It's Tuna and Water Time, By: Dave Draper

I throw fastballs, curves and a mean change of pace, but you haven't seen my loopty loop. Get ready to duck.

The following technique is hard-core and doesn't follow the rules. Athletes-bodybuilders, in particular-practice this protein-exclusive principle to muscularize before competition. You are going to eat tuna and drink water for three straight days. Hissss… My, how quickly we lose our sense of humor.

You're cleaning house, fortifying the good habits and dismantling the bad. It's time to make a strong and definite statement before the audience that matters most. You. Take this short and tough departure for all it's worth: the test of will, a mind and body cleansing, the experience of a sudden and abrupt menu change that often initiates positive hormonal adjustment. More and more researchers are agreeing that sugar is the problem in the modern diet. Breaking the carb intake totally is good for you as you prepare for the unfolding long-term diet you're planning.

Goes like this: Choose your starting day. Psyche up. You'll be consuming water by the jugs-two to four liters a day-and one to one-and-a-half grams of protein per pound of body weight divided into six equal servings throughout the day. Back this with your vitamins and minerals two times a day, eight capsules of branch chain amino acids (key muscle-building protein) before and after your workouts, a gulp of EFA oil and a nightly portion of Metamucil for fiber.

Forget what you want, what you feel like and what you read. You are in the trenches on the front lines where you gain ground and make the difference. Your energy may dip before it rises, but your body chemistry will soon adapt. Be strong.

Incredible. We fret and agonize over our excessive body weight. We have for months or is it years? We gobble down all the fanciful diets offered by the most recent wave of experts or authorities. Asked to do the "Big One" and we fold. Well, almost. As needed grumble to yourself, but master your attitude. This harsh jump-start never fails to kick in the metabolism and set the weight tumbling.

Later in the week bring in chicken, low-fat cottage cheese and salad or your favorite steamed vegetable to fortify your menu without expanding it significantly. You're feeding the muscle. Here's a delightful bedtime snack: tuna from the can, scoop of cottage cheese and cool, clear water. Combine this with some naturally released growth hormone during your deep sleep and presto.

Live life and exercise lightly to accommodate a temporary low-calorie strength loss. Press on as the body adapts and as you become familiar and confident. This is a rigid practice to test your resolve, investigate your chemistry, break some troublesome habits and narrow ever-widening margins. It will bring you to the doorstep of the ketogenic diet where protein intake, exclusive of carbs, creates a ketone-burning system for energy.

Extreme measures…