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Christian Book Previews' editor, Debra Murphy, interviewed Ted Haggard about his book, The Jerusalem Diet:

 

CBP:  You're the pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs and you’re writing is highly recognized by the mainstream media and president of the National Association of Evangelicals, correct? How did you come to Christ?

Ted: I was born-again at F2-72 in Dallas, Texas on Tuesday night when Bill Bright spoke and so I was raised a Presbyterian but never heard the gospel.  A Southern Baptist Group took me to F2 72 and that’s the first time I heard it with clarity.

CBP:  Why a diet book?

Ted: Because the church is too fat.  And all of us; it’s part of our lifestyle.  I mean, we love eating, we love social events and at social events we always eat, and church events we always eat.  So I have a burden and a concern for people to be able to fulfill God’s perfect plan for their life, and you just can’t do it when you don’t feel good.  

So the way it started it was, I developed it as a plan for senior pastors because senior pastors travel a lot and they’re under pressure, they’re in people’s homes, they can’t choose their own diet largely.  To have a regularly scheduled exercise program is out of the question.  You just can’t do it.  And the larger and larger your church gets the more unpredictable your schedule becomes.  And so my first time to teach it publicly – we did it with our own team and our church leadership team just looks fabulous, but we’re not pretty-boy types, we’re not TV, excessive makeup, hairspray types.  We’re not body builder types.  

CBP:  Real people got healthier.

Ted: Real people, just common people just look good, felt good that kind of thing.  So then I was invited to speak at a banquet for one of our denominations in the NAE; the National Pastor’s Banquet.  They had not given me a subject, and so I got there and I was sitting beside the president of the denomination and I said, “What do you want me to speak about?”  And he said, “Well, look around the room.”  And I did and I thought everybody looked fine.  But he said, “Look again.”  And I realized that every single person – and this is a Pentecostal denomination, I mean, these guys really love life.  Every single person in the room was fat.  So I taught it on the condition that he would let me come back the next year.  So taught this system and I came back the next year and they talked about how easy it was, how simple it was, how they’re down in suit sizes, how some of them didn’t have diabetes any more, some were feeling so much better than they felt in decades.  So that’s what it is.  It’s a very simple, easy system.  And what’s unique about it is mainstream medical doctors love it.  The people recommending that book more than any other single group are physicians.

CBP:  You do pretty much start with a disclaimer that says, “I’m not an MD, I’m a pastor, but this is real life.”

Ted:  Well, I’m a pastor, I’m not claiming to be a nutritionist or anything, but I’m saying what all the nutritionists say and what the doctors say; however, I’m giving a plan for it.

And no products to sell.  So you don’t have to go to GNC or a website and get stuff unless you want to.  We have made an arrangement with a website now to offer products to people, but it’s not required for the diet.

CBP:  When I carry this book around a lot of people leaned over and wanted to see what I’m reading and what’s different about that book.  So tell us what’s so different about it.

Ted: Oh, what’s different about it is you don’t have to focus your entire life on your nutritional plan and your exercise plan in order to be healthy and pretty fit.  

CBP:  Without any guilt or starvation.

Ted:  Well, there’s guilt associated with anything but the standard, and so I’m a pastor so I live in perpetual guilt about everything – just kidding.  So there’s success with it and it’s not hard.  You don’t have to give up food you love.  You can have Big Macs and you can go to Wendy’s and Burger King and you can have – the first chapter, I think, is called “I Love Hot Fudge Sundaes.”  And so that’s what’s great about this.  This is a very slow adjustment of life style.  It’s not a radical adjustment of life style, and it only recommends that people lose one pound a week.  The difference between that and other crash diets is that people actually keep it off.  

CBP:  How did you come up with the name Jerusalem diet?  

Ted: I thought of it in Jerusalem.  I was in Jerusalem when –

CBP:  I thought maybe they had some answers that we didn’t, and when I read your book I realized that wasn’t it.

Ted: No, I just thought of it in Jerusalem.  I was there with a church tour group we were having loads of fun,  and my pants were too tight.  And that’s always the sign when you can’t get into your clothes that you could get into a few months ago and a few more notches on your belt, and then you stop tucking your shirt in and you start wearing – you know, there’s all kinds of processes that people go through.  Anyway, I thought, all my life everybody said eat fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds and drink more water.  So I did it one day and exercised just an hour of exercise.  So we went on a walk and the next day I saw immediate results.  Now all this system is, is when you’re having what we call a “fat day”, then you eat fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds and drink water that day and exercise for an hour.  So yesterday was a fat day for me.

CBP:  What feelings come over people when they’ve gone on the extreme diet and then they fall off or they gain back the weight?

Ted: They typically end up fatter.  They feel guilt, shame, they’re embarrassed.  On the Jerusalem diet I tell people not to tell anybody they’re on a diet.  And you can be on the Jerusalem diet and eat with everybody else and no one will ever notice.  Because fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds with water you can do that at a normal meal and people don’t even know.

