plate special.
You got a lot of food for the money.
Who would want to turn down a bargain?
By the time we reached the 1980s, the blue plate special all but disappeared.
Restaurants became more upscale and everything you ordered was a la carte and a la expensive.
Eating out became a privilege and there were very few bargain meals at the local eatery.
You probably noticed that the luncheonette counter at your favorite corner variety stores
were slowly closing.
I know I did.
The last time I checked, they had turned the luncheonette counter where I used to hang out
into a troll boutique.
But things are changing in the 90s and after doing some investigation, we have found that
the blue plate special, well it's coming back, but in a very different format.
The emphasis today is on casual, inexpensive dining that's also health conscious and that's
great news for us.
Because now we can enjoy our value-priced meals and know that we can eat healthy at
the same time.
For example, today you will find selections like grilled swordfish, vegetarian tacos and
all types of salads as the blue plate special of the 90s has come back.
You can also order dishes like angel hair pasta with steamed vegetables or grilled chicken
breast without the skin of course, seasoned with fresh herbs and sliced mushrooms.
Today's restaurants are adapting their menus to satisfy more and more people who are concerned
with their fat and their cholesterol levels.
Unfortunately those of us who grew up on the blue plate special really never grew out of
the all you can eat mentality.
We still like to see our plates piled high with food when we go out because we feel like
we're getting the most from our money.
Well there's nothing wrong with wanting to make your dollar stretch further, but just
be sensible about it.
If you're ordering the special today just because it's cheap, stop and take a minute
to make sure it's healthy too.
If it's not, don't be afraid to pass up the special.
Nothing is a bargain if it costs you your health.
So the next time you're looking for a casual, inexpensive meal, keep these pointers in mind.
Number one, select the specials that are either steamed, poached, roasted, baked, grilled
or broiled.
Foods prepared this way are always lower in fat.
Number two, avoid the all you can eat type of restaurants.
Serving out does not mean it's time to pig out.
One serving is all you should eat anyway.
Number three, don't order anything that has the word surprise in it like meatloaf surprise
or turkey casserole surprise.
The surprise is that it's usually yesterday's leftovers with a sauce on it.
Yeah just put a little sauce on that, no one's going to know Helen.
Number four, stick with the basics.
poultry, seafood, vegetables and pasta can all be prepared in interesting and inexpensive
ways.
Besides being easy on the wallet, these foods also go easy on your heart.
Now remember the blue plate special of the diners and truck stops from days gone by.
Well it's taken on a brand new look today.
The fried chicken is being replaced with grilled fish and the mashed potatoes with gravy is
now pasta with vegetables.
I know and I kind of miss those hearty meals of the past but I know my heart doesn't.
It's nice to know that today you can still get a good meal for your dollar without sacrificing
taste or your health.
Blue plate special, bon appetit.
How many of you remember when you were a kid and you didn't want to go to school so you
woke up and told your mother you didn't feel good?
Raise your hands.
I know a lot of you did that at some time or another.
I did and I always did it on the day we were going to have some hard test or a quiz or
something I wasn't prepared for.
Trouble was when I got back to school, well the makeup test was always waiting for me.
Well there are many times when you really don't feel so good, a little under the weather
as they say.
But do you know how your body fights an illness and why we have to take care of ourselves
so that we don't get sick?
I thought that maybe today some of you might need a little refresher course in health.
So we're going to talk about your immune system.
Do you know what your immune system is?
Well very simply it's your body's built in defense mechanism against illness.
It's our guardian angel so that when germs come our way we can fight them off.
Our immune system figures out for us which bacteria are the enemy and then it attacks
and destroys them.
Our immune system also works like a police force, constantly patrolling our bodies, searching
for the intruder germs that cause sickness and disease.
In order for your immune system to be in tip top shape we have to take care of it.
It's just like anything else.
You take your car in for service, you get the oil change and the engine service and
a tune up so that your car will run for as long as it can.
Well you have to keep your immune system running as smoothly as you can just like your car
is running.
That way you can always be as healthy as possible.
There are many different schools of thought on how to care for your immune system.
Some people don't have as strong an immune system as others do so they may need some
additional care to keep their immunity at top level.
But there are some common guidelines that most people can follow to ensure a high performance
immune system like good nutrition.
You have to eat foods that are high in vitamins and minerals so that your immune system can
use them to protect you against illness.
Your Deal-A-Meal program gives you the correct portions of fruits and vegetables you need
each day to help you stay healthy.
Exercise, you're going to hear that word from me in your sleep, in your dreams, in
your every waking moment.
A regular exercise program will not only help you look better but feel better.
It will increase your circulation, your lung capacity so you can breathe in more oxygen
for your body.
You just can't escape it.
You need to exercise to remain healthy.
I promise you that.
Your immune system will function better if you're exercising on a regular basis and that
means at least three to four times a week.
Let's talk about vitamins.
Lots of people believe that taking supplemental vitamins can help prevent things like the
common cold and the flu virus.
