Now that I am doing a “redux” I was confronted with a word that simply makes my skin crawl.
You know, that one word answer to everyone’s obesity issues.
That one word that will cure the obesity epidemic.
It is the word that is offered as the simplistic solution to all our woes.
It is the word that the lazy jog on out to justify their lackadaisical exercise efforts.
It is the word that those who consume junk food use as an excuse to feed their cravings.
It is the one word that makes the hairs on my neck stand up straight.
It is the one word that causes every muscle in my body to reflexively tense until they cramp.
What is the word?
Moderation!
People like radio personality, and self-proclaimed America’s Doctor, media medic Dr. Dean Edell will tell you to eat whatever you like, just do so in moderation
The proponents of moderation tell us; to lose weight, all we need do is eat in moderation. Perhaps the answer to alcoholism is to only drink in moderation. Maybe the answer to our opioid crisis is to just shoot up heroin every other day. Of course I am being sarcastic. We would never tell any addict to exercise moderation to cure their ailment, but for some reason, when it comes to obesity, moderation is the repetitive, moronic mantra.
Additionally, please tell me exactly what is moderation! Now that I am once again back to my heaviest, while getting here, I would pound down one dozen doughnuts over the course of a day, as much as I hate to admit it, some days even more.
What is moderation to twelve? Six!?!? You think I am joking. For someone like me — carbohydrate rich foods are an addiction. And wouldn’t half of what I was consuming be a moderate amount?
The gurus of pseudo-fitness decree that to shape up your body all you must do is exercise in moderation. Over the last few years, for me, moderate exercise would have been lifting and carrying 2 pizza boxes and a 2 gallons of ice-cream from my car.
Even tough talking, bombastic radio host Michael Savage, a man for whom political moderation is a travesty, demonstrates an uncharacteristic point of view when it comes to serious exercise when he states ‘that one should only exercise enough to get the muscles warm.’ Yo, Dr. Michael Alan Weiner, you would not accept moderation in the political realm because you understand that moderation produces mediocre results — Why accept it anywhere else?
Bernarr Macfadden, the father of physical culture would never stand for living life of moderation. In not only physical culture, but in business and in life, he strove for success each and every step of the way. He did not achieve that success via moderation.
Jack LaLanne, an indirect physical culture descendant of Macfadden, knew moderation was not the answer. Once he swore off sugar as a tired and sickly teen, he stated he never had a sweet again. He lived into his 90′s. That is a long time without 
a slice of cake or a dish of ice cream. Many will think that extreme, but Jack LaLanne was a man who not only talked about living a healthy life — he was the personification a healthy life.
If, like me, you suffer from obesity — did eating moderately cause us to become overweight?
If, like me, you are a physical wreck — did we reach that state because we were only moderately slothful?
If we only want to kind-of sort-of lose weight, I highly suggest moderation.
If we only kind-of, sort-of desire to improve our fitness level, then by all means, we should only exercise moderately.
If the object of education is to barely understand what we are studying, please, only review the material every now and then.
If the goal of our lives is to only achieve limited, average, mediocre success, then let’s not work too hard and that is exactly what we will achieve.
Simply stated, if our goal is excellence, we won’t get there via half-hearted, half-way, half-assed moderate attempts.
If we want to reshape our body and retake control of our very being, we must be willing to dedicate ourselves to that effort.
We must not only have the desire to lose weight, we must not only have the determination get in shape, we must also have the discipline to accomplish our goals.
We must be aware of everything that we eat – each and every day.
We must do some form of exercise – each and every day of the week.
We must make a new us a priority in our lives – each and every day.
If we are unwilling to work hard, we will not reach our goals. If we are not going to invest time to exercise, the results won’t be those which we desire.
I’m not saying to push ourselves to the extreme limits elite athletes push themselves. But we must push ourselves within our own limits. We must make the maximum effort we are capable of making to achieve the results we desire.
Of course, first and foremost, get a thorough physical examination, including a bio-structural evaluation from your chiropractor. We should be as sure as possible that we will not suffer deleterious effects from exercise or a new diet. When we are sure our current physical state can handle it, then we go out and begin to reshape and remodel our bodies.
Take it slow at first.
Gradually, we build up our strength and endurance. In Obesity Undone, the first two months of exercise are what I call a pre-training phase. A time to actually prepare ourselves for more strenuous exercise.
Once ready, as we progress, and our fitness level improves, slowly but surely we push a little further.
As we continue to improve, as the excess body fat falls from the body, as we need to purchase new clothing, as we begin to enjoy a more active, fulfilling life, we realize that we will no longer accept the confines of moderate mediocrity.
Moderation, we spit on thee. We choose excellence!
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Physical Culture Redux 