Roger Cole

Weight Loss  

To get started, I want to assure you that this site is not going to try to sell you something, so relax and get some tried and true information that will help you lose weight and keep it off.  I will offer some links that may include products for sale but will offer cost free information that will serve as adjunct to my advice.  As we age, nobody need tell us our body's are changing, but don't take it lying down! Keep in mind that lifelong habits such as smoking, consuming alcohol and poor diet are major factors in accelerating the aging process. Correct these first.

I am 79 years old and have weighed the same as I did when I completed basic training (180 at age 18). Recently, I decided to take off some weight since a lot of my physique transferred to my waist. It was easy. In about 3 months I was down to 167. Most of you know taking off weight at your plateau level is the most difficult, but I will show you how.

Now before you say "Oh yeah, but some people can eat anything they want without gaining weight".  I want to let you know that those people are sick and I am not one of them. Don't use that as an excuse to not do anything, please.  Another thing I hope you will take to heart is that weight loss is not rocket science and does not necessarily require tiring exercise or food that tastes like cardboard. It can be quite easy and very satisfying. It's not like falling off a log, but is not all that hard.  Think about this...a horse race may be won by as little as a nose, so winning is often a matter of some small things.  You can be a winner at losing weight by applying some simple, small principles. Dr. Axe makes note of one such principle concerning the time you eat. Note also the frequency of your meals. I don't know if this one will apply in every case. There are too many variables, but whatever works for you, by all means, use it. The following are some tried and true small things to try. Some of them may seem a little goofy, but like I said , if it works, do it.

1. Eat at the kitchen table or where there is no TV. Eat slow and savor every bite. This works because we are used to distractions like TV or a quick meal before getting back to some activity. Using this little trick will help you to eat less for two reasons. One...you will be more satisfied with a smaller meal and two...the time it takes will bore you to death, so you will eat less. Leonardo Da Vinci said that the average person looks without seeing, hears without listening, touches without feeling, breathes in without awareness of aroma or fragrance, eats without tasting, and talks without thinking. All of this impacts our weight loss efforts. Think about it. What can I glean from this ancient wisdom, that I can apply to my particular situation?

2. Skip one meal a day.  (There should be a 12 hour period in which you consume no food. This is called intermittent fasting, and it really works.) Any meal, choose the meal you feel like you are least likely to miss going without. Instead of eating that meal, drink a quart of water with a tablespoon of unfiltered apple cider vinegar or pure lemon juice mixed in. It's not as bad as it sounds. After you have done this for about a week, you will discover a boost in your energy and a corresponding boost in your metabolism. Soon, the pounds will start to fall off. Remember, small, even tiny steps, will help you reach your goal.  Fasting results in too many health benefits to count. Fasting boosts your own body's stem cell production. Fat burning begins when you are not consuming food. Of course, that normally occurs at night when you are asleep, but you can extend that fat burning time by not eating in the evening, such as at 8:00 PM. So, an 8 hour night of sleep can be extended to a 12 hour fast. (That is what sleep is; you are not consuming food, so you are fasting) We all know that sleep is important for your health and the reason is mostly that you are burning your fat stores, which is important for normalizing metabolism.  Because people find it difficult to fast, they make up reasons not to do so, even citing numerous old debunked myths about fasting. Let me appeal to something that might make you reconsider fasting for weight loss. IT IS CHEAP!  People often spend a lot of money on weight loss pills, diet plans, gym memberships, etc., but fasting costs nothing. That's right, NADDA!

3. Drink a large glass of filtered water immediately upon rising in the morning and follow it up with a workout of some kind. whatever exercise routine you have been doing, continue that. If you have not been exercising, you can walk for about 20 minutes at a pretty fast pace and that will suffice. Do this a minimum of three times a week or every other day. Exercise doesn't have to be boring, time consuming or devoid of fun. I played basketball until I was 60 years old. It was a blast. Find someone to join you in your activity, be it tennis, or even badminton...whatever it is, do it regularly. Use surge training to minimize the time required for a serious workout.     There is plenty of info on line about surge or burst training.  Laughing is good exercise. It's like jogging on the inside. It won't suffice for any reduction in calories, but it helps us be happy as we exercise. So think of something to laugh about while exercising.

