People decide that they need to lose weight for a variety of reasons. Your pants don’t fit anymore. Your energy levels are getting worse and worse as the years go on. Your yearly physical found that you have high blood pressure.
Or worse; your significant other tells you that they are not attracted to you either more. Whatever your reason may be, you have decided that you need to change something in your life to get back to the way you used to feel and work.
But like many of the near 40% of people in this country who are overweight or abuse, you may be asking, “Where do I start?”
First, address the factors that influence you to be overweight in the first place. According to a study from the International Journal of Obesity, overweight adults stated that the main five reasons they had trouble reaching and maintaining a healthy weight included limited time for exercise due to job and family constraints, convenience of buying inexpensive fast food, the normalization of society accepting those who are overweight (i.e. little or no pressure from friends and family to get into better shape), lack of knowledge of ways to stay active, and not wanting to participate in physical activities without a person to exercise with.
Of course we would all like someone to play tennis with, run alongside you while running through the neighborhood, or push in the fitness center environment, but going back to the statistic that almost 40 percent of this nation’s adult population is overweight (and most likely sedentary), this proverbial “running” may be difficult to come by.
Furthermore, even if they are easy to find, how reliable are they going to be when you ask them to workout with you 4-5 days per week? To be even more specific, how reliable are you going to be to yourself when your workout partner flakes out on you?
One change that you can make when your levels of physical activity are not adequate is simply change what you keep in your cabinets at home. You do not need a workout partner to shop for healthier food options; you just need to know what you are looking for and would be willing to eat.
After you decide that you need to change your eating habits to meet your health-related goals, go ahead and evaluate if you need to give some of your food items to the local food bank. Though many organizations and experts may disagree on how many carbohydrates and fats should be avoided in order to entice ideal weight loss, there a few things that most diet professionals agree upon.
First, throw out the calorie dense items. Remember, there are four calories in each gram of a carbohydrate or protein, but there are nine calories in each gram of fat…that means any type of fat. Do not get hung up on the good fat vs. bad fat debate; both types have nine calories per gram. As a result, foods that heavier fat contents also tend to have higher amounts of calories. Therefore, people who are looking to lose weight should avoid things such as nuts, peanut butter, avocados (a medium sized one has around 30 grams of fat, which is more than a Big Mac from McDonalds), eggs, whole milk, most red meats, potato chips, and many of the traditional cooking oils.
Next, if you find that you really desire these items, realize that there are suitable substitutions available that you can use to as a replacement. For example, if you really enjoy traditional peanut butter, try a product called Peanut Wonder. It provides the same great peanut butter taste, but contains two grams of fat compared to the traditional brands that carry between 14 and 22. Next, if you really are big fan of eggs, try cooking them without the yolk or purchase egg substitute products. You can still create your “world famous” omelet with these products, but take in about 75 percent less calories and fat. Red meats can easily be substituted for leaner red meats or poultry products, try eating baked chips instead of regular potato chips, and use Pam cooking spray or apple sauce instead of vegetable or canola oils to avoid eating an extra 20 grams of fat (yes, apple sauce works).
Finally, try to live by the saying, “Don’t drink your calories,” when dieting. If you really find that you need to drink soda, stick to the zero calorie diet brands and avoid drinking an extra 120-200 calories your body does not need. Next, if you are a user of electrolyte-replacement sports drink like Gatorade, try one of the low calorie options like Propel. It’s got the same amount of electrolytes compared to the traditional high caloric brand, but will allow a dieter to eliminate a large number of extra calories they just do not need.
If you follow these steps will you begin to lose weight? Hopefully. But if you do not, perhaps your portion size is the issue. That’s a forecast to next week’s editorial.

John Taylor is known by television viewers as “John T,” the physical trainer and educator on the Emmy-nominated reality television series, Too Fat for 15: Fighting Back on the Style Network.
The program depicts John’s work at Wellspring Academy of the Carolinas in Brevard, a boarding school for morbidly obese middle and high school students.
After five years of working at Wellspring, John recently became the Program Director at WellBalance, an Asheville-based company that runs summer camps and community outreach programs to help families learn how to lead a healthier lifestyle.
Hailing from Seattle, John was an honorable mention high school All-American in football, and earned an athletic scholarship to McPherson College (KS) where he was a two-time academic All-American.
After leaving McPherson after a severe shoulder injury, John earned his bachelor’s degree in liberal arts and sciences from Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA in 2005.
He earned his master’s degree in sports studies in 2007 from High Point University, his teaching certification in physical education in 2009 from Western Carolina University and is currently the second year of his doctorate program at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro.
John currently lives in Waynesville with his significant other Andreya and the two are expecting their first child.