Will Work For Food

I’m always thinking about food. When I go to bed at night, I’m thinking about what’s for breakfast. Soon after breakfast, I’m thinking about what to have for lunch.

If you like to eat like I do [and if you add fat extremely easily like I do] it’s critical to realize that losing fat [and keeping it off] comes down to ONE thing:

Balancing what you eat with how active you are.

Which is a skill issue, not a knowledge issue.

Meaning you could get a Masters degree in nutrition or physical education… and all that knowledge would be worthless without first learning the “skill” of balance.

Balance is the only real and permanent solution. Without it, success is temporary- or impossible.

Despite what the advertising says, this is why diet and weight loss products don’t work and never will. They prevent you from discovering how to learn balance.

Balance requires nothing more than an honest and general awareness of how much energy is coming in as food- and how much energy is being expended.

For example, I like spaghetti, pizza, and ice cream [well, not at the same time]. The problem is not only are these fairly calorie dense foods, they’re mostly carbs. And since the only use the body has for carbs is energy, what isn’t burned off is going to be stored as fat.

That leaves me with two choices: Eat something else, or burn off the carbs.

I call it “will work for food.”

Whenever I want calorie or carb dense foods, I ask myself if I’m going to have time that day to be active.

If I only have a several minutes to exercise, I’ll eat something that has less carbs / calories.

If I can fit in a 20 or 30 minute workout, I’ll eat calorie dense or carb dense foods.

See how that works? It nothing more than honestly seeing a healthy balance.

I don’t think about grams of this or ratios of that. All I need to know is if I eat a lot of calories and don’t “work” them off, I’ll get fat.

So rather than count points, buy diet foods, or attempt to adhere to some “system” I focus on what matters more than anything:

What I eat and how active I am that day.

Balance, nothing more.

Balance is flexible. You could go on the Twinkie and HoHo diet, and as long as you were okay with working out A LOT, you’d still lose weight.

Or if you’re like me, and only have the time or desire to work out between 2 and 30 minutes a day, you’re going to need to make it easy to create a calorie deficit by eating what your body was designed and created to eat; natural food.

What do I do if I want something calorie or carb dense, but only have 5 or 10 minutes to work out that day?

Again, I strike a balance. I’ll eat a big salad before my meal, that way I don’t have much room for a boatload of carbs or calories.

Notice I’m not trying to force myself to go hungry or deprive myself. I’m acknowledging what works in the real world.

Rather than fight reality and fail, I’ve decided it’s easier to use reality to my advantage and succeed.

As you can see, balance is a mental issue. Not a physical one.

The simple truth is nothing can replace getting honest with yourself to the point where you discover how to use the reality of balance to your advantage.

I don’t mean to sound harsh, but if you think anything else is going to work besides this, you’re wasting a lot more than your time.

You’re affecting your self esteem, health care costs, and quality of life.

You’re affecting the future, and the future of your family. [The CDC stated 300,000 Americans die every year from weight related health issues.]

You’re attempting to ignore reality, which always ends badly.

Perhaps worst of all, you’re losing the ability to gain one of life’s most critical skills:

The ability to see something negative in your life, and do something about it.

Here’s comes the part no one wants to tell you: You’re going to have to do the opposite of what the “world” wants you to do.

The world wants you to have a “you deserve it- what difference does it make- this little bit won’t hurt- it’s okay to make an exception” mentality.

That’s why the changes in the mirror are the fringe benefit. The real benefit is being able to do what’s best for your long term health and happiness- in a world that relentlessly tries to convince you to do the opposite.

That’s why success here enables you to live with not only vibrant heath, but also with incredible clarity and true personal freedom.

Don’t be intimadated. Thousands of people have done this. You can too.

Just get started and take action. Pick a place where you’re fighting your own progress and focus on fixing it.

It’s doesn’t matter exactly how you go about learning balance. What matters is you don’t give up.

Focus first on developing balance. You’ll be amazed at what else in life falls into place.

To your health and success, and may God bless.

Michael