Episode 149 - David Medansky - Leaders on Leadership
With all the weight loss programs out there, how do you know which ones will work for you? Today's guest is famously dubbed as The Overweight Person's Best Friend, David Medansky. As somebody who was fat and told by his doctor he had a 95% chance of a fatal heart attack, he learned how to reduce weight without dieting or exercising. Now he feels great, has more energy, and improved his overall health. He joins Dr. Tracey Jones to share his health knowledge regarding what works and what doesn't. David is anti-diet and focuses more on changing and adjusting your lifestyle for long-term health. He boils it down to 9 Principles in his new book, Break the Chains of Dieting. Learn all about it by tuning in!
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David Medansky - Leaders on Leadership
I am so excited because my guest is David Medansky. David is known as The Overweight Person’s Best Friend because, as somebody who was fat and told by his doctor he had a 95% chance for a fatal heart attack, he learned how to reduce weight without going on a diet or exercising. Now he feels great. He has more energy and he has improved his overall health.
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David, thank you so much for being here.
Thank you for having me.
The timing is purely providence because we’re wrapping up the year and starting a new one. I know we claim your health, especially after the last couple of years that may be COVID and putting on the COVID 10, 20 or 30. People are excited to know what you have to say and I am too because weight loss is the ultimate self-leadership program.
If you are not accountable to yourself, who is going to be accountable to?
That’s the big difference between being a leader and leadership. Let’s get right into it because I want to know how you weave this into leadership. My father gave a speech called the Price of Leadership. He was very pragmatic. He had a wonderful sense of mirth and joy but he was also dead serious about leadership and that there is a price you’re going to have to pay. It isn’t all sunshine, roses, yachts and corner offices. He says there is a price.
One of the elements that he says that leaders are going to have to deal with is loneliness. We’ve heard that it’s lonely at the top. A lot of people, when they get into leadership positions, they’re like, “I’m out there on my own.” Can you unpack, for our readers, what loneliness means for you as a leadership role and maybe some tools they can use to help them?
If people look at the ingredients on labels, they wouldn't touch some of the stuff they put in their mouths.
Parties or social events and I choose not to indulge in all the goodies that are being served like desserts and food that I know is unhealthy or fattening, especially around the holidays. It’s a choice I’m making not to do it. People sometimes feel a little intimidated because it’s like, “Why aren’t you eating this? Why aren’t you participating? One cookie won’t hurt you.” It won’t hurt you or kill you. However, it will keep you from losing the weight you want to lose and it will also add weight to you. Most people will gain ten pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year’s.
If you avoid putting on those ten pounds, that’s this ten pounds less, you have to reduce. The other thing is it’s a choice. I tell people more for you or it looks better on you than myself and better in the trash than in my ass. It’s decisions. It’s very easy to say I want to have the cookies, cake, desserts and special meal that’s being prepared. However, I choose not to indulge in it. That’s being a leader because you’re showing people how to do it and what to do. You’re not just telling them. It’s not do as I say. It’s do as I do.
That’s okay because when you know, as a leader, why you’re doing it, it’s not just food, it’s drinking. There are a lot of things that too much of a good thing is a bad thing. I truly appreciate that. I reclaimed my health years ago and now I’m on healthy habits for life. I’m not going back there. It may not kill me but I know how long it took me to pick up all that weight. I’m not going to do that again. I have some friends that say, “I can’t do these social events, speaking or traveling as if you’re in a country and you’re going to offend somebody if you don’t wolf everything down.” I appreciate you sharing that.
What I tell people is take a little bit of the dessert or glass of wine and walk around. Put it to your lips so it looks like you’re participating when you’re not. When you’re ready to leave, you put the plate of desserts down or the glass of wine down. No one knows whether you’re drinking it or not. It looks like you’re doing it. It’s a little tip I give to people to do.
As I tell people, loneliness, in and of itself is not a bad thing. If you’re doing something that the masses are doing, that’s not necessarily a bad thing because self-control and self-discipline are all about what works for you. I have friends that can eat carbs and sugar out of the wazoo and never an issue. I’m not one of them. I can’t because it badly affects me.
