My Weight Journal

Okay, it has happened to me again. Thirteen days ago, I started the program with which I had lost more than 70 lbs in 2006.

In the first six days, I lost 6 lbs, and then weight loss stopped. I expected rapid weight loss in the first week, for what we all talk about as ‘water loss.’ But, I had also expected to drop into a steady weight loss process of about 2-3 lbs a week for a few weeks.

But, I did not enter the steady weight loss process. Weight loss stopped. In fact yesterday, after my morning omelet, I was nauseous. Okay, that is a signal I understood. I know what has happened. I know what to do about it.

Let me give you some background on what I think is happening.

I personally think that weight loss can be achieved by a variety of methods. Right now there are a wide range of weight loss programs in the marketplace, and I think that they all work. But there are a bunch of folks who enter one (or another) of these programs and no matter how faithful they are to the program, they do not lose weight. I am one of those.

Why can some of us not lose weight? What did I do in 2006 to lose weight successfully? For those who are unable to lose weight, I think there is an interplay between the person’s immune system and the environment.

From my experience, the ‘environment’ for a person who wants to lose weight has multiple components. One component is the normal ‘foodscape,’ the other is the tens of thousands of non-natural chemical compounds with which we have flooded our environment.

Over the course of our evolution, our immune systems have developed mechanisms to manage many naturally occurring toxic substances. But, when faced by environmental factors to which we have not developed a response, our immune systems are in a quandary.

So, when it is confused in this way, it can manage the offending environmental factor or it can ignore the offending environmental factor.

But, because there are so many of these factors to which our immune systems do not know how to respond, a secondary process starts to come into play.

Saturation is the key concept for this method to work.

I use the barrel metaphor (from Dr Doris Rapp). Our ‘barrel’ is our ability to manage these unknown factors. When our ‘barrel’ is empty, we have all of our immune system resources available to manage contact with these unknown factors. As we start to deal with more and more of these factors, our barrel starts to fill up. When our barrel is filled to overflowing, we no longer have defenses available to manage our contact with these factors. We become saturated and we become ill.

When our barrel starts overflowing, our body decides to take us to DEFCON 2. A very high state of defensive alert. It shuts down all non-essential activities and shuts down the borders. This means that the body is truly under siege and our immune system has decided it must defend the core.

One of the core elements it decides to maintain is body weight and stored fat. These are needed for body survival, so our immune system knows it must protect them. Anything we do to try to lose weight is seen as an attack on the core. In response, the immune system starts manipulating things it can control to counterbalance any weight loss attempt. As long as we are saturated by our exposure to environmental factors which our immune system cannot recognize, we cannot lose weight.

If this is our situation, we need to stop the saturation to be able to lose weight successfully.

Okay, stopping the saturation means that we need to cease all contact with those things which our body has recognized as a toxic substance. This means some testing. The testing service I use is operated by a woman who works with me by phone. Isabel Aguilar has a technology which permits her to recognize a person’s immune system’s responses. She helps you develop a list of everything with which you come in contact. She lets you know which things your immune system thinks is toxic and you figure out how to eliminate that from your environment. She calls this immune reaction our sensitivity and intolerance.

After you have eliminated all of these things from your environment, your body can respond to dieting appropriately, instead of defensively. Then, you start to lose weight.

So, when I stopped losing weight and I got nauseous with a food to which I have not been sensitive before, I realized that after a year of not testing these things, I needed to test my sensitivities and intolerances again. Sure enough, I was now sensitive to eggs. So, to be successful in weight loss now, I need to eliminate eggs.

Why did my immune system decide that eggs were a threat? I don’t know for sure, but for me, this is part of that confusion I talked about earlier. When your barrel is full; when you are saturated, your immune system goes to a siege state and shuts down the borders. It simply decided that eggs should not cross the border now. Later, when I’m no longer saturated, I’ll test again to see if eggs can pass again.

After you have prepared your list of everything in your environment (foods and chemicals), it only takes about an hour for you to finish the testing. After that you have to eliminate those things to which you are sensitive. Then, you body stops the reactions, and goes back to a more appropriate response to foods and exercise.

So, now I expect my body to return to my normal weight loss process. You can expect the same. Check out my weight loss progress to see how this is working for me.

