“We are the first generation of Americans in the Energy-Climate Era. This is not about the whales anymore. It is about us. And what we do about the challenges of energy and climate, conservation and preservation, will tell our kids who we really are.”
—Thomas L. Friedman, Hot, Flat, and Crowded
We are standing literally at a crossroads, facing some of the most significant and far-reaching choices we have yet had to make. In ways few of us probably ever thought of before, we are now seeing that our own personal health is deeply intertwined with the health of the planet.
It is time to face your life. Literally. To recognize that at perhaps no other time has it been more true to say “you are what you eat.” The question is, What are you consuming?
The follow-up question is, Now knowing this, do you simply do nothing, or do you take the steps needed to chart a new course, one that is healthier for you and the planet?
The power of diet is stronger than any single drug to create better health within yourself. Everything in our diet works together to create health or disease. And it can start working fast to heal and cleanse your body. Further, it is these same chronic, daily choices that affect your personal carbon footprint that you are leaving in the world.
While it’s easy to pass the responsibility on to our government or point fingers at the rapid industrialization of China or countless other players, the fact is as an American, each of us needs to accept the consequences that our food choices are having on the rest of the planet. Myself included, your vegan coworker who bikes to work, your next-door neighbor who has six kids and two SUVs, and you. We are all in this together. It is not about perfection, it is not about becoming a self-sufficient hermit and subsisting on a pleasureless diet, but it is about taking personal responsibility for our health and our personal role in the global warming crisis and committing to a new era of stewardship for our own bodies and the planet.
Only you can change your diet. Yes, you have your nutritionist (me), your friends and family, and possibly your children to look to for inspiration, and together all of these people can help you do great things and create tremendous momentum and change. This book has given you your blueprint to succeed, but at the end of the day, it’s up to you. Not your friends, not your spouse, but you.
But let me assure you: You can change your life. I have seen it happen hundreds of times. The pride, satisfaction, and deep joy that come from working to reshape your habits are gold. The lean new you, and the pride in knowing you’ve cut your carbon footprint, are merely the icing on a delicious and sustainable cake.
Yes, you are what you eat. But you are also what you think. You can sharpen your focus in an instant on either the positives or the negatives, and here’s a secret: The people who fail do so because they focus on the negatives. Their brains start clinging to all they won’t be having and eating; they focus on their deprivation if they change their eating habits. In fact, their brains are so panicked and churning with their old paradigms and old “internal monologues” (the stories we all tell about ourselves when it comes to our identities and our weight) that they have no room for their possibilities—all of the incredible things they can become if they make the room for it and begin a new, fresh, tasty, and lean story.
So make room for your potential. Let go of whatever part of your past is holding you back. Clear away the excessive noise from overwhelming choice and mega portions, and let your possibilities start to speak to you in that silent space. Bring your impact as an American into sharper focus. Americans are using a whopping 25 percent of the world’s resources—living high on the hog in every sense— despite being about 5 percent of the total people on the planet. We need to step up. Take control. Your food choices come with three costs—to your health, to your wallet, and to the planet. And the next meal offers an opportunity to begin to heal.
The people who tell themselves positive, energizing, uplifting stories are the ones who succeed. Those who wallow in the past, the negatives, and self-pity get only one place: nowhere. I have seen this with my clients many times; what one client defines as “hard, difficult, expensive, and depriving” another client defines as “exciting, life-changing, and energizing.” Guess who succeeds in a fantastic way? Guess who fails miserably? You guessed it. You create your own reality in your mind.
So tape up a picture of some fabulously healthy-looking lean person, or put up a picture of your kids or grandkids, or your favorite quotation that taps deep into your own power to change and become inspired. Toss out the gossip mags and replace them with a National Geographic that has a picture of a polar bear clinging to an ice floe on the cover. Remind yourself why this matters to you. To your children. To the world. And that you can do it.
Yes, you can shed your old thought patterns and habits that aren’t working for you, that weigh down your mind and cause you to eat and weigh down your body. I promise you it is possible. All you have to do is begin to think past the next 5 minutes; replace your old thinking with a healthier, truer, deeper thinking that extends into the next days, weeks, months, and years. You can replace it with a new way of acting, thinking, and being. You can become lighter, cleaner, clearer in purpose and action. As is written in Psalm 139: You are wonderfully and fearfully made. Tap into that wonder. You will be amazed to find that it can work wonders.
What’s at stake? You lie in the balance—your health, your weight, your struggle to look and feel the best you can. Your family lies in the balance. And now it’s become clear that this planet, too, lies in the balance. The question is, Do you think those things are worth fighting for?
While there will continue to be a steady march of newer, “revolutionary” approaches for both the health care and the global warming crisis, there is an older, simple, less expensive, immediate truth as well, one that has become increasingly hard for Americans to hear with the ever-growing drone of their blindingly fast, resource-heavy, overscheduled, overconsumptive lifestyles:
Buy less.
Consume less.
Eat clean.
Drink clean.
Think more.
Move more.
Live simply.
Indeed, many of history’s greatest religious leaders have embraced these very tenets, and while we’re in a vastly different context of time and place, it seems to ring as true today as ever when it comes to the health of our world.
The question is, Can we clean up our act? I believe you can.
Do you have what it takes to reach your greatest potential? To tap into your immense power as a consumer, to take responsibility for the cost of your food choices to yourself, to your children, and to humanity? I believe that you do. And I think that in your newfound silence, you believe it, too.
The stakes have never been higher. The Earth, your health, and the health of your children lie in the balance.
Now, let’s eat.