JB-  Is part of it technology?  Is technology to blame for us becoming a fatter society?  Satellite TV, Internet, videogames…

HJ-  You named it all.  You named a lot of them and I think it's also the diet.  30, 40 years ago we didn't eat out as much.  Fast food was not part of the culture.  But fast food has become very prevalent in the culture and it's much easier to grab a burger that's high in fat and processed than it is to make a baked potato at home with a piece of chicken and a salad.  The problem with a lot of the fast food "healthy choices", let's say at McDonald's or Wendy's, is that "Oh, you'd like that with sour cream and bacon?"  I remember going to Wendy's and ordering a baked potato and saying, "Just a plain baked potato please."  They said, "You don't want anything on it?"  And I said, "No, just a plain baked potato."  You will have butter and you will have sour cream which, at the end of the day, makes it just as deadly for your heart with just as many calories as in a box of french fries.  So we have to learn how to eat, learn how to eat healthy and properly.  When I go to Tim Hortons and I'll grab a sandwich, I tell them no mayo, no butter.  And that little thing there is a huge thing.  It's probably about 140 or 150 calories, a lot of fat and imagine, think about that - if you just made that little change every day, that would be close to 1000 calories a week.  In the course of a month, that would be one pound.  In the course of a year, that would be about 12 pounds that you would gain or lose if you did that every day.  It's just that kind of simple math that can keep you in shape, or on the other hand get people heavy and out of shape.

HJ-  We look at it and we think, "Boy, this is really simple.  Why doesn't everybody get it?"  I get so many e-mails a day, probably 40 to 50, generally from women who are overweight and they don't understand why.  They say, "Well, I don't like to exercise, I like to eat chocolate and I'm trying to lose 40 pounds.  Help me."  We got a problem here.  You have to reduce your intake.  You have to sweat.  That's the problem, when you talk about society and how it's changed, I think we've gotten lazy.  The element of sweating is, "geez, it's not easy to do."  Well no, it's not.  Did I really want to get up at 6:30 this morning and get out of a nice warm bed and go downstairs and work out for two hours?  It wasn't the top thing on my list, but by 7:15 I thought, "I'm really glad I'm down here."  And by 10 o'clock in the morning I've got lots of energy and feel strong.  And that's kind of what it's all about -- stay strong and feel good.

JB-  So I guess losing the weight isn't the difficult thing, it's the finding motivation and discipline to keep up with a regular routine then.

HJ-  Yeah, because the weight is really just a byproduct of  being fit and being healthy.  What you're trying to achieve is being healthy, the weight will come off automatically.  If your focus is, "I've got to lose 30 pounds" then you're going to gain that weight back.  Because you're not saying, "I've got to change my lifestyle so I'm healthy."  And really your focus (should be), "How do I stay healthy and how do I feel good?"  That's one of the major elements, is that when I don't exercise I don't feel as good.  So I like to feel better.  It's like a pill.  Some people go to drugs, well this is like my drug.  I think what we've been doing for the last 18 years is get people on this "healthy drug".

JB-  We just finished the holiday season.  I'm sure most of us overate.  What's the trick to getting back into a regular routine after such a busy time?

HJ- As Nike says…

JB and HJ-  "Just do it"  (laughing)

HJ- It's like, "OK, let's see how many excuses I can think of.  Oh you know, I'm tired, I'm really busy, I've got so many things I've got to do, I have nothing to wear."  I mean, I've heard pretty much every one that you can say.  The bottom line is -- get up, do it and be quiet!

JB-  So it's, "Just shut up and do it"?

HJ-  Right.

JB-  Is that something people do is just try look for a way out of it and justify why you can't do it?

HJ-  Oh yeah, we can justify things very easily.  I hear it and I see it all the time.  People say, "Gee, I want to lose 20 pounds and get into better shape."  "OK, what are you doing to do that?"  "Uh, well, tomorrow I'll, uh…"  "Are you going out and looking to find a dietician or a personal trainer?"  One excuse we get quite often is, "Oh, it's easy for you Hal, to say go ahead and eat properly but eating properly is expensive and I don't have the money."  And I often go back at the person and say, "Do you ever eat at fast food restaurants?"  "Yes."  "Well I can feed a family of four on the same money that you spend for one person at McDonald's to eat a meal."  Rice, potatoes, pasta… cheap.  It's very inexpensive.  You can get a couple pieces of chicken, two cans of peas or get a frozen bag of peas and some rice and you've got a pretty good meal.  It costs you more not to eat healthy.  Because the more the food is processed the more expensive it is.  The raw form of the food is the least expensive way you can purchase and eat food.

JB-  So when you go to Wendy's and get the potato, just don't get all the extras on it.  You can have a simple meal, just don't get all the extras, the this and the that on it.

HJ-  We call them empty calories.  They don't provide you any nutritional value.  They are just fat and calories.  And you just kind of look for it.  You look and say, "Is something on here like a butter?  What is butter other than fat?"  I mean that's all it is.  And mayonnaise, if it's white and creamy stay away from it.  It's a very simple process.

HJ-  People often think, "Oh Hal, you just don't eat that stuff."  I love pizza.  I love burgers.  I love sweets, potato chips, onion rings.  I love all that stuff.  But I can't eat it.  I'm about 230 pounds.  I'd be 280 if I ate everything I saw.  Some people let their eyes rule their heads. 

JB-  Should the rule be eat when you're hungry or eat at certain times of the day?

HJ-  I think it's both.  Like this morning after I worked out, I wasn't particularly hungry but I knew that my body needed fuel.  And you also have to drink lots of water.  Because when you become thirsty and say, "Gee, I'd like something to drink," 30 minutes before that your body actually required water and your body was starting to decay and…you're getting more tired and tired and tired as you went on and you need to constantly be drinking.  The more you drink the more fuller you're going to feel.  But you should also be eating small meals throughout the day.  I think the moral is people should look at themselves and pretend that they're diabetics.  Because a diabetic can't eat a huge meal and then not eat for seven, eight hours.  They have to constantly be feeding their blood sugar level to keep it…level.  Because we're not diabetic our systems are able to handle that but you're still putting stress on (your body).  You're not as sharp as you are, you're not as awake, you're tired, but you're able to cope with it.  A diabetic can't.  So why not eat like a diabetic?