CBP:  I think the way you explain to people that when you go on other diets, it’s as if you’ve made a huge announcement “I’m on a diet!”

Ted: There’s so much judgment when you’re setting a table and “Oh, you eat that?” or “Ohh, I can’t eat this.”  It’s just miserable.  It’s miserable for the waiter or waitress, it’s miserable for the cook, it’s miserable for the people who are trying to enjoy a meal with you.  It’s pathetic.  

CBP:  And thank you for speaking to all of that.

Ted: On Sunday I was with a man who lost 30 pounds on the Jerusalem diet.

CBP:  I was going to ask you to share some stories with us.

Ted: Everywhere.  They’re everywhere, and the people that try it love it because it’s very simple, it’s very easy.  Just like I said, I had a fat day yesterday and the way it works is you weigh yourself in the morning with a digital scale and if you’re over then that day eat fruits, vegetables, nuts and seed and water and exercise for an hour.  So yesterday – I’m 50 years old – and so yesterday I had a wonderful birthday party.  

Two days ago I went running with my buddies and we got back in the house, and we went swimming for a little bit after the run, then we put strawberries and bananas and pineapples and apples and all kinds of stuff and we loaded it into the juicer, and then we sat out in the back in the sunshine, and we drank that and ate watermelon.

CBP:  And you were probably going to get together and have something anyway, maybe break out the huge muffins or something like that, so instead it was just a choice and you had just as much fun.

Ted: The Jerusalem diet is just a slow development of a different lifestyle.  So that evening you can go to Olive Garden and have pasta.

CBP:  Do you discuss in your book about why people weigh what they do weigh?

Ted: Well, people weigh what they weigh because they eat more food than the energy that they expend.  And so you can use genetics as an excuse but it’s a shallow excuse.  It really doesn’t work.  You have to work with what your parents gave you, but you don’t have to be fat.  And the same way with environment, like if you’re from the South and there’s lots of bad foods around, the Jerusalem diet still works with all that.  

There’s a very little small number of people, way less than 1% that have the types of disorders that cause them to be huge when they eat just a little bit, but most of the people that say that don’t actually have that.  Here’s the way it works:  If you’re fit, you can eat all kinds of things and not get fat, but if you’re fat, you can eat cottage cheese and get fatter.  So in here I explain how you can walk into a restaurant and see an athlete sitting there eating pizza and pasta and drinking Coke, and he’s going to look fantastic day after tomorrow.  And then you’ll see a fat person sitting there eating a leaf of lettuce with a little pile of cottage cheese on it and that’s going to make him fatter.  So I explain all of that in the book and it gets easier and easier for people as they go along with this system.  This is the busy person’s system that doesn’t want to spend the rest of their life in a gym.

CBP:  Why does gradual change work?

Ted: Gradual change works in our weight loss because – most people in their weight gain mode – most people if they take the weight they were in college and then wherever they are now as an adult, they on average gain a pound a year; sometimes as much as two, but typically a pound a year.  Now think of that slow weight gain.  When they’re doing that their body frame adjusts to carrying that weight, their intestines adjust; everything about them adjusts.  If you go on a crash diet and lose fast, your body will fight you and you will end up losing.  

Actually, it should be one pound every two weeks for real permanent weight loss, but people get frustrated with that.  So at a pound a week, it gives your body time to adjust and reposition things.  For instance, if you want to lose 52 pounds that means a year from today you can be there.  Because you’re only losing one pound a week, so you can lose that one pound pretty easy and then go and have a Big Mac if you want it or a pizza if you want it.  If you go on a crash diet and just switch everything, you’re not going to stick with it and secondly – Atkins and some of them say no pasta, no bread and things like that – if you’re going to live life without pasta, go ahead and diet.  They say you’ll live longer if you do these kinds of things, but why would you want to?  If you can’t have apple pie or some of the great things Taco Bell produces – so my whole thing is, get your weight in line and love life!

If you’re going to take your kids to Water World, you’re going to have to have a funnel cake, but if you’re on a diet and you’re all self conscious and all that kind of stuff and you can’t have a funnel cake or an ice cream cone, that’s no fun.  So this book is the only diet book I know of that makes it so you can have a great life and a healthy body and be in shape and not go either side.  Either have to be a muscle man or a woman with huge biceps or just somebody that is really tired or craving nothing but carbs and is overweight and embarrassed about their clothes.

CBP:  This really should be downloaded on an M3P because I love your drama and you’re so motivating.  Biblically, what does the bible say about staying healthy?

