Making Positive and Lasting Changes
Sid Lloyd ’79 has a passion for being healthy. It’s an interest that has spilled over into his career, giving him opportunities to help others become healthy as well. As president and CEO of Lifestyle Center of America, Lloyd has seen transformations that seem nothing short of miraculous. LCA published the popular “Full Plate Diet” in early 2010, which made an appearance on several best-seller lists including The New York Times, where it stayed for three straight weeks.
How did you become interested in health?
When I was in college in 1975, I went as a student missionary to Bangladesh and assisted with surgeries in a local hospital. During my time there I was convinced that what those people really needed was preventative health care; they honestly just needed health education. With that, they could be rid of most of their treatable problems, even if we just educated them on the basics of hygiene. I came back to college passionate about public health and health education.
During this time I also taught missionary kids in a homeschool setting and decided to make my secondary focus education. I was a teacher for six years before I went into the business world. It all came full circle when I got into health for this job, which gives me the opportunity to run a business that thrives on educating people. It’s always amazing to watch how God leads and equips you for the next step in life.
Did you grow up in a family with a healthy lifestyle?
My father was an Adventist medical technician, so we grew up with traditional Adventist health values. At various times in my childhood we were vegetarian, and we even tried being vegan once. Since I was young I can’t explain why we switched back and forth so often. That’s just the way it was. But I at least understood the Adventist health message and lived it as a child.
What is the Lifestyle Center of America?
At its most basic, it’s an organization founded by a Seventh-day Adventist physician with the idea to create something similar to the sanitarium in Battle Creek, Mich. In the end, it became a sort of health resort.
We opened the business in 1996, and over time began to focus on people suffering from diabetes. When they came to LCA, we changed their eating habits, their exercise habits, and their rest habits all at once, and enforced these changes for 18 days. We saw dramatic results from this program. Folks would come to LCA hardly able to walk—in wheelchairs even—and by the end of the 18 days they would be walking several miles a day. Others would be on somewhere around 17 medications, and would leave taking only two or three.
I understand your approach is different these days. What changed and why?
I eventually became concerned about the long-term benefits of the positive results we were seeing, so we started doing research on those who had previously participated in our 18-day program. We found that after two years only 10 percent were experiencing sustained change. We had spent $44 million helping 4,000 people, and only five to 10 percent were still living the changes we’d helped them make.
This sobering realization led us to investigate what the research says about how people change their behavior. It turns out that most people most of the time change their behavior one small step at a time. While Christians are used to epiphany-based change, in general the research shows that lasting behavior is incremental, not revolutionary. This was very tough for our organization to accept culturally, but the evidence was overwhelming.
So we did away with the 18-day program. We began five-day workshops on the Full Plate Diet instead, which encourages people to slowly add fiber-rich foods into their diet. All change is self-change. For instance, we don’t serve meat at LCA, so people were vegetarian while they were there. But once they left they went back to eating meat. But if you empower people to make good choices and help them through the stages of change, then they will make lasting changes over time. A great book on this topic is “Stages of Change” by Dr. James Prochaska.
Tell me more about how the Full Plate Diet works.
The question we ask in the FPD program is, “Are you eating enough to lose weight?” Most people think they are overweight because they are eating too much. So they go on a diet that deprives them and makes them constantly hungry. Plus, diets can be expensive, depending on what kind you participate in.
The FPD has people add high-fiber foods slowly, and then start replacing low-fiber foods with high-fiber foods. Really, it’s the Adventist health message hidden in a weight-loss wrapper. Self-image is a huge motivator of human behavior, so we’ve used that fact to help people get healthy. We don’t shake our fingers in their face saying, “You’ve gotta be vegan!” We simply talk about losing weight with a high-fiber diet, and everything falls into place. Fiber is only found in plant-based food. So really, a fiber-rich diet pushes people toward vegetarianism and veganism anyway.
Have you been surprised at the book’s success?
No. I knew we had a spectacular book, and I knew the amount of work and strategy that went into creating it. It was planned to succeed.
The most common response to the FPD is, “Wow! I can do that!” Over 30 Adventist organizations, including Walla Walla University, have purchased copies of the FPD book for their employees. In May, we facilitated a pilot program for nonprofessional groups such as churches, to teach them how to run weight-loss programs using the FPD book.
What are the biggest challenges to a healthy lifestyle?
Culture. The American culture is aimed at short-term rewards and instant gratification. If we don’t see results almost immediately we give up and consider the method worthless. If it feels good, we’ll do it; if it tastes good, we’ll eat it. Our culture as Americans completely goes against a healthy lifestyle.
As president of the company, you must travel quite a bit. How do you manage a healthy lifestyle on the road?
I practice what I preach. I purchased a video recorder and am continuing to build a library of videos at common on-the-go dining places. In these videos I show people how to order items from their favorite restaurants and still eat high-fiber, tasty meals. I’ve done places like Taco Bell, Baja Fresh, and the Old Spaghetti Factory. For instance, in my Taco Bell video, I demonstrate how people can order a delicious, fiber-rich, filling meal for under $2. I’ve even done a video featuring a home barbecue, including grocery shopping. To order the videos or see other materials related to the Full Plate Diet, visit fullplatediet.org.
Last update on July 28, 2010
