WEIGHT LOSS GOLD NUGGETS
By Gilbert Quinones
DISCLOSURE: These tips are not meant for competitive bodybuilders as they are considered the most successful and disciplined dieters on the planet. Some professional bodybuilders set their alarm to consume protein shakes in the middle of the night and need consistent calories which is why these tips are instead for everyday people battling obesity. This is not medical advice. Consult with your physician before changing your diet and starting any kind of weight loss initiative. I am NOT a licensed dietician, doctor, or other medical personnel and this article reflects only my personal opinions and observations.
CONTENTS:
- Practice Hunder Pain Drills
- It Is Not Your Last Meal
- Update Your Gauging Factor about Food
- Avoid Food Comas
- Quantify What You Are Putting In Your Body
- Manage Your Subconscious Because it Impacts Your Conscious Decisions
- Expend Energy Don’t Keep It
- Find an Activity You Love for Mental Stimulation Versus Using Food
- Pay Attention to Brain Imprints and Patterns of Behavior
Introductory
Throughout my 20s and 30s, I attended a plethora of seminars and read a ton of books. After every class, coaching seminar, or book I always took notes of what I considered were the golden nugget takeaways. Golden nuggets are the summarized key points of the most valuable and helpful information.
There are a lot of people who have achieved weight loss and when you ask them how they did it many people say, “I just watched what I ate” or “Diet and exercise”, etc. Sometimes this is not helpful as I know people prefer to hear genuine answers they can relate to.
Therefore I have written the following article that contains nine golden nuggets for weight loss.
Get started now and I wish you all the best in your weight loss journey.
Thank you for reading.
“I know what it’s like to feel humiliated for being overweight.”
Just diet and exercise. “YUCK”
People: “How did you lose weight? Nobody wants to hear, just diet and exercise. What’s beneath that? Diet and exercise (duh) but what, how, when, give me something BETTER!”
Me: Okay, here it goes…
I remember one time when I was 27 around 300 lbs I was jogging by my house in Copperas Cove, TX. The thing about small towns is you often recognize the same people but sometimes may not know them. There was a local personal fitness trainer (undisclosed name referenced as PT) that I knew who she was but we never met. She was very fit and was known to be very stern in her methods.
As I started on my jog in my neighborhood I was crossing an intersection. I saw this PT at a stop sign. She was in her car at the intersection and let me cross as a pedestrian. I waived and just kept jogging past her and down the block I went.
I just started exercising so my body wasn’t conditioned yet. As I got about 2-3 blocks away my legs started cramping so I stopped jogging and started walking.
This next part was so embarrassing for me. As I was walking, that same PT that I passed by moments earlier was slowly driving by again. As she slowed her car down, she rolled her window halfway down and yelled, “Ohhh come oooOOON?!!”
My mouth dropped and I couldn’t believe this person whom I had never met was mocking me. I just shook my head, smiled, and kept walking as she drove off. But deep down it was humiliating. It made me slightly angry in a motivational way.
Fast forward 1 1/2 years and 100 lbs less later, I started working out at a local gym called Cove Fitness. I never saw the PT again until one day I walked into the gym and easily recognized her. As I casually walked by I gave a charismatic “Hi”. She gave me a curious look, the kind when you don’t recognize someone but know you have seen their face somewhere. She didn’t recognize me and I never told her that it was me that she mocked over a year prior. Hehe!
I was not interested in getting to know her because I witnessed how she treated someone who was struggling with their weight. Although it sucked not being able to jog for longer periods and it sucked to hear her mock me I feel like it reinforced my motivation. I don’t agree with what she did or condone mocking anybody but in my experience, I considered it tough love.
I know what it feels like to be humiliated for being overweight. Many people are afraid of being judged and this can hold back their motivation. The limitations obesity brings into our lives can make us feel like people are constantly judging us.
As I reflect on this moment I can now laugh about it. But it is moments like these and many others when I was growing up as a kid that made me realize why it is important to let people know that you are worth more than what a judgmental person thinks about you.
“People’s opinion of you is none of your business, nor should you make it yours.”
– Steve Harvey
I am going to tell you some things that go through my mind that I use to stay on track for fitness.
I remember feeling anxious about being judged and exercising in public. As mean as that girl was, I used that moment to turn my humility into motivation. If you struggle with your weight I don’t ever want you to feel humiliated.
I want you to use the Gold Nuggets for Weight Loss below to help you achieve your weight loss goals.
1. Practice Hunger Pain Drills
Have you ever experimented with hunger pains with an observational mindset?
Try this. Hunger pains are recurring brain signals that we receive throughout our day that will trigger any time we go a certain time duration without food.
You will most likely get hunger pains if you wait 3 to 4+ hours to eat from now.
Hunger is part of nature that tells all living creatures to search and find food. Imagine living in the neanderthal days being hungry without food. We would be hunting in the wild fatigued until able to consume calories.
When our brains are triggered by hunger pains it is the natural biological way of nature telling us to avoid the pain of scarcity, and fatigue, and seek food immediately.