Ted: The Bible says our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, so everything that God has commissioned us to do can only happen if our bodies work.  So if you can’t stay awake you can’t have a prayer life or a Bible reading life.  If you are so out of shape you can’t move, you can’t go on mission trips, you can’t go to dangerous parts of the world and spread the gospel.  You can’t go on prayer journeys; you can’t even stay alert in church unless – Any pastor knows – I stand hours and hours and hours at a time.  Sometimes you’ll see a pastor sitting during the worship service and he reads his Bible or something and it’s offensive to the worship leader and he thinks, “This guy doesn’t worship.”  It’s not that, he’s too fat.  Very often they can’t stand.  They have to stand while they’re speaking.

CBP:  If you’re back muscles aren’t strong or stomach muscles aren’t strong it’s hard to stand.

Ted: So if you want to love life at all, and, of course, enjoying nature, God’s creation.  If you want to get out and see nature and experience it and enjoy it, you’ve got to be in reasonable shape.

CBP:  You do quote some from Dr. Russell’s book about food that God created for you and not altering God’s plan.  That’s a good point to really come back to taking care of what God gave you.

Ted: Dr. Russell’s book essentially says eat real food and that’s what my book says too.  So real food is just food the way it is naturally.  We’re talking nuts, seeds; we’re talking about things like that.  The more it’s processed then the fewer benefits you’re going to get from it.  

I’ll give you a good example:  Oatmeal.  You can buy 1-minute oatmeal, 5-minute oatmeal or 30-minute oatmeal, but which is best for you?  The 30-minute oatmeal is the best the 5-minute oatmeal is better than the 1-minute oatmeal.  However, some people say, “Oh, well, you should only have organic fruits and vegetables, not the ones that are in the store.”  That is not true.  It’s a continuum.  A Twinkie is worse for you than an apple from a regular grocery store.  An apple from a regular grocery store is not quite as good for you as an organic apple.  So it’s a continuum.  So I say, go to the grocery store hungry and start in the produce department and buy all the produce you want and eat it and the more you eat it, the more natural it is, the better it’s going to be for you.  However, I know that sometimes the temptation for a Hostess cupcake with the creamy center is just overwhelming.  It is perfectly alright for you if you’ve started in the produce section.

This book tells you how to shop, and it – the bottom line is, you can be busy.  You can raise your kids, you can balance your budget, you can work hard and you can do it.

CBP:  I would say you’re giving away your book, but there is so much in your book that it’s incredible.  But let me talk about fasting.  That was in the Bible too.  If I were to walk by in a bookstore and see Jerusalem Diet, I might be thinking fasting.  So is this book about fasting?

Ted: There are a few paragraphs about fasting in there but the issue with fasting is that it doesn’t help people lose weight unless you just keep going.  Because when you fast, you communicate to your body that it’s starving.  And then as soon as you start eating, it’s going to hoard.  So if you want to lose weight – on a severely restricted diet, if a person needs a crash diet, they can go on a moderate fast, but they need to eat a little something throughout the day.  For instance, if in the morning they’ll take a little V-8 Juice and then in the afternoon eat a little something, and in the evening eat a little something.  If they really need to lose a pound a day real fast for a wedding or something like that, you can do it.  If you’ll exercise, but you need to eat a little bit, maybe four or five times a day and you’ll drop weight like crazy.  Actually, I’ve thought about writing an additional book called the crash diet because some people –

CBP:  Well, you may need to write an additional book.  I know I’m not going to have time for all of my questions.  So maybe you do. Do we need to change what we keep in our home?

Ted: Sure, some people do, other people don’t, but most Americans need to have a slow transition of the types of things that are around the house.  So rather than have so many highly processed sweets, they might increase the number of fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds around the house.  

In our house, our kids don’t think a thing of reaching over and grabbing a handful of nuts and seeds and munching on them while they’re running out to jump on the trampoline.

CBP:  Then at the end of your book you have some Q & A’s, what’s that all about?

Ted: Well, I think dialogue is the best way to teach, so sometimes when I’ve taught this, we’ve done Q & A’s and some of those are in there.

CBP:  Your closing in the book:  Be nice, be loving, be sensitive, lighten up – I liked that.

Ted: I don’t think people can lose weight if they’re too serious about it.  Some of them will temporarily achieve it, but they’re not pleasant.  So this whole idea is people laugh through this book.  Most people write back saying that they laughed through the whole book, and for the first time they got enough hope to lose the pounds they need to lose.

The book is a strong advocate for Mountain Dew because I think Mountain Dew is a health drink, you know.  The number one ingredient is water, the number two ingredient is corn, and the number three ingredient is orange juice.

CBP:  That’s like when my husband goes to the movies he has to have popcorn because it’s his vegetable.

Ted: See, that kind of stuff.  It is nonsense, but it is fun.

CBP:  Truly liberation to enjoy food.

Ted: When you’re doing your fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds, see you can have corn tortillas with salsa, or you can get corn tortillas then do your vegetables.  So it’s fabulous.  When you do this you find all kinds of things, but you only have to do them on fat days.  On normal days you can eat whatever you want.

CBP:  Well, thank you for passing on this plan all packaged up in this book.