There's a Nobel Prize winner named Dr. Linus Pauling who has written a book called How
to Live Longer and Feel Better.
In his book he describes the benefits of taking vitamin C and how the body uses vitamin C
to help protect it against other diseases.
Now look, you know me, I'm not a doctor, but considering that Dr. Pauling is 91 years old
and still going strong, I think there's got to be some truth to what he's saying.
You can't totally rely on a vitamin pill to take care of all your aches and pains, but
taking a daily vitamin plus a well-balanced food program like Deal-A-Meal will help you
fight off many of our common ailments.
Reducing stress.
Years ago nobody really knew how harmful stress was to the body, but with modern research
it has been found that too much stress is harmful not only to the heart, but to the
body in general.
Have you ever noticed that when you were really stressed out you maybe get a stomach ache
or cramps or maybe come down with a cold or maybe you feel a little feverish?
Constantly having a high amount of stress in our lives lowers our defense and makes us
more susceptible to illness.
We have to reduce our stress levels and one of the ways, oh here it comes again, that's
right, is exercise.
How about proper rest?
I'm sure you heard this from your mother before.
If you don't get your proper rest you will get sick.
That's because if you're not sleeping then your body is not recharging its batteries
and you will run down.
You are not giving your cells a chance to regenerate.
Please get your sleep and you will be less likely to fall victim to an illness.
Now one more thing about your immune system.
Just because you don't feel good one day doesn't mean you can turn to food and eat everything
in sight.
You can't say to yourself, it's okay for me to eat this because I don't feel good.
A banana split will never help your immune system.
I don't know about you, but I hate to get sick so I follow one of the oldest rules in
the book.
An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
Hey, it's story time again on day number 84 and this time we're going to Dearborn Heights,
Michigan to meet a very nice lady named Nancy.
She has really made a transformation.
Nancy has lost 80 pounds.
Now the only similarity in her before and after photos is her smile because the real
Nancy has emerged.
Nancy had been fat all her life and even at 218 pounds she didn't think her weight really
bothered her.
After all she was used to it.
She had never been any different.
She said in her letter, if someone didn't like it I thought don't look.
I have a husband, two kids.
Hey what else could I want?
Boy was I pulling the wool over my eyes.
Unfortunately at 30 years old Nancy started having chest pains, dizziness and depression.
She even ended up in the emergency room a few times thinking she was having a heart
attack.
But what Nancy was having were panic attacks.
During one of her visits to the hospital where she was given a stress test the nurse said
you are really out of shape.
Nancy's response was like I didn't know that myself.
Thanks and have a nice day.
And she got out of there as fast as she could.
And somehow fate stepped in.
Because one day while Nancy was eating a bag of potato chips and having a soda, guess what?
She saw me talking about Deal & Meal on TV.
Well of course Nancy decided I was just another health nut out to make a buck.
But the more she watched the more interested she became.
She said her husband was watching too but waiting for control of the clicker.
So he said to her, hey Nancy why don't you order that Deal & Meal package for your birthday.
Nancy's response was thanks but I'd rather have a box of chocolates.
But you know what?
She did order Deal & Meal and as soon as it arrived she sat down and listened to the Project
Me Motivational tapes.
She couldn't believe it.
She said every single detail described her.
Now she tossed the Deal & Meal plan into the closet and started using the walking tapes
every single day.
Just doing that started melting off those pounds and then it struck her.
She thought, well gosh, the Project Me tapes describe me to a T. The walking tape is taking
off the pounds.
Maybe Deal & Meal might work too.
Well just 365 days later Nancy weighed in at 138 pounds, her goal weight.
She couldn't ever remember weighing so little, certainly not since elementary school.
When I got Nancy's letter and saw her beautiful goal weight photo I just had to give her a
call to see how she was doing.
And you know what she said?
She said that maintaining her goal weight is easy now because she knows how much she's
supposed to eat.
She said before when she served steak to her family they would all have a whole steak each
but now she knows to serve the correct portion.
Even though Nancy has been fat all her life, all it took Nancy was a little education,
knowing the correct food choices and the correct food portions.
She said even holiday dinners like Thanksgiving are easy.
In fact last Thanksgiving she said everyone in her family now is so health conscious that
no one touched the pie.
And her mother finally agreed to take it home with her, just to get it out of Nancy's house.
Maybe they fed it to the dogs.
Nancy also said what fun it has been to buy beautiful things like this beautiful black
dress she is wearing in the photo.
She said it was the first time in her life she had ever spent more than $100 for a dress.
Nancy knew she had earned that very, very special reward.
I want you to look here closely at Nancy's legs.
See what can happen when you make up your mind and keep doing it no matter what.
Now let me ask you, where's your deal and meal?
Is it locked in your safe or in a box in your garage or closet?
Nancy finally broke down and used hers and look, look what happened.
This can happen to you too.
All it takes is a decision to do it, then a commitment to follow through.
I got to tell you, Nancy is a winner.
She really is, that's for sure.
She told me she still counts out her cards.
