Getting to a Healthy Weight: It May Be Easier Than You Think

By Raymond Gerts

I wrote this book for those of us who have been trying to lose weight and just can’t seem to reach their goal. I was in that spot several years ago. In my late 30’s, I weighed 220 pounds. I was 6 feet tall and I had no trouble carrying the weight but I could tell my waist was getting too big. For the first time I had to buy size 38 pants and I was starting to feel tired and sluggish. I started to have lower back problems. As long as I was a size 36 the extra weight didn’t bother me, but when I jumped to a size 38, I could start to see that extra fat, I knew I had to do something.

I was at the point where I wanted to lose weight but I hadn’t realized what was happening to me. Now, after several years, I realized that because I had slowed down, I wasn’t burning as many calories and my muscle mass was shrinking and turning into body fat. Today, I realize if you don’t exercise and maintain your muscles you will lose muscle size and strength. You will increase your body fat while shrinking your muscles and sometimes your weight doesn’t even change.

I did a lot of research to write this book. I made dozens of mistakes over the years trying to lose weight and with my help; I hope you can avoid some of them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Raymond Gerts
• Release date: Nov 30, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370451258

Raymond Gerts

I've wanted to write a book on weight lose for several years but never found enough time. My personal story with my weight has been my inspiration to write this book. I have been between chubby and thin since I was a child. It wasn't until I reached 50 years of age that I made a conscious decision to stop yo-yoing and keep the extra weight off.I've lost also 60 pounds from my highest point and it does take time and you can lose your way along your journey but it's a journey worth taking. I always believed in working out all the way back to 8th grade when I bought my first set of weights. I was active in school sports all through high school. I had some bad injuries in sports and there was years when I wasn't workout and I did gain some weight back, but after school when I started working I was a helper on a Coke truck. I had to unload the truck everyday by hand and bring the cases into the stores. Later I had my own truck but the work didn't get any easier. Most days I didn't have a helper. I worked alone and the days were long.I lost any extra weight I might have had over the next few years. I left that job for more money working heavy construction. As an iron worker tying re-bar on a highway concrete crew I got plenty of exercise so it was easy keeping my body in shape. The reason I mention these jobs is because of the hard work over those 10 years of working blue collar, I had stopped working out. I was staying in good shape and never thought I needed to workout. I had to quit working construction after I had an accident at work and spent the next several weeks in the hospital. After I recovered I was doing physical therapy but I was on crutches for several months. After that I knew I wouldn't be able to go back to construction.I bought my own business and was doing well but I wasn't very active and I started to gain weight. Over the next few years I had gained about 50 pounds. By that time I knew I had to lose weight but whenever I would lose a few pounds, I'd gain it back. For several years I yo-yoed up and down, until I finally got serious about my weight. So I'm writing this book to give you some valuable information, most of which I learned the hard way, so you might be able to lose the extra weight you've been struggling with.I quit trying several times but always went back to some sort of diet. I slacked off on the exercise for several years because of my bad knees, but after several years of therapy and one knee surgery, I started back on a regular work-out schedule. When I got my diet and exercise working together, I was finally able to lose the body fat and keep it off.

Book preview

Getting to a Healthy Weight

It May Be Easier Than You Think

Ray Gerts

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Smashwords Edition

Getting to a Healthy Weight

Copyright © 2016 Ray Gerts

Cover layout by Laura Shinn Designs

http://laurashinn.yolasite.com

Smashwords License Notes:

All rights reserved. Getting to a Healthy Weight is a work of non-fiction. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

Table of Contents

Preface

Chapter One: Before You Can Lose Weight

Chapter Two: Why Do We Gain Weight

Chapter Three: Why You Shouldn't Gain Weight

Chapter Four: Why You Should Eat the Right Foods

Chapter Five: Why You Should Exercise

Chapter Six: Why Some Foods Will Harm You

Chapter Seven: How to Get to a Healthy Weight

Chapter Eight: You Need a Healthy Diet Plan

Chapter Nine: Exercise Is Important for Losing Body Fat

Chapter Ten: Weight Loss Facts

About the Author

Preface

I wrote this book for those of us who have been trying to lose weight and just can’t seem to reach their goal. I was in that spot several years ago. In my late 30’s, I weighed 220 pounds. I was 6 feet tall and I had no trouble carrying the weight but I could tell my waist was getting too big. For the first time I had to buy size 38 pants and I was starting to feel tired and sluggish. I started to have lower back problems. As long as I was a size 36 the extra weight didn’t bother me, but when I jumped to a size 38, I could start to see that extra fat, I knew I had to do something.

I worked with the public all day and when you have that feeling that people are staring, well it’s just depressing. I felt sloppy. As a young adult, I was always in good physical condition. I left High School weighing about 170 and yes, my weight did go up and down a little over the next few years, but at age 30 I weighed about 172 and I was still in good shape. Between the ages of 30 and 35 is when I gained all the extra weight. I think that was the depressing part for me, to see myself at 220 pounds and remembering how I use to be.

