When I was 30, I tried my best to be good at golf. I golfed twice weekly and even hired a pro in Lake Tahoe who played with me daily for a week. By the time I was 40, I realized it was a losing cause, so I put my clubs in storage.

Then, I retired from practice and thought I'd try to retry to master the game. Isn't that what we are supposed to do when we retire?

It didn't take too long before the clubs were back in storage.

Me giving up golf is why you're reading this. Instead of living a life of frustration on the golf course, I spend my golf time researching, writing, and coaching.

I am a much better teacher than a golfer, and there is no greater joy than seeing a client become the person they desire to be.

Anyway, I bring up golf to tell this story.

One day, I was golfing with a man in his eighties. He was 86, I remember correctly because my memory has yet to become an unreliable narrator.

He kicked my butt all over that golf course. Once we hit the 19th hole, we sat and had a beer. I asked him his secret to being proficient at the game at his age. Remember, I was 30, and he was 86, and I had pros teaching me this game at great expense.

What he told me that day still rings in my mind.

He said:

I knew right there and then why I was so bad at golf. I am an ex-football defensive tackle.

Side note: My high school team went undefeated and won the Division 1 Northern California Championship.

When you watch a football game, look at those big guys on the defensive side of the ball, hurtling themselves toward the quarterback, trying to take the quarterback's head off. I'll bet you that not one of those guys can cross their legs while sitting. Neither can I. But I have short legs. 🤣

Anyway, I have never forgotten what my golfing companion told me.

To become more flexible, I enrolled in a year-long course taught by the Olympic Doctor of the Year, who taught doctors how to be sports doctors. Part of that course was how he taught Olympians how to stretch.

I absorbed his stretching techniques, and after years of practicing them, I made a pamphlet on stretching for my patients.

I never became as flexible as I would have liked. Don't get me wrong; I was more flexible but have never become as flexible as that 86-year-old man.

Then, one day, probably about twenty-five years ago, in my forties, I bought a beginner yoga VHS. I started practicing the poses on the tape and had a spiritual experience. My whole life changed. Anyway, this is not a course on spirituality. It's about optimizing your hormones and weight.

Instead of teaching you how the top athletes stretch, I'll do that later in the program because it's still an excellent way to become more flexible. During the weight loss portion of the program, I want to keep exercise minimal. A short yoga session will help you optimize your hormones and weight.

Yoga calms the spirit, which calms your hormones, primarily cortisol. Elevated stress elevates cortisol, and elevated cortisol will prohibit you from optimizing your hormones and weight.

Yoga also builds muscle, essential to shaping your body and maintaining your healthy, happy, bottom, ideal weight.

THE FIFTEEN-MINUTE YOGA ROUTINE

I do yoga twice a week, but I should do it daily. I like to do yoga in a class because the poses are different each time, making it more exciting. I also do Pilates and balancing yoga classes. I strength train thrice a week and do aerobics twice a week. My goal each week is to do seven workouts at a minimum. Someday, when you are as old as I am, you'll understand why so much activity is necessary.

These one-hour strenuous yoga classes are not allowed during Phase One of HOPE. If you are new to HOPE, I'll explain why strenuous exercise is prohibited below.

Here are the benefits of a short fifteen-minute yoga session during Phase One of HOPE.

• Improved flexibility, strength, balance, and posture
• Reduced stress, anxiety, depression, and chronic pain
• Better sleep
• Pain Relief
• Improved Bowel Movement
• Weight loss

PHASE ONE EXERCISE PROTOCOL

While losing weight in your third act, this is how I would approach exercise.

1. During the first third of your weight loss journey, I would stroll.
2. During the second third of your weight loss journey, I would add 15-minute yoga sessions.
3. During the last third of your weight loss journey. I would add the four-minute workout.​

To avoid confusion, here is an example of my exercise protocol while on a journey of losing 30 pounds.

• During the first 10 pounds of weight loss, do the strolling protocol.
• During the next 10 pounds, continue strolling and add yoga.
• During the last 10 pounds, stroll, do yoga, and add the four-minute workout.

Below is a YouTube video of a fifteen-minute beginner yoga session designed for hormone and weight optimization.

WHY STRENUOUS EXERCISE IS PROHIBITED

Remember to lose weight in your "Third Act" of life; you cannot exercise strenuously.

• Strenuous exercise elevates cortisol.
• Elevated cortisol causes stored blood sugar to be released.
• Elevated blood sugar causes insulin to be released.
• Elevated insulin switches you from fat-burning to fat-storing.
• Being in a fat-storing state causes metabolic disease.
• Metabolic disease is what will most likely cause our death.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR REFERRALS

I don't look at this as a job or even a career. I am retired. I just love seeing you transform the way you look and feel.

I am really good at helping people transform, and as you know, golf is not my game. Seeing your pre- and post-pictures is like getting a hole in one. I'd love to get a hole in two or even three while playing golf.

I'd love to talk to your friends and family about the program. All you have to do is set up a three-way text to introduce me, and I'll take it from there.

You will receive a free month of maintenance care for each referral that enrolls.

Again, thank you for your referrals.

Here is your 15-minute beginner yoga video for improved

flexibility, hormones, and weight.

​

​15-MINUTE BEGINNER YOGA YOUTUBE VIDEO​

🧘🏻‍♀️ 🧘🏽‍♂️ The Macs

We took our local children and grandchildren to a hibachi restaurant to celebrate our son-in-law's birthday. That's one of our daughters, one of our grandchildren, and one of our sons-in-law in the background, not the one who was having a birthday.