It's just second nature now.
A permanent way of life.
That is what Nancy is doing and it's easy and fun.
And I've saved the best for last.
Remember when I told you about those panic attacks Nancy used to have?
Well, she hasn't had a single one since the deal and meal program.
Wow, look at all the mail that's come in over the past two weeks.
Well, let's dig in and see what we have here.
Take this little letter here.
Dear Richard, I ordered your sweat into the oldie tapes and I couldn't wait to get started.
I put on my sweat and clothes and got my sneakers laced up tight just like you said to do.
When I saw all the people in these tapes, they all looked so professional.
They did everything so well and they didn't make any mistakes.
I really want to do these tapes Richard, but I'm afraid I'm going to mess up.
How do I get myself into these tapes?
Sincerely Bonnie.
Well, first of all Bonnie, let me assure you that there are no actors or actresses in my
tapes.
They're just real people.
Now every time I do a tape, I hold an audition.
And as you can see from these tapes, people of all shapes and sizes try out.
Now some of these people are nurses, some are real estate agents, while others are teachers,
just real people.
Now from the auditions, we choose 18 people to be in the video.
After I put together the routine for the video, I send each person a rehearsal tape showing
them all the movements for each song.
For two weeks, they rehearse at their home.
Then we have a few days to rehearse at the studio and then we tape the video that you
have.
These people get nervous just like you do, especially when the band starts playing.
That's because they're afraid that they will flub up or forget something.
But in the end, they always do a great job.
But you have to remember they've been rehearsing at home for two weeks.
That's 14 days.
Before we even do the tape, they know it.
It took them a good two weeks to get those steps down before they got to the studio.
It just didn't happen overnight.
Bonnie, my suggestion to you is that when you get your video, sit in a chair and watch
the whole video straight through.
You may even have to look at it a few times just to feel ready enough to start.
Then when you finally do get going, just do the leg work.
Master the leg work and then start slowly on the arm work.
Don't worry about making mistakes.
If I told you how many times I made mistakes, you would really be surprised.
So just be natural and have fun with it.
The steps will come.
Just practice.
Okay, Bonnie?
Let's go to another letter.
Dear Richard, I tried doing your sweat and workouts and I just can't make it all the
way through.
What's wrong with me?
I see all those other people on the tapes and they're all getting all the way through.
Why can't I?
Richard, truthfully, I feel like such a failure.
Please help me because I need to exercise.
Sincerely, Mariana.
Well Mariana, you already know the answer to this one.
I've told you before that you can't expect to start on your first day and do an hour
workout.
It just ain't going to happen.
You have to start out slowly.
Remember some of you have an exercise for years and years and years.
How can you expect to pop this tape in and keep on going for an hour?
That's not being very realistic.
You have to build up to get to that hour workout.
Now this one lady told me that she made up a chart and she put on that chart how much
exercise she was doing every day.
For example, the first week she began her program doing only 10 minutes of exercise
a day.
The next week she increased it up to 20 minutes a day, at the end of a 30 day period she got
up to doing the full one hour workout.
So you see, the exercise has to be gradual.
Sometimes I see people who come to my classes and they're sort of hiding in the back.
I can hardly see them at first.
Then little by little as each week passes I see them move closer and closer to the front.
I see their confidence build each week as they get more comfortable with the steps and
they get the hang of what they're doing.
Pretty soon these same people who are hiding out in the back, they race to class early
so they can jump in the front row.
And remember these people are working out in front of a whole group of other people.
That's difficult to do if you feel embarrassed or uncomfortable.
You on the other hand are working out at home.
So don't be afraid to make a mistake and don't be concerned that you make it all the way
through the tape.
Just work out at a slow but steady pace.
Take it a day at a time, a step at a time, a stretch at a time.
We're not out to break any records here and the last thing I want you to do is hurt yourself
by trying to force yourself through the workout.
This is supposed to help you, not hurt you.
So don't worry, just keep practicing, just keep smiling and all you people who haven't
written me, please write me.
I'll wait for your letters.
Have you ever seen a vegetable as cute as broccoli?
When I was a kid I used to stand them up in little rows like little trees.
You know I used to love eating the tops but I never realized how good the stalks could
be as well.
So today I want to tell you everything you ever wanted to know about broccoli but were
afraid to ask.
If you asked me to write an essay starting I love broccoli because, I would have to say
because it's one of the most versatile vegetables we have.
I like it raw and cooked.
I like it in soups, stews, with pasta, in stir fries.
Well I even like it on pizza.
It's great with other vegetables and it always looks good unless it's overcooked but I know
you would never do that.
Do you know that broccoli is much more than just a pretty face?
It fits in the family of cruciferous vegetables.
They're all the gas producing veggies like cabbage, cauliflower and brussels sprouts.
It's one of those but it's good because research has shown that there are substances in these
little vegetables that play an important role in fighting cancer.
Now I talked about earlier about eating the stalks.