Break the Chains of Dieting: 9 Fundamental Must Have Principles for Healthy Weight Loss
I’m like you. If I start eating Pringles, potato chips, M&Ms or Hershey bars, I won’t stop. I’m addicted to it. I view it like being an alcoholic. You just don’t have one drink because once you do. Again, it’s a choice and I choose not to start even having that stuff. I look at it and say, “More for everybody else.”
You said loneliness because it’s in your face everywhere, like TV social media or the stores. I can remember when COVID first hit. I read an article that said the shelves are empty of all Twinkies and Ding Dongs. I thought, “This is terrible.” Comfort food will kill you. Now that we know about the comorbidities with COVID, I thought this was the worst possible thing. You’re throwing gasoline on a fire. It’s all in society to get you wired into that little trigger and to addict you to unhealthy food.
What was interesting was the shelves were empty for the middle part of the stores. I didn’t have to forego anything because all the fruits and vegetables were there. I was like, “What shortages?” What I enjoy and what I eat, there is plenty of it because everybody else was stocking up on the stuff that’s a chemical-laden, sugar-laden and highly toxic food that is comfort food. The frozen meals are loaded with sodium. People don’t read labels. They need to read the fine print. Being a lawyer in my past life, I’ve learned to look at the fine print and read the details. If people look at the ingredients and labels, they wouldn’t touch some of the stuff that they put in their mouth.
That’s a great metaphor for life because too often, we’re too accepting and we need to be discerning about who we allow in our lives and bodies because everything you take in becomes a part of you.
Dr. Bob Martin said, “If you wear out your body, where else are you going to live?”
I was inspired in my health journey when I got serious years ago. I’m tall and I’m athletic so I can carry it but because I can carry it doesn’t mean I should carry it. I was like, “We’re not going to be filming on stage from this angle because this is ridiculous.” I was at a Joyce Meyer event. She has never been heavy but she has toned down. She was like, “I’m not sick and I’m not dying. My body is a temple. If I’m going to continue to run this race, I need to get serious about it.”
She got it with a trainer. She dropped 25 pounds. She was in her early or mid-70s when she did that and I thought, “That’s it. No more excuses.” You’re post-menopausal. That’s how it is. I see other people my age and older that are highway proportionate and look good in everything they wear. They looked fit. I thought, “It’s not an age thing.”
It’s not, Tracey, because my wife is looking great at her age. When people say, “I’m too old for this.” No, you’re not. It’s a choice and decision. It’s little things like that that can make the difference.
As we talk more about this in the book, that will encourage them too because people don’t like to diet. That’s a bad thing. In line with that, a lot of what you’re saying contributes to this weariness. We still are, even though we have this vision and Imago Dei, God’s seed and purpose. We’re still mere mortals. How do you deal with weariness in your field? How do you stay at your tip-top self?
A diet is extreme, hard to stick with, and potentially dangerous to your health.
I’m always learning. I’m always reading for new things. Again, being a lawyer, I’ve learned to discern fact from fiction and opinion. There are so many people out there touting different weight loss programs, diets and supplements. I look at everything and then I analyze it to see what is being promoted as accurate. What I found is a lot of the current authors in their books, they’re writing these books because they’re promoting their products. They will tell you, “You’re not able to accomplish your goal of reducing weight and improving your health if you don’t take my supplement or follow my program.”
You have to be careful out there. On Amazon alone, there are 50,000 books on weight loss, health, diet and fitness. One thing I want to point out to people is just because a person is thin, it does not necessarily mean they are healthy. There may be a lot of reasons why they are not overweight. However, 73% of the US adult population is overweight, which 41% is clinically obese. It is an epidemic. It has been going on since the 1980s and it’s getting worse.
There are two things that resonated with me. Number one is we try these things and we get weary because they don’t work. If they worked, we would be excited because we would be feeling and looking better. I know when I lost my 50 pounds, I was back to my old, mid-twenties cadet weight in the military. You talk about doing your due diligence. Dig in and look at what people are saying and vet them. The other thing you talked about is people typically are marketing their own product.