Radcliffe

In my last post I told you I would tell about the thing that made my weight loss successful the last time. I needed to get this out today, so I’ll put that in my next post.

Weight Loss Success

In my opinion, success in weight loss is mostly based on attitude, commitment, and desire to achieve the outcome.

Attitude: If you are angry, sad, or depressed, you will have difficulty keeping your energy and behaviors organized on the weight loss tasks. Keep your attitude light. If you step on the scale and discover your weight has gone up, it is an opportunity to learn something.

Commitment: Sticking to your chosen weight loss regimen is a significant key to losing the weight.

Desire to Achieve the Outcome: This comes in two flavors for most of us. Some of us are in a weight loss program because we are afraid of something or we want to avoid something. Maybe it is fear of ridicule, of illness, or even of death. If this is what is motivating you, nurture that and keep that fire burning for yourself. Remember that thing you are afraid of if it keeps you motivated.

Another flavor of this desire to achieve the outcome, is a need to obtain something. Make sure you have clearly establishd the goals for yourself and that they are measurable, so you will know when you have achieved it.

Build Yourself a Dream: In both of these flavors of how to achieve your outcome, you need to grow for yourself a dream of what it is going to be like to achieve your weight loss outcomes. You need to see yourself as more healthy, more comfortable, and living longer and happier. I do not know what that looks like for you.

I’m going to be 64 in a couple of months. I’m still more than 40 pounds overweight. I see myself thiner. I see myself wearing cloths that look better on me. I see myself with fewer pains in my joints and I see myself moving easier. I see myself more comfortable in social situations. I see myself not being self-conscious about bulges in my belly and at my hips.

I don’t know what your dream is, but from my experience, it is much easier to succeed in weight loss when I have clearly defined my dream for myself.

Something Has To Change: If you are going to lose weight, you are going to have to do something different from what you have been doing. Some of you have difficulty with change, and I appreciate this. So, let me help you understand what is happening.

If you are obese, you have only a little more time before you get really sick and pass on to another stage. I hope that you understand that leaving this earth in that way will be a major change for you and for your whole family. Finding another way of living, so that you live much longer, is a minor inconvenience. Deciding to lose weight, and finding a way to do that, and following that way will give you many more years in which you will live happily without any other changes needed.

Weight Loss Program Reviews

Death that is attributed to obesity is estimated to be about 325,000 people per year in the USA. Let’s put this in perspective. Annual deaths from auto accidents in the USA is about 43,000 people. The number of auto accident deaths is only 13% of the annual number of deaths from being obese. If you are obese you are 7.5 times more likely to die from your obesity than from an auto accident.

Being overweight leads to heart disease, diabetes, and mobility problems. All of these conditions lead to a difficult style of life and uncomfortable passing of time. Being overweight is harmful for a person’s health and complicates a person’s life.

I’m in a weight loss program now. I have chosen an approach I’m familiar with and I have used before to successfully lose weight. I lost more than 70 pounds in 2006, and I intentionally stopped so my skin would catch up with my body.

But before I started my current weight loss program, I took the time to explore other popular diets in the current marketplace. Although I’m using my own program, I wanted to give you my review of those programs which I liked.

I specifically decided to explore those diets which were a plan or program which I would purchase online, read, study, and understand, and then follow the plan and lose weight. I thought that those programs which sold DVDs or pills or equipment or membership were asking for a lot more money, and I thought those physical things they were selling (more than the diet concept and plan) had little impact on (or had little value for) me losing weight.

The following are programs which I examined and I feel confident will be programs with which people will lose weight.

Fat Loss 4 Idiots: Don’t be concerned about the name of this program. The program is quite clear and I love the research on which this is based. I am very confident that those who follow this plan will find it interesting and filled with variety. As I write this, there is a 50% discount for this program and I don’t know how long that will last.

Burn The Fat: This is a program by a fitness trainer, Tom Venuto. You just have to go to his site to look at his photos. This program is a weight loss and a fitness program. This program has several bonus books and a manual.

The Low Glycemic Diet: This program focuses on the glycemic index of foods and guides you to make choices of foods which help you lose weight. Many bonus ebooks. This looks like an easy to understand and easy to follow plan.

