I mentioned in my last (written) blog that I would be giving my personal tips on losing weight. These are simple, easy to follow, and take nothing other than acceptance and dedication.

A change in perspective

Good eating habits should be just those; habits. They should be practiced by you so much that they change who you think you are deep within. When we like the person we see ourselves as, then we tend to stick to the habits that reinforce that person’s character.

Using my personal experience, I’ve made this formula as simple as possible. It addresses what I believe are the most important roadblocks keeping us from looking the way we want to.

The Rules

1) Cut Out Certain Foods; and Add Some Others

No one should need to count calories to lose weight. From someone that’s done it all, this is neurotic behavior.

Try having to explain to everyone why you’re weighing the food you’re about to eat, or why you’re logging the calories of every single mustard packet or the sodium from every shake of salt that you just added to your sandwich. Calorie counting just isn’t realistically maintainable.

These are guidelines that I follow, with a few exceptions now and then because nobody is perfect. I absolutely did not do these all at once. If you can follow these rules, I guarantee that you will look the way you want without ever looking at calories.
In fact, I haven’t looked at the calorie content on a label in years. I do look at the ingredients and the sugar content. That’s because when provided the right nutrients, our bodies tell us when we’re hungry, they tell us when we’re full, and if we learn to really listen, they’ll tell us everything we need to achieve our goals.

The best part about following this list is that once you’ve accepted them as rules, you no longer have to fight, bargain, and give in to your own cravings. When we allow ourselves the option of poor food choices, we then have to struggle with ourselves to make better choices or try to limit the amount we eat.

There is a powerful freedom in making these changes. Once you take away that choice, there is no more will power to be exerted against yourself. But to set yourself up for success, I highly recommend incorporating these one at a time so as to not be overwhelmed.

• Read the Ingredients Label of everything you buy. Does the ingredient list have more than 10 ingredients? Find out why.

 

• Drink Water only. Yep, only. That’s it.

 

• Cut out ALL processed foods. Every single one. No one on Earth, or better yet, the entire Multiverse, should ever let a Twinkie enter their mouth. I recently took the opportunity to reread the label on a Twinkie box and almost threw it across the room I was so appalled. Anything with artificial (man-made) chemicals should be banned permanently from your shopping lists. 

Examples to avoid:

• Artificial Sweeteners (all of them)

• Artificial Colors If there is the name of a color such as “Red 40” in the ingredient list, that’s a major red flag.. pun intended

• Artificial Flavors Just avoid the word artificial at all costs

• Genetically Modified foods (GMOs) If it doesn’t say Certified Non-GMO on the package, don’t buy it. This is a bare minimum requirement

• Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) Although this is a naturally occurring chemical in some plants, it’s not good for you when added to foods

• Trans-fats (hydrogenated and/or partially hydrogenated oils) Even trace amounts.. none! Time to start buying all-natural Peanut Butter!

• High-Fructose Corn Syrup I don’t care what those farmer’s commercials say, I dare those of you reading to look up the rate of obesity in America from the year HFCS was first released onward

 

• Cut out added-sugar foods (over 15g) Really anything with more than 15 grams of sugar per serving is probably unnecessary. Especially if it isn’t from a natural juice or similar. That means don’t drink soda or Gatorade. Even athletes rarely need this much sugar. Electrolytes are important, sure, but I’m not sure why loading up on sugar came into the athletic frame of mind. 

 

• Stop eating Dairy- This means all dairy products; butter, cheese, milk, cream, yogurt, and so forth. This was hard for me. There came a point in my health journey that I thought the 7 gallons of milk I was finishing every two weeks wasn’t a bad thing. Heck, it has one ingredient, it’s all natural, we’re good! No, we’re not. In fact, when I realized that most people are to some degree lactose intolerant and can be affected differently, I decided to cut it out all at once. I did this alongside Wheat/Gluten. I found out the hard way that I was seriously addicted to both of these. About 24 hours later, my head had a constant dull ache that would not stop for the next 2 to 3 weeks. I didn’t know why at first, until I kept doing research and found that both Dairy and Wheat proteins contain opiate-derivatives that actually have the same effect as opiates in our brains. You read that right, the “Caso-morphins” from Dairy and “Gluteo-morphins” from Wheat (to name some of them), create an actual addiction, meaning that the headaches I experienced were a literal withdrawal period.. from FOOD! I can’t be sure which of the two made it so bad.. I’m just glad that it’s over with.

 

• Stop eating Wheat and Gluten- The obvious follow-up to cutting out dairy. I could go deep into the ridiculousness of the “Food Pyramid” and how the companies that stood to benefit from wheat had a huge hand in creating it, or how nearly all of the world’s wheat supply has been modified to produce shorter growing periods, with more wheat stalk, less pest infestations, and how that might affect us, or even how our intestines get permanently destroyed by the constant exposure to gluten, causing “Leaky Gut” in everyone, not just Celiacs.. but I won’t. Instead, I’ll just say, stop eating it.

 

• Eat Fruits and Vegetables- This is important. I’m not an avid promoter of vegetarian or vegan diets. But I can tell you, closer that our foods come to receiving all of their energy from the sun, the better they will be for you. If you don’t get 2-3 servings of each a day, start shooting for it.