As a researcher and lawyer, you always have to consider the source and look if they are promoting something to pad their own pockets. There is a lot of that going on in medical journals. I’m like, “You’re proposing this and you’re the one that gets the money for this. Don’t you see that there could possibly be a conflict or an ethical issue here?” It’s one of those things for weariness. Do your homework. You offered a list of some great things but do your due diligence.
I would read people’s stuff and then I’m like, “Either they are running for office. They got a book coming out or something else.” They are putting up there and that’s their motivation but had I not taken my time to go, “Where is this person coming from?” I’ve done my due diligence. I would have bought into it, it wouldn’t have worked and I would have been even more tired because I wasted more time and money.
What happens is people keep losing the same ten pounds over and over again because a diet is temporary. It’s extreme, hard to stick with and potentially dangerous to your health. That’s why I’m anti-diet. I want to teach people how to improve their eating habits and lifestyle. Consider a diet like a sprint. It has a finish line and there is a goal. What happens is when a lot of people reach that goal, they revert back to their old eating habits.
However, if you look at a lifestyle as a marathon, you’re running and you’re doing it for the long-term. Think of it as a marathon without a finish line. You’re like the Energizer bunny that keeps going. As you said, you’ll have more energy, feel better, look better and you improve your overall health. Isn’t that what everybody would like?
Let’s talk about abandonment. Abandonment can have, like everything else, a negative connotation. When my father talked about abandonment, he referred to it as hyper-focused that we need to abandon what we like, want to think about or put in our mouth in favor of what we ought and need to think about.
I have read all this stuff. I love motivation and hearing stories like yours because I’m sure your doctor was not the first person that told you you’re in for an early grave. For whatever reason, you suddenly abandoned your old habits and said, “I’m going to get serious.” Can you share that with us? What does abandonment mean for you?
Most people will gain 10 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year's. If you avoid putting on those 10 pounds, that's 10 pounds less you have to reduce. It's a choice.
I lost 50 pounds in four months. I tell people I could have done that during the previous years. I procrastinated and I made excuses. I’ll start on Monday, after the holidays, after vacation or after we go to dinner at a fancy restaurant. There is a whole bunch of excuses for delaying eating healthy and starting a weight loss journey or you getting fit. What I’ve learned in doing research for the book is focus on what you want because what you focus on expands. Instead of dwelling on what I’m not able to do or not able to eat, I focus on looking forward to eating the apple or the unsalted nuts, the rod nuts or the healthy stuff.
In that way, I’m not thinking about what I’m not able to have because again, what you focus on expands. I’m focusing on what I’m looking forward to eating that I am able to and I enjoy. If you don’t like it, don’t eat it. Someone says, “You need to eat this certain thing.” If you don’t like it, it doesn’t mean you should. For example some people like eggs some don’t. Some like avocados some don’t. Some like fish some don’t. It’s what you like and enjoy. That’s healthy for you that you should focus on.
Dan Buettner wrote Blue Zones. In case people aren’t aware of it, blue zones are five areas around the world where people have good health and live long lives, like 90s, 100s and above. What he found is they only have about 25 ingredients in their entire diet. That’s not a whole lot when you think about what is in our pantries and refrigerators.
I remember during the first Gulf War, we were out in the Middle East and the only thing we had to eat in the beginning was potatoes and eggs. That happens to be two of my very favorite food. For three weeks, we had every variation of potato eggs. I could have eaten it for three months. They were like, “We’re glad you’re here because you’re the only one that says that.” They’re happy about this. I love that when you abandon down and look at the core of what you need to eat. There is not all this stuff that we have now.
People would think about what they only need. If you’re a female, it’s about 1,250 calories in a meal box and 1,750 calories a day unless you’re physically active. If they see what they’re consuming, the average American consumes 3,600 calories per day. That’s double what you need. The daily recommended nutrient is based on 2,000 calories a day. People are exceeding that. You need to look at what you’re putting in your body. I look it as my body is a machine. It’s an incredible machine and I need to give it the right fuel. The right fuel is the proper food. That was the difference in changing my focus. It’s eating to fuel the body, not for socialization or comfort.
