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Venice A. Fulton (also known as British actor Paul Khanna) addresses the criticisms of his unconventional methods in his new book "Six Weeks to OMG: Get Skinnier Than All Your Friends." Here's an excerpt.
The medical community think you shouldn’t read this book. Your parents might think you shouldn’t read this book. Perhaps even your friends think you shouldn’t read this book. And you’re still reading?
Good job! It’s your life. Only you walk around in your shoes. Only you wake up with your thoughts. And only you will fall asleep to them. Should and shouldn’t are useless words. Even reading them can make you feel under pressure. Trash them!
KNOWLEDGE IS GOLDEN
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Before this book hit the mainstream, it came under lots of fire. With OMG and Skinny in the title, I suppose it was to be expected. What I didn’t expect, was criticism from those who hadn’t actually read it. That’s like criticizing your blind date before they show up!
Scientists are taught to not do that (in a metaphorical sense of course, as scientists don’t go on dates), but sometimes even they slip up. We live in a world full of information, and to prevent overload, we often dismiss huge chunks of it in a heartbeat.
When it comes to your health, I urge you to criticize nothing without good reason. There’s just a chance that beyond all the smiles, and jokey comments, there’s some jaw-dropping science waiting to help you. I didn’t invent it, or even discover it. I simply didn’t dismiss it. Be open, be open, be open.
The only way to truly silence people is to show them what you mean. If you live this book for 6 weeks, you’ll do that. And if you change as much as I know you can, they’ll be surprised enough to greet new you with those 3 magic letters, ‘O – M – G’!
Many industry people worried when they found out I was going to write this. Why? Because they knew I’d cut the crap. And they knew that if I did that, you’d probably stop buying their next diet, exercise ‘secret’, or food product.
I believe that if you simply get told to do something, you’ll stick to it for a while, and succeed, for a while. And that’s the prob- lem. After you stop getting told, you just rebel and slowly go back to what you’re used to.
I also know that when you understand how stuff works, you’ll stick to it. In fact when you really understand, it won’t feel like you need to stick to it at all. You’ll simply stop thinking about those old habits and old beliefs, and you’ll have developed new mechanisms. Permanent success!
Many will say that you don’t need any help, including parents. They might state that, ‘you’re fine as you are’, ‘it’s unhealthy’, or repeat the classic, ‘it’s just puppy fat’. Guess what, you’re not a puppy! Are they right about the other stuff?
No. Only you can ever decide if you’re fine. No one else. Even with serious eating disorders, bad habits only stop when a patient changes how they see themselves. As early as you can, develop the skill of seeing yourself accurately.
Is this book unhealthy? No. I can hear doctors muttering in the distance! If you’re young, they believe you should just let Mother Nature take care of things. If ‘Mom knows best’, Mom Nature can surely be left alone, and all be okay.
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Yeah right! Allowed to be natural, we can order pizza at mid- night or travel miles without hardly moving a muscle. We live in a world full of modern luxuries. Mother Nature left town 30 years ago and she’s not coming back!
Doctors are very aware of research that shows most adult dis- eases usually start when we’re young, and are linked to being too fat. They also know that if you stay skinny when you’re young, you’re less likely to be a fadult (a fat adult).
Despite knowing this, the medical community is always very sensible. They think it’s best to play it safe. It’s dangerous to play it safe! It’s much more sensible to start taking a big interest in yourself, by learning about what works today.
This book will also boost your mental health by helping you look good and feel more in control. Having confidence is cru- cial, and getting it today is tougher than at any time in human history. You deserve to walk with confidence now.
What about the media? They’re pretty hard on you. On the one hand, they fill pages and screens with beautiful people who look totally amazing all year round. It’s no surprise; beautiful people sell lots of magazines, T V shows and movies.
What is a surprise is when the same shows or magazines criticize you for trying to be the same. Talk about confusing. The media is in the business of selling stuff, so when it comes to their fast opinions and nasty news articles, forgetaboutit!
Now, this is a tough one. Friends. Maybe you’re secretly in com- petition with some? Hey, maybe they’re secretly in competition with you! I just want you to realize something about friends. It applies to people you might work with too.
They’re scared. Not jealous, scared. Applying this book could rocket you to happiness and they don’t want to be left behind. Of course they could do the same, but we humans seem to think that only one person can be successful at a time!
Because of that fear, don’t expect them to help you. Some might even go too far and discourage you. Now, I’m not telling you to ignore your friends completely. We need friends. I mean who else are we going to show off to!
"It's All About You, Isn't It?"
Yes it is, actually! And why not? If there’s one thing I’d love you to take away from reading this book, it’s a new found respect for you. Hold on for a second, don’t just skip past that sentence because your brain has heard it before.
Respect yourself. I mean it. I’m not heading down the cliché known as, “if you don’t respect yourself, who will? ”. That’s not relevant! You need to respect yourself, fully and always make the smartest decisions.
Destiny sounds mystical and romantic, but it’s nothing more than a whole bunch of decisions made back to back. In an ideal world, you make brilliant decision after brilliant decision. Of course, sometimes it’s not an ideal world.
The great thing is, a few tiny wrong turns can be corrected. How? Shut your eyes (not recommended if you’re walking or driving), breathe normally, be honest, and wait for your heart to speak up. It’s always right. Always.
When you lose hope in this book, and feel like ripping it up, stop. Go to the store, and rip up other diet books! Seriously, take a moment, and ask yourself if you’ve been honest with your actions. If you really have, please rip this up too, and move on.
The take home message is this: be relentless in your pursuit of happy-ness. The quality of your life is simply down to what feelings you have most often throughout the moment, minute, hour, day, week, month, year, decade, ta-da, life.
No one cares more about you, than you. No one lives in your mind or body, but you. The person in the mirror, that’s you. Absolutely everything is down, to you. And, when those OMG reactions start flying your way, only you can say, I did that.
Excerpted from Six Weeks to OMG: Get Skinnier Than All Your Friends by Venice A. Fulton. Copyright © 2012 by Venice A. Fulton. Excerpted by permission of Grand Central Life & Style, a division of the Hachette Book Group. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
© 2012 MSNBC Interactive
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