The Knowledge and Ignorance of Food [Health]

Matthew Gates http://notetoservices.com 8m 1,911 #food

The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.

Our Love of Food Is Dependent on Our Ignorance of Its Origin

Why are people overweight or obese? Ignorance of food. Eating food that does not provide enough nutrition and tells the body it is still hungry, leading to food addiction, love of fast food and easy quick processed food. This leads to overeating, increasing the portion size, and ultimately there are just too many calories going in and not enough calories going out.

How do people lose weight? Through knowledge of food and what they are eating. Eating food that provides nutrition to the body and tells the body that it is full, leads to healthy eating and less cravings, desires, and thoughts about food. This leads to normal unprocessed foods, to more satisfied eating, normal portion sizes and portion control, and ultimately more calories are going out rather than in, or an equal amount of calories are going in and out. You are what you eat and what you eat is energy in many forms.

In the last few months, I have lost more weight by doing almost nothing, other than changing my eating-food habits slightly, than I have by going to any gym, working out for hours on end, and or even going on low-fat diets in the past 10 years of my life.

At the time of this writing, I am down to what I weighed in college (which was about 10 years ago, when I began taking exercise and working out seriously): 220 pounds.

My weight is down from 260 pounds. That means, at 260 pounds, I was at a BMI of about 37, considered obese, or as the new term by the media goes, “morbidly obese.”

Anyone who saw me would not consider me obese or morbidly obese because I carried my weight well. I could not hide the fact that I was overweight, and it certainly showed in my gut, my butt, my back, and even my face.

At 220 pounds, I am still considered obese with a BMI of around 31.5, but knowing I am gradually losing the weight everyday, for my target and goal weight of 180 pounds, which is still considered somewhat overweight. If I want to be considered in the “normal” weight range, my BMI must be lower than 25, and I must be no more than 180 pounds, though I am of slightly larger frame.

I began my mental weight loss health lifestyle on May 7^th, 2014. On July 7^th, 2014, I weighed myself at about 225 pounds and 10 days later, on July 17^th, I hovered around 220 – 222 pounds. A month later, I dropped another 20 pounds, and currently am at my first goal weight at 200 pounds.

I am aiming for 175 – 180 pounds which is considered normal for my height. Although I have stepped foot inside a gym, hoping that I would not have had to do it, it has been just for the Elliptical and Treadmill.

Weight loss cannot be done overnight unless there is some kind of serious surgery involved. The thought of those life-threatening surgeries scare me so I am doing everything natural to the best of my ability.

It took time to put all my weight on and obviously it is going to take time to “lose” (burn) it off.

As the old saying goes, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Your weight is not going to drop in a day, either. If you lose weight too fast, you will gain it back quickly and you will also not have given the skin of your stomach and entire body enough time to retract its elasticity, causing it all to just hang over, so it is not advised that you lose weight extremely fast. Have patience with no more than about 3 or 4 pounds a week of weight loss in mind.

Nothing seemed to work for me and if you are reading this, I can only assume nothing has worked for you, either. You might have a few extra pounds on you. You might be overweight. You may even be obese. You have either come here because you are curious about what I am writing, have turned to my advice for a last resort in losing weight, or have given up completely, and do not really care, but just reading this for fun.

I almost gave up too. I had nothing to look forward to because I had always been overweight for my entire life, from childhood into my adult years. Maybe I was really skinny and I had the illusion that I was fat or obese, but my energy levels suffered, and the mirror showed me what I looked like, and several scales pointed out that if I did nothing to change, I would most likely approach 300 pounds within the next 5 years of my life.

Anyone would kill and seek to make millions to billions of dollars off the knowledge about food that I have. So how have I lost weight by doing almost nothing and spending very little time at the gym? I used to go to the gym all the time. Some days I enjoyed it, most days I had to force myself and trick myself into going. I hated going to the gym. Some people love it. I just could be doing other stuff with my time, like writing articles for Confessions of the Professions, reading, or having sex. Isn’t that we all want to be doing? Eating, sleeping, being lazy, or having sex?