4. Weigh yourself; check your weight at least once a week. If you find you are gaining weight, make a decision that you will not gain any more. Decide that you will eat only when very hungry and stop when satisfied. Never eat to get full. Ask yourself while eating. "Am I satisfied?" 

"Do I need to eat the next bite to be satisfied"? Do not eat hurriedly. Chew your food thoroughly.

If you have gained a pound or two, do something to take it off. Don't punch another  hole in your belt or buy larger clothes. If you do that, you are giving up. You have decided to stay fat. This has been my big secret to staying slim. Every time I found myself putting on a pound or two, I made a conscious decision to take it off, not wait until it became a problem. I always knew it is easier to take off a pound or two then 10 pounds or more.

5. Do not eat everything you put on your plate. Your eyes are always bigger than your appetite and then you feel like you have to eat everything on your plate, so you don't waste food. I am all for not being wasteful, but if you put too much on your plate and it ends up making you fatter and unhealthy, you are wasting something far more valuable than that little food on your plate. Either put less on your plate or always leave a little.

6. The old adage "You are what you eat" is true, but more accurately, "You are what you digest". You need to eat foods that your body can easily digest and those that are power packed, not just filling. Some foods are especially difficult for your body to digest and contain little or no nutritional value.  Some foods are so influential to the rest of your body, they will dumb you down, slow you down or drain away your energy. Pasteurized milk is very hard for your body to digest. Raw milk, on the other hand, is easy to digest and contains much more nutrition. 

7. Avoid processed foods. Any amount of processing is harmful to nutritional value . Additionally, they are most often shelved...that is, your brain says I don't recognize this stuff as food and so it is stored as fat.

8.  Eat fresh, (nuts and seeds should be soaked or sprouted for maximum nutrition and minimum toxicity) whenever possible. After soaking nuts in salty water, I use my dehydrator to dry them. They taste better, as well. It  is also best to soak all beans overnight and drain off the old water before cooking. This does get rid of some lectins  that can contribute to weight gain as well as the problems. Lectins, not leptins are the natural substances in all plants that are defense chemicals used by plants to protect from being eaten by predators. leptins are hormones your body fat releases that helps your body maintain your normal weight on a long-term basis. It does this by regulating hunger by providing the sensation of satiety (feeling full)  Heat and pressure from a pressure cooker will modulate the lectins in food you don't soak in water. Dr. Mercola adds below to this what may happen when you consume lectins.

•  In humans they attach to your cell membranes, often wreaking havoc on your health.
• Many lectins can cause inflammation, damage your nerves and kill your cells, while some increase your blood viscosity, interfere with gene expression and disrupt your endocrine function.

• Among the most problematic lectin-containing foods are beans, grains, legumes and members of the nightshade family like eggplants, potatoes and peppers.
• High-lectin foods can be made safe to eat through proper soaking and cooking, as well as fermenting and sprouting; using a pressure cooker mitigates lectin damage and is particularly beneficial for beans.

    I soak walnuts in filtered water with some sea salt (a few hours should be enough) and then put them in my dehydrator to dry out before consuming.  

9.  Read labels. Become an expert on what is good for you. I know...everything that tastes good, they say, is bad for you. It doesn't have to be that way. Who cares if someone thinks you are a health nut. When they get sick and fat and you are healthy and slimming down, you will have the last laugh...but don't laugh, just secretly gloat. Some really good natural foods, such as homemade gluten-free bread, are quite delectable. 

10.  Cut sugar consumption. If you drink sweet tea, try 1/2 cup sugar and two or three packs of organic stevia to a gallon of tea. It is sweet enough, so it cuts normal sugar consumption in tea by one half (without aftertaste). Fresh lemon makes it taste even better. Personally, I don't sweeten my tea with anything but Stevia, anymore. 

