In May of 2005 I was approaching my 50th Birthday. After a 40 year run of being fit, lean, strong and seriously active including sailing in two America’s Cups, other World class sailing regattas, the NY marathon, rowing, surfing, swimming so on, the past few years had not followed that same pattern…..I was getting older, heavier, less fit, loosing muscle mass, and so strength, and energy to boot. My view of myself was on the line here. I was bound and determined to not be 250 lbs. when I hit 50. (I weighed in at 180lbs. on the morning of the NY marathon in 1984).
Well I did make it-I turned 50 weighting about 230lbs., but boy what a grind. I felt like I lived at the gym. I was swimming sometimes a mile and a half a day, lifting weights & running and all this consumed about 4 hours a day in 2 and sometimes 3 different sessions. I felt great or at least much better than I had in a few years but the pace was just not sustainable.
After I backed off going to the gym, my weight started to creep up again. Regardless of what I ate or did not eat, I just could not stop putting on weight. By Christmas of 2008, I was back up to, and well past 250, nudging up against 260 and on my last belt loop. I needed a better plan. Fortunately as things sometimes work out, I found what I was looking for.
Down the street from my office was a small space with a sign in the window promoting something about healthy shakes. I had the habit of passing by it on my post dinner evening walks (Plan D in my weight management universe) but it was closed at that time of night of course. I looked in at the window a few times and it seemed inviting so I kept making mental notes to pull in one day as I drove by but the location was awkward to pull into by car unless you were focused on the drive way so it took me a few days to actually remember before I had driven past.
That drive way has literally changed my l life.
My typical diet during this period was a coffee or Chai with a bagel from Dunkin Donuts on my way to work, a coffee in the mid morning, Subway sandwich or super market salad bar salad for lunch with another coffee. Hey I was eating healthy salad right, I should be losing weight-But I was not. Not only was I gaining wt I was tired, lethargic, and generally just not interested-Just going through the motions. A condition that was obviously unsustainable for all manner of reasons.
On a sunny day in early Jan 2009 I finally managed to pull into the Daily Shake parking lot, for that was the place’s name. There was a bar at the far end, an obvious office space near the door, posters promoting various healthy things, all emblazoned with the Herbalife name. So this had something to do with Herbalife obviously. Now I did not really know Herbalife apart from the occasion when a fellow I worked with in about 1985 came into the office one day all lit up with a bag of tablets and wanted us all to “get on a program”. Not. And I had been to an Amway presentation in the 70’s and it seemed like the same kind deal, and I had been strongly recruited for the Amway thing but was not interested then, or now but I had thicker skin these days so I hung about. The pleasant and low key young lady behind the bar welcomed me-I was the only customer and we chatted for a bit about what shake I might have. In the process I asked her about the shop, Herbalife, what this place was and so on-all very cordial and low key.
Now my mental take on Herbalife was something like a bunch of retired Hippies sitting about in the hot tub in Sonoma County somewhere mashing up tea leaves for the local farmer’s market. Wrong.
She presented me with a warm cup of tea then a largish, recyclable as it turns out, container full of a thick smoothie like drink, perhaps chocolate-I forget precisely the flavor. It certainly tasted pretty good and was very filling.
It actually took me about an hour to get through it. The lasting effect of that meal replacement shake was simply amazing for me. I completely stormed though what I called the 2 o’clock nod off’s, that early afternoon time after lunch when I felt like a nap. This day I got through more business, calls, emails and what have you that day than I had all week, or the weeks prior. I remember getting home and having way more energy than any time in recent memory. It was truly amazing. Not surprising I went back the next day for a rematch.
The same thing happened the next day- same shake & tea and same results.
That evening I did what any self respecting consumer would do these days and I Google’d Herbalife. Well, far from being a bunch of retired hippies, I discovered one of the most vibrant and successful companies on the planet. In short
- 29 years in business
- Publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange since 2004
- Approaching 4 billion in sales at the time (heading for 5 as I write)
- Active in then about 72 countries (78 today)
- Approaching 70 million customers world wide
- Serious science behind the products
Now I don’t know about you but leading edge kinda stuff is always interesting to me and these Herbalife guys seemed to be seriously leading edge. I was intrigued.