The biggest part of the transformation left out of the video is the dietary/nutritional change Arthur made as part of his embrace of DDP Yoga/Yoga for Regular Guys.
The original YRG guide makes a couple of dietary suggestions about constraining carbs, and some commercial diet programs that were working for YRG practitioners, but when Arthur connected with DDP over e-mail, DDP laid out the three phases of the DDP Yoga eating plan: Phase One is pretty moderate, mostly about cutting carbs and increasing lean protein, good fats and greens, and is enough for most folks to see good results; Phase Two is more structured, getting into the gluten-free and non-GMO push; Phase Three is more structured still, getting into timed eating, and further calorie control, along the lines of professional athletic training tables.
According to DDP, Arthur skipped Phases One and Two, and went straight to Phase Three, cold turkey. I think Arthur would be the first to admit that was hard, but the contrast to his former habits (and continuing correspondence/support with DDP) helped keep him on track.
Update 26 June 2016: As I’ve dug into the history of DDP Yoga more and more, I’ve found out a couple relevant things:
- At the start of his journey, Arthur was already a vegetarian, so removing gluten and dairy from his existing diet should have been a major challenge, but Arthur made a habit of both logging his entire dietary intake, and then sharing that with DDP over e-mail. After getting the Phase Three outline from DDP, Arthur replied with four simple, yet powerful words: “I CAN DO THIS.” Not that he would try, or that it seemed like a lot to ask, but just simple, straightforward commitment.
- Arthur ramped up his practice of YRG pretty quickly, as he lost weight, and regained strength and flexibility, moving from three to four to five days a week in short order, then going to working out twice a day. Even now, after losing all the weight (and avoiding the knee surgery he’d originally wanted to lose weight for), he still practices every day, and teaches DDP Yoga and other forms (including pre-natal!) in his “free” time. Speaking of which…
- If you want an example of a dedicated person, you’d have a hard time finding a better example than Arthur Boorman - not just with his involvement with DDP Yoga (and the success he realized from it), but in his over a decade of Army service as a paratrooper and combat engineer, until being medically discharged after getting injured in Desert Storm, and in his on-going work as a high school special education teacher, tutor and case manager - an occupation that takes up about 70 hours a week. Arthur always says he “just followed the program” and that’s true, but I think most of us would struggle to completely follow Arthur’s example. Luckily, we can probably fall a little short of it, and still see really good results.
