The Ridiculously Big Salad prologue

In case you haven’t figured it out by now, I am infatuated with both Dr. Jason Fung and Amanda Rose, PhD. I am a sapiosexual and the two of them have *very* sexy brains; in addition, they’re two of the most inspirational people I know. I credit them with literally saving my life: Dr. Fung taught me when to eat and Amanda taught me what to eat, so together they provided the motivation and inspiration that launched my journey from fat, weak and sick to trim, strong and healthy.

I’ve known Amanda online for about a decade and was privileged to meet her in person over the holiday season in 2019, when we went out to eat and both ordered identical ridiculously big salads.

(Just as an aside, who else but a bear would ask you what day was an eating day for you before choosing the day to meet up? Amanda did!
Something similar happened to me last weekend, when a bear arranged a kayaking trip with another bear and myself and suggested lunch and I said they could eat, but I’m fasting.
Bears just *get* it.)

Back to the point of this post, having read much of her writing and watched many of her videos even years before she founded ELAB, I’ve always found Amanda to provide good motivation and true inspiration. But *nothing* comes close to the prologue to the Ridiculously Big Salad book (cue Sinéad O’Connor singing “Nothing Compares 2 U” in the background).

As someone who was losing my ability to walk, the strong motivational words from this confident woman touched me more deeply than I could possibly express.

But I tried; on October 28, 2019, I posted the following to the ELAB group on Facebook:

If you haven’t read it yet, you really need to read the prologue to the new book: https://eatlikeabear.com/prologue/

I just reread it, probably the ninth or tenth time, and it always makes me cry.

This is what happened to me during my first fast. Those of you who have been following me here know this. I began feeling below my knees as the neuropathy and lymphedema healed, just a few days in, then tried walking in my yard with one of my cats, then expanded to walking in pastures with the both of them, and my WHOLE LIFE CHANGED.

My life went from one in which my future had a long list of things I’d never be able to do again to a real future, knowing even those things I couldn’t do *yet* would be real again.

Every single NSV blew me away; they still do; both the history of how much has changed and the little ones that occur nearly every day.

Saturday, Steve and I were working on my small garden, clearing up weeds for spring… when I will garden again. And he mentioned we probably should’ve started a new compost pile 3 or 6 months ago, so our current pile would be ready to get added in. And I had to remind him: 3 or 6 months ago, I was never going to garden again.

I spent most of yesterday garden planning. You guys, I gave all my gardening supplies away last year! I don’t have a hoe or a seed or even the setup I used to store seeds. Not even a book!

But now I have a future, when just a few months back, I thought the only future I could expect was a nursing home. Nope, mine will involve a beautiful garden full of greens!

Can I tell you guys the truth? I am a terribly sarcastic and cynical person. I always have been, and as my illness progressed, I got worse and worse. I’d likely have shrugged off the prologue if I’d read it 6 months ago. I wouldn’t have said anything, but I’d have had dark, bitchy and hopeless thoughts.

Now, over and over, it makes me cry. I understand. The transformation really is from the inside out.

Of course, the physical changes jumpstart it, but the psychological/mental/spiritual changes are much more profound.

I am just not the Jackie I was a few months ago, and it’s not because my bG is doing better or because I lost 20 pounds.

I am someone else entirely.

Amanda’s primary goal is the most weight loss amongst the bears in her group, so she tracks the success factors: reading the prologue is one that causes major success amongst the members.

If you have weight to lose, go on and invest ten minutes and read the prologue of the book right now. Go ahead, I’ll wait for you right here. 😉

Are you crying? I reread it for this blog post, and it must be close to the hundredth time I’ve done so, and I’m still crying; I had to take a break because I couldn’t see the keyboard to type. Maybe you can’t read your screen right now.

Over a year in, having regained my ability to walk just as Amanda did, I still find the prologue such an inspiration.

The Book!

Many have anxiously awaited the print version of the RBS book, either because they were a bit too technologically challenged to deal with the digital course or because we wanted to gift it to friends and family, some of whom are not even on Facebook.

But I have to tell you that if you are capable of downloading (and finding it on your phone or PC after doing so) and reading a PDF version, if you enjoy powerful and educational videos from women motivational speakers, and if you want to make use of the numerous PDF printables she includes, you don’t have to wait for the book to arrive by snail mail; you can access the Ridiculously Big Salad digital course right this very instant.

If you have difficulty finding your motivation, you will find the RBS book such an inspiration, whether you purchase it in the dead-tree version or the super-charged digital course.

And incidentally, both versions include a 6-week meal plan, weekly shopping lists (that have saved me literally thousands in groceries this past year), multiple recipes for a variety of salads and dressings, tips and tricks for batch cooking so that daily meal prep takes about 5-10 minutes, and a whole lot of Amanda to provide you inspiration for your journey.

I will not be at all surprised if you wind up as besotted as I am.

You also may end up significantly smaller. I was a good bit smaller in 12 weeks.