Here we are starting week 16. The last week in this workbook. By now you have lost 8 pounds in fat which is fantastic. You have probably dropped at lot more than that in water retention. This is because you have balanced your body with healthy foods. You have removed excessive sodium and reduced all the inflammation in your body. But remember this quote: success is not final. The way I interpret this is from personal experience as a yo-yo dieter. Once I would ‘cross the finish line’ of my diet it was right back to eating as I had before. Back to the junk food and the processed foods. And the weight I had worked so hard to lose would come back in no time at all. And with the weight would come the inflammation. And then the fear from chest or abdominal pains and the low self esteem knowing I wasn’t doing right by my body. But this time, it's going to be different. You are coming from a place of unlimited amounts of good healthy food. Full plates of it. So you are not coming from a place of deprivation from small measured portions. You now know you can eat almost unlimited amounts of food to satiation by eating the correct foods. If you want this weight loss to last, you must continue on with your new healthy lifestyle. That means:
And the avoidance of sugar, oils (fat) and salt. I am not saying that you have to be perfect and that you can never eat processed foods again. I want you to aim for an 80% diet. Make it a lifestyle diet that you can live with. If you need to add a little sugar or salt to your food, then do this. Make the lifestyle doable for your unique personality and preferences. If you want to eat turkey at Christmas or have that piece of non-compliant birthday cake, then do this. But know that adding non-compliant foods may take a toll on your health. And it may reawaken your processed food addictions. Have seen progress but are not anywhere near your ideal weight range? Take heart, buy your next 16-week BREAK THE CYCLE workbook on Amazon and just keep going starting May 1st. By the new year, you will have reached your goal weight range. Then you will be able to continue your new slim and healthy lifestyle in 2024. So, stay the course and look forward to the new year with a slim, fit body, a healthy self esteem and a zest for life. This is a quote that I want you to take to heart. It will save you a lot of unnecessary stress if you lead by example only. Seeing is believing. So don't expect to defend your lifestyle choices against others with just words. People like to see proof. They don’t want to hear about your new healthy way of eating. So save yourself some heartache and keep your mouth closed. Let your new healthy body do the speaking for you. So if you have family and friends that you want to help lose weight and improve their health. Do NOT talk about this way of living. LIVE IT EVERY DAY. The proof will soon become evident to everyone. Once you are fighting fit and in the peak of your health. Then these people will seek you out for help to turn their health destiny around. Only then should you be sharing what you have learned and practiced. This is a slow and steady trek back to peak health and ideal weight. Don’t expect to be talking about it for a year or two. When you have not only reached your ideal weight but have maintained it for some time, then you can help others. Your only job is to take care of your health and maintain your ideal weight. Let your body do all the talking for you. Only then will you be in a position to share what you have learned. It will come from a position on knowledge and personal experience. This quote is so true because we are ‘lazy’ people. What I mean is that we all have an energy conservation mechanism. We want to get our calories by expending as little energy as possible. This is an ancient survival mechanism. You are programed to eat as many calories as possible while expending the least amount of energy. This is why drive thru restaurants, snack foods and heat and serve meals are so popular. It requires very little effort and energy to get them. So, if you want to be successful at losing weight it is so important to keep your environment ‘clean’. You must remove the calorie dense convenience foods that will derail your success. When you are shopping, don’t even put these items in your cart. Because once at home, these foods which may not even be intended for you will call to you day and night to eat them. There are two things you need to do to solve this problem. You need to keep the fattening processed food out of the house. And you need to make eating healthy foods as ‘convenient’ as possible. Have your fridge stocked with lots of fruit, vegetables and premade compliant meals. That way when you are hungry and tired, you would have to make a great deal of effort to get a healthy meal or snack. To your ‘lazy’ mind it costs less energy to eat the healthy pre-made food rather than going out to a store or drive-thru. It also means that bulk cooking is important so that you will always have a meal that you can heat up or prepare in five minutes. So make it easy on yourself and stay lean by:
If you plan and prepare, you can work with your natural desire to conserve energy. That’s the way to be lean. This is practically Dr. McDougall’s mantra. And he swears by it. In his book, McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss, he explains this thoroughly. He dedicates an entire chapter to this principle. In a nutshell, our body converts macronutrients into energy. The easiest to convert is carbohydrates, then protein and finally fat. So since fat takes a lot of energy to convert into fuel/energy, the body prefers to store it. As a result, samples of adipose fat cells show what kind of fat the person has been eating. For example if you eat a lot of olive oil, the fat stored in your body will be monounsaturated fats. Or if you eat a lot of fish fat, your fat cells will be filled with omega-3 oils. But the point that I want to make is that extra fat is extra fat. When you look at someone suffering from obesity, you can’t tell what type of fat they have been eating. Just that they have been eating too much fat and as a result, it has gone into storage. This was my biggest problem as a fat vegan. I was eating super healthy foods but I was consuming way too much fat especially for my petite frame. Sure, if you analyzed my fat, it would be from nuts, seeds, avocadoes, and olives. But that didn’t help when swimsuit season came around. That’s why giving up fat makes it super easy to lose the extra weight. Firstly, all fat is calorically dense at 4000 calories a pound. And secondly, if you are over-eating (more than your calorie range), fat is going straight to storage on your butt. So, take advantage of all the fat free recipes on this website and in my book BREAK THE CYCLE. Also, consider getting the following cookbooks. There are either fat free or low-fat options. Some use healthy fats like nuts and seeds but none of them use oils. So, lose the weight and protect your heart with these recipe books:
When you are tempted to eat something that you know contains a lot of fat, remember this quote: The fat you eat is the fat you wear. |
Karen WarwickI hope these inspirational quotes help support you on your journey to excellent health. Archives
July 2023
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