The Pearl Principle

While out on a tour to promote the first edition of my book Wake Up! You’re Probably Never Going to Look Like That; How to be Happier Healthier and Imperfectly Fit, it became crystal clear that while the original message of self-acceptance that I hoped to encourage was important, people were also extremely interested in learning the details of how I lost over 100 pounds (twice!) and how I have managed to keep it off for so many years. They wanted a roadmap, a guide. I was asked again and again what diet I followed to achieve my weight loss success.

Here’s how the dictionary describes the act of dieting: “To select or limit the food one eats in order to lose weight.”

To you, the word “diet” probably conjures up memories of many failed short-term and hard-to-adhere-to changes.

I describe a diet as something that may or may not work while you are following it, and is usually impossible to implement for a lifetime. Most importantly, though, it will probably dig you deeper into the hole of your ongoing weight problem with every restrictive bite you consume.

The only thing that I consumed voraciously when I was trying to figure out the mystery of my ongoing weight problem was knowledge. Once I understood why those of us with ongoing weight problems go through what we go through, all the pieces of the puzzle started to fall into place and form what I now so humbly call The Pearl Principle_™.

Hopefully it does not come off quite as egocentrically as it sounds; I just really liked the alliteration.

The Pearl Principle is not a diet so much as it is a mind/body guide that carries within it the tools to enable you to create a new body along with a fresh outlook.

Changing the way you look at food and eating, as well as learning to enjoy moving your body, will absolutely change your life. However, to be success stories, before we are ready to jump in front of a camera and take that coveted “after” picture, we need to understand why we have an ongoing weight problem, and the steps required to change our bodies. And finally, we need to make a giant leap of faith and learn to rethink our expectations.

Michelle Pearl

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The Pearl Principle_™: 10 Weight Loss Tips to Keep the Scale
Tipping in Your Favor  

Excerpted from:
Wake Up, You’re Probably Never Going to Look Like That, How to be
Happier, Healthier and Imperfectly Fit Second Edition
By Michelle Pearl
Gallery Press Publishing, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-615-38631-7

 
1. Eat all the time
When you cut back on your caloric intake, your body will start to send out endless chemical and psychological messages to you, trying to get you to eat more, which is why you always feel so hungry and miserable when you try to diet. Eating small, frequent healthy meals and snacks helps stave off binges.

2. Con your cravings
Our sensory memories make it so that we crave fats and sugars. Conning your cravings with healthy low-fat and low sugar imposters will reduce the likelihood that you will make unhealthy choices.

3. Repeat what you eat
Having the same well-planned, healthy staple for at least one meal every day can often take away the danger of choice.

4. Forego the fat
It takes more than twice the energy for your body to burn off fat than it does for it to burn off carbohydrates or protein. If you want a trimmer body, trim the fat in your diet.

5. Trash the temptations
If temptations are within arm’s reach, resolve might as well be on another planet. Get rid of everything unhealthy in your house and workplace.

6:  Don’t let fast food be your failing
One study concluded that the high fat levels in fast food causes a dependency reaction in your body similar to heroin addiction. Grit it out and go cold turkey. The cravings will lessen over time.

7.  Stop thinking of exercise as a four letter word
When you cut back on your caloric intake, your metabolism will slow down. The only thing that you can do to increase your metabolism is to exercise; and it will stay elevated for up to 24 hours after you stop exercising. The key is to find something that you enjoy. If it feels like torture, you will never stick with it.

8:  Throw away your calendar
Ask yourself, when you have lost weight quickly before, did you keep it off? Stop trying to achieve those massive weekly weight losses like you see on network T.V. Aim to lose 1-2 pounds a week and your odds of keeping it off will increase tremendously.

9: Make changes in two-week baby steps
Make just one or two big changes at a time in the way you eat or in implementing an exercise plan and then give your body time to adjust. When the last changes you make start to become second nature, throw another change or two into the mix.

10: Stop striving for mass-media promoted body ideals
Shaq is never going to be a professional race horse jockey and a professional race horse jockey is never going to play in the NBA. Most of us will never have bodies like supermodels, but we can all be happier, healthier and imperfectly fit.

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An expanded explanation of The Pearl Principle is available in the SECOND EDITION of “Wake Up” available at :

~ Amazon.com
~ By Request at any Local Book Retailer