Slim 4 Life: A book review

I have just finished reading, "Slim 4 Life: Freedom from the Food Trap" by Jason Vale.  This book was fantastic.  Jason has a great way of putting things that make the material both entertaining and enlightening.  He really goes in depth into many aspects of the modern diet and how different things effect us in different ways.  Plus, he is British, so there are some fun British curses and sayings.

I could go into so much about this book.  I highlighted over 70 sentences or paragraphs that popped out at me and made me say, "Of course!" or "I don't believe how much sense this makes!" or "See, it hasn't all been my fault! I've feel victim to the food trap!"  At the end of the book, Jason talks about his recipe for success and it also revolves a lot around juicing, but it also simply asks you to read the whole book and make decisions for yourself on how you truly feel about what he calls drug foods and junk foods.

Like all of my mentors these days, he promotes a No Diet lifestyle and believes if you take the time to learn about the drug foods and drinks, then you will want to cut them out of your life and once you are feeding your body the proper real, live foods, then you won't crave or desire the drug foods or drink.

A classic example of this comes from my own experiences.  For years I was addicted to Diet Coke.  I would have 1-3 cans of it at work and whenever I could, I would get a large 24 ounce fountain Diet Coke...because fountain is the best.  (Screw the bottle...it was never as good.)  During the most prominent years of my addiction, I was on the road with King Tut.  King Tut was an amazing opportunity.  I loved the job and I dealt with it's stressful times.  Moving from city to city was definitely stressful and my constant companion was Diet Coke.  Where ever my desk landed, the Diet Coke was there to make it all seem comfortable and familiar.  It was during these 2.5 years on the road with Diet Coke that I also experienced frequent head aches, migraines, heart palpitations, depression, and severe carbohydrate cravings.  Each symptom made me think, "Hm...I must need another Diet Coke!  I must not have had enough today because I have a head ache (or cravings, depression, etc.)"  Plus, I assumed those symptoms were from the stressful job!

It got to the point where I was grabbing for the Diet Coke with resentment.  To be honest, the idea of having a Diet Coke before noon, even back then in the height of my addiction, sounded disgusting.  I would grab a can from the mini fridge in the office and the smell of the can would make me cringe.  But I had to drink it if I wanted my symptoms to go away.

Then two Easters ago, I gave up Diet Coke for lent and I have never turned back.  I haven't had one sip since.  Why?  Because after 40 days, I rid myself of my addiction and I felt great!  The fog had been lifted, my migraines stopped and my heart palpitations stopped!  Like a smoker who is finally able to ween themselves off of nicotine, once the bad thing is free to finally leave your system, you no longer need it to 'keep you going'.

After reading the Diet Coke chapter in Jason Vale's book, I now know that those symptoms were a product of Aspartame.  A drug that took 16 years to be approved by the FDA and was only after the head of the FDA was fired and a new 'Aspartame Friendly' man was awarded the job.  I wonder what kind of bonus he received from the maker of aspartame, Searle, at the time...

So back to the book.  There are so many chapters like the Diet Coke one that is really eye opening.  There are some things discussed that I plan to stop (or have stopped) using (because it's a drug food) altogether (aspartame, white refined sugar) and there are other junk foods (not habitual, but not great for you either) that I understand where he is coming from, but I plan to still include in my diet.  For example, cheese.  At this moment in my life, the feta on my spinach salad is heavenly and if I can't have the feta which makes me not want the spinach, well you choose your battles.

I can't recommend this book enough to anyone who feels trapped by food.  There are so many reasons that don't include 'willpower' for your struggles.  If you are fed up and ready to be shown the light, read this book.