The secret is to peel them when you remove the tough outer skin you discover the most
delicious crunchy vegetable you've ever tasted.
I sometimes cut them in sticks like this to serve at a party or into little round discs
like this.
Either way I'm sure you will love this.
Now if you can resist eating them raw then cook them along with the tops or florets.
Once the stalks are peeled they will cook in the same time as the tops.
If you don't peel the stalks they will take longer than cooked in the tops.
Now here's a trick if you're serving broccoli to company or if you want to serve it raw
in a salad or add it to a stir fry.
It is called blanching.
Now what you do is bring a pot of water to a boil and immerse the broccoli in for just
a few seconds.
You will see the color change before your eyes to a deep intense green.
Now once this has happened scoop the broccoli out of the boiling water and dunk it immediately
into a bowl of ice water and leave it there to cool down.
Then drain it.
Now why would you go to all this bother?
Well look at the difference.
The color will stay like this.
Even if you want to cook it after it's been blanched.
Blanching broccoli will never look like this.
If you were serving broccoli raw at a party or on a platter it just looks so much prettier
after it's been blanched.
Plus I think the flavor and texture are better too.
Now look here it is raw and here it is blanched.
I know which one I'd rather have.
Broccoli is probably the vegetable I buy most often.
It always seems to be available and is reasonably priced during most of the year.
I like to keep some blanched florets in a bowl in the fridge to make an easy quick dinner
like this.
This is a great dinner.
Here's what I do.
I saute a chopped clove of garlic in a teaspoon of olive oil.
You can add a chicken stock ice cube to that if you'd like.
Then I toss in one cup of blanched broccoli and heat it through.
And I serve it over cooked pasta.
Now for some extra pizzazz I add three tablespoons of parmesan cheese all over the pasta like
this.
And then a little teeny bit of crushed red pepper.
Whoa!
Doesn't it look good?
This meal will cost you one fat card, one vegetable card, two bread cards, and one meat
card.
So if you thought you didn't like broccoli I'm sure you'll change your tune once you've
tried some of these ideas and just think how healthy you will be by eating broccoli.
How healthy you will be by eating broccoli.
How healthy you will be by eating broccoli.
Are you still in love with these nasty little things?
I'm not going to nag you about this.
I'm not going to plead with you.
But I'm going to tell you the truth about what these things do to you.
It's very simple.
They kill you.
Smoking cigarettes is like somebody putting a gun to your head.
The only difference is you don't know when they're going to pull the trigger because
you don't know exactly when you're going to get lung cancer.
But believe me, it's only a matter of time.
I have to tell you this story because even though it's funny it's kind of sad too.
I was doing one of my mall appearance one day and a lady came up to me.
She was about 200 and some odd pounds and she said, Richard, I'm afraid to quit smoking
because I'm afraid I will gain weight.
Well, I just looked at her and I said, honey, you've gained weight.
You're 210 pounds.
You've already gained weight.
At that moment this lady realized I was right and that what she was doing was making up
excuses for not quitting.
Are you doing the same thing?
Are you thinking of every excuse you can to get out of facing the fact that you got to
quit smoking?
Well, if you're still taking a drag on one of these, then I tell you, you are hiding
from the truth.
Let me ask you, how much are you smoking?
A pack a day?
Two packs a day?
More?
Well, let me tell you, if you're smoking that much, then you're spending a fortune on cigarettes.
Somebody told me a pack of cigarettes cost about $2.50.
If you're smoking a pack a day, that is $75 a month.
That is $900 a year.
Now I'm sure you could do a lot better things with $900 a year than smoke it away.
Yes, it's true that smoking does speed up your metabolism, so maybe you feel a little
bit healthier, but that doesn't mean you're healthier.
It just means that the nicotine is making your metabolism work faster.
But let's look at what else nicotine does to you.
Did you know that nicotine constricts your blood vessels, which means it closes them
up?
And remember from our lesson on the heart, that your blood vessels carry blood to and
from the heart.
If they are squeezed in or closed up, the heart won't get the blood it needs, and you
know what happens?
You get a heart attack.
That's why you always hear that smoking increases your chances of heart disease.
What if you're pregnant?
Are you smoking?
I can't tell you how upset I get when I see a pregnant woman smoke, because when you're
pregnant, it's not just you that you have to be concerned about.
It's that little baby inside of you that you need to care about.
If you smoke while you're pregnant, your baby could be born with birth defects, and at the
very least have a low birth weight.
What a terrible thing to do to that little life that hasn't even had a chance to get
started.
Smoking gets in your hair and makes your eyes water.
I can always tell when I'm around someone who smokes, because even though they don't
have a cigarette in their hand, I can smell it in their clothing.
Smoking also makes your complexion look sallow or yellowish.
Your skin doesn't stay soft and smooth because your body is robbed of oxygen when you smoke.
Smoking will cause lung cancer.
There is absolutely no doubt about it.
Yule Brenner died because of it.
John Wayne, everyone's hero, died from lung cancer, and each of them made a short video
before they died saying if they had to do it all over again, they never would have smoked.
