Let me tell you a straightforward and  blunt fact of life that I cannot in good conscious sugarcoat for you. I am not one who is into hurting feelings, but to get my message through to you, I will not wrap it up in a pretty little package and top it with a ribbon and bow to make you feel good.

My mission is first and foremost to help you.

Do you know why every diet plan you have tried has always failed you?

It is because it lacked COMMON SENSE!

If your nutritional habits are not based in common sense, you are doomed to a life of being overweight or obese. It is as simple as that.

Which food group looks most like what you eat on a regular basis?

Be real with yourself if your meals are more like the lower picture than the one above.

Are the nutritional values of these two pictures even remotely close to being the same?

Common sense dictates that we need to fuel our bodies with good fuel if we want to be at our best level of health and fitness. Yet, fast food has become a daily staple for far too many in western society.

From US Center for Disease Control:

34% of children eat fast food on any given day.

Regular fast food consumption increases your risks for obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes & depression.

Fast food consumption increases 2.2% every year.

Fast food is high in calories and loaded with fat, sugar & salt. Most of the nutrition that would be present has been stripped away due to processing, so those things are added in order to make the food taste good. Combine that with a caffeine & sugar laden soft drink and it’s no wonder we all hit that work day slump around 3 pm. Fast food might taste good – but common sense should tell us, it’s not good for our body. Fueling our body with fast food is like knowingly putting bad fuel in our car.

It just does not make sense!

Now, let’s move on to commercial weight loss diet plans and why they fail you.

Common sense dictates that to lose weight, and keep it off, your nutritional habits have to become your lifestyle and not something temporary with an endpoint. The problem with every diet is there will always be an endpoint at some time in the future. 

One of the top weight loss companies in America, if not the top, has a convoluted diet plan that can, and does work for some. But, it leaves too much wiggle room for those who do not apply common sense. In their plan, which you pay good money for, foods are given an assigned number of points while healthier choices are not given any points at all. What happens, and why people fail at this plan is, they will eat all their points in poor nutritional choices and then fill up for the rest of the day on foods that do not have any points. The problem is the foods  that are not assigned points still have calories that add up. If you eat 500 calories per day over your caloric needs, common sense dictates you are going to still gain 1 pound per week no matter the foods that put you over are zero point foods. Common sense can, and does fly right out the window when you allow people wiggle room with their nutrition.

Diet Foods/Plans Sent to Your Home

There are more than a couple companies that will promise you weight loss by eating their foods and following their simple plans for an expensive fee. They entice you with menu pictures that look like the picture above,but what you receive is pictured below.

I have to tell you, my wife tried the Nutrisystem once a few years back. The food was simply awful, and was not satisfying at all. If I had a choice between eating these prepackaged foods or the MRE (Meals Ready To Eat) that we ate while in the field when I was in the military, I would go for the MRE.

But here is the larger problem with these prepackaged diet meals.

These programs really do not teach you anything about good nutrition, and you are not learning how to prepare healthy foods for yourself at home. For permanent weight loss, and successful management of your body fat levels, you have to learn to cook foods for yourself that are nutritionally sound and which are not full of empty calories that provide you no health benefit.

Ordering a month’s worth of food is easy, and the items are already made for you. But you won’t have your usual degree of control over what foods you choose to eat.  You can  expect to pay from about $230 to the mid $300s a month for the Nutrisystem foods, plus whatever you buy from the grocery store. The real question is whether you can continue to lose weight or maintain your weight when you are no longer relying on these prepackaged foods.

Common sense should tell you the odds are stacked against you.

Meal Replacement Drinks

While there may be some valid reasons to use meal replacement drinks on occasion, it does not make sense to believe you can or should use these for the long term. The smart money is once again, on preparing healthy and nutritional whole foods to nourish your body with.

It’s just good old fashioned common sense to do so!

In most cases, these products are designed to be bought and sold in bulk and do NOT contain fresh ingredients. Grocery stores keep them stocked on shelves for months. And they’re often kept in vending machines where they must be shelf-stable. These meal replacement drinks must have a long shelf-life, and they have be safe to consume without refrigeration. When both of these features go into any food, it can be an unhealthy combination. In most cases, the ingredients need to be heavily processed. And as a direct result of all that processing, there’s little whole-food nutrition or nutrients left over in the meal replacement itself. That means many of the necessary ingredients for healthy digestion, food absorption and a nutritionally sound diet are greatly reduced.

For anyone who wants to lose unwanted weight, it can be mighty tempting to skip real food and consume meal replacement drinks. However,  there’s one major problem with this strategy – meal replacement drinks for weight loss do not work over the long-term. While you might drop a few pounds quickly, you’re more likely to end up feeling deprived, restricted, low in energy and full of cravings for the foods you actually enjoy.

At David’s Way, we take a holistic, whole body approach to weight loss and management!

