12 Tips - Create the Perfect Personal Weight Loss Plan for Yourself!

That is the question I pose?

AND...Today I am ready to take on the challenge.

This is an experiment! As the chief research scientist for this experiment - "Creating the Perfect Diet for Me"... I will post recipes, shopping lists, whines, successes, stumbles and pitfalls. I will expand on the research that has provided me with ideas and share with you the why’s I believe this will work.

I also encourage you to become a research scientist for your self - start with the basics that are outlined below and of course modify to make the perfect weight loss plan for your self. Together we can share information as both the researcher and test subject. So lets have fun and see how much weight we can lose together.

Fortunately all of my life I have been in the same weight range - At my skinniest I am normal with big bones - I may not have big bones, however if I did I would be normal... and at my fattest about 20% over the norm. At this moment in time I am at the high end of my personal continuum and am very willing to give it another go.

The weight loss / gain roller-coaster began when I was an infant and pediatrician told my mom to overfeed me as I was seriously underweight. It seems like I must have quickly achieved that goal and went on to be super fat by first grade. Looking back at my pictures I think I was as high as I was wide in early elementary.

Then around third grade the pediatrician felt I was too fat and prescribed weight loss pills. Either they worked or I just grew because by the time I was in junior high I was deliciously normal... then unfortunately came boys.

Around 13 boys started to come out of the woodwork, all of their attention freaked me out, so I ate. My sister and I would come home from school and devour a loaf of cinnamon toast before diner... white bread, butter, sugar and cinnamon, oh yum! By the time I entered into high school, guess what? I was fat again. Boys left me alone, I had plenty of girlfriends and was relatively happy... Until all my friends started dating, then my ideas about boys changed. Looking back I realize that because I was not threatening... I became the girl who was always invited as I made the pretty girls look skinnier and mo' better.

I lost the excess weight between high school and college and kept it off for many years - then came babies. Then I began the roller coaster of weight gain/loss. Every few years I would hit the high and lose the weight... stay normal for a while, then another event would catapult me into packing on the pounds. Unfortunately now being over weight has become the norm.

Because I have zig zagged through life I have many years of diet experience... successful diets have included weight watchers (safe) and drugs (unsafe... but effective, if you don't mind permanent heart disease and/or death) - and lots of the not so successful diets. They have included the Grapefruit /Diet; the Cabbage Soup Diet; the Rainbow Color Wheel Diet; the high carb/low carb /no carb diet; the all meat/fat diet, the no meat/fat diet; the Eat More and Exercise less diet; the Blood type/Body type/DNA type diet, etc. etc. etc.

My all time favorite, though not so successful in the weight-loss arena was the Red Food Diet. This diet was a hoot. It makes me laugh just thinking about the experience. The basic principle was that you ate only red, yellow, orange, white food - wore only red, yellow, orange, white clothes - drank 3 glasses of water which had sat a full day in the sunshine in red colored glass and my favorite part - lay naked under a brilliant red light for at least an hour a day while listening to really upbeat music... This diet was so perfect as I just had given birth to my son, and I could rest for an hour undisturbed!

Why am I using the 30 pounds in 6 weeks as a goal? Well it was because of an info-mercial. A few Saturdays ago, my husband was watching television and this weight loss plan was being advertised and I became intrigued about this possibility. I became intrigued about the possibility of eating more and exercising less. I became intrigued with the thought that I could create my own personal diet plan which would be flexible; easy to fit into my life and lifestyle; provided me with a reliable loss rate; and most importantly a weight loss plan in which I wouldn't have to focus on food 24/7.

One of the things I have noticed is that all of these other diet plans are perfect for someone else. For me they all create a hardship in my life. Yes, I realize that I have a Pollyanna - mind over matter belief when it comes to weight lose... and I want to work with this belief. I firmly believe that the body when given the proper tools and encouragement will magically drop excess weight and this drop will create no state of discomfort, wanting or lacking.

I am stoked for the challenge - mentally, physically and any other "allies"... and hope you are too! The more people who participate this grand experiment, the more information gained to assist in accomplishing the goal of perfect height / weight proportions.