 

• Don’t eat Red Meat, Pork, Dark Meats, etc.- Who doesn’t love Ribs or a beautiful Filet now and then? Well, now and then as in once-a-month, sure. But these animal fats are not conducive to heart and circulatory health. Heart attacks are rampant these days when they’re easily avoidable. Just eat as little animal fat as possible, save for Fish. 

Not to get all tree-hugger here.. but when we eat meats, that’s second-hand energy that came from another living creature. Most of the time that animal was fed GMOs because they are the cheapest. In turn, you’re assimilating the energy that they assimilated from genetically modified feeds. This isn’t the worst thing in the world, but add the fact that the living conditions are many times poor, inhibited, and unfair to the fact that now it’s being well documented that humans actually store stressful experiences and emotions in different areas of their body (seriously, look this up). Is it too far-fetched to think that animals do the same? I’d hate to end up eating cow depression!

 

• Switch to USDA Certified Organic wherever possible- I know, I know, what does this have to do with losing weight? USDA Organic is a guarantee that the food you’re consuming is as natural as it gets, for the time being. You can rest easier knowing that no chemicals are wreaking havoc on your body when you buy organic. But watch out for organic in the name or title but no USDA certification!

 

• Supplement Your Diet- Did you know that the majority of Americans are actually salt-deficient? The same goes for Iodine, which is an absolutely essential mineral not found in common foods. These days supplements can be considered a requirement. But not all of them are created equal. In fact, so many “health supplements” are exactly the opposite. They’re geared toward all the wrong things. It’s important that each person does his or her own research and uses quality information when making decisions; preferably published studies in humans. 

My conspiracy theory: so much information out there is geared toward putting money in the pockets of large corporations. Finding unbiased information is difficult, and if I’m being honest, I can’t tell you the amount of times in my life that I wanted to try something I shouldn’t, went to look it up online only to see 1000 reasons not to do so, yet I would find the one reason why I should and that would be all the confirmation I needed. This is not the type of research I recommend.

As I’m sure you’ve gathered here, I’m quite opinionated on this subject. I’ll save my supplement recommendations for an upcoming post, but as for how to take the supplements, I highly recommend using edible films instead of capsules. Find out more about how we do that, here!

 

 

2) Do It For You

Have you asked yourself why you want to lose weight?

Yes, being fat is a reason, but that’s not what I mean. I’m talking about how you got to this point in the first place. It’s important that you look deep within yourself, be it from childhood or later in life, why did it come to this? Have you addressed the issues that brought you to this point in the first place? This is important because if there is another element to consider that could bring you right back there, it must be dealt with. 

I was very overweight from 4th Grade until early 8th Grade, right from the point that my parents got divorced and I had to go to a new school. Being the new kid, and fat, was not an easy experience during this time period. The effects of this have stayed with me my entire life, and still serve as motivation for my continued commitment. But in college, I only cared about my looks, which ended up doing so much more harm than good. Today, the person I believe I am has changed drastically. I like that person, and hence, I want to treat myself with respect. This is why I choose health first, and the rest comes organically as I choose habits that will confirm to myself that I am that person. 

We are all still children deep down. We still feel the same feelings we have felt from our earliest memories. But now we just deal with them differently. What feelings and life events have led to the stage that you’re in now, who do you see yourself as now, who do you want to become, and what are you going to do to become that person?

Think about this, and write it down. Then use it every day as motivation. You must remember why, or you’ll never stick to your plans.

 

*On a quick side note, and I don’t want anyone to take this the wrong way, but I think the many ads or attempts to convince those that are overweight to “love who they are” or “be comfortable in their own skin” are absolutely deplorable. This is not to say that they shouldn’t like themselves in general, but I can guarantee that as much as someone says that they love who they are when they are seriously overweight, they don’t really love who they are. But not just this, they are attempting to falsely convince themselves that being unhealthily overweight or even obese is okay!

I’m sorry, but being either of these is without-a-doubt not okay. It is unhealthy, and it sends a strong message about your character to others. That message says that either you don’t care enough about yourself to lose weight and be healthy, or you are so weak that you would rather continue down the path you don’t want to be on than get out of your comfort zone long enough to finally be happy. It is literally that feeling of shame and guilt and sadness that serves many as motivation for change! Taking that away is not the answer. Changing habits is!

3) Do It For Good

This one is simple, and the most important. All of the advice above is worthless unless you make permanent changes. Nothing beats consistency and persistence. More often than anything, making mistakes is not the issue. The real issue we face is not quitting once we make those mistakes. This goes for all truly life-altering changes. In fact, if we don’t fail, then we probably aren’t really trying. If we’re not trying, are we even really living?

Being human brings with it a whole host of fears. Does anyone remember the end of Fight Club? Tyler Durden said “First you’ve gotta know, not fear, know - that someday, you’re gonna die.” Meaning that only when we lose the fear of death, can we finally live..

.. meanwhile people are over here scared of changing their eating habits.

You may not have to come that close to death to lose weight, but I’ve personally found that when we take an honest inventory of ourselves, the idea of staying the same is a heck of a lot scarier than the fear of change.