The Five Phases of Permanent Weight Control
The most effective weight management tool is not a “magic” pill, a powdery supplement, a special drink, pre-packed meals, an exclusive retreat, a treatment center -- it is nature, and you.
The vast majority of the food we consume is unnatural and complicated.
It is baked, sautéed, grilled, fried, bottled, canned, pasteurized, fabricated, and in summary, heavily processed.
The result is weight imbalance and the need for synthetic and artificial solutions that are rarely effective and almost always have negative side effects.
On the other hand, when we nurture and harvest nature, nature produces simple, delicious food.
When we become one with nature, weight management becomes easy and effective, with zero negative side effects and many positive physical upsides.
Purpose
The global weight management market in 2022 was valued at $142.6 billion.
The U.S. weight management market alone makes up about 50% of the global market.
The purpose of this non-profit forum is to 1) present and explore the most effective and healthy weight management tools and 2) suggest that the market cap for the global weight management market could and perhaps should be $0 dollars.
Dead Food vs Live Food
Every time we bake, sauté, grill, fry, bottle, can, pasteurize or synthetically process natural food, we kill it. It becomes dead food.
The atoms and molecules in the food are no longer alive.
Food directly produced and consumed from nature is live food.
The atoms and molecules in the food are alive.
Most of the dead food we consume has little to no beneficial qualities, leads to poor quality of life, and premature death.
Some dead food we consume does have some beneficial qualities, but may still come with less than ideal short-term and long-term negative side-effects.
All live food is abundantly filled with beneficial qualities.
The core problem with weight control is dead food.
The solution is live food.
Why Live Food
Since our bodies are made up of live atoms and molecules, common sense suggests that they respond better to live atoms and molecules passing through our digestive tract and beyond, than to dead atoms and molecules.
Much scientific evidence supports this reality.
Live-feeding-live makes a lot more sense than dead-feeding-live.
Another reason for consuming live food is energy.
Energy is life.
Zero energy is death.
Live food is abundant with potent, long lasting natural energy.
Most dead food only provides bursts of artificial fleeting energy.
Five Phases
Since most of us are burdened with some degree of excess weight, our primary weight management focus should first be on the reduction of weight and then on the maintenance of optimal weight.
For the minority who need to increase their weight to reach their optimum, nature also provides the answers and tools. This focus will be added later.
For the competitive athlete who needs lots of long-lasting energy, nature will also maximize this need when the athlete becomes one with it. Again a later focus.
For now, your journey to permanent, optimal weight management has five phases and begins with Phase One.
Phase One
- transition from dead food to live food -
Many of the dead foods we eat create food cravings.
While the degree of these cravings and our ability to control them is very diverse and individual, universally, food cravings are at the root cause of excess weight.
Nature provides the solution to food cravings...
Live food.
Scientific evidence and/or trusting someone else’s narrative is not necessary to believe this reality.
Personal experience is the strongest and the best verification.
But to truly test how live food can significantly reduce or eliminate food cravings, you need to go all in.
Only eat live food during this first phase, but eat as much of it as you want.
You should never be hungry.
What Is Live Food and What To Do With It
In order to keep the definition simple, live food is fruits, vegetables, nuts, honey, and some selective dairy.
The majority of live food is fruits and vegetables, but simply eating (chewing) lots of raw fruits and vegetables is laborious, sometimes unpleasant, and not an effective way for the body to receive the full value of the live nutrients.
Thus, the most important appliance in your kitchen should be a cold-press juicer.
Search online for “cold press masticating juicer” and you’ll find hundreds of options, with many good options under $100.
For those who travel, there are even very compact lightweight inexpensive options.
Starting Each Day
Start every morning by squeezing a full lemon into a glass of warm-to-hot water. Add some raw unfiltered honey if needed.
While not yet scientifically conclusive, warm water and fresh lemon juice may benefit your digestive tract and prepare it for a good day of live nutrient processing.
Juice For The Day
Most fruits and vegetables can be cold pressed into juice.
As a starting point, your "go to" juices every day could be orange juice and a blend of apple/carrot.
If your schedule doesn’t permit juicing more than once a day, when you juice, only produce what you’ll consume in one day.
Because fresh pressed juice is a live food, it gradually begins to die throughout the day, such that by the next day its nutrient value has significantly declined.
