How to lose weight and keep it off

Many times young girls are online asking for advice about the best way to lose weight. They explain how they have been counting calories excessively, cutting back on meals, and not being consistent with their exercise program which is only leg and glute work.   I want to scream “STOP IT! STOP IT NOW!” but I cannot tell them what to do.   There are many ways to lose weight. The healthiest way to lose weight is to understand where the weight is coming from and how much really needs to be “lost”.  All I can do is offer them advice, based on my experience and that begins with a harmonious lifestyle including nutritious eating and regular exercise. I believe that is the only way to lose weight and keep it off.

Living a healthy lifestyle includes good times of just fun with loved ones

Looking back on my life I have tried to live pretty healthy; which means making healthy food choices and living an active lifestyle.  I remember being the only vegetarian in my home at 14 and driving my father crazy with my meatless requests.   When the new year would come upon us, I, like many people, started working on a fitness goal from some resolution. Within the next few weeks, if not days, many of us gave up the goal until the next new years. In our mind perhaps we felt we had already failed. Some of us may have just got derailed and had to restart… several times.  I usually over commit in so many areas, I feel overwhelmed and just want to hide from all of it.   Does any of this sound familiar to you?   What I am learning is that the only real goal we should have for our fitness is… wait for it… TO BE LIVING HEALTHY, ACTIVE LIFESTYLES.   That’s right. If we all can commit to adding something to our lives on a regular and consistent basis, we will find that we will become healthier and more fit.

Now that being said, I don’t recommend something that will cost money often, that requires lots of expensive equipment and maintenance, or something that you cannot do alone.   Seriously, I watch a lot of people come online and for a good 3 months they’re sharing all this great stuff they’re doing but as soon as their money gets funny, their workout friend gives up, or the equipment breaks, the workouts stop and their weight fluctuates to the point that they no longer post AT ALL about fitness.   What happened? Each person's story is different, but the result is the same.   Life happens and our healthy habits fall apart.   I think it’s a simple fix… make lifestyle dietary changes and take up something simple that can be done regardless of company or finances.   Common examples include drinking more water daily, having meat as protein for only one meal a day, and walking, running, planking, aerobic breathing, or swimming… those exercises all together might constitute cross-training!   I think it is important to note that studies show it takes about 30 days to make dietary changes that become lifestyle changes. With that in mind, commit to both the diet changes and physical activity changes simultaneously.   I have found that while I am detoxing my body, exercise helps to see results quicker, releases those feel-good endorphins that help me stay motivated and feeling good.  You must be patient with yourself while going for the long term goal of lifestyle change and not quick temporary fat loss.

Please remember that our bodies DO need fat.   Our bodies use fat for energy, insulation against injury and to help our brain function.   A fat-free diet is NOT healthy and not recommended.

There are two types of fat that we have to understand so that we can be effective in our battle for health and a healthy fat index. The first is the subcutaneous – the fat right beneath the skin. Too much causes obesity but without it, you might freeze to death in the winter.    It can be found in the most stubborn areas of everywhere especially thighs, underarms, and stomach but responds quickly to healthy diet changes for your body type, that’s good news.   The second is the more challenging to lose and hidden beneath the muscle fat called visceral fat.   Visceral fat is the fat that coats our organs and increases our risk for, diabetes, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s. Despite the fact that visceral fat is more challenging to lose, it is possible to lose and that, my friends, is the good news.

This is healthier than a burger and fries, but it can be even healthier! It’s about progress, not perfection. Baby steps!

Maybe you’ve heard the saying that abs are made in the kitchen.   There is a lot of truth to that statement.   The healthier we eat, the healthier we will be and the more efficiently our minds will perform, the better our body will look and respond when we need it to.  The fat-burning hierarchy says that alcohol burns before protein and carbohydrates before fat.   When we are enjoying that evening glass of wine with dinner, we need to consider how much alcohol is in the wine because there are fat calories in alcohol. Our body will store that fat or burn it depending on how active we are. That is another reason why it is important to understand how fat interacts with the body rather than just knowing what the numbers on the scale are.   While a scale is a quick tool to check how much weight you are carrying around with you, it does not tell you how much of that weight is actual fat.  The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has on its website an adult body mass index (BMI) recommendation for a healthy weight. A persons’ BMI doesn’t give an exact measurement of actual fat, but it does give an easy way for a beginner to fitness and healthy living to determine if they are under, over, or at a healthy weight (to determine your BMI is very simple, multiply your current weight by 703 then divide that answer by your height in inches and take that answer and divide that by your height in inches again ex. A person 5’10 weighing 203lbs has a BMI of 29 : 203 x 703 = 142,709/70 = 2,038.7/70 = 29.12 )   Now what does a 29 mean? According to the CDC, it means that person is overweight and if that number were under 18.5, that person would be considered underweight. (Click here to use the calculator to check your BMI)  Muscle mass is not considered in the BMI so a very muscular person might have a high BMI but actually low body fat. Why all this talk about BMI? I just want to be sure we are on the same page when we discuss weight and fat. Even the most scientific or reputable industry standards shift based on each person so, weight loss and fat loss should not be the goal.   Health should be the goal. How can you tell if you are healthy or not? Well, there is The National Institutes of Health that say if you are a woman with a waist larger than 35 inches or a man with a waist larger than 40 inches, there is a much higher risk of developing heart disease and other obesity-related diseases, but with some changes, you can lower the risks and be healthier. Here is a link to a great article on 6 foods to AVOID to help bring that waistline down to the recommended healthy range.

I found, despite my many good eating habits from youth, I had developed many bad food addictions.  I needed help changing my eating habits to be more nutritious.  I was introduced to Purium and through the 10-day cleanse I was able to lose 14lbs and reset my palette which encouraged me to research my food more. I have since learned a lot about the importance of eating fresh and locally grown foods.  If you are interested in learning more about the 10-day cleanse and trying it for yourself, click this link and you’ll be directed to my affiliate page.

My oldest daughter and I attending the first-ever conference for Purium.

📺 7 Tips to Keep the Weight Off

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📗 About D Goosby of JDs Organic Productions

🌺My Story... The Journey Continues🌺

D Goosby of JD's Organic Productions is a wife and a mom to 8 beautiful kids including 2 sets of twins. At one point, she weighed close to 300 lbs and then lost half of it just to put most of it back on. D eventually got tired of the yo-yo. She learned some hidden truths about our food system and decided to get educated and make lasting changes. D studied to become a certified personal trainer, nutrition coach, and peristeam practitioner because she realized that she was not alone in wanting to make healthy lifestyle changes but lacking the knowledge to make anything permanent.

That is what D does today, she helps busy moms like herself, get back to where they feel good again, they look the way they want to look and they get to be a healthy role model for their families and friends.