Diets Don’t Work
You Most Likely Will Gain The Weight Back – 5 Ways To Break The Pattern
In 2016 the National Institutes of Health (NIH) followed more than a dozen former “Biggest Losers” and found that of the 14 people studied, 13 regained a significant portion of the weight they lost on the hit TV show, “The Biggest Loser”. Four were heavier than they were before the show.
If the people who get the best exercise and nutrition advice can’t maintain their weight loss, there must be something more to maintaining weight loss than diet and exercise alone.
I believe that a subtle balance of exercise, food and otherwise healthy living lifestyles influence our metabolism and cause it to slow down or speed up thereby setting up the conditions to gain, lose or maintain our weight. What makes it more challenging is the aging process. As we age the hormones impacting our metabolism change. If our lifestyle was on the unhealthy side we are impacted by the changes even more. This makes living a healthy lifestyle even more challenging.
After 6 years of experimenting with vegetarianism, veganism, paleo diet and keto diet; as well as using various exercise programs to stay in shape; and finally avoiding negative people and leaning into friends who make me laugh and share my interests; here are my 5 rules for a healthy living lifestyle:
- Find friends and family members that you can have fun with and that support your goals. Laugh out loud with them as much as you can. Also, I recommend that you follow the “4 Agreements” as written by Don Miguel Ruiz.
- Start any kind of fasting regime that you can do regularly. The reason you want to do this is to:
- reset your metabolism,
- get in touch with what your body needs,
- and help you eliminate addictions to sugar and refined carbohydrates.
- The most well known and safest fasting regime is called “Intermittent Fasting”. Read Dr. Jason Fung’s book on this subject or watch his videos on YouTube.
- What to eat: Read Dr. Catherine Shanahan’s book on Deep Nutrition and/or watch her Youtube Videos. Another nutrition advisor I believe is remarkable is biomedical-scientist, Dr. Rhonda Patrick. You can find all of her work on Youtube and her website, “FoundMyFitness.com”. Warning Dr. Patrick’s vlogs are deep in scientific jargon. There are many others worthy of reading however if you start with Drs. Shanahan and Patrick you’ll have a firm foundation in what makes the body healthy and can move on from there.
- Keep your body moving whenever you can. Sitting is the new disease of our modern society. Relative to the population size you see very few people walking the sidewalks, biking the streets or playing recreational games outdoors. Walking to the store is nearly unheard of and most of our bike and hike trails are empty most of the time. Get your body moving. If you can’t walk around as a form of exercise then you might want to find a personal trainer to help you get your body back into shape. Once you are able to walk regularly then you can boost your metabolism even more by doing high intensity interval exercises (HIIT) with a group or alone. To learn more about HIIT and its benefits compared to other ways to workout just do a search on the internet for HIIT vs. Cardio. The reason CrossFit and OrangeTheory gyms are so popular is that they make prodigious use of the HIIT exercise techniques in a group setting.
- Learn to grow some of your own food. Naturally produced food in your own soil is amazing and will make a huge difference in your health. Backyard gardening has come and gone in my life and thanks to my wife its back in a big way. She loves gardening and we now have an abundance of fresh home grown produce year round. When we can’t grow outside we grow hydroponically indoors. If you can’t grow it yourself there are Farmer’s Markets in most cities now. Buy locally grown whenever you can.
Although this advice will certainly make a positive difference in your life you will not be able to do all of them at once. Whichever piece of this advice resonates with you then that’s where you start. Dieting alone will never get you to where you want to be. By using your intuition, your gut instincts, your mobility profile and your zest for life to guide you, I believe you’ll find your authentic self and stay that way!
Bill Stokes is a speaker, publisher, life coach, spiritual advisor, and entrepreneur. His career path has taken him around the world. He became the President of a Fortune 500 subsidiary by the age of 35 in the world of legal research and data collection. By the time he reached age 55, he had built a multimillion dollar company which was sold to a Fortune 100 company in 2006. Since that time he has been involved in publishing (Springfield Scene Magazine), producing events (Springfield Marathon) and many other entrepreneurial interests. Contact bill.stokes@ss-mag.com to book a speaking engagement or make a coaching appointment.