Remember, what you have stored on you, that’s fuel too. We think about bears hibernating in the winter and I’m like, “I’m going to starve to death.” You’re not. You’re carrying around 50 pounds. You could be like Jesus, go fast for 30 days and not die if you have water. That’s how you “lose weight.” You start burning it. It’s science. You have to expend more than you take in to burn off.
To a degree because not all calories are equal.
Tell me about that.
Some calories are nutritious like an apple. It’s about 90 to 100 calories. It takes your body about 25 calories to digest it. A Hershey bar or M&Ms has zero nutritional value and about 125 calories. It takes your body zero calories to digest.
When I say counting calories, I assume you’re not doing candy.
You can’t assume that. Diet soda is the worst you can drink.
I was at the Steelers game and I looked at push and soda. I’m like, “Isn’t this like cigarettes and tanning beds?” How can everybody still be drinking this stuff? It’s everywhere.
Your body is a machine, and you need to give it the right fuel. The right fuel is proper food.
When I tell people, they’re like, “It’s zero calories. How does it cause weight gain?” It is aspartame. Aspartame is the chemical for the average official sweetness, which increases your craving for sweetness. It inhibits your body and prevents it from absorbing vitamins, minerals and nutrients. It puts your body in what they call starvation so your body retains the weight because of the things that are starving because it’s not getting the right nutrition and fuel so you should avoid diet soda.
Our bodies are 60% to 70% water, not soda, diet soda, fruit juice or fruit beverages. More soda is consumed by Americans than any other beverage. Drink more water. The other thing is when a lot of people are hungry or think they’re hungry or they are thirsty, they should drink water instead of eating. We can go about 3 to 4 days without water. However, you can go about 30 to 40 days without food. Which is more important? It’s the water. That’s why I tell people the number one principle for healthy weight loss and healthy eating is to drink more water.
What did they say? Your body weight cut in half is how many ounces? Is that what you tell people?
If you’re 200 pounds, drink 100 ounces unless you’re doing extreme physical activity or you live in the desert in Arizona as we do and it’s hot outside then you drink more water or a minimum of 64 ounces. One-half of your body weight in ounces for water.
Some people think, “I’m going to eat healthier.” You have to abandon the bad stuff because otherwise, you’re working against yourself and you can be working out and watching what you eat but then if you do these other things, it’s like fleas. It’s still infecting you and causing your body to not get the results that you want.
Let’s talk about working out and exercising. That’s great for overall health and fitness but it’s the worst thing you can do for weight loss. Why do I say that? It’s because you’re replacing your fat with muscle. However, fat takes up more room than muscle. What happens is people go to the gym. It’s their New Year’s Resolution for 2 or 3 weeks and they’re doing everything. They’re eating healthy but the scale is not moving and they’re frustrated. It’s like, “Why isn’t the scale moving?” It’s because you replaced the fat with muscle. I asked them, I said, “How are your clothes fitting?” They’re loose. People are asking me if I’m losing weight. Go by what your clothes say because the scale will lie to you.
Those are some wonderful things. I lost my 50 pounds in about five months. That’s what they told me. You cannot work out. I’ve tried that before because I’m a gym rat. I would get bigger and more muscular. I’m like, “This is ridiculous. I’m not entering the roller derby. I need to drop.” That’s what I did too. They told me, “No working out until you get to your ideal weight.” I did that and that worked out perfectly for me.
That was exactly what I did. There was no exercise until the weight came off and then I gradually did more physical exercise and activity. Exercise is great for overall health and fitness. The biggest example of that is The Biggest Loser. Sixty-six percent of the contestants have regained all their weight some even more. Most of them have not kept off the weight that they dropped. It’s not sustainable to be working out 3, 4, 5 or 6 hours a day.
To our readers, as you’re dropping the weight, you still stay active. They would tell me, “Still do a half an hour walking your dogs because motion is healthy.” People would say to me, “Are you working out?” I’m like, “I’m not.” It’s because when that layer of fat starts coming off the top of your muscles then they’re like, “You must be working out.” I’m like, “I’m not.” You can now see my muscles because I’ve always been athletic underneath them. They’re like, “You’re so cut.” For the readers out there, I encourage you. You have to cut out eating but it was nice to take a five-month break from working out all the time and let what was underneath it all come to the top.
