Dieting?- Sorry Diets Do Not Work !

Dieting! Okay, diets do not work! I have successfully gotten rid of over forty pounds in twelve months and there was no dieting per say. Dieting would be a temporary change in your eating habits. To get rid of weight permanently you have to make a life change.You have to change the way you think about food. You have to change the way you think about yourself. It is not a diet. It is not a temporary change in your eating habits. It requires a change in your lifestyle. I know, you are saying but I cannot change my lifestyle. I cannot change the way I think about food. I cannot change my desire for snacks and being always hungry and wanting something. There is the first issue. Telling yourself you cannot. You and only you have to make the decision to change. Only you can do this. NO diet program, no diet club, no exercise machine, no gym, yoga class or weight loss program is going to make the decision for you. You have to decide for yourself to change you. A year ago, I looked in the mirror at my forty three year old body and felt disgusted with myself. I wanted to hide. I was ashamed of what I let myself become. Ashamed to go in to the pool with my children. Ashamed to wear a pair of shorts or any clothes that revealed the rolls of fat I had accumulated. I had a beer belly as they called it, though I do not often drink beer. It was embarrassing. I pondered what had lead me to this. Was it the M&M's I ate everyday at the office? Was it the ice cream floats I made for the kids? Was it eating the left over food on the kids plates because I could not stand to let food go to waste? What led me to that place? It was me! I let that happen. I stopped thinking of food as fuel and began to think of food as a past time. Being raised by parents from the depression era, I could not let anything go to waste, so I ate it. Hot dogs, cupcakes, cookies, cake, sandwiches, candy ...whatever was left behind by my children. Hell, sometimes I even would steal their candy. Easter bunnies, as a rule, after three weeks if there is till a chocolate bunny left, it is fair game! Okay, I realized, it was me. It was my attitude toward food that had changed. When I was single, oh so many years ago, I was a rail! I consumed more alcohol than food I ate. Food had no real importance. Yeah , sure , it was nice to go out to dinner on dates and the occasional visit to Mom's for Sunday dinner, but for the most part, it was not important so I just would not eat. I mean, I would have lunch and maybe a cup of soup or something for dinner but it was not what my life revolved around. Then I got married. For the first few years, still food was not an issue. My wife though, she was a snacker. Had to have chips or cookies or something everyday. No big deal, never affected me. And then I became a parent. Oh my god! I became my Dad. Just cannot stand to see food wasted.

Okay so you are asking, where is he going with this? Its about the importance of food and the priority you place on it. Don't get me wrong. I still eat, in fact I actually eat more than ever. I am just eating food that is fuel for my body now, rather than poison. Yes, I have gotten rid of over forty pounds. My clothes no longer fit. How did I do it? Did you notice what I said? I got rid of forty pounds. I did not lose anything. I got rid of it. Losing would tell my subconscious that we lost something we need to get back. No I got rid of it and do not ever want it back. So what did I do? I stopped eating the food my children would not finish, I stopped eating candy, I stopped eating pasteurized, processed crap every day. I work in the food industry for one of the largest processors of grain on the planet. I see reports about food and processed food everyday. Once I saw myself in that mirror with that roll hanging over my belt, I knew it was the crap I was eating that was doing this to me, and everyone just like me. So how can I help you with this issue.

Okay let us lay down some guide rules. You do not have to suffer to get rid of fat. You do not have to starve to get rid of fat. Do not misunderstand my words here. You may take a few weeks to get use to not eating crap, but when you remind yourself that it is truly crap you are eating it will be easier. No you do not have to go to a raw food diet, though that may be the best thing you could ever do for yourself, but you do have to base most of what fuel you consume each day on living food with living energy. Yes, that is the secret. I can point you to food guru's , psychics and others throughout the past hundred years, and I will, but it all boils down to you eating at least fifty percent of what you consume each day as whole living foods. Okay, so you are asking what do you mean by living food. I am talking about things still alive! No not taking a bite out of the cat, I mean bananas, oranges, strawberries, grapes, cantaloupes, melons, apples ...I think you get the point. Things God gave us to eat to begin with. You can read my other articles on raw food but that is not what got me here to the thin healthy and muscular forty four year old I am today. I simply changed my daily routine, forever. I stopped going to the snack machine at work. I stopped going out to eat for lunch. I stopped eating anything that was not living for the first eight hours of my day, everyday. That is right, I only eat fruit and or freshly cut vegetables from 6 AM until 4PM when I get home from work. I eat as much as I want. Sometimes I eat several bananas, several apples and a pound of strawberries all in the same morning. That is just the thing though. When you eat what God intended, you can eat until your full and never gain an ounce. Okay I know you are saying but I hate eating fruit! Okay, I understand. I hated it too! In fact it was a gradual process for me to stop putting other stuff on the fruit so I could stand it, but after a while it became second nature. Yes, peanut butter too is mostly natural and it hides the flavor of lots of fruits and vegetables I would not have eaten otherwise. In part two of this article we will discuss eating natural and what that really means. As a primer, the method of eating natural foods for the first two meals of the day and snacks through out the day has proven results. Before we go, since we did not talk about it but after 4pm , eat anything you want. Well do not be stupid, but have a normal dinner. My wife refuses to eat fruit or vegetables for snacks, she was just raised to believe snacks should be chips, cakes or candy. But she cooks a gourmet type dinner every evening. So I eat very well at dinner and usually have desserts. But because I have loaded my body with living food all day and enzymes and vitamins, I maintain my weight and never get hungry. This makes dinner more of an enjoyment than if I was starving when I get home. Keep up with us on this article series and on our Raw Food Blog. I will give you several recipes and secrets for hiding the flavor of, or enhancing the flavor of natural foods. Until then, follow the blogs... Read Part Two of this Article Series.....