Chasing Freedom - Diet Plan Outline

They succeed or fail based on whether you can mentally deal with the lifestyle change Most people who decide they want to lose weight follow the same course:

They research diets and pick out the one that seems to be the most effective, with the least amount of effort.
They get all hung up on the details of the food, whether its low fat, low carbohydrate, high protein, diet shakes, callogen protein, soy, vegetarian or a specific percentage combination of each.
They decide to take pills which promise "easy" results. They work as long as you never quit taking them, which is unreasonable due to the side-effects that each have.

There are hundreds of books out there that go into great detail about the body and use page after page of medical terminology to convince their reader that there is somehow a chemical formula that will unlock your body's ability to lose weight.

We receive over 250 e-mails a day asking me mostly about the minute details of diets and their food plans. Dieters are obsessed with details, primarily due to the fact most diet books and websites that sell diet products are so focused with impressing you with their "research."

My friends, the truth about weight loss is that it is a mental game. The one trait in common with all people who have lost significant weight and kept it off is a change of mindset. They found a way to change how they thought about dieting, eating and exercise. They accepted the reality of healthy weight loss and learned to deal with the frustrations and mental battle that accompany it.

Without first learning how to combat your mental demons, most people will remain in the vicious cycle of battling their weight for their entire lives. The problem is, most people don't know how to initiate mental change.

Chasing Freedom is a "road map" to long-term, healthy weight loss. It is a practical guide focused on strategies to make healthy weight loss more manageable. It is a mental framework, alongside a basic food plan that follows the Food Guide Pyramid and an exercise plan whose goal is for you to discover lifestyle exercise sports that you don't think of as exercise. Chasing Freedom has six main aspects:

1. Mental Preparation

Losing weight and becoming vibrant and healthy will have a bigger impact on your life than anything else. And I mean anything! It determines your mental, physical, and emotional state, every moment of every day. You must place that kind of importance on your diet.
Most people go on a diet with the attitude, "I'll give this a try. I hope it works better than the last diet I tried." Wrong! You must have the positive attitude and mindset, that you will succeed.
Chasing Freedom is a lifestyle change that you do not just try. It gives you the long-term mindset where the only outcome is success.
A diet or lifestyle change must never begin "tomorrow" or "next Monday Morning." You need time to consider your past weight loss frustrations and the way you live and eat. You must learn to focus on these memories in order to channel your mental strength.

2. The cornerstone of a successful diet must be on finding your motivation.

We all have emotional baggage and frustrations regarding our weight. For most people this baggage is a personal liability from which all their weakness derives. Chasing Freedom teaches you how to focus these negative thoughts into a powerful reservoir of inner strength.
Once you develop mental strength from inside yourself, you will be able to combat the mental demons that have plagued your attempts to lose weight and change your life before.
Motivation comes from learning how to use simple, practical techniques, such as listening to music that elicits the memories that you've learned to use as your inspiration.
Motivation comes from knowing you have placed all your confidence in yourself.

3. The food aspect of healthy, long-term weight loss should be basic and based on common sense. Most diets focus on immediate, short-term water loss, which never lasts. Your food plan must be sustainable for the long-term if you are to keep the weight off.

Follow the Food Guide Pyramid, recommended by virtually all doctors and nutritionists. In order to lose weight, you consume the low end serving count.
Chasing Freedom has strategies to tailor the recommendations of the FGP to maximize your mental strength. The strategies relate to purchasing, storage, preparation and consumption of your food.
Rewards must be a central component of your food program. Weekly celebration "cheat meals" must be consumed in order to relieve your weight loss stress and give you something to look forward to.
Balanced nutrition, once learned, can easily make the transition from caloric intake for weight loss to caloric intake to maintain your new equilibrium weight.

4. The one variable in common with all successful, long-term diets is exercise.

Too many diets downplay the importance of exercise or attempt to convince you something mundane or arduous can be easy or fun.
Chasing Freedom recognizes the difficulty of undertaking an exercise program when you are out of the shape.
It recognizes a concept called the demons of rationalization. These are the ever-present thoughts in your mind that seem to always cause you to quit exercising before you had planned. Chasing Freedom describes how the demons of rationalization effect each type of workout, from health club workouts, to home exercise machines, to road workouts such as walking and running, to lifestyle exercise sports such as tennis, climbing, or bicycling. By understanding the effects of the demons you can manage your workouts to minimize them.
The ultimate goal of Chasing Freedom is to take you from the health club, to the road, to lifestyle exercise sports that you don't think of as exercise.
Anything is possible when you begin to get fit having fun.

5. The most important component of Chasing Freedom is acquiring the mindset that weight loss success is not in losing the weight, but keeping it off forever.

Once you lose weight the Chasing Freedom way, you will have gained the strength and knowledge that will give you complete control of your weight for the rest of your life.

Anything is possible! *Always consult your doctor or physician before starting any weight loss program.