You see, lung cancer isn't picky.
If you smoke, you will get it.
This is really a very serious subject for me.
I don't like to see people hurting themselves by smoking.
I know that for some people, smoking is an addiction, and just like any compulsive habit,
you have to find a way to stop smoking that will last permanently.
So if you were smoking, here are two of the latest treatments available to help you quit.
The first one is acupuncture.
Acupuncture is a method that has been used for the relief of pain for centuries by many
of the ancient oriental cultures.
Today, doctors are using acupuncture to help people quit smoking.
It is believed that there are certain points in the body that when acupuncture is used,
it can help to reduce the desire for nicotine.
So maybe you want to give that a try.
The big hot thing now is the patch.
Since it was introduced, the patch has become the latest technique in the battle of quit
smoking.
There are a couple of different types available, and you have to see your doctor to determine
what is best for you.
Now what happens is basically the patch is applied to your shoulder, and it releases
small amounts of nicotine into your bloodstream through your skin.
With this method, you are less likely to want to smoke a cigarette.
Then you are gradually weaned off the nicotine.
After you quit smoking, there is a tendency to eat more.
That's because food actually tastes better when you don't smoke.
The nicotine in cigarettes suppresses your taste buds, so you don't really taste your
food when you eat.
But if you're worried about gaining weight when you quit smoking, well let me say this
to you.
I would rather see you put on a few pounds than have your lungs filled with cancer.
We can always work off those extra pounds, but nobody can help you get healthy lungs
back.
So take these smelly things and please get rid of them.
And save up all the money you're spending on cigarettes, and you know what?
Well you'll have enough money for a vacation, or maybe buy a new wardrobe.
You gotta do it today.
I quit!
Gosh, how these days fly by.
Can you believe it?
It is way in time again.
And congratulations goes out to Cathy in Bath, Michigan.
She has lost 100 pounds!
Good for you Cathy!
And George in Houston, Texas.
Well George has lost 147 pounds.
Wow, isn't that great?
And Helen from Pearl, Mississippi wrote me a letter, and I want to share part of it with
you today.
She says,
Dear Richard, I am doing great, I have lost 30 pounds and I feel terrific.
But I have a daughter, and she is so young and she is so overweight, and nothing I can
do will help her.
I just don't know what to do Richard.
I don't want her to grow up to be an overweight child like I was.
Helen, you can preach and preach and preach, but her ears may not be open to you.
Don't yell and nag at her.
Don't make her feel worse than she already does.
I know only too well the pain of being an overweight child.
It is the most isolating feeling in the world.
Your daughter already feels unacceptable.
She feels lost and alone.
She knows she needs to lose weight.
She knows it isn't okay to be fat, that you get judged for that.
It's hard for her every day that she has to go to school.
Please let her home be a safe place of love and acceptance for her, where she is loved
for who she is.
Don't harp on her about her weight.
She will only lose weight when she is ready, not before, and nothing you can do or say
will do any good whatsoever.
In fact, it could easily make her stubborn and resistant to losing weight.
She is in desperate need of your unconditional love and support.
The best thing you can do at this point Helen is to be a good example.
Let her see you making good healthy food decisions.
Let her hear you say those three little words, no thank you, when you're offered food that
isn't healthy.
Don't say, hey you need to exercise.
Say come on, let's go for a walk.
Let's get some fresh air.
Plant some active time each day that you can enjoy together and make it fun.
Don't bring problem foods into the house like potato chips and cookies and ice cream.
Make good snack foods handy all the time, like those cut up veggies in the fridge we've
talked about before.
Don't plan a lot of social activities around meals and food.
Try to get your child involved in some kind of after school exercise so that she has an
interest or a hobby, something that could distract her from always thinking about food.
Get involved with your child.
Install a basketball hoop or buy a couple of tennis rackets.
Let exercise be a game and let it be fun.
Get your child involved in helping you to plan and prepare nutritious meals.
This is the time to instill those good food habits that she can then pass on to the next
generation.
Show her the importance of cutting back on fat and sugar.
Go marketing together and pick out some vegetables and fruits you've never tried before.
Experiment with your daughter.
Take her to the library and get out some healthy recipe books.
Ask her to help you modify some of your family's favorite recipes so they'll have less fat.
You can teach her so much in a gentle way that will make a difference in her life forever.
And even if it might seem sometimes as though she isn't taking it all in, believe me, your
example will speak much louder than any of your words ever could.
Eating dietary changes needs to be a healthy issue rather than a weighty issue.
Get her interested in taking responsibility for her own health, but never, never judge
her about her weight.
I know that most of you watching are adults, but some of you like me were overweight as
children and the pain is still there.
You know how it felt to be shut out because of your weight.
You can still hear those words that stabbed you right in the heart.
There is no denying that children can be extremely cruel and there are lots and lots of cruel
adults too.
It isn't fair that we had to put up with all those mean and vicious jabs, but all we can
do about it now is forgive all those people for their ignorance and lack of compassion
and we just got to move on.
