A Note of Gratitude

Well, the premier issue of Nµ30 magazine went off without a hitch. Actually, I guess there was a hitch or two, but that’s not important right now. What is important is that I’d like to take a moment to thank people for the massive support I’ve received in getting this project started.

My two trainers, Sifu Mai Du and Ilir Ymeri, both of whom have demonstrated patience and support, above and beyond the call of duty. Either of them can beat me up, and neither of them has, yet.

I definitely want to thank all of the people who have contributed to my funding through http://www.gofundme.com/New30-Magazine. Many people can’t make a financial contribution, but those individuals have given of themselves by sharing the link and posting on the FaceBook fan page.

There are the invisible contributions of sites like http://www.scribd.com/, http://www.blogger.com and http://blogs.alternet.org. Without them, this valuable project would not be possible.

The interview subjects, medical professionals and product vendors who all contributed of their time and treasure – not only to the premier issue, but also to this and future issues as well.

A special shout out goes to Image Works for helping me to secure my new domain, on which future issues will be served. Don’t click on that one, just yet. There are a bevy of coders and engineers working ‘round the clock to make it ready, but they’re going to need just a bit more time.

My mother (yes, she has a web site) has been steadfast and overwhelming in her support of me prior to this launch, and her unflagging help, advice and support are still going strong.

Furthermore, lest we forget, I’ve been fortunate enough to have one of Boston’s most talented young writers, Jack. The poor dog has pounded the bricks for the better part of his two years on this planet, and finally signed with Nµ30. You’ll be enjoying his wit and wisdom as a regular monthly feature.

Of course, the real heroes in this saga are you, the readers. This is your magazine, and it couldn’t happen without you. So, keep reading, and above all keep exercising. Exercise is my medicine and I know it can be yours as well.

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Get Busy Living

“Get busy living or get busy dying.” That quote comes from “The Shawshank Redemption” – one of my all time favorite movies. We’re all faced with that paradox, that dillema. How do we get busy living in this new world? What do we do with talents, skills and dreams that we can’t fulfill? How do we help our fellow Man, while surviving ourselves, when there are so many factors working against us?

These questions provided the impetus for me to create my concept magazine - Nµ30. This project is of incredible importance to me, and I believe, to others grappling with the same issues.

I wanted something that I could do for a job in an economy that no longer provides for people who want jobs. I wanted something that could allow me to use the talents and skills that took me a lifetime to hone. I wanted something that would enable, and provide for me, to continue in my miraculous self-help program that saved my life and got me off the “Big Pharma” jag that was my disease.

Nµ30 can and will be that lifeline. It will allow me to employ myself, and to employ my talents.
OK, I get that it’s somewhat rough. I get that the videos didn’t work in this first issue. They will in the second. I get that the “magazine” layout I wanted might be a few months off in the future. I also get that selling a product that has no advertising, no subscription base and no official backing might be difficult – perhaps, at this early stage, impossible.

However, I don’t care. See, I got the idea, and the first priority for me, became making it so. I wanted to get busy living, and I had to take some short cuts to get it out there. It’s a work in progress, and it’s growing and developing every day. It’s an adventure, and an experiment, that requires your help. I need funding. I need following. I need readership. I need people who share my vision – a renaissance vision of self-sufficiency, strength and inventiveness.

I’m writing this note, today, to convince people how important I think this can end up being. Not just for Jack, my poor overworked wife, and me, but also for all the people who read it and take from it the spark of inspiration for them to find their own program to a revitalized youth, and an independence from doctors and drugs.

Here’s some of what you can do to be part of the Nµ30 movement, and to help me realize this pipe dream of mine.

Primarily, I need financing to maintain my support, until I can begin to sell this project to those who will be providing it to you, the readers. That can be accomplished by clicking the following link:

http://www.gofundme.com/New30-Magazine

If you can’t make a financial commitment – and believe me, I understand – you can share this link out. You can e-mail it to your friends. Show it to your doctor, your pharmacist. Put it on your bulletin board at work. I’m doing everything I can to get the word out, but we need eyeballs. We need people to see both the magazine itself, and the promotional pages. We need people who are in a position to donate, to do so. In order for that to happen, they need to see it.

Secondarily, I need “Likes” and readers. You can read the magazine, by going to this link:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/49813702/N%C2%B530-Premier

While you’re there, you can get some of Jack’s wit and wisdom by clicking:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/50063527/A-Little-Help-From-One-of-Boston-s-Edgier-Journalists

In coming months, you’ll be able to join private groups dedicated to this magazine and its broader conceptual idea. You’ll also be able to click on the embedded links, and support us that way. Right now, you can go to:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/N%C2%B530/201793856513929?sk=wall and click “Like.”
So please consider helping me bring this resource to the people who need it. I thank you, and Jack – the Internet rock star – thanks you.

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Another Way I Need your Help

In 1984, I attended a birthday celebration for Jack LaLanne. He had just turned 70, and was performing a demonstration at Government Center in Boston. I watched that old man pull a tractor-trailer combo – with his teeth. I don’t know that I’ll be able to do anything like that, when I reach that milestone age, but I do know that I won’t be living on a mobility scooter, and eating through a tube.