Fruits
Since there are hundreds of different fruit varieties, here is a list of more common fruits categorized by type:
Citrus - oranges, tangerines, clementines, lemons, limes, grapefruit
Culinary Berries - strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, cranberries, acai berries, goji berries, boysenberries, loganberries, elderberries
Botanical Berries - grapes, avocados, bananas, tomatoes, pomegranates, kiwi, persimmons, currants, gooseberries
Stone Fruits - peaches, nectarines, plums, cherries, apricots, dates, olives
Tropical Fruits - coconuts, mangoes, pineapple, guavas, papayas, passion fruit, jackfruit, dragon fruit, lychees, tamarind
Melons - watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, casaba
Pome Fruits - apples (Red Delicious, Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, Fuji, Gala, Honeycrisp, McIntosh, Pink Lady, Cosmic, Ambrosia), pears (Bartlett, Anjou, Asian), quinces
Dried Fruits (short list) - dates, prunes, raisins, figs, apricots, cranberries
Vegetables
Again, since there are hundreds of different vegetable varieties, here is a list of more common vegetables categorized by type:
Leafy Greens - romaine, iceberg, spinach, kale, arugula, bok choy
Root - carrots, ginger, radishes, parsnips
Bulbs - onions, garlic, scallions (green onions), chives, shallots, leeks
Legumes - sweet peas, sugar snap peas, green beans
Other Misc - bell peppers, cucumbers, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms
Nuts
Technically, most nuts are considered a fruit and peanuts are a legume or a vegetable.
But, for ease of categorization, their dense caloric properties, and being rich in healthy fats, nuts have been separated out.
Nuts should be eaten raw since cooking or roasting them kills the live atoms and molecules.
Here is a list of common nuts that can be consumed in their raw state:
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Almonds
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Walnuts
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Cashews
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Pecans
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Pistachios
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Pine Nuts
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Brazil Nuts
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Macadamia Nuts
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Hazelnuts
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Peanuts
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Chestnuts
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Sunflower Seeds
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Pumpkin Seeds
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Chia Seeds
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Flax Seeds
Sweeteners
Besides dates, the easiest sweetener to be confident that it is naturally alive, is raw unfiltered honey, and it has an exceptionally long shelf life.
Carefully read and research since most “honey” is not raw and unfiltered.
Other naturally living sweeteners are stevia and monk fruit.
The raw stevia leaf can easily be grown in an indoor or outdoor garden, however, most stevia products purchased commercially have been heated.
Most monk fruit products are also heated during the production process.
And, unfortunately, other “natural” sweeteners such as agave, maple syrup, erythritol, xylitol, and allulose, are all heated during the production process.
Raw, unfiltered honey and dates are probably your best living “go to” sweeteners.
Selective Dairy
For those who are not allergic to dairy, some dairy products may contain live cultures which come from fermentation.
The most common are some cheeses, yogurts, sour creams, and cottage cheese.
Research into each specific dairy brand / product is necessary to identify how it is made.
Here is a list of common cheeses that may contain live cultures:
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Swiss
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Gouda
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Blue
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Brie
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Feta
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Provolone
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Traditional Mozzarella (made with unpasteurized milk)
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Ricotta
Swiss cheese is the most likely to contain live cultures because it is the fermentation that creates the holes in the cheese.
While most yogurts, sour creams and cottage cheeses contain live cultures, some of them are heat-treated after the fermentation process which kills the live cultures.
It is the live cultures in sour cream that creates the “sour” taste.
Since dairy does have some downsides along with its live culture benefits, even if we are not intolerant to it, it is probably the one category of live food that should be responsibly consumed.
Green Smoothie
As an addition to fresh cold-pressed juices, and as an easier, more effective way to get the full benefit of leafy greens (without having to make or eat a salad), a blender could be used to make a daily green smoothie.
To sweeten and/or flavor a power green smoothie you can use other live foods such as banana (frozen or fresh), pineapple (frozen or fresh), pitted dates, honey, fresh squeezed lemon juice etc.
Energy Balls or Coins
For easy, on the go, dense energy live food, consider making energy balls or coins.
If you do an online search such as “no bake energy balls,” you’ll find dozens of recipes that do not require baking.
This will teach you the basic principles and steps to creating the balls, but be sure that you only use live food ingredients in your recipe - dates, plums, nuts, dried fruit etc.
Salads
To get the greatest benefit from the nutrients in live food, a juice, blender, or food processor is used.
In comparison, a salad requires a lot of chewing and is not nearly as effective.
However, sometimes you might prefer to sit down and eat-a-meal and/or experiment with a lot of different mixtures and variations in tastes.
