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I have been over weight my entire life.  And at the age of 23, I decided that it had to stop.  I had gastric bypass surgery and went from 252 lbs on my surgery day to 144 lbs less than one year later.  At three months I had lost 50 lbs, at six months I lost 75 lbs and by a year I had lost over 100 lbs.  And through all of the starvation, lethargy and throwing up, I still hadn’t mastered the art of living a healthy lifestyle.  Old habits really do die hard.

At age 26 I decided to go to a nutritionist and get some health counseling.  And it was really interesting what he recommended.  He did not put me on a strict diet.  He didn’t restrict what I could eat; he just gave me some simple guidelines to help me make healthier decisions.  I am sure these tools will help you as well.

1. Get a food allergy test done. There are foods that you may not necessarily get sick from eating, but you body can’t digest them well and they will literally make you “fat”. Mine are wheat, eggs, almonds and cashews. This is really helpful in assisting you in making better food choices. If you know you are better with almonds than peanuts then you can make better decisions. So I would suggest getting that test done. As well as I would get a metabolic analysis test done to see if you are deficient in any aminos or essentials that will help you in metabolizing you food and just plain function better. I found I was deficient in serotonin (the sleep hormone) and so I started taking 5HTP which helps to supplement serotonin and makes me sleep better, and gives me more energy during the day.
2. Eat every 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Never go more than 4 hours without eating. This will keep your metabolism up and working. Even if you have to eat something crappy, it is better to do that than nothing at all. This is a huge issue.
3. It is absolutely necessary to make sure you allow yourself dessert and allow yourself real desserts, not “diet desserts”. HOWEVER, eat your desserts between lunch and dinner, not after dinner. If you eat it after dinner you are going to put your metabolism into overdrive to work during your sleep (which doesn’t work) and then you will either have horrible sleep, which is known to cause people to gain weight, or it will just turn strait into calories and then fat. Dessert is your friend, but make sure you are being smart about when you eat it. Also, make sure it is really what you want. Don’t settle for what is there, make it what is really going to satisfy you. If you don’t do it right then you are just going to keep looking for more.
4. Carbs are your friend. You have to have carbs to survive. However, like dessert, you have to be smart about how you do it. I suggest you do carbs, your bulk of carb intake at breakfast and you can have some at lunch, but cut out carbs at dinner-time. This is for the same reason as the dessert. As well, in my opinion it is better to do you carbs in the form of rice, beans, potatoes, yams, and I would do bread and pasta on occasion. That is my suggestion. I do pasta once in a while when I go out to a restaurant and rarely do bread. I love rice so that is not difficult for me.
5. You must, must, must eat breakfast. To go along with that, eat something within an hour of waking up in the morning. It doesn’t have to be your breakfast, but you need to eat something to get your metabolism going.
6. Drink water. Need I say more? Just do it.
7. With your workouts, it is better to do some light weight lifting 3 times a week then getting on a treadmill and running your legs off 5 times a week. You need to build your muscle and then as you gain muscle you will kick up your metabolism and be able to burn more calories faster. If you want to do cardio to make you feel better do it 2 time a week for 20 minutes and then do your resistance training 3 times a week. I have some great resistance training workouts that I can share with any of you that you can do at home.
8. Weigh yourself once a week, but don’t define yourself by your weight. It is a measurement to see if progress is being made, but it is not the, be all end all, of progress. Especially if you are doing weight lifting. It can be a measurement of progress, but not the grand prize at the end of the road.
9. Always remember to have 1 or 2 people that you can use as your support system. You need people to share your success and sadness with. People who know what you are going through who won’t judge you, but who also won’t be jealous of your success as well. Find these people and hold onto them like they are gold. You will need them.

10. Get at least 15 minutes of direct sunlight a day.  The vitamins the sun provides to your body are essential to your health.  The sun is free and it is pure and you cannot buy a supplement that will do as good of a job as the sun.

11. Always eat sitting down.  Take time to enjoy your food.  Food should not only be a necessity, but a pleasure.  Make it an experience and don’t distract that experience with working, watching TV, or playing on Facebook.  Do yourself a favor, and make eating an all around good experience for your body and soul.

So there you go.  Some great tools to get you on track with your healthiest you.

Ashley Hull