One other thing I want to point out to people is not to go into reducing caloric intake. At least maintain 1,250 calories a day. If you do less than that, you put your body in starvation mode. You’re burning muscle instead of fat and that’s not healthy for you. If you want to eat good protein, rich foods, eat a lot of vegetables and some fruits are good. I’ll look for low-glycemic foods. Cherries, blueberries and strawberries are great. It’s simple things that we can replace. Get rid of the ice cream.
Working out and exercising is great for overall health and fitness. It’s the worst thing you can do for weight loss.
For the readers out there, if you’re at a restaurant and you’re in your New Jersey, everything has the calories on it. I love going to Jersey because I’m like, “There are a lot of restaurants.” If you’re not, pull it up on your phone and say, “I’m getting this. What’s the rough idea of the calories?” When I was in this, I would go on the menu ahead of time and I go, “This is what it is.” I wasn’t tempted or confused about, “This can have a lot.” In one meal, I’m already at 1,250 or more.
Salads are between 1,000 to 2,000 calories because of the dressing, nuts, cheese, croutons and everything else they put on it. I’ll do you a little bit better with going to a restaurant because I met someone who lost 125 pounds and she did what you did. She said, “Before I would go out with friends, I would look at the menu to see what I was going to eat. I’d go to any restaurant anywhere and say I would like a grilled chicken, fish or steak and a side of asparagus and broccoli.” They’ll make it exactly as you want it. You don’t even have to look at the menu. You can say, “I would like this.”
A hundred percent of the time, even in Rocky Point, Mexico. My wife and I like to travel and the restaurants are always accommodating. The magic words I use are, “I’m on a restricted diet. I’d like to order.” They don’t know why you’re on a restricted diet, if you have food allergies, if you are on medication, if you have some issues or if you’re for weight loss or whatever. Those are the magic words and they’re like, “Tell me what you’d like to order.”
That, ladies and gentlemen, is how we abandon what we shouldn’t eat in favor of what we should eat. I love it. It’s all about trade-offs and that’s what abandonment is. We all have options about what we can eat and too many options. You need to hone it down on what you need to focus on. Thank you, David. Lastly, vision. A lot of times, I can remember growing up and I’d be like, “Somebody is a visionary. They must be super smart, touched or out there. My dad was like, “Tracey, vision is nothing more than seeing what needs to be done and then doing it.” Can you share with us what vision means for you, David, how did you have your wake-up call? How did you incorporate that into your continuing vision?
My wake-up call came in July of 2016 at the age of 61 when my doctor told me, based on being overweight in my lab results, that I had a 95% chance for a heart attack. Normally being in the 95 percentile is a good thing, unless it’s a death sentence. With that hanging over my head, I did something and took action. During the next four months, I shed 50 pounds and I’ve kept it off. That’s the important thing because most people can lose weight and very few will keep it off. It’s changing your eating habits, your lifestyle and making adjustments. That was what was important to me.
I started researching books from the 1970s that I had because I was always fit and trim like most people. However, life gets in a way, like family obligations, work responsibilities, stop working out and stop eating good. I started going through the drive-thru and ordering fast foods, frozen meals and pizza. Before you knew it, the weight crept up. I read the books from the ‘70s by Paul and Patricia Bragg, Jack LaLanne, Richard Simmons and I started reading the current books. That’s when I realized there is a lot of misinformation out there because the current books were promoting their products or programs.
I went back to the older books and that was the basics. That’s what I wanted to teach people. There are nine principles in the latest book that I wrote, Break the Chains of Dieting. People were looking to say, “That’s all common sense.” I said, “Exactly. We all know what to do. We just don’t do it.” This gives reasons why you should do it. That was my vision to help others reduce weight in a healthy way, improve their overall health, have more energy, feel and look better and that’s what I want to do for others so they don’t feel like I did to have the risk of dying early. I have a lot of things I want to do. For example, in June 2022, I’m going to hike Mount Kilimanjaro. I set my goal and I’m doing it at age 90 because I met Anne Lorimor, who has the world record at age 89 as the oldest person to do it. I told her I wanted to beat her record at age 90.