Below are the basics of my diet plan. Realize that I have no formal training and am creating this weight loss plan from my experience... And that if I get stuck I may even throw in the red light thingy to help improve my mental attitude :)

In the following tenants I have outlined things that have worked for me. If we all follow this basic plan, note when we deviate and how this effects us we should be able to stream line this process and allow each of our bodies to shed excess weight effortlessly and painlessly.

So come join me by taking this challenge - we can all be successful together.

BASIC PLAN
Tenant #1 - EAT OFTEN AND SMALL AMOUNTS OF FOOD AT A TIME - I have a problem with low blood sugar and turn into a werewolf like creature and then I get crazy hungry. So for me it is important to keep my blood sugar as level as possible throughout the day. Also I am told that this is a key element in increasing one's metabolism. A higher metabolism rate I have been told is a key element to losing weight.

Tenant #2 - KEEP IT SIMPLE - eat raw foods, then home-cooked - Try to avoid anything processed or purchased in stores and restaurants. I realize this could be very difficult for those of you who don’t cook or have access to a kitchen, but I will be posting recipes and time shaving ideas. I also encourage other to post suggestions.

Tenant #3 - AVOID ALL SUGAR, CORN, WHEAT, DAIRY AND SOY - Many reasons. It seems like everyone puts these items on the DO NOT EAT LIST. I will be avoiding them as best as possible because I have been told over and over again that these items can not only make weight loss more difficult but add weight.

Tenant #4 - EAT LEAN PROTEIN - Fish, chicken, eggs are great sources of protein however eat only about 2 ounces per serving... And most importantly eat protein 5 times through out the day. (10 ounces a day for woman) Red meat is harder to digest and is more calorie laden so I will avoid or eat sparingly.

Tenant # 5- EAT AS MANY FRUITS AND VEGETABLES A DAY AS YOU DESIRE - However for optimal weight loss limit fruits to 3 servings a day. With that said how many of us gained weight by eating 5 apples a day. In my world that isn’t the culprit - so if hungry and fruit will help, by all means I will eat away. In the blog section I will list vegetables and fruit that I may be avoiding for a while as I have read that they too may impede my weight loss. NUTS, BEANS AND LENTILS - these all seem to fall into the forebode food group in most diets - Unacceptable, must find a way to incorporate these into mine, I just need to figure out the how and quantity. Any suggestions? Very interested in this component.

Tenant #6 - LIMIT YOUR CARBOHYDRATES TO 3 SMALL SERVINGS A DAY - And choose from rice, potato, yam, sweet potato, however if I feel shaky I will add an additional complex carbohydrate. It is important for me to keep my blood sugar at optimal levels and the shakes are a sure sign of a drop.

Tenant #7 - EAT OILS - Choose from olive, canola, fish, flax seed and other nuts/seed oils. Be moderate in the amount, however they are important element in losing weight effectively. Most diets limit oil to a tablespoon per day, personally not sure if this is enough. More recent research suggests that oils actually aide in weight loss.

Tenant #8 GET SLEEP! - Even if it is under a red light :) - New research has shown that sleep is an intricate and important element to weight loss.

Tenant # 9 EXERCISE TO MAKE YOUR SELF FEEL BETTER - not cause you think it will drop the pounds. The latest research shows that feeling better effects weight loss positively and that a too strenuous work out can actually make it more difficult to lose weight and the amount loss will be less than with a less stressful workout. It seems like multiple times a day, interval exercise are key factors to increasing metabolism and burning fat.

Tenant #10 - LISTEN TO YOUR BODY - My body tells me things all the time, as does yours. If your body tells you it is hungry - EAT. If your body tells you it is tired - REST. If your body tells you it is restless - EXERCISE. If your body tells you it craves Ice Cream - try to figure out what it is needing. In this case probably Calcium, so try eating something else high in calcium like leafy green vegetables, salmon, etc and see what happens. Message from the body to the brain often get programmed badly with many inappropriate filters. Now is the time to clean up these erroneous filters.

Tenant # 11 - INCORPORATE SOMETHING NEW - Each week try something different, see how the body responds. Currently I am exploring the idea of how dark chocolate can assist me in losing weight. I plan to eat around 35 - 70 calories a day of dark chocolate and see what happens. I think the following week it will be raisins soaked in Gin :)

Tenant # 12 - DRINK PLENTY OF FLUIDS, mostly water... but a little red wine might help as well.