The “Hawg” Lived in Quincy, Massachusetts. Every morning, he’d encase his ankles in good old-fashioned bald headed women – the obsolete term applied to the ball and chain, as worn by prisoners on work gangs. He’d wear them all day. Once, some constables came to his house to serve him with a court order. The Hawg was preparing to do the engine overhaul on an old Caddie, at the time, and had just finished disconnecting the motor mounts. As the men approached, the Hawg grabbed that 600 cubic inch big block – V8, picked it up in his massive arms, pulled it into his barrel-like chest, and dropped it at the constables’ feet. Wordlessly, they got back into their car and left. He had just turned 60.

I once knew a man who was so fat – a moving crew was hired to move all his possessions and furniture down to the first floor of his home, because he could no longer climb his own stairs. That man is dead now, and we all suffer at the loss, because he was a warm and generous Human being. Or there’s the one about the cab driver I knew, who had to have his cabs modified with truck shocks, because he was so heavy, the standard suspension systems couldn’t support his weight.

I was slogging away on the treadmill, at my old gym. I was maybe 2 or 3 months, post-diagnosis. From the window, I could see a huge man, lumbering through the parking lot, on crutches. As he approached, I noticed that one of his feet had been amputated, and I knew immediately – Diabetes. As I upped the speed on the belt, I heard a voice in my head that said, there’s your future. That’s you in 5 years.

Gratefully, I never got quite that big, but what’s it like to be 400 pounds? How does the world feel to those people? I can tell you how it feels at 205. I can tell you what 30% body fat feels like, to haul around. Yes, I have a story to tell.

And, that’s what Nµ30 Magazine is all about. My goal – my mission – with this magazine is to help people. To provide those who need information, with the most comprehensive, most up to date, most unbiased and highest quality information available. But, Nµ30 is also about community. It’s about all of us helping each other.

I have a story to tell, yes, but what about you? Most of the people I’m in contact with are writers, and all of us have something to say. I want to hear from you. I want to know your stories – your successes and your failures. I would like to extend the invitation to writers who are struggling with health and fitness issues, and writers who have overcome these obstacles, to help me create this valuable resource.
While I can’t yet offer financial remuneration, I can offer you an opportunity to get your work seen by people who really want to hear what you have to say, and an opportunity to help those in need.
Please – submit your stories, articles, op-eds and research pieces to Nµ30 magazine by emailing

new30magazine@gmail.com
.
The Magazine comes out monthly, on the 1^st of each month. Articles need to be submitted by the 15^th, for inclusion in the following month’s issue. Please submit via Word, in .doc format. Although I only have room for one article per month, I promise to read them all
.
So, be a guest columnist in Nµ30 Magazine. Support others, receive support from them, and help launch the first true quality magazine devoted to athleticism, eating right and living better – in midlife.
You can see the latest versions and updates at

http://www.scribd.com/doc/49813702/N%C2%B530-Premier

And don’t forget to “Like” us up at

http://www.facebook.com/pages/N%C2%B530/201793856513929?sk=wall

I really need you to actually click on this link, and "Like" the page, itself. Clicking "Like" on the posts doesn't appear to translate through.

Also, please keep sharing us out. All of us have friends and relatives that are struggling with weight problems and/or Diabetes. You can help them, and me, by simply sharing this note, or the links for the magazine and its pages.

The Yahoo groups and a YouTube Branded Channel are in the works, and should be ready in a day or so.
Nµ30 – where 50 is the new 30.

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Nµ30 Magazine

I’m happy. All day, every day, I’m elated. You see – I used to be a Type II Diabetic. I’m not anymore. I can say that honestly. Even my endocrinologist agrees, and he thinks that’s impossible. The fact remains, however, that my A-1cs – with no medication – have been consistent at 4.5 for the past two years.

I’m not managing my Diabetes; I’ve cured my Diabetes. No hype, no Tibetan miracle cures, no magic. I did it through hard work, hard science and some simple, good old-fashioned logic.

I did it with the help and encouragement of my doctors, not in spite of them. Neither of them, however, held out much hope for my success.

I did it with my parents’ generous financial help and emotional support. I did it with the constant driving push of my two personal trainers. I did it by exploring alternatives in both medicine and lifestyle.
And… sadly, I did it by ignoring the ADA and all the dieticians and “web-doctors” who constantly gave me information that seemed to make no sense.

My wife came home, one afternoon, beaming with pride in having purchased the latest ADA cookbook. I started looking through it. Nothing in this book appeared extremely low carbohydrate to me. In fact, they actually had recipes that called for sugar – good old fashioned, white, processed, table sugar! Oh, we fought like two wet cats in a sack, Maureen and I. She wanted me to follow the advice of the “experts,” but something inside me just kept telling me that they were wrong. How can you fight Diabetes by eating sugar? It just doesn’t make any sense.

In fact, the ADA appeared to be more concerned about salt! Oh yeah, right. I just spent 10 and ½ hours in the Emergency room, because I had too much salt in my blood. That must be why they had to give me all that saline.