One of the ways we can move on is to reach out to any overweight child who could use
our compassion and our understanding.
To let them know they're not alone and that they deserve to be loved no matter what they
weigh and so do you.
So Helen, I hope this little chat has helped you and please say hello to your daughter
for me.
I always thought God made fruit for one reason, desserts.
There was apple to make apple pie, peaches to make peach cobbler and bananas to make
banana splits.
Amen.
I was also raised with fruit cocktail and that thick heavy syrup.
Fresh fruit was beyond my experience.
Hey, when you're used to eating a lot of sweet foods and candy, why would anyone want to
eat fruit?
I mean you hardly knew it existed, but my gosh when you start to eat differently and
you're not eating candy and chocolate all day long, fruit starts to taste like God's
own nectar and it is.
Now I know a lot of you still have built in excuses for not eating fruit and the one I
hear most often is, Richard, fruit, fresh fruit is so expensive.
Like a candy bar isn't?
Just take a look over here.
Here we have a peach, a kiwi, an apple, an orange, a banana, a pear and some grapes.
Now sure, if you buy a peach out of season it could cost a fortune, so you should look
at the fruit that is in season and most abundant and buy that.
It will always be cheaper.
But here, look at these prices.
Every single piece of fruit is cheaper than a candy bar and of course I don't have to
say how much more nutritious it is.
My favorite fruit is the kind where you have to peel.
First of all, since it has its own wrapping, it travels well so you could take it any place
for a snack.
The main thing though is it takes some time and effort to get to the fruit itself.
You have to work for it.
I like that because somehow the fruit always tastes better when it takes a little effort
to get to it.
Oranges and grapefruit and tangerines, all these have to be peeled and segmented but
it's really worth it.
They're some of the most nutritious foods you can eat, full of fiber, vitamins and refreshing
flavor.
Have you seen those fuzzy little brown things in your market?
Oh, these are called kiwi and believe it or not, it has more vitamin E than an avocado,
more vitamin C than an orange and more potassium than a banana.
They used to cost as much as emeralds but now they are more readily available and cheaper
year round so if you haven't tried them, you really should.
Eat them only when they're very soft.
I like to cut them in half and just scoop out the filling with a spoon.
Now the best part about kiwis is that they keep for months or so in the refrigerator
so if you don't get out to shop very often, kiwi is great to have on hand and you get
two for one fruit card because they're really on the kind of small side and they're very,
very low in calories.
Bananas are probably the fruit you buy the most often.
They're always available and usually not too expensive.
They're really high in potassium and just plain delicious.
Now if you live alone, you don't want to buy a whole bunch of bananas because they will
all ripen at the same time.
How about choosing them this way?
Get one that is green, one that is nearly ripe and one that is ripe.
Now if you eat half a banana a day, three bananas chosen this way will last you six
days.
If you look at your fruit cards, half a banana equals one fruit card so just cover the remaining
half with plastic wrap and put it in the back in the fruit bowl.
You'll be just fine.
You know if you refrigerate bananas, the skin turns completely black.
It doesn't really hurt the banana but it just looks awful so don't put bananas in the fridge.
Now if you really haven't eaten a lot of fresh fruit up till now and you're not sure how
to choose it, don't worry.
This is what I do.
I just go up to the fruit manager and I say, hi, how are you?
And he says to me back, well, hi, how are you?
And I say, look, can you help me for just a second?
I mean this is what these people get paid for.
They don't get paid just to give the fruit a shower every day.
They're there to help you.
So ask them.
They can pick you out a good melon and if you get it home and it's lousy, take it back
and say, hey, you picked it out.
Can I have another melon please?
It works every time.
The only thing you need to worry about is the portion size.
That's your responsibility.
So look carefully at the sizes and amounts listed on the fruit card and just try your
best to stick to that.
Now look, my fruit card says I can have 12 grapes.
So here they are.
But see what I did?
I froze them.
No, it's not candy, but it's the next best thing and your kids will love these too.
Mmm, frozen grapes.
Try them.
Here we are, day 90, 90 Jorni.
Why that's three months.
It seems hard to believe that it's been 90 days since we started on this journey together.
Well today I've decided that 90 days is a perfect time to stop and take inventory of
where we are.
Oh no you don't.
Don't you try to fast forward through this section.
I know that there are some of you out there who have maybe slipped here or there.
Maybe you're not exercising as much as you should or maybe you're cheating a little every
now and then on your cards.
So if you find that you're getting a bit lazy, remember our talk on laziness.
Then now is the best time to do a little review and see what's happening.
Are you ready?
Are you eating low-cal?
So far on this tape I've given you some great ideas on low-fat, low-cal sandwiches and salads.
Are you taking these suggestions to heart?
I mean come on now.
It's a lot of work to put these recipes together.
I want you to add variety to your meals.
So I really do hope you were using some of the ideas we're giving you so far.
There's a lot more coming.
But you are only hurting yourself if you slip back to your old ways of preparing high-fat
foods.