Truth is, if given the chance, I like my lazy days which are few and far in between, and most of us probably look forward to those days and find every excuse to have them.  Although I like my lazy days, I am definitely active – I like hiking, biking, and swimming, and I needed to find some way to use those to lose weight instead of constantly being in the gym.

I have always had an interesting curiosity about why food made people fat, why people were so addicted to food, and feared not having food, and even worried they would go into “starvation mode” if they did not eat.

During these past few months, I learned so much about food and what to eat and what not to eat. I have been on this health lifestyle for months now, and I have not gone hungry, not starved, and ate much of what I have always loved. So how much would you pay me for this knowledge that I am about to give you? More importantly, are you going to even use this knowledge?

The only thing I ask of you is: If you are serious about losing weight, have tried everything, and have almost given up, then I just ask you to trust me.

Why should you trust me? I’m not a doctor. I have listened to doctors and I have seen plenty of doctors who are overweight and obese as well, with cigarettes in the mix too! If there is any advice I can offer you: Never trust a doctor who smokes. I know, that is biased of me, isn’t it? He (or she) did go through 10 years of Medical School and Residency. Not enough years to figure out that he (or she) is a hypocrite.

I have also spent years listening to friends, family, bodybuilders, gym trainers, and people who just think they know it all and want to tell you how to lose weight. Some had great advice, but nothing ever seemed to work for me personally.

Okay, so I guess you are thinking I am one of those people too, who is going to tell you what to eat, how to change your lifestyle, and how to lose weight. Well, in a way, you did come here to figure that out, so why not stick around for some advice?

While I understand that you could hire a professional trainer that guides you on your eating habits, who evaluates your body type and lifestyle, and comes to understand what types of nutritional needs you need, but there are plenty of websites that offer you this advice on what you should eat on day one, day two, day three, week one, week two, week three. It is probably not feasible or affordable to hire a professional trainer, so you must develop enough discipline yourself to become your own personal professional trainer.

I cannot really tell you what to eat because I don’t know what you like nor do I know your body type or lifestyle. All I can go by is my own lifestyle, my own situation, my own problem, my own body type, and my own habits, but based on my own habits, I may able to guide you in the right direction.

What you eat and what you like to eat is really your business, isn’t it? How has it been for you so far? Obviously, you do want some information from me. This is shortest answer I can give you, if you were to ask me how you lose weight, and not feel overwhelmed by my response.

I can tell you in three points:

• Exercise and be active
• Eat right and stay away from fast food, sugary food, salty food, and greasy food
• Don’t drink your calories

In addition to eating habits, you will want to make sure your protein and “good fats” intake increases and your carbohydrates and “bad fats” decreases.

There you go. Run with that and good luck. End of article. Seriously, it could be the end of the article if you understand those three points.

I would add this additional sentence too: “Do what works for you.” But if I told you that, we already know it has not been working for you, so that sentence is just a load of crap and you are here for serious reasons of finding out what you can do to be less than your current weight because you are probably unhappy and you may be looking to be more healthy.

With those three points above requires a change of heart, a change of mind, a change of attitude, and a change of lifestyle.

All things which most people are unwilling to change and are very stubborn about changing. If you are unwilling to change, than you will always be the way you are and continue to live the lifestyle you are living. If you are comfortable with that, than no one can tell you any different. If you are happy with yourself, happy with your life, and happy with your lifestyle, than make no changes.

If you are unhappy, want to make a change in your life, and looking to live a healthier lifestyle, than only you can make the change. No one else can do it for you. Force yourself. The only person you can love or hate is yourself. Sacrifices must be made to achieve the dreams and goals you desire. Be the change you want to see.

Yes, all the cliche and positive quotes you needed to hear. Now stop reading about changing your life and start changing it already.

Use this Advanced BMI and Weight Calculator to get an accurate reading on understanding your weight goals.

This Better Ideal Weight Body Calculator will give you a better idea of what your ideal weight should be, taking into account your small, medium, or large body frame.

“The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.” – William James

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