My quirky weight loss strategies, part 1 of 3

So, I’ve never written about this because…..

First, weight loss is my least-favorite topic ever.   I think it’s boring and pointless because, to me, it happens permanently ONLY as a byproduct of focusing on eating the right foods for your health. There aren’t one set of foods for heart health, a different set of foods for cancer prevention, and another set entirely for weight loss. It’s all the same stuff.

It’s the low-calorie, high-micronutrient, high-fiber, perfect-little-packages-just-like-Nature-made-them plant foods, that all accomplish the same thing.

Second, there are just so many people out there yammering on about WEIGHT LOSS. Writing books, creating elaborate recipes and diet plans, manufacturing fake foods, selling you all kinds of stuff.  Pills in all their varieties. I don’t really like being in that space.

Third, when you FOCUS on weight loss, it turns some powerful psychological switch on. You know this if you’ve read books like Intuitive Eating. It’s much like telling a 2-year old, “Don’t touch that plant!” The toddler is going to do one of two things. Personality differences are the differentiator. She’ll either make a beeline for the plant and tear it to pieces, or she’ll wait, furtively, till you’re out of the room to sneak over and pull a couple leaves off.

But inevitably, that houseplant is goin’ down.

Since, like Freud, I don’t believe adults are much different than 2-year olds in some important areas regarding our basic motivations and needs and emotions, I **loathe** the word DIET. It’s like yelling, “NO!”

Tell me no, and I’ll do anything to find YES in it.

Have I ever told you about the epic battle I had with my publisher over putting the word DIET in my book The Green Smoothies Diet?  Obviously I lost. Turns out they were right. I assume the word DIET made that book a bestseller.   (Oh, what’s that you say? Maybe the fact that it’s actually a good book had something to do with it? Ha, I hope so!)

Anyway, I was right too.  As in, it’s not a diet and it’s stupid to call it a diet. It’s a component of a lifestyle change.   But I decided, rather than Die On That Hill, to just (cough, choke, SELL-OUT) and get the message out there.

My publisher assured me that I could explain in the book that it is a NOT A DIET.

So that’s my long preamble and disclaimer to my telling you….yes, I’m going to do this….my own personal top 6 tips for weight loss and weight maintenance.

Posted in: Green Smoothies, Healthy Weight, Whole Food