I was at the point where I wanted to lose weight but I hadn’t realized what was happening to me. Now, after several years, I realized that because I had slowed down, I wasn’t burning as many calories and my muscle mass was shrinking and turning into body fat. Today, I realize if you don’t exercise and maintain your muscles you will lose muscle size and strength. You will increase your body fat while shrinking your muscles and sometimes your weight doesn’t even change.

You have to understand the way your body works if you’re going to change your body. Your body operates on real-time; it’s changing a little every day, so little you don’t notice it. The muscles you aren’t using will shrink and the muscles you do use will grow. And this process goes on every day. That’s the way your body deals with the changing you. We have thousands of muscles in our body and we only use a couple hundred of them on a regular basis. That’s why you have sore muscles the day after you clean out the garage. You were using muscles you seldom use.

In this book you’ll learn about your body:

Why you gain weight

Why you shouldn’t gain weight

Why you should eat the right foods

Why you have to exercise

Why some foods will harm you

How to get to a healthy weight

Good diet information

Weight loss facts

I did a lot of research to write this book. I made dozens of mistakes over the years trying to lose weight and with my help; I hope you can avoid some of them.

Most of us have tried several times to lose weight and the weight always seems to come back. I’ll guide you through the pitfalls and help you succeed once and for all. There’s a mindset to losing weight. You have to want it bad enough to change your life, change the way you’re living today and I’ll tell you how to do that. When you make your lifestyle changes, your new life will be about taking care of your body. It’s not that hard to change, but you will have to give up your old life and your old diet and there’s no looking back.

Most of us have gone the route of those starvation diets that only work for a couple of months or those exercise programs that are for the physically fit but not for you, and none of that has worked; so now you still want to lose weight but you need some help. I went from 220 pounds to 157 pounds over several years. I lost my extra weight in stages. I didn’t lose the last 15 pounds until I started researching my first weight loss book about 5 years ago. It’s never too late to get into shape.

I’m going to help you get fit and trim. In my book, you’ll learn all my secrets and dozens of other ways because losing weight is not the same cookie-cutter way for everyone. I don’t promote any special food programs or diet pills and I only believe surgery is necessary in the most extreme cases. I lost weight without spending any money, but only after I wasted a lot of money on gym memberships and equipment. You don’t have to do that. It doesn’t cost money to lose weight and I’ll show you how.

I think you should be warned about surgery. So before I go on, I liken surgery to weight loss pills. Pills will take the weight off if you don’t cheat and stay on the diet the doctor gives you. The minute you slip off the diet, the fat will start to come back. Surgery is the same, you get rid of the fat quick, if you choose Liposuction, if you choose the band it takes longer and you may see results, but the minute you slip off that diet the fat will start to return. The band is not a permanent fix.

You see, the doctor’s method isn’t much different and both pills and surgery have a high percentage of people who regain the weight. That’s why I said before, that losing weight takes a certain mindset.You have to want it bad enough that you’re willing to change your life. Learn about the new foods you need to eat and forget about the foods you have been eating. You might as well know now but after you make the changes necessary and lose the weight, there’s no going back. I’m not telling you that you’ll never be able to cheat, because weight maintenance will be more forgiving.

Chapter One:

Before You Can Lose Weight

There are some questions you need to know the answer to. It's easier to make a change in your life and lose the extra weight if you understand how you gained the weight. If you feel guilty about your weight get over it. It's not all your fault. Being overweight happens for several different reasons.

What contributes to America's overweight problem?

The food industry creates foods that hijack our brains. They use fats, sugar, and salt, in different forms and with different names which are highly stimulating. They condition us so that even the sights and smells associated with them activate your brain in ways that make you want food. In controlled individuals or controlled studies, the brain activity stops when people start ingesting the food, but in some people it doesn’t shut off when the food is gone. Also when your body craves food it's not just telling you to eat something, it's telling you that you need something. Maybe it's protein or maybe it's carbohydrates, whatever, somewhere through evolution we lost the ability to understand what are body's telling us.

Also factors like stress and simply not knowing what foods your body needs play a part in your weight problem. We often eat out of habit. We eat the same way our parents ate. You grew up with those foods so what could be wrong with that?

I think the biggest factor that affects your weight is that we are not eating the same food our grandparents ate. Today our food is a manufactured product. The grains we eat in bread, in cookies, in biscuits, and snack food is not really grain, it’s a manufactured product made from wheat and several other chemicals. If you notice most loaves of bread have an ingredients label and one of the ingredients is enriched flour. Some packages say processed wheat flour, enriched or processed wheat will elevate your blood sugar levels the same as sugar does.

Enriched or processed flour is something to avoid, when you want to lose belly fat avoid all processed foods. We can buy whole grain foods today and gluten-free foods (no wheat) so you can still buy your favorite foods only without processed flour.

Dairy isn’t any different; our dairy is full of additives. If you noticed, lately, our dairy products are changing. We can buy dozens of alternative milk products and even organic milk. The consumer is getting smarter and wants a better quality product.

Our meat comes