The Two Martini Diet
How I Lost 100+lbs While Eating Well and Having a Drink
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In 2006, at the age of sixty-nine, following arthroscopic surgery to clean out a bum knee, I faced a choice. Lose weight or plan on knee replacements. My weight had drifted north since retiring as an airline captain nine years before, and at five-foot nine I grossed two-hundred seventy-pounds, my highest weight ever. And it wasn't only my knee that was bothering me: I suffered frequent sciatica (sharp pain through the lower back and buttocks), foot arch pain, high blood pressure, sleep-apnea (the sleep clinic found I was waking up once a minute for lack of air), a herniated belly button (caused by the stress of a fifty-four inch belly), erectile dysfunction (for the first time in my life), and was diagnosed with low testosterone (a male hormone deficiency). Clearly, if I wanted to continue doing the things I enjoy and live into a healthy old age, I had to lose weight. I did, and I now weigh 168 pounds, down from 270-over one hundred pounds in twenty-four months, an average of a pound a week. And I feel and look great! I went from a size fifty-four waist and jacket size-a square sort of shape-to a size forty-two jacket and a thirty-seven waist. Yes, once again I have a waist, and my pants stay up. Nothing hurts, I don't get winded going up stairs (or enjoying sex), my sleep apnea is gone, along with the controlled positive air pressure (CPAP) mask I'd been forced to sleep with for years, and my blood pressure and cholesterol levels are well within the normal to excellent range. When I run into people I haven't seen for some time, the response is funny. First the concerned look and then the question, "Are you feeling all right?" Basically they are asking what dread disease I'm dying of. When told the story, their next question is how in the world did you do it? Not surprising, two-thirds of the adults in America are either overweight or obese, and like as not they're fighting to lose weight themselves. This book is an effort to answer that question. "How did I do it?" The answer is both amazingly simple and extremely complex. Simply, one gets overweight by eating more food calories (energy) than the body can use, which is then stored as fat. If energy in is equal to energy out, you maintain weight. Eat more than you burn and you gain weight. Reverse the process and you lose. I did the things I knew from experience had worked before in my periodic efforts to diet. I avoided the empty calories-processed breads, white potatoes, pasta, sweets and sugars-and made the portions of the food I ate about two-thirds smaller. I also increased the intensity of my exercise routine, although I had always exercised. As an airline pilot, I had to stay fit in order to pass my twice-a-year FAA flight physicals. This is not a "diet" book written by a doctor or a nutritional scientist trying to sell books, diet foods, and/or membership in a weight-loss club. There are plenty of those, some better than others. Any "diet" that reduces what you eat will allow you to lose weight, but that doesn't make the diet healthy or the weight loss sustainable if you feel deprived of the pleasures of good food and drink. I used the word diet in the title of the book in the sense of its Greek origin, the word diaeta, which means "manner of living," not in the sense that most Americans think of the word diet as "of eating sparingly," which implies deprivation. I do not feel deprived of anything, including the two martinis I enjoy before dinner. What is meaningful is that I-along with my wife, incidentally-have changed my manner of living. What follows is about the extremely complex chemistry set that makes up our bodies and the nutrition that we need to be healthy and fueled. This is from my perspective as a layperson. I'm not a nutritional scientist, but I am a quick student and a darn good researcher, and I'd like to share my success with you. There's an advantage to that because, when the scientists dismantle food into its chemical components, it's easy to forget that it is food we're talking about, and if there's something we all really need to know it's how to feed ourselves. To agribusiness, the factory food industry, and the government agencies, such as the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), whose main role is to support them, we are merely a stomach. The more their nutritional scientists can entice us to overfill that stomach with tasty, highly profitable processed foods, usually loaded with cheaply bought empty calories such as high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), (corn is highly subsidized by the federal government), the more money the industry makes. Add to this the financial priority of the medical and drug industries, which is to profit from the treatment of sick people (the majority suffering from chronic illnesses caused by tobacco-also subsidized-obesity, and lack of exercise), and it's no wonder obesity has become an epidemic in the past thirty years. Nothing in this book should be construed as medical advice-everyone's needs and medical history are different-what's good for me may not be good for you, especially if you're a pregnant woman, child, diabetic, alcoholic, have food allergies, etc. Anyone considering a serious weight loss regimen should do so under the supervision of a doctor, and be checked regularly as I am. Your doctor has to be part of the team. But you're the other half, and you're going to have to really want to live longer and healthier, be willing to change how you live, and learn how to effectively do so in the face of all that's arrayed against you.
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About the Book
Following arthroscopic surgery on his right knee in 2006, Jerry Sorlucco faced a choice: Lose weight, or eventually face artificial knee replacements for both knees. His orthopaedic surgeon laid it on the line. At age 69 and 270 pounds, his knees simply weren't going to last much longer; they would continue to break down under the pounding of all that weight. To avoid the knife he would have to lose about a hundred pounds. A feat none of his patients had, so far, achieved in his many years of practice. So, as with many others, the surgeon began to mentally prepare Jerry for the latest and greatest artificial parts that lay in his future. Or so he thought. Breaking the mold, Jerry made one of the most important decisions of his life. Instead of accepting his surgeon's vision of his future, he decided instead to change his manner of living in order to lose weight. And lose weight he did, shrinking from 270 pounds to 168 in somewhat under two years. This is the story of how he did it without feeling deprived of anything, including the martini or two that he enjoys in the evening. True to his style, The Two Martini Diet is not your typical diet book. Jerry reaches out to the more than 60 million Americans, and 300 million people worldwide, who suffer from obesity, and offers them hope and an example of how they, too, can change their life around. Using his research and writing skill he lays out the dangers of our western diet, and the values of eating healthy foods and of physical activity and exercise. While the book is technically correct, Jerry isn't a scientist. Consequently, it's written in layman's language and easy to understand.
About the Author
Jerry Sorlucco was a commercial airline captain for nearly forty years, until federal regulations forced him to retire at age 60 in 1997. During his career, he served in various capacities as a representative of the Airline Pilots Association and as a check airman. A serious history student and prolific reader, he was drawn to public service and writing after retirement, serves as a director on several community boards, and was a leader of the Democratic Party in the North Country of New Hampshire. In a heavily Republican district, he ran unsuccessfully for the State Senate in2002 and 2004 and for the NH House in 2006. His consistent platform was that of a social progressive and fiscal conservative. He's written two other books published by AuthorHouse. A Good Stick, a memoir, tells the story of his life and career framed in the historical context of the wider world surrounding his personal journey; and Facing Fascism, a look into the dark side of American politics under Bush 2 and the Republican far right. Jerry takes his skills and historical insights into his writing of The Two Martini Diet. He shines a light on the cozy relationship between the Bush administration and the huge agribusinesses that treat people as nothing more than stomachs. Stomachs into which profits are made by cramming them full of unhealthy, value-added, factory foods, which have made obesity a world pandemic, as America's western diet is exported. The result, he points out, is a current generation rife with chronic diseases, a generation that will die younger than its parents, and that now accounts for 75 percent of the cost of health care. Jerry, his wife Sue, Airedales Spencer and Tracy, and a Bengal cat named Tiger live in