WANTING TO LOSE WEIGHT? THEN DON’T FOCUS ON WEIGHT LOSS!
Trying to LOSE WEIGHT without concentrating on losing weight. It seems counter-intuitive, doesn’t it? Follow along and I’ll show you why it’s not only not counter-intuitive, but in reality, is the one and only way to get off the DIET YO-YO. The only way to get to a healthy weight and maintain it for the rest of your life.
If we only look at those who are overweight or obese, we are talking about 70% of all Americans. If we add it those who are “Skinny Fat” (MEDICALLY OBESE, NORMAL WEIGHT), we end up closer to 80%. Think about this for a minute folks. Four out of five Americans are either overweight or at least APPEAR SO FROM LOOKING AT THEIR BLOOD WORK. This is a huge problem with serious consequences not only for health, but for all of life as well. That’s why I created this simple list of tricks that will help you get healthy, and in the process, lose the excess weight and keep it off.
- DON’T FOCUS ON CALORIES: If you are wanting to lose excess weight and keep it off for the rest of you life, do not (I repeat, DO NOT) focus on calories. CALORIES have been shown by those in the know to be almost meaningless as far as weight loss is concerned. Case in point, the KETOGENIC DIET, which is typically high in both calories and SATURATED FAT, and will literally melt the pounds off of you and help put your blood work in order. Counting calories is a good way to fail over the long haul.
- BREAK YOUR ADDICTION(S): Although there are any number of things people can get addicted to here in America (HERE are a couple of them), what I am really talking about here are SUGAR / CARB ADDICTIONS. For 95% of the sugar addicts reading this, there is really only one way you are going to break free. Click the link for half a dozen articles on the topic.
- GO PALEO: Why does the PALEO DIET (there are lots of similar versions) work so well as far as solving weight issues is concerned? Plainly stated, it controls inflammation like nothing else I’ve seen (HERE). This is a particularly big deal once you realize that OBESITY is one of the many health problems categorized as “inflammatory” (HERE are some others). Thus, a Paleo Diet, after an initial ELIMINATION DIET, will not only control the inflammation causing (or at least contributing to) your weight issues, it will help control the inflammation causing your chronic illness and chronic pain (HERE). Two very big birds killed with one small stone.
- EXERCISING? FOCUS ON STRENGTH AND STABILITY: Quite possibly, the stupidest articles I come across (usually in women’s magazines) are the ones discussing how many hours of “X” kind of exercise will be required to burn off the calories from eating a ______________ (insert your JUNK FOOD of choice here). Forget about working out harder so you can eat whatever you please. The most valuable quality of a good exercise program is that it’s not only effective, but can be done in less than a half hour at home, if home is where you would rather work out. It also needs to create (or at least maintain) muscle mass as opposed to destroying it as hardcore cardio training can do (HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, or HERE). The cool thing is that YouTube is absolutely loaded with short workouts of varying intensities for varying needs that fill this bill. And as I always try and get across to my patients and readers, when it comes to losing weight, diet is infinitely more important than exercise — I don’t care what anyone tells you (see previous bullet).
- PARTNER UP: Do you have a good friend (HERE) or a spouse (CHECK OUT THE VIDEO AT THE END OF THIS POST) who shares the same health goals as you do? Having an accountability partner will not only keep you motivated, it will help keep you on track — keep you from FALLING OFF THE WAGON and help you back on when it invariably happens.
I fully realize that some of you reading this have chronic health-related issues that will need to be dealt with prior to starting a regimen like this. Take some time to see what that might entail (HERE). Also critical is realizing that because so many Americans take so many drugs (HERE), it is often messing them up in ways that neither they nor their doctor can grasp, creating an inability (impossibility might be a better word) to lose weight. ANTIBIOTICS and ANTIDEPRESSANTS are just two examples of dozens. Be sure to like, share or follow on FACEBOOK.