In both scenarios, a salad is an ideal option.
The one challenge is salad dressing, since most dressings are made with dead food.
The most basic solution to a live food salad dressing is mixing sour cream, honey, and fresh squeezed lemon juice. Dried herbs can also be added.
Ice Cream
Nature provides all of the basic ingredients necessary to make delicious, live ice cream: frozen fruit, cottage cheese with live cultures, and honey.
In a blender, mix your choice of thawed frozen fruit (single fruit or a blend), cottage cheese, and honey / dates / stevia leaves for added sweetness.
Some ice cream maker options are this and this and this.
Acai Bowls
Purchasing an acai bowl from a grocery store, online, or a juice/smoothie cafe, will most likely contain dead food - usually from the sweetener in the acai puree, granola, and/or chocolate bits added on top.
Acai in its raw form is relatively tart.
A sure way to enjoy an entirely live acai bowl is to purchase pure and unsweetened acai puree.
Mix honey into the puree or drizzle it on top.
On top of the acai puree add all of your favorite berries and fruits, dried and/or fresh, along with some nuts and/or seeds if you need to increase the calories.
Exceptions
During this first phase as you transition from dead food to live food, the optimal is to only eat live food.
However, sometimes it is better to make some minor exceptions than to see consistency and continuity “flame out.”
If for whatever reason you decide to make some exceptions, it would be best to limit the exceptions to probably less than 20% of your food consumption, otherwise, your live food test / experience may be compromised.
Also, it is important to keep the exceptions on the upper end of “good” dead food.
Some examples might be:
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Hard-boiled egg
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Butter on a slice of Kamut sourdough bread (note: cultured butter, although not commonly available, is live food - it's pricey but here's an example)
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Lightly steamed broccoli dipped in melted butter with salt and pepper
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Overnight oats - cold, uncooked, rolled oats soaked overnight in the least processed almond or coconut milk possible, with some cinnamon, honey, raw nuts (sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds), dried fruit, and/or berries added in the morning
Eat As Much As You Want
The primary objective of this first phase is to transition from dead food to live food.
Thus, eat as much as you want.
Losing or gaining weight is not an objective during this phase, but either reality could likely become a by-product.
While losing weight is more likely than gaining, if you are gaining weight and this is a concern to you, then reduce or eliminate highly dense caloric foods such as avocados, nuts, and cheese.
Most fruits such as apples, oranges, berries etc are only moderately caloric and should not need to be limited.
If you are concerned about healthy fats and getting sufficient calories, eat lots of avocados and raw nuts. To enhance the enjoyment of avocados you can squeeze fresh lime juice on thick slices and add salt and pepper.
The End of Phase One
The time you spend in Phase One is very individual and entirely determined by you.
It would be best to NOT decide ahead of time how long you’ll spend in this phase.
Instead, focus on the new foods you are experimenting with and deciding what you enjoy and what you don’t enjoy.
Keep going back to the live foods you enjoy.
Avoid consuming the live foods you don’t enjoy.
You’ll know you have achieved the objective of this phase when you are finding meaningful enjoyment in eating live food and your cravings for dead food have mysteriously dissipated.
The moment you recognize that your dead food cravings have subsided, and you are enjoying most if not all of what you are eating, is the moment when you should consider moving on to Phase Two.
Phase Two
- count live food calories -
Let’s be honest...
Counting calories is not fun.
And while you didn’t count calories in Phase One, and you won’t be counting any calories after Phase Two, counting calories is essential to the objective of this next phase.
The objective of Phase Two is to learn how the amount of live food calories affects your personal weight.
The calorie amount and the effect is very individual to you.
How Many Daily Calories
The first step in this phase is to get a general estimate of how many calories per day you need in order to maintain your current weight.
You can use a calorie calculator from here or here, or do your own online search for the calorie calculator of your choice.
Once you’re comfortable with “locking in” your daily caloric intake amount in order to maintain your current weight, find the calorie counter app of your choice in the Apple Store or Google Play Store.
Track Everything
For a minimum of one week, and for probably not longer than two weeks, measure all of the live food you consume and record it daily in your calorie counter app.
Some options to find calorie amounts for individual food items can be found here or here. Or you can use an AI search engine like Bing Copilot or Perplexity.
Weigh yourself once every day.
While a morning weigh-in routine is probably best, the important key is to consistently weigh yourself at approximately the same time everyday and in the exact same way (i.e. same scale fully clothed, partially clothed, or no clothes).
Record daily your weight.
