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How I Lost Weight and Why You Aint Gonna






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Copyright © 2008 by Zack Smith All rights reserved.

Introduction

Not everyone is meant to be skinny.

Sure, there are millions of Europeans and Brazilians who are skinny, limber, and sexy, but for you, that will probably never again be the case. You were fit back in high school. Welcome now to the real world, fatso.

It just ain't in the cards -- for you.

I lost weight, but that's because I rejected bad eating practices that were ruining my health. I'm a winner. You? Not so much.

Listen, it takes actual work to lose weight. By work I do not mean two hours a day on the treadmill. Any donkey can do that. I mean hard mental work, like humans can (ostensibly) do but donkeys can't.

Are you a donkey? Or are you a human? We shall see. But your time in running out. The plaque is building up in your arteries even now.

Losing weight takes four key features that you very likely do not have:

  1. Willpower
  2. Self-control
  3. A can-do attitude
  4. Intelligence

Hey, prove me wrong. I believe you are:

  1. Weak-willed.
  2. Undiscipliend and out of control.
  3. A floundering and hopeless lost soul.
  4. Inclined toward easy thinking i.e. not thinking at all.

Once again, prove me wrong.

How I did it (or what you will not do)

After taking a nutrition course, which opened my eyes to the fact that I was essentially starving myself despite going to bed every night with a full tummy tum tum, I set about to change what I was eating. (I bet that if you took the same course, you would consider it all as just optional.)

What I realized first was that the crap foods I was eating lacked key basic nutrients and that was why I was constantly hungry for more. My body was telling me "eating something good damn it!", which I misconstrued as "eat more stuff damn it!". Turns out, the body isn't very good at being specific.

After drastically changing my diet to exclude crap processed foods like bleached white bread, white rice, sugar and so on, I replaced them with good stuff: Whole grain bread. And even actual whole grains like oats.

I also set out to make sure that I got all of the basic food groups, one way or another, and in the right quantities and of sufficient quality to support good health. For instance, formerly I avoided meat most of the time. Now I eat just enough of it.

Now, it also helps that I have the willpower to keep track, for instance, of the number of servings of each food group that I've eaten each day. Without this simple bookkeeping (it really is easy) I wouldn't have prevented the casual overeating that is so easy in our consumption-obsessed society.

It also helps that I no longer see much point in gobbling "fun" food that is high in sugar and which puts me at risk of getting diabetes by sending my blood sugar through the roof. (Even skinny people can get that.) I now limit fun foods drastically. It's more fun to be healthy, it turns out.

Finally, I make a point of getting exercise because firstly it makes me feel good, but secondly it improves my body's utilization of the energy that's extracted from food.

Summary

It is up to you to look after yourself. The companies that make candy and fast food could not care less if you come down with diabetes or some other major health problem. They view you as replaceable. Think about that. They're like a pimp selling you dangerous, sexy "fun". The sales pitch is aggressive and seductive, but you're just a john. Dime a dozen. Disposable. Just like the junk that's being sold.

Nature made you, not any gods. Nature made your intestinal tract to digest natural foods like whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and preferably lean meat and the occasional egg. Capitalism didn't make you. You're just a number to the Wonder Bread and Twinkie companies. If you let it, capitalism may just kill you.

Oh, but never mind. Go back to sleep now in front of your plasma TV.

What? You want to change?

What's that now, you're curious as to what I'm talking about? You want the fountain of knowledge to flow in your direction?

Here is a simple plan that is a first step, until you get the chance to take a course in nutrition.

  1. Find the standard US Food Pyramid and print it out.
  2. Use the standard food serving sizes given here and ignore the ones on food packaging.
  3. Keep track of how many servings of each food group that you eat each day and do not go over your daily allotment.
  4. Avoid processed food as much as possible. For instance avoid white sugar / white flour / white rice / and eat only "whole wheat" bread and not "wheat bread" which is different.
  5. Drink enough water so that your urine is clear.
  6. Exercise 3X per week.

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