Jorge Cruise says he himself lifts weights only eight minutes in the morning. Program helps local women win the losing battle Jorge Cruise says clients who have incorporated his strategies for countering "emotional eating" have tripled their success rate in his "8 Minutes" program. Kim Magaña of Silver Lake and Lynnette Perkins of Bothell are two of them. Each saw Cruise last year when he appeared on the KOMO-TV show "Northwest Afternoon." Inspired by an offer to be trained personally by Cruise, they filled out 10-page applications and were two of 10 people chosen from among 1,200. Since last July, Magaña, 32, has lost 22 pounds. She wants to lose another 10 or 15 but already is back playing soccer, and she's thinking about trying a triathlon this summer. "It's easy, actually fun," Magaña said recently. "I really enjoy the exercises." To get the most of those eight minutes in the morning, she found it's important to use the right weight — "by the eighth repetition, you're really feeling it." She struggles with the preparation needed to stick with the diet, but notes that "When I plan, I do really well." She's identified her emotional-eating weakness as boredom. "I have to find things to keep me busy during that time, going online (to www.jorgecruise.com) to find support or doing extra exercise." Perkins, 52, has lost 41 pounds and, incredibly, 44 inches. "I lost it in places where I'd never really thought I'd lost much," she said, "in my hips and my butt, places I figured I was stuck with for the rest of my life," especially after menopause. She brought her significant other of 22 years, Bob Bergstrom, along on the program, and he's lost close to 40 pounds. After seeing the impact of portion control, Perkins embraced weighing and measuring her food. "I'm always hungry, but that's nothing new," Perkins says. She's learned not to immediately feed her hunger pangs, and to keep prepared snacks in one of her major venues of weakness, her car. And she can utter words that are, unfortunately, so unusual for women to feel, not to mention express: "I am very, very happy with what my body is looking like right now." Perkins and Magaña have started an "8 Minutes in the Morning" support group that meets at 7:30 p.m. the first and third Tuesday of each month at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park (17171 Bothell Way N.E.).

JORGE CRUISE zeroes in on three keys to weight loss in his best-selling book, "8 Minutes in the Morning" ($14.95, HarperCollins).

One key is a strength-training approach that gives the book its name: Two exercises done each morning, four sets of 12 repetitions each, done with a weight heavy enough that you can just complete those 12. With only eight minutes, it's hard to find excuses to not exercise, which helps people gradually develop a consistency along with more lean muscle. More muscle boosts the metabolism, burning more calories not only when exercising but throughout the day.

Another component of Cruise's plan is a diet that controls portions and emphasizes filling foods, such as healthful fats, complex carbohydrates and vegetables, plus lots of water. All are checked off on easy-to-follow sheets that fit inside a checkbook or day planner.

The third and perhaps most important key is recognizing what Cruise describes as "self-sabotage" — eating for emotional reasons instead of true hunger. The new paperback edition of "8 Minutes in the Morning" adds a chapter on eliminating this "emotional eating."

"People could do eight hours of exercising, but it won't matter if they sabotage themselves by eating when emotional," Cruise said when we talked by phone recently. "Basically, you feel a void or a pain, and use food kind of like a drug to fill up the void, the emptiness. If we continue to do that, I can guarantee absolute failure to everyone who doesn't identify the source of the problem."

Cruise outlines three steps for eliminating emotional eating:

1) Identify the emotion.

2) Identify the opposite emotion.

3) Create a new plan to invoke this opposite emotion more in your life.

For example, let's say I determine that I eat when I'm lonely. The opposite emotion, Cruise says, is "connection" — that's what I've actually been craving. Then I must figure out what could happen for me to feel more connections in my life, and develop a plan to make it happen.

Though he's certified by respected groups (the American College of Sports Medicine, the American Council on Exercise), Cruise doesn't start with their exercise recommendations, such as 30 or more minutes of cardiovascular exercise five days a week, and comprehensive strength training three days a week. "That is nice to say, like it's nice to say we should brush our teeth after every meal, but it's not practical for the majority of the people today. God bless the people who have an hour a day to exercise."

Yet Cruise also doesn't contend that his program is everything one needs to be fit or healthy. "I'm not a fitness guru," he said. "My goal is to maintain that weight loss." Once clients begin to lose weight and gain strength, he encourages power walking, 20 minutes plus warm-up and cool-down, at least three times a week. "If they can do it every day, I would love it."

Other recent books of note:

"Wear and Tear" by Bob Arnot ($25, Simon & Schuster). The well-known TV medical correspondent and M.D. shares the program he developed to deal with his own arthritis, including how to pinpoint biomechanical flaws and other ways your body is working against you, use pain killers and nutritional supplements, and do yoga and strengthening exercises.
 
"The Ultimate Body" by Liz Neporent ($14.95, Ballantine). The author of "Fitness for Dummies" presents 10 workouts for women: for beginners, weight loss, abdominals, leg and butt, upper body, strength, gym, stretching, mind-body and travel.

"The Slow Burn Fitness Revolution" by Fredrick Hahn, Michael Eades and Mary Dan Eades ($25, Broadway Books). A workout that uses light weight and slow-motion strength-training movements — 100 seconds to complete three repetitions — to build strength in just one 30-minute workout per week.

"The Men's Health Home Workout Bible" ($19.95, Rodale) has 400-plus pages with more than 400 exercises and four full-body workout programs (body weight, dumbbell, barbell, multi-station) for beginning, intermediate and advanced exercisers, plus custom training plans for different needs, buying advice for equipment and guidelines for setting up a home fitness center.

"Matt Roberts Fat Loss Plan" ($15, DK Publishing) offers daily diet and exercise recommendations and options for 56 days, including some recipes.

In "Work It Out" ($16.95, Avery Trade Paperbacks), dancer, choreographer and fitness pro MaDonna Grimes presents a fitness program designed especially for African-American women and their own physiques. Hip-hop and Afro-Latin dance moves, weight training, stretching and nutrition are included.

"The Body Sculpting Bible for Abs" by James Villepigue ($14.95, Hatherleigh) has both a men's and women's edition, each with a 14-day ab-sculpting workout.

"Get on the Ball" by Lisa Westlake ($14.95, Marlowe & Co.) is a 6-inch-square book with more than 90 exercises using one of those big exercise/stability balls.

"Ski Flex" by Paul Fredianai and Harald Harb ($14.95, Hatherleigh Press) offers a program to help first-timers or regular weekend skiers with pre-ski stretches, on-ski warm-ups, balance training drills, ski-specific strength exercises, flexibility boosters and year-round conditioning.

"Climbing: Training for Peak Performance" by Clyde Soles ($18.95, The Mountaineers Books) suggests training programs for rock, alpine and high-altitude training, with chapters on nutrition, mental and flexibility training, and aerobic and strength conditioning.

"Mall Walking Madness" by Sara Donovan ($16.95, Rodale) includes an eight-week program to ease into a walking routine, accompanying weight-loss program, and special chapters for mothers new and to-be and for people with arthritis. Donovan is president of WalkSport America, the largest mall-walking club in America.

Molly Martin is assistant editor of Pacific Northwest magazine. She can be reached at 206-464-8243, mmartin@seattletimes.com or P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111.

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