Here's something else.
Have you had a good laugh today?
Are you doing everything you can to put humor in your life?
Seeing funny movies, telling a few jokes, reading amusing stories.
All these things can help lift your spirits.
Even if things are really down, are you trying to see the bright side and find a little
humor in any situation?
Laughter is the best medicine for a spirit that needs some healing.
And when adversity looks you in the eye, I want you to laugh in its face.
After all, it's a lot more fun than crying.
Are you taking your deal-a-meal wallet and cards with you everywhere you go?
Look, your deal-a-meal cards are portable.
You and your wallet and card should be inseparable.
You simply can't leave home without them.
Now, as you know, I travel all over the country.
I go to big cities, little towns, even some places that aren't on the map yet.
And wherever I go, people always come up to me and show me their deal-a-meal wallet and
cards.
It's so great.
But there are a lot of times when people will come up to me and tell me that they're on
deal-a-meal.
And the first thing I say is, oh, I'm so happy.
Now, where are your deal-a-meal wallet and cards?
And they go, well, Richard, I left them at home.
And I look at them and I say to them, like my teacher would say to me when I left my
homework at home, I would say, hey, get those cards and use them and they can follow you
every place you go.
You need to have your deal-a-meal wallet and cards, and you should never, ever go anyplace
unless they're right there with you.
Because you never know when I may knock at your door.
Are you still smoking?
Please.
Even if you slipped up on your cards, even if you're not exercising, if there is one
sure fire, life-saving thing you should do for yourself, it would be to give up smoking.
I know it's hard.
I know it's an addiction.
I know it takes a long time.
But the simple fact is smoking will kill you.
It's like a thief in the night.
It silently creeps up and steals your health and your life away.
So just flush those nasty little cancer-causing things right down the drain for good.
And finally, what's going on in the self-image department lately?
Are you working every day to keep your positive attitude?
Are you trying to shake loose all the insecurities that have held you back?
Do you tell yourself what a nice person you are?
You really are, you know.
So don't be afraid to tell yourself that.
Keep your head held high and walk with an air of self-confidence.
You have come a long way in 90 days and you should be so proud of yourself.
I'm proud of you.
Well, let me see.
Is that all for the inventory?
Did I get everything?
Wait, wait, wait a minute.
I almost forgot.
One more thing.
Are you exercising?
You thought I was going to forget to ask you.
You should know me better than that.
But seriously, are you exercising?
We spent a few more days in this tape talking about exercise, explaining about your heart
rate.
Have you ever made exercise a real part of your life?
Well, you know I exercise every single day of my life because I know that if I stop,
it will be very hard for me to start up again.
You got to exercise to stay healthy and if you're exercising like you should, you can
send a lot of chicken fat flying out the window in 90 days.
So please, don't give up.
Stay with it and we'll be back for another inventory day soon.
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah.
Day 91 and time to go to Annapolis, Maryland to meet Sandy.
Hi Sandy.
Sandy had tried lots of diets over the years and was always successful while she was on
them as long as she was in a regular routine.
But the minute something different came up, like a vacation, Sandy's diet would go out
the window and all the weight would come back.
It seemed to Sandy that she had been battling the same excess pounds forever.
Then her beautiful daughter became engaged and Sandy decided that she would get thin
for the wedding.
But even though she had plenty of time and a strong incentive, Sandy just couldn't get
herself motivated.
And before she knew it, the wedding day arrived and Sandy hadn't lost a single pound.
After that Sandy figured if the prospect of the wedding hadn't been able to motivate
her, nothing could.
So she decided to just sit back and be a Norman Rockwell painting, plump, jolly and contented.
She reasoned with herself that at her age a bit of extra weight was almost expected
and certainly acceptable.
But way deep down, Sandy just couldn't live with her decision.
She still longed to be thinner.
So she finally decided to give me and DeLaMille a try.
The first thing that amazed her was that DeLaMille seemed easy to her.
Sandy wrote and told me that all the other diets she'd been on had been a struggle,
but this wasn't.
She said this time losing weight was actually easy.
That it wasn't like a diet at all because she knew she could really eat anything she
wanted as long as she counted her cards.
And somehow because no food was totally off limits to her, well she didn't crave them
or want them.
Sandy is now maintaining at her perfect goal weight after losing 76 pounds.
Her friends say to her, why are you still counting your cards?
You've already lost the weight.
But to Sandy those cards are her lifeline, her checkpoint that she is still on track.
I asked her why she is so sure of her success this time and she said, I think the most important
ingredient was my commitment to eat healthy and stay at a proper weight.
The reason I gained weight back in the past on other diets was because I didn't have
the right tools and I didn't know how to keep the weight off.
Now I've learned how to eat properly and I've learned to like exercise.
I didn't know it could be so much fun.
Now it's part of my life.
I've reached my goal and I didn't feel I deprived myself of anything.
I knew I could eat whatever I wanted and I made the choices.
Also I've had the complete support of my husband.
