Jason Sehorn, star cornerback for the New York Giants, suffered a severe knee injury while returning the opening kickoff in a preseason game. Usually an injury as serious as his would keep a person off the playing field for a year or more after surgery, but not so in Jason s case. Determined to return to the game as quickly as possible, he combined rigorous physical rehabilitation with an eating regimen like that of the 6-Pack Prescription. When Jason reappeared with the Giants for the 1999 season, he was a stronger, leaner, more powerful player who helped lead the team to the 2000 Super Bowl.

I wasn't ready for that injury. I had a clue that it could happen, but you never expect it. When my knee gave way, I said to myself that this was an opportunity to get better, sure, but also to get healthier. I wanted to come back better than when I left. I wanted to work out and stay strong, but I also wanted to do some things differently. So I went to the place with the best support system, and that place was with Dr. Connelly.

When I first met Doc Connelly, I was impressed by how great he looked. He's fifty, but he could pass for thirty. He's in phenomenal shape. I thought, "Boy, I hope I can look like that when I'm his age." A lot of people can tell you what to do, yet few also practice what they preach. Dr. Connelly's different. Here's a fifty-year-old man who is ripped to shreds, and if he tells me something works, I know it works. I've seen plenty of doctors in my time, but this one talked to me about nutrition and explained what he thought would get the job done, and one glance at him told me that he knew his stuff. From the moment I met him, I considered Dr. Connelly my teacher.

If you want to see changes in your body, you have to eat right and work out. You have to do both. You can't just go to the gym and work out to burn off the calories of junk you just ate-which is what many people do. I learned from Doc Connelly exactly how wrong that is. Every athlete knows how to work out, and every athlete knows how to stay in shape and run and lift. But like everybody else, athletes don't know-really know-about nutrition. Before working with Dr. Connelly, I never understood what good nutrition meant, and I certainly didn't know how important it was. I didn't know what to eat, or when. I'd eat a huge amount and then wait a long time and then eat another large amount. From Dr. Connelly, I learned to eat the right way: eat in increments, eat all day long. He taught me that if you go too long between meals, your body will start storing food because it thinks you're going to starve it. I learned to eat periodically throughout the day. I snack-but not on corn chips or carbs. I grab a nutrition bar or a shake.

I eat out a lot, and that's no problem. Dr. Connelly gave me the tools to eat out without eating wrong. I've been out with him a few times, and I've seen what he does. He'll order something on the menu, but he'll tell the restaurant staff to cook it his way. He'll see chicken with pasta and all this other stuff on the menu, and he'll say, "I want the chicken. Throw the spices on it, but take away the pasta." He doesn't say, "I'll eat around it." He says instead, "Don't even put it on the plate."

So now, at restaurants-and at home-I eat fish and chicken and other lean protein. I stay away from that bread plate that shows up before your order arrives. And I drink water; I don't drink alcohol very often; it's a subtle, weight-gain inducer.

There's no doubt in my mind that changing my nutrition has changed my game. I've worked out my whole life, but until I learned what to put in my body, I wasn't enjoying the maximum effects of those workouts.

The 6-Pack Prescription is not a diet-that's one thing Dr. Connelly has stressed to me. "Don't ever think of this as a diet," he told me. " A diet is temporary. A diet is a short-term goal. What you're doing is a lifestyle change. You're going to do something different from now on." That made sense to me. Because I wasn't going to do this only for a little while. I wanted to change. I wanted to go back to the game better than when I had left it. To get where you want to go, you have to change your habits.

As an athlete, I'm no stranger to discipline and dedication. I know that I won't get what I want without those two things. I have discipline in my training and dedication to my game. You may apply those key ideas to your professional life, to your home, to your goals. Doc Connelly taught me that you need the same discipline and dedication in your nutrition. Without the fundamental fuel for your body, you're not going to reach your goals. A coach once told me that the sad thing about some athletes is that they don't know what they don't know. The same is true of many people and nutrition. If they only stopped to learn what they don't know about nutrition, instead of carrying on as before, they could change their lives.

I give Dr. Connelly a lot of credit for my progress. A transformation took place: I changed my body composition. When I returned to the football field, I was stronger and healthier. I had more power and explosiveness. I'm amazed by how much good came out of the year I spent with Dr. Connelly.