Here I was, thirsty all the time, and the one element that would allow my body to process and store water, is contra-indicated by the community dedicated to helping me manage my disease.  Meanwhile, the single organic toxin that was turning my kidneys into charcoal, and my hemoglobin into sludge was considered part of a recommended diet.

I was told to exercise. I laugh when I think about it. They told me to go walk around a mall. That’s what they said. Walk around a mall? If that’s exercise, why do I see so many blobs of excess flesh, waddling around in malls?

70% of Americans are overweight. 40% of us are actually morbidly obese. 26 million people in this country have Type II Diabetes. What used to be called “adult onset,” is now commonly diagnosed in 11 year-olds.
I sat in the waiting room of the Massachusetts General Hospital Diabetes Care clinic. A very nice man, also a patient, was telling me how he had effectively cut down from 12 Cokes per day, to 6. That’s a half a pound of sugar a day! Half a pound! Oh, perhaps I should mention that the primary sugar source in Coke is High Fructose Corn Syrup, which carries with it a 4 – 1 molar ratio over regular sucrose. So – basically – convert that ½ pound of sugar into the chemical equivalent of 2 pounds of table sugar.

That’s OK. Just avoid too much salt, take your Metformin religiously, and maybe you should consider a Statin to lower your LDL serum cholesterol.

I’m sorry if this post sounds angry, bitter, and perhaps even hateful. I apologize for any tone of judgmental meanness. I understand how frustrating and emotionally crippling this disease can be. I’ve been there. I remember the embarrassment, the isolation, and the frustration.

I remember the confusion. I remember how sick the Metformin made me feel. I remember the prognoses of dialysis, amputation and pre-mature death. I remember my endocrinologist, pronouncing sentence. “You will take this medicine for the rest of your life.”

Moreover, I remember when I decided to take back my life. When I decided to grab the reigns, and stop this merry-go-round. Eating a drug that makes you incontinent, nauseated, and dizzy, while trudging around a mall for 20 minutes, as your blood glucose peaks and dips, isn’t the answer.

Metabolic manipulation is. Re-teaching your body to work like the machine it was designed to be is. It’s hard, and it takes a long time. I’m not offering anybody a magic bullet. I’m not peddling a false panacea. I’m trying to tell you that you don’t have to be a Diabetic. Essentially, you’ll be trying to accomplish something that is generally considered impossible, so you can’t expect it to be easy. It takes massive sacrifice. It costs massive amounts of money. It requires massive amounts of time.

If you ask me, though – if you ask someone who can, again enjoy the life he was given, free of this overwhelming penance – it’s a great trade.
Check out the premier issue of my e-mag, Nµ30
 .
http://www.scribd.com/doc/49813702/N%C2%B530-Premier

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My Idea Unveiled

Those who know me know that I have an active sense of humor. It was for this reason, that I joined a FaceBook group whose free and irreverent joking has made it a mainstay for several thousand users. Of the many types of jokes commonly posted on this group, are photos of naked fat guys, sitting at their computers. They put up the pictures, and we all have a good laugh, and make comments about these anonymous individuals, whose suffering is their celebrity.

Reality shows now rely on the couch potato who needs to be hoisted via crane, from her home to the doctor’s office for what must be an exercise in frustration and futility for both.

A part of me, however, finds this cavalier entertainment, quite painful. Statistics are commonplace, stating that 70% of Americans are overweight. I’m told that as much as 40% of us are actually morbidly obese – that’s almost half of the population.

From my early adulthood, up until my late 30s, I was quite athletic. My body ran like a Ferrari, and my metabolism ticked like a Breitling. After I was married, and I was bogged down in trying to run a business, I blew up like the Hindenburg. We’re talking “Orca-fat,” here. When I was 49 I was diagnosed with Diabetes, and the reality came crashing home, that I was to spend what little time I had left, as one of the old and sick.
The very people I had so arrogantly sneered at and snubbed, were now a club reserving a “gold” membership, in my name. I was “fat guy.jpg.” Maybe, I didn’t need a crane to haul my carcass to the doctor, but I did barely have the strength to make it in on my own power. A simple drive into town, park in a public lot, and walk all of two blocks to his first floor office – and it felt like I was Jesse Owens trying to single-handedly win the Olympics.

Being sick is no fun – and it’s certainly no source of pride.

Deep inside me, two figures were squaring off. A ghost and a goner were getting ready to go toe to toe in a steel-cage death-match. David the martial artist, bike messenger, speed skater, mountain climber vs. David the tub o’ guts – was on, and the purse was nothing short of my life.

Well the challenger took it in a KO. The old, fat and sick David was carried off the mat – belly up.
A few weeks ago, as I was struggling to find a worthwhile form of viable employment, and having some maintenance performed on my new “split window Corvette” of a body, an idea came to me. A way I could help my friends, and others struggling with health and well being issues – and pursue a career at the same time. I could create an e-magazine. I’ve talked about this idea in the loosest of terms, on FaceBook, and to a few select individuals in RL.

Well, the Premier issue is online. Check it out. Let me know what you think.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/49813702/N%C2%B530-Premier

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