I often get into a conversation about low carb and keto lifestyle with people wanting to lose weight and improve their health, when people question what it means to do it and whether they could actually stick to it.
I then have this conversation…
"Have you ever seen the Tom Hanks movie The Cast Away?
Let me ask you a hypothetical question.
Suppose, like Tom, you were cast away on that desert island, but not by yourself but with your youngest child (or grandchild).
Let’s also suppose that there was nothing to eat, meaning none of the foods you typically have for breakfast (juice, cereal, toast and mega cappuccino), snack, lunch, snack and dinner. No juice, cereal, toast, bread, bagels, pizza, pasta and rice… plus no beer or wine.
But, there were plenty of fish in the sea and you had a net to catch them. You figured out how to light a fire to cook them. There were plenty of coconuts (high in SF) which you could break open and eat. There were plenty of above-ground green leafy veggies all year. But as it was a sandy island there were no below-ground starchy veggies.
Also, there was fruit, but only berries, not so sweet and only a few weeks of the year. (Nowadays, unlike our grandmothers, we don’t know the seasons for different fruits and veggies.) There was actually nothing that tasted sweet.
Plus there was plenty of fresh running water and eggs that birds laid. Plus you caught the odd bird.
So here’s the question… “Would you and your granddaughter live or die? Remember, almost everything that you ate in the last 24 hours was no longer available. Would you both live or die?”
They always say “We’d live.”
Then I ask “Would you be slimmer and healthier?” They always say “yes”. Then I say “Just do that!”
Now… the reason I bring in the youngest child is that I think people’s readiness to change is far greater (by parental instinct) if it means that the life of their youngest child is in question.
Try it out when the opportunity presents itself and let me know how it goes.