Everybody is looking to find the key to getting rid of their big belly. What magic foods burn belly fat every day? What are the foods that I should stop eating to get rid of belly fat? Are carrots the cause of my over 45-years old gut? What’s the secret to saying, “bye bye belly!” forever?

The secret is weighing less. You can diet to weigh less, but you may have already tried that and failed. Dieting is hard and results are temporary. Some people can’t lose weight, but anybody can change what she weighs!

It’s more than semantics. The approach to losing weight compared to changing what you weigh is different in 10 key points (my 10 rules) and that’s what makes changing your weight work when trying to lose weight fails!

Rule 5: Being is Easier Than Becoming

During a failed weight loss attempt you might have decided that your “couch potatoey” ways were a major factor for being overweight. You wanted to become “fit” and get rid of that belly for good so you signed up for the “guts and butts” class at a nearby gym.

The guts and butts workout wasn’t for the weak. You got worked hard and you went home in a lot of pain. The next day you were hurting even more and you tried to tell yourself, “that’s good; no pain, no gain.”

Your change from “sedentary to fit” was more than uncomfortable. It was very painful and so the change became punishing. As a rational person you do not continue activities that are more painful than they are rewarding. Instead of bye bye belly, you chose bye bye gym!

The same principle applies to eating. You call yourself a “junk food junkie,” because you frequently dine at fast food restaurants, eat a lot of salty, processed snack foods, and assume that you eat too much sugar. In your quest to lose weight, you follow a food plan written by a NY Times Best Selling “health and diet book author” who happens to be a doctor and have a large following of devoted disciples.

All your favorite foods are forbidden. Your life becomes complicated because you can’t enjoy the convenience of processed foods. The weight loss book calls for cutting out all added sugars as well as foods sweetened with artificial sweeteners and even honey, maple syrup and agave.

Your change from “junk food junkie” to becoming the “healthy eater” is painful. It’s time-consuming and it just, plain doesn’t taste good or satisfy on any level. You are hungry and what you’re eating isn’t tasting good. The change was punishing, and as we’ve already established, rational people don’t continue activities that are more painful than rewarding. 

If you were losing a lot of weight the punishment is worth the reward, but the weight loss (reward) isn’t equal or better than the punishment you’re inflicting upon yourself, so you stop doing it. That also explains why you can lose weight, but not maintain the loss. Once you reach your goal, the reward is no longer worth the punishment, so you return to old ways or in other words, you change back to old ways and go back to your former weight.

Here are the strategies:

Take baby steps. Whether it’s eating or exercising, don’t try to “become” fit or a healthy eater. Get there in progressive steps. Before you sign up for a belly-buster of a gym class, start by getting up from the couch and moving for 5 minutes for every hour you sit. Slowly increase your activity and eventually join the gym or maybe get involved in a sport or activity that you really enjoy while getting a good workout.

Simplify the process. Instead of creating unnecessary complications following a completely foreign way of cooking and eating that require a lot of shopping, preparation, and complicated recipes, keep it simple. You don’t have to give up the convenience of processed foods and start cooking everything from scratch. Reduce the servings of processed goods and add more fruit and vegetables to your meal.

Prepare for problems. What if you are out at mealtime? That could be a problem because your standard place to get a meal away from home is a fast food restaurant. You can be prepared by having an emergency, standard fast food order all prepared (in your mind or write it down so you can read it while you order if necessary) That way you can avoid the temptation (or problem) of reading the sign boards and going off track and/or the counter people trying to upsell you or introduce you to a new 1200 calorie deluxe burger!

This is getting long and there are still more rules, so I’m stopping here. Look for Part 3 coming soon!