11.  Be aware that the human brain, like animals, will signal the body to fatten up in preparation for cold weather.  So, when it gets cold, begin efforts to slim down. Of course, the holidays are what we might call the sweet season...pies, cakes, candies, etc.. Again, it's the little things that you can do to prevent putting on weight. As suggested in point 7 above, you can stop drinking soft drinks that are loaded with high fructose corn syrup or aspartame (which actually boosts appetite). 

12.  Drink water or if you have to have the sweet stuff, reduce it by drinking sweet tea with the above combination of sugar and stevia or drink unsweetened. Stevia can substitute for sugar in your recipes at about 1 package per 1/4 cup of sugar. 

A note about all sweeteners, even Stevia.  They train your body to be accustomed to a sweet taste, so food without sweetener doesn't taste right. Your body will lose it's ability to taste natural sweetness in all foods. If you can train your body by total abstinence from all added sweeteners, you can regain the ability to taste natural sweetness in foods, even onions.  A life without sweeteners is actually quite sweet; even more so because you will be slim and healthy without it.

13.  If you are going to snack, eat healthy snacks, not chips or processed sweets.  See Nutritionist Dr Jonny Bowden's suggestions for 5 healthy snacks.

14. Use healthy fats for salads and cooking.  coconut oil, red palm oil, (very little commercially available palm oil is unrefined...fresh or raw as some call it, is healthy but not refined) avocado oil, raw butter and lard (yes, lard is a good fat) for medium to high temperature cooking. Raw Butter (consume all you want. It is good for you) but it has a low smoke temperature.  When you see smoke from frying with butter or any oil, what you are seeing is oxidation, which generates free radicals that are very unhealthy. Use olive oil for salads. It also has a low smoke temperature and like most vegetable oils, becomes rancid pretty quickly. These fats will not make you fat. Most vegetable oils (polyunsaturated fats), genetically modified, processed and hydrogenated oils will make you fat and unhealthy. There is a lot of misinformation on the web about oils. One such case is with safflower oil.  It is said to be a healthy oil because it has a lot of Omega 6 fatty acids that are said to be good for lowering cholesterol and even good for weight loss.  The problem with that information is that most western diets contain an abundance of omega 6, but not enough omega 3 and their is little omega 3 in safflower oil.  Safflower oil also goes rancid very quickly, especially after heating, so that makes it a poor choice for chips. Sunflower oil is also not a good choice, because of processing and no omega 3 content.

However soybean oil is much worse, as is corn oil, and canola, which is  highly processed rapeseed oil, isn't any better. These are pure fat that is not digested well, so most of it bypasses the digestive tracts acids and becomes visceral fat. Even worse, 90% or more of these fats are genetically modified.

15.  Because some people eat emotionally,  (eating for reasons other than hunger) they should proceed to their search engine and look up Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). This is easy and is one of those "seems silly" ideas, but it actually works. You just need to invest some time to learn how to do it effectively.

16. Now here are some specifics if you want to lose weight fast and keep it off: 

a. Eliminate all wheat products from your diet. Alternatives would be fresh veggies or fruit to go with your main course. Home made gluten free stuff is OK, but may not reduce caloric intake.

b. Eliminate processed sugar completely. This doesn't mean you can't have anything sweet. You can have fresh fruit or food sweetened with Stevia. Occasionally, you can indulge with grade B maple syrup or honey added to your recipes, instead of sugar...but not more than once a week. Sugar content of any recipe can be cut in half and replaced with Stevia. More sugar reduction can be accomplished with bananas, dates or raisins. 

c. Eliminate all Genetically modified food.

d. Eliminate vegetable oils, except organic olive, avacado and coconut. Most saturated oils, such as raw butter, are healthy. I say raw butter, if you can find it, because anything pasteurized is refined and avoiding refinement should be high on your list of don'ts.  

e. Forget about counting calories. Think about this. A stalk of broccoli may have the same calories as a Coke, but which one will make you fatter...the Coke, for sure.

f. Eat organic exclusively. Be especially careful about produce sprayed with pesticides and herbicides. These will sabotage your weight loss strategy. Soaking produce in filtered water with a couple tablespoons of organic vinegar will both freshen them and remove most pesticide residue but is not a substitute for organic produce.

g. Most of us have problems with yeast overgrowth, so we need probiotics to overcome  the candida that develops from years of western diet and blocks nutrition strategies.  Fermented foods are best...such as.. homemade sauerkraut. (naturally fermented) 

Do these things and you will lose weight, for sure. Practice these things and you will never have a problem with your weight again.

