Questaholic - December 2013

Bam, there is your proof upfront. I'm not a paid actor or any of that nonsense. You all know me and I'm a real person and the photo on the left is the photo I used when I shaved my head for Ytse in his struggle against cancer. The photo on the right is me a few months later (4 months of weightloss) and I'm down 57, I repeat FIFTY SEVEN, pounds. I'm not selling you anything and this guide will tell you exactly how I did it. No tricks or market gimmicks here just real truths and you can actually lose weight and SAVE money doing it, possibly even make money.

I'm not sure how well you can make it out in this picture but I actually just started using my fifth belt loop and this is my second belt I have bought since I started. My first belt I punched 2 extra holes in it before throwing it away so I'm down around 9 belt sizes off my waist since this started.

You might think "positive thoughts" are a bunch of hippie bull crap and that they won't do anything and in many cases you would be correct. Thinking positive won't do anything to change most outside factors in your life, for example you can not will yourself to win the lottery and make it so. You can however change things internally, in your mind cave (aka your view of yourself and the world around you).

If you think you are ugly and fat, you will feel bad.
If you feel bad you will lose motivation to make effort.
If you feel bad you will also seek comfort.
Ever hear of the term "comfort food"? People spoil themselves to get cheered up, spoiling is bad.
By putting forth less effort and spoiling yourself you will see slower results, or even negative results.
This will make you feel worse and the cycle starts all over again digging yourself deeper and deeper in.

The term for this effect is known as: The Self Fulfilling Prophecy. The prediction, or thoughts actually makes the outcome more likely.

Alternatively:
If you think you are pure awesome with just a few pounds to lose you will feel like you are making a positive impact.
If you feel like you are doing good you will find you have more energy and want to put forth more effort.
If you feel good you won't need comfort, other people will be coming to you for comfort you will have so much of it.
You will see faster results, and if you don't you won't beat yourself up about it.
This will make you feel even better and the cycle starts all over again and each time you feel better and better.

Take the word "Diet" and delete it from your vocabulary. Diets are temporary, and do you know what temporary means? It means eventually things go back to how they were. If you want to lose weight and keep it off forever you don't want a diet, you want a lifestyle you can keep up until the day you die. These are the questions I asked myself when I built my new lifestyle:
Can I live without my favorite foods for the rest of my life?
Can I live without treats for the rest of my life?
How long can I stay sane eating salads?
What do I do about food cravings?

The answers I came up with were pretty much:
Hell no.
Hell no.
Oh God what is a salad?
I can't just fight them until the end of my life.

I think most people on this earth will have the exact same answers as me. We want to lose weight but still eat what we like and there is no way in hell we can just not eat the things we like ever again. So good news! I have not eaten a single salad and lost 57 pounds. I still eat the foods I like, and I still have treats. I made a list of JUST SEVEN simple rules and those are the only changes I made to what I eat and in 4 months I have not gotten tired of it or quit.

1) Drink Water. I cut out sodas and fruit drinks and all the other drinks but water from my life. I still drink them as treats but my default drinks are: Water, Ice Water, and 1/3 a cup of hot water with 2 lemon slices and 2 packets of stevia (a natural directly from a plant 0 calorie sugar substitute that unlike splenda won't give you cancer) and 2/3 a cup of cold water. 99.9% of the time I will drink one of those drinks. As a result a HUGE chunk of calories are gone from my weekly calorie intake and unlike sodas and energy drinks I feel refreshed when I take a sip of water because it has no salts and actually quenches thirst. Filtered ice water tastes like the nectar of the Gods, and the lemon drink has flavor to it, and is sweet and still has 0 calories. I drink about 9 cups of water a day.

2) Portion Size. You can eat whatever the heck you want even pure sugar and still lose weight. As long as you don't eat more calories than you burn. I still eat garbage plates (google it). Only instead of eating it as one meal until it felt like my stomach would explode I now eat them in 3 meals. Also by shrinking your portions down and compensating by drinking more water your body will quickly adjust and feel full much sooner.

3) Cheat days. I give myself one day a week I can eat whatever I want even if it puts me over my calorie count for the day. This serves two purposes. 1) It keeps me sane and able to eat my precious garbage plates and drink rootbeers. 2) It keeps my body from going into "starvation mode". Basically if your body gets used to how much you are eating it will lose weight slower so by taking in more calories than usual it throws my body off its game and it will start to burn more even though 6 days out of 7 I don't take in as many calories.

4) Calorie counting is for idiots. There is no way you are going to keep some silly little diet book around with you until you die trying to add up how much you are eating and what your calorie totals are. I generally have a cereal that turns the milk chocolatey (so I can't taste the difference between skim milk and regular milk) for breakfast, a non-fat ham sandwich and mustard with a fig bar for lunch, and dealers choice for dinner. This way I can easily tell how many calories I take in a day by just figuring out what my dinner is and adding it to my breakfast and lunch total which is always the same. Simple math I can easily keep track of until I die and if I want different lunch meat or something it isn't hard to find out how much that differs from what I usually get and just adjust my daily breakfast+lunch number for that week.

5) Treats. You will crave treats and you won't be able to say no to yourself until the end of time. When you give in (it will happen if you fight it) and find yourself eating everything in sight on a food-binge you will probably feel bad and beat yourself up about it. That is why I have things like fudgesicles which are delicious fudge tasting ice cream bars that only have 40 calories in them. I also have apples, pears, this strange thing that is a cross between an apple and a pear, and lots of other stuff that taste sweet or chocolatey and I only give them to myself as treats. This way I have healthy treats that actually taste good that I can say yes to when I get food cravings and not have to beat myself up for having one. The goal is to never make yourself feel like crap.

6) Make sure you have a variety of things you eat. It is important to shake things up or you might not be getting vitamins you need. Vitamin pills and such largely don't get dissolved in your body so taking them won't help you much. It is important to get vitamins from what you eat. If you feel sluggish or weak or depressed for no reason it probably means you are missing a vitamin that your body needs. Don't be an idiot and listen to your body.

7) Watch what you take into your body! You don't want to lose weight only to die from cancer or some kind of toxin so look at labels! If it says Msg, aspartame, splenda, or "artificial sweeteners/flavors" you are better off getting something else. Also I get my fruits from the farmers market and not the grocery store to avoid pesticides and lord knows what else companies do to get food growing faster. As always remember to wash before eating.

You might think "Oh no I can't go to the gym, fit people will look at me and blah blah blah". Well guess what, I'm down 57 pounds and I went to the gym once in the last 4 months. I just got a job in a dang oven lifting heavy sacks of ingredients and trays of baked goods. So you can get your exercise in however you want. Ideally by having a job you need to work at, and working out (which I will be starting soon). Your workout can be as simple as an hour on the treadmill every day running a 20 minute mile watching tv or listening to tunes. There is only one rule I have for exercise be it in a gym or at work: Invest in good shoes. If your feet are comfy you will be a HAPPY, HAPPY camper. If your feet are not comfy you will be miserable and in pain for a longgg time trying to bounce back. I won't go into anything complicated like which weight lifting things you should do for which muscles or arm days and leg days. The simple truth is any exercise is good exercise, doesn't matter which weight station it is at, what sport/activity you play, or what job you have. The important thing is just that you do something. Also it is important to remember that muscle weighs more than fat so you may gain weight because you built muscle but lose fat and be much skinnier overall so don't let your scale mess with your head.

Article by Wolfie