The Negative Calorie Diet™ identifies over 100 negative calorie foods that safely force your body to work harder during digestion thus, turning your body into a fat burning machine! These negative calorie foods are easily found in most grocery stores. This seems to be an easy program for those who want to take it easy.

Weight Loss Hypnosis with Steve G. Jones: “The Most Powerful Weight Loss Hypnosis Program Available Without A Prescription!” I know and trust Steve Jones work. And , if you are thinking about this program, I strongly urge you to get the platinum package. It costs a little more, but this version of the self-hypnosis technology is much more advanced than the gold package.

I think that all of these program work. They all have a 100% guarantee. If you want to lose weight, choose one of these programs, and start now. The only way you will know if one of these programs works for you is to try it now.

You are the only one who can decide to do this.

This is the moment you can decide if you want health and longer life.

It is up to you, to do this now.

I learned something when I successfully dieted before. I learned that it really doesn’t matter what diet you follow. As long as it is a diet that has been shown to help people lose weight (through research or history), it should work for you.

Now, I’m not one for exercise. So, I did not choose a program that involved a lot of exercise. I understand that I need to be active, but weights and aerobics do not have any attraction for me.

I like to eat. I like to cook. I like eating in good restaurants. So, I didn’t chose a program that restricted the amount of food I ate.

I believe that to be successful in a weight loss program, you have to commit to that program. You have to be happy and satisfied with your lifestyle and your food choices for you to maintain your commitment. So, I chose a program that fits for me and my belief system.

I like the low-carbohydrate, high-fiber diet. It makes sense to me. I understand it. I can remain committed to it. I have remained committed to it. And, I will continue my commitment. There is no food that I crave or that I desire that is forbidden on this diet.

But there is something else that I do that is the reason this diet actually works for me. For many years, I would start this same diet and I would not lose weight. I would stay committed and precisely follow the diet for months and I would not lose weight.

I knew that the diet worked, I thought it must be something about how I was approaching the diet that was the reason it did not work. I remained committed, and I remained on the diet even though I did not lose weight.

In 2006, when I lost the 70+ pounds, I discovered an additional step that makes a weight loss program successful for me. With this extra step, I still had to be on a weight loss diet in which I would stay committed.

I my next posts, I’ll tell you more about it.

Okay, yesterday I started on my personal weight loss program. I have done this before, so I’m confident that I can do it again.

If you read my earlier post, you read about me losing a lot of weight in 2006. You also read that I intentionally stopped for 2007. Let me tell you a little more about that.

When I started losing weight in 2006, I was 62 years old and I was 145 kilos. That’s well over 300 pounds (almost 320 lbs).

I have been overweight all that I remember of my life. I was chubby as a kid, and I was chubby as a young adult. When I joined the US Navy at 18 years old, I was 6′ 2″ and almost 200 pounds. When I left the Navy, 4 years later, I was 6′4″ and 235 pounds.

For the next 3 decades, my weight slowly increased. By the time I was 50 years old, I was 275 pounds. And then in 2006, when I was 62 years old and well over 300 pounds, a friend came over to give me an intervention.

Larry has been my friend for 25 years, and we talk about things which affect our lives. He has been diabetic for over 45 years, so he knows all about it. He brought over a glucose meter and asked me to take the test of my blood sugar. He was concerned that I might be diabetic. He is my friend, so I took the test.

The ‘normal’ range for blood sugar is 80-120. My result was over 180. He explained what this meant in my body, my biology. I was shocked about this. Larry told me he was confident that if I lost weight, my body would probably start operating correctly and my blood sugar would get back in control. He left the glucose meter with me as a gift.

Well, this was pretty heavy. I was quite concerned, not only for the consequences of what Larry had told me. Larry was in a wheel-chair because of a wound on his foot that has not healed in years as a result of his diabetes. Larry was clearly serious when he told me that with my blood sugar levels, I would be in similar condition in very few more years.

So I started a weight loss program that very day.

Here I am with my first post for my new weight loss journal. I started my diet today.

In 2006, I was successful in losing over 70 pounds. I’m in my 60s and it took me many years to learn how to lose weight. I stopped my weight loss program for the year of 2007, because I wanted my skin to catch up with my body.

Now, I’m ready to start again.

In the Weight Loss Journal entries, I will talk about what I am doing and how it is working.

In the Review entries, I will talk about products and services aimed at the weight loss marketplace.