Best Healthy Weight Loss Diet Secret

It was the summer before my junior year of high school and I had decided the time had come to look for my first job. With no work experience and only being 16 years old, finding a job was not an easy task. Luckily I knew a friend who offered to get me a job at a local Dairy Queen, and I gladly accepted. I had never imagined that deciding to work at Dairy Queen would be a decision which would ultimately lead to a life changing experience. Throughout my youth I had struggled with issues of controlling my weight, and as I aged the problem only seemed to get worse. At 5'5" tall and roughly 240 pounds, I was far beyond what the healthy weight should have been for a normal 16 year old male of my height. I knew I did not want to be this way my entire life, but every time I tried dieting I would never last more than a week. As the number of failed attempts at losing weight increased, so too did my waistline. As I began working at Dairy Queen, I interacted on a daily basis with customers who struggled with obesity. I soon began to notice a discernible trend amongst many of these obese customers. In comparison to other customers, they often seemed to be in a poor mood, and in an overall miserable state of being. I decided I could not allow myself to continue down the path of obesity any longer, but I was not sure exactly how to go about living adopting a healthy lifestyle. My journey to discover how to lose weight ultimately lead to an unexpected realization which companies who sell diet products do not want you to know about.

Instead of buying books on dieting, or joining a weight loss program, I began to investigate the root of my obesity. Why was I roughly 60 pounds heavier than the rest of my peers? I had played football for several years, and seemed to maintain a sufficient level of physical activity. Regardless of the level of physical activity I engaged in, I still could not seem to shake those extra pounds. Since I had not noticed changes in weight with exercise, I concluded my diet must have been the primary cause of my obesity. I was aware of the recommended daily calorie consumption of roughly 2,000 calories for a male of my size, but I had never cared to examine what I actually intake on a given day. I was shocked to find I was consuming about twice the recommended daily calories. Knowing that I must change my diet in order to achieve a healthy weight, I began thinking about all the diets I had tried before and why I had been unable to maintain them. I realized I never felt full or satisfied while I was dieting, which inevitably led me back to my normal 4,000 calorie a day diet time after time. The cravings for food were the weakness I could not overcome, and I had to find a way to combat these cravings.

In determining how to deal with cravings, I began to think of the nature of cravings. One can not simply grab a craving and toss it in the garbage whenever it presents itself; it is a physical manifestation of a mental process. If you walk into a room where a plate of freshly made brownies is sitting on a table, your senses may stimulate a physical response in your body which will create in you a desire to consume the brownies. Upon considering this nature of cravings, I wondered if it may be possible to directly target the mental processes by which cravings are derived. If I could stop the process in my mind, then perhaps the physical manifestation of a craving would not present itself.

Through examining how mental processes associate one thing with another, I outlined a strategy to attempt to alleviate my cravings. Since the human mind is an area which mankind knows relatively little about, I can only provide my personal account of my experience in the matter. In examining how the brain associates various things, I examined how a student prepares for a test. When preparing for a test, you may repeatedly go over information for a topic in the hopes that you will be able to associate a question about a topic on a given test with the information you associated with it through studying. Generally, the more you study and repeatedly go over the information concerning a topic, the more likely you will be able to successfully associate questions concerning the topic to the correct answers on a test. Further, if you had the wrong information written down in your notes which you were studying from concerning a given topic, you may still associate the erroneous information with the topic on an exam. Upon finding out your answer was incorrect, you may still go back and relearn the information for future purposes if you so choose. Thus it seems you can consciously change the associations which your mind makes. How then does one apply this concept to dieting?

Seeing as my history of dieting had proven to be unsuccessful, I was willing to approach dieting from a rather unconventional approach. I knew if I could simply block my minds association of cravings to food, I would have the ideal conditions for dieting. I recognized I may be able to use the process of associating two things in my mind through the use of repetition, much like studying for a test. Applying this concept to alleviating cravings, I experimented with convincing myself of the nature of cravings. While lying in bed before going to sleep at night, I would relax my mind and try focusing on repeating phrases in my mind such as "cravings are a manifestation of the mind", "cravings do not exist", or "I eat for nourishment not pleasure". I found that as I continued to practice this for a few nights, I suddenly became much more aware of cravings. Since I had created the association in my mind, I automatically thought of how cravings are simply a physical manifestation of my mind each time I would experience a craving. The mere ability to be able to make this association immediately when cravings present themselves proved to greatly reduce the strength of the cravings. Eventually I was able to completely alleviate almost all cravings, and began to view food simply as a means to provide nourishment and energy for my body.

By viewing food as nourishment, I began to consume things which would provide the most nutrition to my body, while still eating things I enjoyed. Often it is difficult for people to understand how it is possible to enjoy food if you do not have a craving for it. It is necessary to realize cravings have no affect on the actual enjoyment you receive from the taste of a food. Cravings are simply your minds attempt to persuade you to nourish your body, and have no effect on the actual taste and enjoyment. Further, I found when I had previously satisfied cravings, the reward I perceived was not the actual consumption of the food, but the alleviation of a nagging craving. By using this strategy of mind over matter, I was able to achieve something I had never thought possible.

Over the summer between sophomore and junior year of high school, I underwent a transformation from an obese adolescent controlled by his cravings, to a healthy 16 year old who now was in control of his body and mind. Many of my classmates were astonished to find I had lost 50 pounds over the summer, and asked how I managed such a feat. Unfortunately, most could not understand my response of 'mind over matter', but I knew I had grown to understand the significance of this statement. I began to notice how differently society interacts with the obese versus those considered normal or healthy. It is no wonder some of the obese customers whom I encountered at Dairy Queen appeared to be in such a miserable state of being.

While this concept of weight loss may seem rather outlandish, I am sharing my experience because quite simply, it changed my life. If you are to discredit the plausibility of this weight loss technique because you have never heard of such a practice before, imagine trying to sell this idea. This is not a product I can sell, or a strict diet I can put my name on and publish books about, this is a basic ability all humans possess. If a company in a diet related industry were to tell you what I have, they would not have bountiful supplies of books, drugs, and meals to sell you. Companies in the diet industry must be sustainable; these companies have shareholders who demand profits. I am going out on a limb to discuss an application of the power of the human mind which little is known about. I have managed to maintain a healthy lifestyle since going on the diet for five years now, and currently am 5'10", and maintain a weight of around 175 pounds. I truly hope you may find a way to adapt this strategy into your life if you are facing these issues and that it may change your life as it has mine. As one last note, I emphasize that the practice of this technique requires the sincerity of acknowledging the nature of cravings. If you are unable to accept the nature of a craving being derived from purely a mental process, then you will not be able to successfully convince your mind such.