Sandy is real proud of me for my accomplishments and this helps me so much.
I'm in control now.
It's a really good feeling and I intend to stay in control.
Now Sandy works in a doctor's office and is a shining example of healthy long term weight
loss.
In fact the doctors now ask Sandy's advice when a patient comes in who needs to lose
weight and of course she tells them about deal and meal.
There's no chance of Sandy ever gaining weight back on vacation again because these days
when Sandy takes a vacation she actually takes a VCR with her.
Her wonderful husband Danny takes it into the hotel room and sets it up for her so that
she can do her sweat and the exercise even when she's traveling.
Now that's what I call a dedicated person.
Oh and do you know what else?
When Sandy started deal and meal her cholesterol was at 254 and now well it's at a steady 162.
As Sandy said with deal and meal she didn't just lose weight she got real healthy and
I know this first hand because Sandy's husband booked them on a cruise to lose to celebrate
her 76 pound weight loss.
So I got to meet this lovely slender energetic lady in person and see for myself how deal
and meal has changed her way of life.
So she didn't make it for the wedding but this is even better.
This time Sandy made it for the rest of her life.
Hi today we're going to talk about a word that is probably the most difficult word we've
spoken about so far.
Our word for today is abuse.
Now I know a lot of you out there may have had an experience in your life that involved
abuse.
This is not an easy subject to talk about but believe me when I tell you that there
are hundreds of people who have suffered abuse.
Let me just read you one of the many letters I get from people who have experienced this.
Dear Richard, I am 265 pounds and I've been overweight since I was a teenager.
At 30 years old I was lonely, I didn't have many friends and I felt like no one understood
me.
I battled my weight for so long that I simply didn't know where to turn.
I tried everything, I even went to a doctor but I just couldn't lose the weight.
Whenever I was depressed, which was usually most of the time, I started eating and I couldn't
stop.
As you see, I was sexually abused as a child and I have never been able to get over the
experience.
I never told anybody about this before.
I ate to cover up the pain and to hide from what happened.
Food protected me from being attracted to anyone so I won't get hurt again.
Until recently I led a very lonesome life.
I have finally been able to get enough courage up to go to therapy and get some help in dealing
with my past.
There is a support group that meets each week and even though it is difficult for me, I
am trying to open up and sort out the feelings that I have kept hidden inside for so long.
I know you have helped so many people and I have seen the people on TV who have lost
all that weight.
I just hope that you can help me lose that weight that I have surrounded myself with
so I can finally begin to live again.
Thank you for understanding, Jane.
You know there are so many people out there with this kind of hurt and despair bottled
up inside of them.
But in the last decade, people have begun to open up.
They have opened up their hearts and bared a little of their souls and their stories.
I'm sure you have seen the talk shows and heard these stories.
Even celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Roseanne Arnold are opening up and telling us about
what happened to them in their pasts.
Now I don't think these people are letting us in on their innermost secrets just to make
headlines.
They are telling these stories in the hope that it will help the hundreds of other people
who are living with the shame and humiliation of being abused.
Our dictionary tells us that the formal definition of abuse is to use wrongly or improperly,
to hurt or injure by maltreatment or misuse.
But that definition leaves out the part about the pain, about the sadness and the despair
caused by abuse.
The dictionary can't give us the answers on how to deal with abuse.
Sometimes people who have been abused are so ashamed that they keep it tucked away inside
and never tell anyone what happened to them.
But somehow, someway, that pain has to come out.
And for a lot of people, the only way to deal with the pain is to use food, like our friend
Jane who wrote me.
There are so many different types of abuse.
There is sexual abuse, which can happen to people as a child or even as an adult.
There is physical abuse.
There is emotional abuse, which is sometimes difficult to recognize.
That's because people can abuse you emotionally even though they think they're trying to help
you.
For example, you may have a friend who says things to you like, look at you, you're so
fat.
Don't you ever want to do something about yourself?
Now your friend may think she is helping to motivate you to lose weight by saying these
things, but saying cruel things like that is not helpful.
It's abusive.
People also use emotional abuse to gain control over other people by putting you down, by
constantly berating you.
Abusive people think they can manipulate you.
If someone is doing this to you, break away from them.
They can't really be your friend if they are trying to control you instead of helping you
get control of your own life.
And finally, I don't want you to become a self abuser.
It happens, you know.
People beat up on themselves.
They put themselves down or criticize themselves.
If you are constantly saying negative things about yourself, then you are abusing yourself
and that's just as bad as someone else abusing you.
I want you to stop hurting yourself, stop saying mean things and start liking yourself.
You'll never be able to keep other people from abusing you if you don't stop abusing
yourself first.
And if you've been a victim of abuse, don't hold in the hurt.
Don't use food to try and make the pain go away.
Find someone you can trust to help you, whether it's a counselor, a clergyman, or a close
friend.
And if you can't bring yourself to talk about it, write me a letter because the last thing
I want is to see you all alone and full of hurt with nowhere to turn.