However, nowadays the average human no longer has to hunt fatigued and wonder where their next meal will be. We have the convenience to walk a few steps to the kitchen and consume food when we desire.
We can instantly cure our hunger pain. Eating food works faster to cure hunger pain versus taking a pain reliever to alleviate a headache. Food cures hunger pains almost immediately. However many people struggling with obesity eat and graze throughout the day without letting themselves feel any real significant hunger pain.
In modern times, many people who consume excess calories throughout the day are usually only experiencing slight discomfort and consume calories out of habit. We can feel a slight discomfort and immediately run to the kitchen.
Instead, try this technique.
“This can be used for the average person who is healthy and physically capable of fasting. Seek your medical professional first.”
Drink Water and wait 10 minutes. Many times the body is simply dehydrated and this can easily get conflicted with the desire to consume calories when it’s unnecessary and you just need some H2O.
Then. Drink a little more water and think about when your last meal was and how long it has been. Has it been 3 to 4 hours? You want to avoid unhealthy grazing throughout the day and ensure you have time to absorb the food from your last meal. Don’t overly obsess over it, just check how long it’s been and get on with your day until you reach the 4-hour mark.
The goal is to try to quantify the amount of time between meals so that you can gain self-awareness of how your body feels and how you are performing.
Think about how much food you ate from your last meal and try to gain a realization of how your body is performing based on the last calories you consumed.
Analyze how well you perform with your normal daily activities.
This will give you insight and an awareness of how your body responds to letting yourself have slight discomfort from hunger pains.
After you get used to this it starts to become normal and you can take the fear of not eating constantly out of your mind. It’s much more fun to do things you enjoy when you are not so busy eating as much.
2. It Is Not Your Last Meal
“Much of prosperity in life comes down to delayed gratification of the flesh.”
Eating is something we are required to do. We don’t have a choice. As a recurring daily pattern, for most people, the opportunity to eat comes again and again.
“It’s not going to be your last meal.” Just know that fact with 100% certainty and what it means. “It’s not going to be my last meal.” Say it out loud. Every time you eat it does not always have to be fireworks. Try to condition your mind to receive dopamine and serotonin (feel-good brain hormones) from other places in life.
When I choose to eat healthy foods over unhealthy options, I know I will still have other opportunities to eat amazingly-tasting foods.
And it is during those periods of sacrifice that makes it all even more worth the wait because by the time I do indulge it tastes even better. If EVERY single meal always tastes amazing it makes it less meaningful when you eat amazing food for special occasions.
When you are constantly eating amazingly tasting food it’s important to become self-aware of how your dopamine and serotonin levels become numb.
Similar to how someone was stuck on a desert island. As Tom Hanks’ character said, “I have ice in my glass!”
The benefit of eating healthy foods is that they not only give you results over time but they increase your willpower.
This is something unhealthy foods do not do.
Remember, it’s not your last meal.
3. Update Your Gauging Factor about Food
If you haven’t eaten fast food in a long time (i.e. year) it does something to your gauging factor. If you’re eating it consistently (which I did in my early twenties) it throws your sense of awareness off of how it is making you feel.
When you don’t eat it for a long period and then consume it you will become more aware of the aftereffects. Groggy, stuffed, and lower energy. I remember eating McDonald’s after skipping it for a year due to a health scare and how queasy it made me feel when I did.
If you are caught in a trap of eating it consistently, then I hope this insight helps you stop consuming it regularly so that you can gain a gauging factor of how unhealthy food is making you feel.
4. Avoid Food Comas
One holiday I had a box of 4 apple turnovers, a box of peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, and other good foods.
I did NOT sleep well and had heartburn.
It didn’t feel good the next day, I had a sugar hangover. I felt groggy, stuffed, and low energy.
Similar to an alcoholic hangover, a sugar hangover is similar to me and I call it a food coma. It’s where you eat too much crappy food and it takes about a day to recover.
Gaining self-awareness of how too much crappy food makes you feel afterward can help you to assess if the pain level and losing a productive day of life is worth it.
Avoid food comas and enjoy indulgences in moderation.
5. Quantify What You Are Putting In Your Body
“The key to stop overeating is you have to stop thinking it’s necessary to always feel full.”
Everything we eat takes time to move through our digestive system. Pay attention to how you feel when you still have food in your system and give your body time to absorb it.
It’s easy to get caught up in constantly grazing throughout the day. Gaining an understanding of how much extra food you are putting in your body starts to give you a sense of control.
As a person who has been obese, I know the feeling of what it’s like to disregard the feeling of my body still digesting food while consuming more unnecessary calories. Instead, think about what you ate in your last meal and the time it takes for your body to absorb it.
If you decide to eat again when your body is still digesting your previous meal it is creating a traffic jam in your system.
This self-awareness has the potential to give you the insight you need to break the habit of eating when it’s not necessary.
Prevent food traffic jams in your system and quantify what you are putting in your body.