Now, if you want to speed up your weight loss, add exercise as in point 3 above. The pounds will melt off your body very quickly, so wait to buy clothes till you bottom out. 

Once you lose all that weight, you will look and feel better, but keep a couple of things in mind; one is that the fat you shed from your body is going to leave some sagging skin that is no longer supported by all that fat. So you need to do some body toning. Two, is that it is important to feel good about yourself. Dropping that extra weight will do that. There is nothing better for firming up your beautiful new body than sports activity...tennis, swimming, basketball or anything else that works out your whole body, plus it is fun. Secondly, if you are like I am, even though you have a lot of energy, you need to avoid some things that come with aging, like muscle loss. It is important for older people to do weight training 3 times a week to maintain both muscle strength and balance. Add more protein rich foods when weight training. (Add 2 free range eggs to a green smoothie.)   Doing this has added benefits like preventing memory loss and maintaining a healthy metabolism to name just a couple. Getting plenty of sunshine (vitamin D3) is also important. Natural supplements can be helpful. Again, as we age, our bodies need some help. A sound diet of organic meats, vegetables and fruit are basic, but some of our needs may require supplementation. Vitamins  C and D3, omega 3's, magnesium and potassium are often deficient in the average diet. Completely avoid all synthetic vitamins. Make sure your vitamins are whole food organics. Anything else can do more damage than good.

We are not all the same, so some strategies work better than others.  Educating yourself on health is crucial to developing your own strategy. Be aware that conventional medical training does not include up-to-date nutritional information, so it is not likely that your doctor has sufficient training in nutrition or metabolism, weight loss, exercise and the effect of food on your health. Sad, but true.

Never use drugs of any kind to lose weight.

A positive attitude is crucial for any diet plan. Know that you can do it! A lot of the problem with even the best of weight loss strategies is loss of motivation. Click here  to read an article about ways to maintain a positive attitude towards your weight loss goals. 

Another thing that is very helpful is to partner-up with a friend in your weight loss program. Make sure you are on the same page with both goals and strategy. Your goal should not be aimed at weight loss only, but to achieve a sustainable lifestyle that also improves your overall wellness. Your friend can help you  maintain your motivation and give you a boost if you begin lagging behind the plan you have established. 

     OK, All of this is too overwhelming for you! ...and takes too much time and energy to get you down to your ideal weight. Rest easy.  Here is the magic bullet!  It is fast and works every time....

   Eat only the healthy foods previously listed. Take a brisk walk for 20-30 minutes, preferably in the morning after you wake up and drink one cup or more of water. Adding one tablespoon apple cidar vinegar to your water will speed up the process.

   Eat one time a day for no more than one hour (like from 12-1:00).

Eat all you want, though you should follow the same principles of eating to satisfaction without distraction (like TV).  

Though this is a radical method, it works every time and if you have the fortitude to maintain it for at least 30 days, the weight you lose in that short a period of time you will find astounding. Here are the benefits: 

Rapid weight loss

Costs nothing

Saves you money, because you are eating less

Includes body toning

Boosts your energy level

Reduces wrinkles

Improves appearance

makes you smile, laugh, love, enjoy life more

 What is 13,000 times sweeter than sugar?

The information in this link is useful, but is not comprehensive enough, particularly in it's apparent confidence in the FDA, which we know is compromized by the food industry, resulting in leaving out critical information on some commercial artificial sweeteners. 

Back to Home Page