Adjust Your Daily Calorie Amount
Once you’re comfortable that you’ve tested long enough the daily calorie amount and it’s symmetry to maintaining your weight, make an adjustment to the amount.
If you gained weight, reduce the daily calorie amount and test again for a minimum of one week.
If you lost weight, and you want to continue to lose weight, then keep the daily calorie amount the same for another week.
If your weight didn’t change, and you want to lose weight, then reduce your daily calorie amount by a set amount and test again for a minimum of one week.
Evening Tea
Depending on how low you’ve set your daily calorie amount to be, you may find yourself near the end of the day wanting more calories left in your “budget.”
Drinking some non-caffeinated herbal tea sweetened with a little bit of honey may help to soften this desire.
The End of Phase Two
Optimally this second phase will last at least 4 weeks.
Continue to make weekly adjustments to your daily calorie amount until you are fairly certain that you understand the relationship between live food calorie intake and its effect on your weight.
Once you are confident you understand this relationship, you’re ready to move on to Phase Three.
Phase Three
- listen to your body -
It’s now time to move to your optimal weight!
With your dead food cravings under control and an understanding of how live food calories affect your weight, you have a strong foundation to successfully arrive at the weight you’ve always wanted to see on the scale.
You’re ready figuratively to “let go of the rope and endlessly surf that wave behind the boat hands-free.”
Set Your Target
Decide what you want your optimal weight to be, lock it in (your mind), and then forget about it.
Your focus now is to listen to your body and let your new symbiotic relationship with live food naturally guide you to that target.
Decisions to Eat
Every time we eat we make decisions: when to eat, what to eat, and how much to eat.
Whatever your decision making process was in the past for deciding when to eat (e.g stress, craving, hunger), during this phase you’ll want to carefully listen to your body.
Do you actually feel hungry?
If yes, then eat a little bit until you don’t feel hungry anymore.
This usually only takes a couple hundred calories of live food if the food is not densely caloric.
While answering the “when to eat” question we also answered the “how much to eat” question: until we don’t feel hungry anymore.
Just remember, it’s a pretty fast window from hungry to not hungry.
You are no longer eating just to eat.
You’re now eating with a specifically defined purpose, to satisfy real hunger, and only eating until your hunger is satisfied.
So what about the “what to eat” question?
This answer depends on how far you want to push down on the weight reduction accelerator.
If you want to gently push down on the accelerator, then include in your decision making some densely caloric live foods such as avocados, nuts, cheese, energy balls etc.
If you want a little more speed, avoid avocados, nuts, cheese, and energy balls during this phase, but still include medium caloric foods such as cottage cheese, apples, dates, grapes etc.
For maximum speed, always include your juices, but outside of this primarily stick to your high volume low calorie foods such as bananas, melons, cucumbers, celery, broccoli etc.
Could you press down on the accelerator even more by disciplining yourself to experience a lot of hunger?
Sure, but doing so would probably not be wise and you might spin out of control.
Your body shouldn’t be starved of good, energy rich nutrients, which you can still get plenty of at the maximum recommended speed.
Reasons to Eat
In the past, your reasons for deciding when, what and how much to eat may have been based on stress, emotional discomfort, physiological cravings, social expectations etc.
Now, during this phase, you’ll be dramatically simplifying your reasons for eating.
Ask yourself before eating: do I want to eat, do I need to eat, or should I eat?
If your answer is “I want to eat,” then don’t eat.
This is most likely the primary reason you used to make eating decisions in the past, but now you have the discipline and the control to set aside this reason.
If your answer is “I need to eat,” because you’re carefully listening to your body and it’s saying, “please feed me,” then definitely decide to feed it.
During this phase, the need to eat should be the primary reason you decide when, what, and how much to eat.
Occasionally your answer may be: “I should eat.”
This would be you being proactive instead of reactive.
For example, if you know that most likely your schedule is not going to permit you access to live food for a period of time beyond when your body is next going to ask to be nourished, then preemptively, you should eat.
This proactively stores up the energy needed until you once again have access to live food, and reduces the probability that you’ll rationalize consuming easily accessible dead food.
The End of Phase Three
Of the three phases thus far, this one is the easiest to know when it has ended...
The number on the scale displays the number you set as your target.
Phase Four
- maintain your ideal weight with only live food -
Explanation coming soon...
Phase Five
- balance live food with dead food -
Explanation coming soon...
Needing to Gain Weight
Explanation coming soon...
Athletes Needing Energy
Explanation coming soon...