6. Manage Your Subconscious Because it Impacts Your Conscious Decisions
It’s funny how our subconscious works. Sometimes we don’t even realize what we are doing because it is out of habit.
I have a habit of sweeping and mopping the floors excessively because I love clean floors. Even if housekeeping cleans twice a week I would still clean on the off days.
I noticed occasionally every few months my dustpans go missing and I had to buy new ones. This prompted me the next time I noticed I was missing a dustpan to check the trash at the curb. And it was there I found my dustpan.
My obsession with throwing the dirt away became a subconscious action when sweeping the floor and I would sometimes throw the entire dustpan in the trash without realizing it. Although accidentally throwing a dustpan away has nothing to do with weight loss, it demonstrates how we can do something without realizing we are doing it.
Every day there are actions that are taking place as a result of your subconscious that you may not be aware of.
Don’t
- Put junk food in the shopping cart without realizing it is just being done out of habit.
- Graze throughout the day because it is accessible from leaving the chips out, etc.
- Drink sodas to cure thirst versus water out of habit.
Do’s
- Put out your dog’s leash to prepare to go for a walk. Plus I know your dog may hear the sound and remind you 😉
- Get your walking shoes ready, hiking stick, or any type of gear accessible and in your view.
- Plan physical activities that you will enjoy (parks, swimming, biking, dog fetch, nature trails, etc.) on your calendar as recurring activities.
- Read articles similar to this, books on health, and absorb information that pertains to living a healthy lifestyle.
Remember that the subconscious mind has an impact on your conscious decisions.
7. Expend Energy Don’t Keep It
Excess food is counterproductive energy.
Have you ever gone on vacation for a short time and packed too many unnecessary items? When you have too much stuff to carry that you don’t need it becomes extra cluttered weight.
Understanding human behavior and the reasons why we do things gives us the clarity to make rational decisions.
When we eat food we are consuming calories. The purpose of calorie consumption is so that our bodies can absorb the nutrients and regulate our core body temperature using the food’s energy.
When you think about the food’s purpose it’s important to keep in mind that when eating excess calories (energy) it ends up being stored.
How much gas (energy) could a car carry before carrying the excess gas would become counterproductive to carry?
We all have different athletic capabilities and different levels of agility. Similar to a vehicle but instead of MPG it’s our BPM (beats per minute) of our heart and how hard our body needs to work to perform activities.
When you store excess energy it can make a difference in your quality of life.
Remember the reason we consume food (energy). If you have the humble benefit of living in a country where there are no food shortages, remember that food is not going anywhere. There’s no need to carry extra energy because it becomes counterproductive.
Expend energy and don’t keep it.
8. Find an Activity You Love for Mental Stimulation Versus Using Food
Don’t depend on food for your overall mental well-being. Use other things in life such as nature’s beauty or a physical hobby you enjoy.
I remember riding my big wheel as a kid. It felt fast. Then as I got older, like most kids I moved up to a bike. I used to imagine having a motor-powered bicycle with pedal assist.
Now, living in the future I’m finally able to ride that bike from my dreams as a kid. What did you use to dream about doing? Is there an activity that gets you excited to move your body?
Even at my age today I’m excited like a little kid to get up and go bike riding in the mountains.
I use these kinds of activities that end up being mental stimulation in exchange for my boring 80% plant diet. It helps me to not depend on food for my overall mental well-being and I don’t think about food to make me happy.
Find a physical activity that you enjoy and use it for your mental stimulation versus food.
9. Pay Attention to Brain Imprints and Patterns of Behavior
Have you ever noticed how easy it is to remember the next song from one of your playlists?
Our brains can remember certain sounds, visuals, and sense of touch and easily predict what is next based on our experiences.
Psychologists refer to these as brain imprints. It is the reason why toy companies make teddy bears that replicate a mother’s heartbeat for infants to help them sleep. Because a baby can remember what a soothing environment feels like when growing inside their mother.
These imprints in our brains stay with us throughout our lives. Good or bad. Sometimes they can be from PTSD and sometimes they can be beautiful memories that excite and inspire us.
Our entire nervous system is constantly reciprocating with the world based on our environment of what we allow to be present in our lives.
As kids, our world is dictated by what adults put in front of us. I remember the Pizza Hut Book It program and I still remember the entitlement I felt to get my personal pan pizza after I finished my chapters.
As adults, we can control our brain imprints and patterns of behavior. We can dictate and control our award system.
Use this to your advantage. What excites you? How can you reward yourself to complete a physical activity?
I think one of the reasons Richard Simmons’ Sweatn’ to the Oldies did so well is because for many people it brought back the good memories of their past to feel young and energetic.
If you have music from your past from when you were a kid and it brings back energetic memories then use this when needed.
For me, there is something about 80s music. I was only a kid at the time but I remember feeling full of energy and the hip hop dancing.
Use your brain imprints to your advantage. Dictate what you allow into your life and create your reward systems so that you know what is next on your playlist.
Thank you for reading.
– Gilbert
80’s Dance Playlist