David’s Way is a healthy nutrition and active lifestyle based on years of personal experience and scientific research. Our methodology involves the consumption of a high protein, low carbohydrate, nutritionally sound and diabetic friendly diet. At David’s Way we don’t tell you what to eat so much as we tell you what not to eat. This is no weight loss gimmick, this simple plan is how our mothers, grandmothers and generations past used to feed us. It is simply a matter of using portion control when consuming healthy, whole foods, while avoiding foods that are not nutritionally sound. In other words, do not consume anything that does not provide you a nutritional benefit.

• Do not consume sugar or simple carbs such as refined sugar, pasta and breads made of refined white flour. Avoid sugar sweetened drinks and alcoholic beverages as they are loaded in simple carbohydrates.

1. 1. 1. Foods containing added sugar and simple carbohydrates will spike your blood sugar and insulin which will drive your cravings for more. If you have not had control over sugar and simple carbohydrates in the past, it is unlikely you will keep them under control in the future if you have been prone to binge eating. If you are addicted to simple carbs you will almost certainly have the same issues as an alcoholic who thinks he can enjoy just one drink. This might work occasionally, but will usually derail the individual entirely.
      2. The only caveat to not consuming simple carbs is fruit. The fiber in fruit acts to buffer the simple carbohydrates in them from just dumping into your bloodstream like happens when you eat sugar and other simple carbohydrates.
      3. In our recipe category, we have subcategories with plenty of sugar free dessert recipes that are delicious, and can be eaten by anyone including diabetics, while not having to concern yourself with the health issues and cravings which come from sugar.

•  No processed foods as they are almost always high in sugar, sodium, unhealthy fats and          preservatives.

1. 1. While there are some processed foods that are nutritionally sound, most are not. If you are going to consume processed foods because of the convenience factor, be sure to read the label first. For example, if you purchase a sauce, read the label to identify whether the product contains added sugar, unhealthy fats, high amounts of sodium and any other ingredients which you might have to do a Google search of in order to even know what it might be.

• Simply put, we encourage you to eat whole foods such as meats, seafood, vegetables, fruits and dairy products that are easily prepared at home. Skip restaurants and fast food’s unless you know that you are able to make healthy choices from their menu.

1. 1. An example of a healthy choice in a restaurant would be meat and vegetable fajitas in a Mexican restaurant. You could enjoy this while skipping the flour tortillas and the corn tortillas and salsa that is usually served. Have a unsweetened drink with your meal instead of a soda pop or alcoholic beverage.

• Be sure to track how many calories a day you consume and do not exceed the amount your body requires. Just as important, you want to ensure you are not under eating.

1. 1. If you find yourself going over on one day, simply eat lighter the next day and do not stress over it. One day is not going to derail your weight loss, especially if you are eating healthy, whole foods only. You can do an average of your daily caloric intake for the week, and if your average does not exceed what it would be if your calories were spot on each day, there is no need for worry about weight gain.
   2. If you have an exercise regimen, you will especially want to track your caloric intake in order to ensure you are consuming enough calories to fuel your physical activities. Too large a caloric deficit will cause you to lose lean muscle mass along with body fat. This will only serve to slow down your metabolism.

• Be sure during your weight loss mode to eat a diet that is high in protein and lower in carbs, Do not skip out on healthy fats either as they are essential for good health and proper absorption of nutrients from the foods you eat.
  1. A diet that is higher in protein and which includes healthy fats will keep you satiated between meals far better than a diet that is higher in carbohydrates than protein.
  2. During your weight loss, try to consume no less than 35% and up to 50% of your calories from a variety of protein sources. Meats, seafood, dairy, eggs and even protein shakes that do not contain sugar. Once you are maintaining your weight, try to eat at least 35% of your calories from protein sources. Track your macro-nutrients!
  3. If you have a vigorous exercise regimen such as strength training and or running, be sure to eat from .8 grams to 1 gram per pound of body weight if you are female. And 1 gram to 1.2 grams of protein per pound of body weight if you are male. Protein is a must in order to maintain, build and repair your lean muscle tissue which gets broken down during vigorous exercise.

• Be accountable to yourself! Besides tracking your calories and macro-nutrients, weigh yourself no more than once per week, and aim for only a 1 pound per week weight loss, and no more than 2 pounds per week.

1. 1. Be consistent in your weigh in. Do it on the same day each week, at the same time of day and in the same clothing or lack thereof. We recommend weighing yourself before you even get dressed, and before you have anything to eat and drink.

Common Sense Approach!

David’s Way to Health and Fitness is about living a healthy lifestyle over living on a diet. We believe it keeping it simple, thereby reducing the level of stress which can come when on a weight loss mindset. What we advocate is nothing new under the sun, this lifestyle is just how life used to be lived before the epidemic of rampant obesity in America. It is about personal responsibility and accountability to self and loved ones as your health will always become a burden on others should you allow it to. Someone will always have to pick up the broken pieces behind you should you live a unhealthy lifestyle. Do not allow yourself to become a burden to your loved ones simply because of a lack of dietary control or discipline. You are better than this, and your loved ones deserve better.