The number one principle for healthy weight loss and healthy eating is to drink more water.
David, we’ve covered loneliness, weariness, abandonment and vision. Anything else you would like to share with our leaders while they’re reading about leading yourself towards greater health and a more tremendous life?
Being a leader and showing others what you’re doing, one of the things you can do is the latest book came out, Break the Chains of Dieting. It’s got a lot of stories in there and they’re not success stories of other people. They are stories with life lessons and those life lessons are applied to eating healthy. However, those lessons can be applied to all aspects of your life. A lot of people liked the stories. There are also nine principles, such as drinking more water and eating less. I tell people how to reduce their portion sizes and eat slower. “I know how to eat slower. I’ll show you how to eat slower.”
It’s in the book. It’s not only what to do. It’s also how to do it. There are some analogies and fables. There is a lot of great information. It’s entertaining. I wanted people to be entertained with it and to implement the information to improve their overall health and their own lives. Maybe they don’t need the book or they know someone that does. It makes a great gift that they want to help someone else improve their overall health.
We’ve all been through it and maybe we need it or not but knowing your timeless truths, we all need to know that and be reminded of that. Even though you know in your head, you hear all these other things. You need people like you to come alongside and remind them, “This is the way to help and it hasn’t changed.” That’s something new in 2022 that, all of a sudden, we’re going to physically process stuff differently. David, where can people pick up your book? How do people get in touch with you?
They can go to the website, which is BreakTheDietChains.com. They can order the book there and they can reach out to me. I’m happy to answer questions through emails.
Do you coach people? Do you do webinars? How can people learn more about how they can lead their way to health in 2022?
I do coach people if someone is interested in private coaching and gets an accountability partner. One good thing about the book is I do teach people how to get an accountability partner and what to do through it. They don’t need to hire me as a coach. As much as I would love to help people, my time is valuable too. If they can do it on their own and save some money, that’s even better. I’m not in it to make a lot of money from people. I’m here to help people, educate them and show them not only what to do but how to do it.
It’s based on their likes and dislikes so it’s not a hardcore set of things like, “You must do these certain things. You have to have white sodas and diet soda, highly processed foods or manufactured foods.” I explain how to read nutritional fact labels so they understand what they’re putting in their bodies. I’m not a purist. I tell people, “You don’t have to be perfect.” One of the stories is about an airplane pilot. If you go from Los Angeles to New York or vice versa, you’re off 1 degree or you’re off 150 miles. Most planes are autopilot.
The plane is always adjusting 90% of the time. Think of your weight loss journey or health journey as being corrected all the time. If you go off track, get back on track. Don’t beat yourself up. It’s a positive message. It’s not a negative or a harsh message. It’s there to reaffirm and reinforce your positive aspects. Focus on the positive. What I learned in doing research for the book is 80% of our thoughts are negative. Can you imagine if our thoughts were 80% positive each day? I teach people how to switch the mindset from negative to positive.
David, thank you so much. As far as leadership and your definition of wanting to help others, you epitomized leadership. You’re paying the price of leadership for yourself and you’re modeling it so other people can look at you as a beacon and be inspired. Thank you.
Thank you, Tracey. I appreciate being a guest and having me out to help share the message.
I’m excited that we’re connected and reading each other’s books. I look forward to many more tremendous interactions, David.
Thank you.
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About David Medansky
I help people lose weight when they don't believe they can.
Please see additional comments under my Recommendations section. I am humbled by what others say about my work. I hope to leave the same impressions with you.
"Here's the great thing - he focuses on getting you laser focused, cutting you through all of the clutter and inspiring you to produce outcomes!"
"He lost the weight and kept it off. He has helped others do the same and he can help you too."
It's something of a rarity these days to find someone who so passionately serves and connects with the people that they are responsible for, however, David would definitely be one of those!"