A message from Jordan Rubin
When I thought about the best way to reach Americans and Canadians with the message of health and hope, I knew I had to go to the people and reach them where they live.
But where should I start the Perfect Weight America Tour 2008? For me, the answer was obvious: San Diego, a city that has held a special place in my heart ever since I lived there during a pivotal four-month stay back in 1995. You see, it was in America’s Finest City that my health started to turn 12 years ago, and I’ve never forgotten that I was a twenty-year-old college student battling a variety of health issues that nearly killed me. All this happened at a time when most young adults are just starting life.
Let me tell you—I was in bad shape. The constant battle of diseases, and illnesses that my body was continually combating weakened my digestive system. I was unable to absorb calories and nutrients that my body desperately needed to fight back. My various illnesses took a toll on my robust physique. The pounds melted off me like a snowman in the Sahara desert. I was probably 180 pounds when I attended Florida State University, but after I became sick, my weight ebbed to 111 pounds, then to 104 pounds of skin and bones. Doctors whispered to my parents to prepare themselves for the worst.
I wasn’t in a good place, to put things in a charitable light. Mom and Dad, desperate for answers, sought out seventy medical specialists and alternative practitioners around the world. They borrowed $150,000 against the equity in their home to find answers, but none were forthcoming. Over a two-year period, I probably tried 500 different treatments—gadgets, gizmos, pills, and potions. They ranged from conventional drugs like prednisone to being injected with sheep cells from embryos to consuming Chinese herbs and shark cartilage.
Despite subjecting myself to these unconventional treatments and diets, none of them worked. Then one day my father spoke on the phone with William “Bud” Keith, a self-styled nutrition expert who lived in San Diego. I don’t know how the conversation happened, but Bud Keith believed he could improve my health through nutrition that included the consumption of healthy “live” foods that were rich in vitamins, minerals, enzymes and friendly microorganisms called probiotics. Figuring I had nothing to lose, my parents and I decided I should fly out to San Diego and give Bud’s ideas a try.
My parents purchased a well-used RV so I could get around. I prepared my own meals from purchases of wild-caught fish, grass-fed beef, raw goat’s or cow’s milk in the form of fermented kefir, raw cheeses, organic fruits and vegetables, and carrot and other vegetable juices. Don’t tell anyone, but I often parked my RV overnight in the parking lot of Henry’s Farmers market in Pacific Beach so that I could be first in line to purchase the limited supply of raw dairy and wild-caught fish. I never got towed away.
Good thing, because eating those tremendously healthy foods helped me effectively manage my health, regain my strength—and pad weight to my lean frame. Over a 40-day period, I added 29 much-needed pounds and hit the scales at 150 pounds for the first time in nearly two years. After staying in San Diego for a couple of more months, I got up to 170 pounds and looked like myself for the first time in ages. I flew back to Florida with a burning desire to transform the health of others one life at a time. Within a year or so, I started Garden of Life out of my home and began writing books to help people. The Maker’s Diet, released in 2004, became a New York Times bestseller with nearly 2 million copies in print.
When I dipped my hands into the Pacific Ocean to start the Perfect Weight America Tour 2008 recently, that was a reminder that San Diego was where my health started to turn around. No matter where you are today, you can embark on a similar journey, and I hope you’ll climb aboard the Perfect Weight America bandwagon very soon.