When I was a kid, I could eat anything and stay skinny as a rail. But once I hit my late teens, I started to...ahem...fill out. I am short, and have a small frame. 5 pounds on me LOOKS like 5 pounds. By the time I hit my mid-twenties, I'd gone from a wiry 95lbs to a sturdy, puffy 140lbs, most of it around my middle.
Thing is, I was anything but a junk-food junkie. Sure, I ate some "fun food" now and then, but for the most part my diet was low fat, lacto-ovo vegetarian. I ate eggs, low-fat dairy, and lots of whole grain pasta and bread. I religiously checked nutrition labels, selecting foods that fit the high-fibre, low-fat criteria that the media and the health community assured me would guarantee good health and a trim waistline. Butter, to me, was the Antichrist in spreadable form. Still, the weight kept coming.
I read diet books like they were sacred tomes, and tried everything I could find to get the weight off. I cut calories. I went even lower in fat. I worked out like a maniac, spending a good hour running my butt off - or trying to - on treadmills. Slowly, my weight crept down - to 130lbs, where it stubbornly decided to set up house. Nothing I did could budge that number any lower. I gave up, deciding that I was just genetically destined to be a bit pudgy.
Then, I quit smoking. Terrified of gaining more weight, I hit the internet and stumbled upon a low-carb message board. Why not? I'd tried everything else, after all. And since I was back to eating meat (I just never felt well without it), it seemed doable. Even though it went against everything I'd read about what constituted a healthy diet, I gave it a shot.
Fast forward a year and a half to the present. Today, I am 113lbs, the lowest weight of my adult life. I broke almost every rule of healthy eating along the way - I eat lots of red meat, almost no fibre, very little fruit. Most days, my diet falls anywhere between 65-85% fat, most of which comes from animal products (like the formerly dreaded butter). I discovered, about a year ago, that I have an intolerance to gluten - so anything with wheat, rye, barley and other cereal grains not only makes me inflate like a puffer fish, but makes me ill and will eventually, if I continue eating it, lead to an autoimmune disease and other health problems. My hay-fever, acne, and a host of other issues have completely vanished. I don't count calories, I don't spend an hour on the treadmill, and I've never, ever felt healthier in my life.
Having a healthy body and mind means that you have to know what foods work and don't work for you. Having a healthy business isn't much different. In both cases, you have to know your Essential Message - what makes you different. Only when you know your true differentiation, and apply it throughout all of your messaging, can your marketing efforts - and your business - really succeed.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it: Some smart person once defined insanity as doing the same things over and over again, and expecting a different result. Where have you been spinning your wheels? Find one area of your business that's been lagging, and try something completely different. Examine your current marketing efforts - are they based on your true differentiation? Do you know your true differentiation, what REALLY sets you apart from everyone else out there?
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