Mike Huckabee - Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork: A 12-Stop Program to End Bad Habits and Begin a Healthy Lifestyle

PUBLISHERS NOTE: This book is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice, but as a sharing of knowledge and information from the research and experience of the author. You are advised and encouraged to consult with your health care professional in all matters relating to your health.

Copyright 2005 by Mike Huckabee

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

Hachette Book Group USA

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First eBook Edition: May 2005

ISBN: 978-1-599-95134-8

This book is dedicated to my wife, Janet, and my three adult children, John Mark, David, and Sarah, who have seen me at my best and worst and still love and support me; and to the millions of children and adults who, like me, struggle every day with the addiction of eating too much and exercising too little and who have tried to change and cried because they couldnt. Its my hope that within these pages, you will join me in the amazing discovery of regained health by putting a STOP to some bad habits and enjoying the START of healthy living.
You can, and you will!

W hen Im asked how long it took to write this book, I could say that from the time I wrote the first words until handing over the manuscript to my editors was more than a year, but the honest answer is that it took a lifetime. A lifetime of bad habits and stubbornness brought me to a crisis that would mark the end of diets and programs and lead to a change of attitude and actions that would save my life. I take full responsibility for sailing into a shipwreck and jeopardizing my very life for the love of food and the loathing of exercise, but the effort to salvage me has many heroes, a few of whom I must acknowledge.

My wife of more than thirty years, Janet, transitioned from chief critic of my bad habits to chief cheerleader for my good ones; my dog, Jet, has been willing to get up with me every morning no matter how early to go for early-morning walks or runs and was actually at my side during the writing of every single word in the text. While he didnt offer much in the form of critique to the concepts or the manuscript, his companionship was invaluable.

My personal physician, Dr. Charles Barg, and his partner, Dr. Torin Gray, were not only my physicians but also my friends as they sat me down for the talk to tell me what I had done to myself and what it was going to mean. Their candid but compassionate confrontation was the bucket of cold water that I needed to awaken me from slumber and sloth. Dr. Richard Nix, my orthopedic surgeon, not only coached and counseled me during my early attempts at exercise but also fixed me when I foolishly did too much too soon, and then gave me the green light to take my exercise to a new leveltraining to run a marathon.

Friends like Arthur (Frenchie) Boutiette introduced me to Dr. Philip Kern of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), whose expertise in metabolism and nutrition gave me the initial tools to change. He and his assistant Carolyn Bernthal, RN, a certified nutritionist and dietitian, saw beyond my title of Governor and treated me like a patient and client, cutting me no slack yet working with my insane schedule to keep me accountable.

Dawn Cook, my personal assistant, used evenings, weekends, and vacation time to type the early drafts of the manuscript, and her encouragement during the project was as helpful as the typing.

Dr. Fay Boozman, director of the Arkansas Department of Health and a close friend, helped convince me that obesity wasnt only my problem, but an epidemic disease that is killing millions of Americans and wrecking the lives of children.

My staff, especially Joe Quinn, policy director, and Chris Pyle, policy adviser for health, shared with me the vision for a Healthy America, starting with the launch of our states Healthy Arkansas Initiative.

Dick Dresner, my political consultant, pollster, and personal friend, convinced me to take my experience and share it in book form, and then introduced me to Margret McBride, my agent, who believed in me and believed in 12 STOPS and, along with a great staff at the McBride agency, pushed it to potential publishers.

Rolf Zettersten, my publisher at Time Warner, has been terrific in shepherding this project from concept to completion and has assembled an absolutely brilliant and genuinely professional team of editors, especially Christina Boys, to make the book much better than I could have.

J. P. Francour, who chairs the Governors Council on Fitness, has been a godsend, coming over early in the morning on numerous occasions to teach me exercise techniques; his patience is amazing. Geneva Hampton and Gena Marchesse, who operate the Little Rock Marathon, actually talked me into training for the challenging 26.2-mile hilly course, something I would have thought impossible.

The people of Arkansas, my beloved state, have been wonderful and supportive, giving me encouragement at every turn with their kind comments, their affirmation, and the kind of heartfelt support that makes me the most fortunate governor in the nation!

I n November 2003, President George W. Bush visited Little Rock for a luncheon speech. As is the case with most presidential visits, his appearance was front-page news the following day. The report included a full-color photograph of the president pointing me out in the crowd and calling me Skinny.

Having the president of the United States call me Skinny in front of a large hometown crowd is nice enough, but having it written in the states largest newspaper is truly the icing on the cakeeven though I dont eat cake anymore!

The president never would have made that statement when he was in Arkansas in November 2002. He had come for the elections and to make a campaign appearance for my reelection bid as governor of Arkansas. That day he certainly didnt call me Skinny, because that was a hundred pounds ago for me.

I cant promise that the front page of your local newspaper will tell your story or that the president of the United States will point you out in a crowded room and call you Skinny, but I can promise that if you faithfully follow the simple, practical, and doable advice you will get in this book, you will be well on your way to what you may have thought would never happenhealth and fitness, adding years to your life and a new burst of energy you thought went away somewhere near the time of your senior prom.

If you are one of those people who is looking to lose five or ten pounds before heading off to your class reunion next month, this book wont hurt you. But if your eating habits might well explain the food shortage and hunger problem in third-world countries, this book will teach you how to stop abusing foodand yourself.

I dont ever recall setting a goal to be overweight, but I sure succeeded in getting there!

I went to my doctor, and the diagnosis was fairly simple: Youre fat. Thinking that a bit blunt, I responded, Maybe I need a second opinion. To which he replied, Okay, youre ugly, too.

Frankly, I didnt need a doctor telling me that I was approaching the weight of a cement truck. I knew that every time I tried to squeeze into one of the hideously designed aircraft seats in coach or forced myself into a booth in a restaurant where my stomach pressed into the table. Overweight people dread theater seats and especially stadium seats, designed by people with the rear end of a fashion model instead of the rear end of a tractor-trailer rig. Being offered a chair as a guest in a home involves surveying it to determine if its strong enough to support the weight of two adults, even though only one adult will actually be attempting to sit there.