The Maui Diet: Blog

As author of The Maui Diet, and an educator specializing in healthy, permanent fat loss, I’m repeatedly asked questions like, “Why can’t I lose weight?” Or, “How can I lose more fat, the flab?” Or, “How can I keep off the weight I lost?”
Here are some crucial mistakes I see people make when trying to lose fat and shape up—mistakes that can easily be avoided using the solutions offered.

Not doing strength/resistance training.
If you’re like me, weight lifting or other kinds of resistance training—like with resistance bands—is about as much fun as a root canal. Do it anyway, in addition to your aerobic exercise.
Studies show that doing both strength work and aerobic exercise is the single best strategy for fat loss, fitness and keeping the flab off permanently. The more muscle you have—which proper weight training promotes—the more effectively you burn fat. Shoot for three 40-minute sessions a week, doing exercises to work the muscles of your arms, back, chest, shoulders. If you’re new to this, start out with resistance bands, or a couple of sets of light dumbbells. Simple pushups and chinups work too.

Not making the whole thing a priority.
This is a key strategy of almost every single person who has successfully lost weight and kept it off permanently. They make their fat loss and fitness a top priority. It can’t be a half-hearted, hit-or-miss type of thing. You may know this from personal experience, so commit to making the whole thing a top priority—the top priority—in your life and make it happen. Have fun, charge hard and keep focused.

Not developing and following a daily plan.
This includes blocking out a time for your daily exercise and doing it. Putting exercise on your to do list won’t do it. Nor will anything less than simply blocking out time for your daily exercise and doing it, no excuses. Your daily plan should also include healthy food choices, emphasizing fresh vegetables and fruits, complex carbohydrates, lean proteins and healthy fats, like those from oats and other whole grains, beans, avocado and other plant-based sources of fats. Shoot for making breakfast your main meal of the day; if not breakfast, then lunch. Get away from dinner as a big meal of the day—it just doesn’t fit with our 21st century lifestyles.

Not having specific, clear fat loss goals.
Saying “I need to lose 10-20 pounds” won’t do it. Nor will “I need to lose some weight.” No, these are no better than hoping the fat will come off. You must have specific, clear, written fat loss goals.
The easiest way to do this is to take 10 percent of your current weight and shoot for losing that amount. So if you’re 185 pounds, your goal is to lose 18.5 pounds. You want to lose no more than 1.5 pounds a week, or 5 pounds every 25 days. So you will write your weight loss goals like this:
“I will lose 5 pounds by (the date 25 days from when you weight in).”
“I will lose 18.5 pounds by (the date about 95 days from when you weight in).”
These are specific. They are measurable—anyone can show up on the dates written and look at the reading on the scale when you step on.
Set your fat loss goals in this way. Write them down. Look at them daily.Visualize and imagine yourself at your new weight. Get proper exercise. Eat right. And let nothing stand in your way of reaching your goals.

This list of mistakes and suggested remedies is by no means comprehensive. But by addressing just these mistakes, you’ll more readily achieve your short- and long-term weight loss and fitness goals.

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Jerome Kellner, pictured above, is author of The Maui Diet, and an educator specializing in healthy, permanent fat loss. To get the free Maui Diet Short Course or to contact Jerome, e-mail him at jerome.kellner@gmail.com

Mistakes to Avoid When Losing
Fat and Getting Fit

Here are more crucial mistakes I see people make when trying to lose fat and shape up—mistakes that can easily be avoided using the solutions offered.

Skipping meals, depriving yourself, starving yourself.
These are big mistakes, all but sure recipes for triggering overeating, and worse, overeating high-calorie, nutritionally empty junk foods, which is usually what happens. You eat the first thing you come upon, which is almost always junk—the pastry at work, the food vending machine, the food kiosk, etc.
This is particularly true of breakfast. Like a lot of people, I used to be guilty of skipping a healthy breakfast. Then I got hungry and would go for a coffee and a junk pastry. Wrong choices. Instead of skipping meals, eat balanced, healthy meals well before you get to the point of being famished.

Skipping exercise days, or otherwise doing exercise haphazardly.
Bad strategy all around, particularly your aerobic exercise. I recommend you get high quality aerobic exercise seven days a week. High-octane, brisk walking can’t be beat, a minimum of 20 minutes a session. Work out every day, like elite athletes. If not daily, shoot for six days a week. The absolute minimum is five days a week of moderately high intensity aerobic exercise.
Why? Because we all have a 24-hour metabolism cycle. To burn fat more effectively 24 hours a day, we want to exercise—heat up—our bodies on a daily basis to permanently change our metabolism. Exercising less than 5 times a week won’t do enough to change our metabolism and really burn fat. We have to get good aerobic exercise daily, or a minimum of five days a week, to see dramatic, permanent fat loss. Gotta keep the fire going. Don’t let it go out by missing exercise.

Having junk food choices around.
This one is simple but so powerful. Put another way, out of sight is out of mind and out of temptation. This mistake includes eating too many junk carbohydrates, which make up a huge part of the typical American diet today. They’re junk food choices. Just don’t buy them, and don’t have them around, period.

Not meditating.
Surprised this one’s on the list? Now you know. Meditation is huge.
You may resist meditating with all your might. But the bottom line is that fat loss and fitness—like everything in life—is a mental game. And if you’re not meditating regularly—that is, daily—you’re not in top shape mentally.
Your outer appearance is a mirror reflection of your inner—or mental—shape, it’s as simple as that. Shoot for 20 minutes of inner quiet time in the morning. Get up earlier if you need to. Repeat in the evening; it’s the best 40-minute investment you can make. The list of benefits of meditating is impressive, but for purposes of losing fat and getting fit, it’s hard to beat this one: meditating regularly gives you control over which thoughts you choose to act on. If you’re at the mercy of every thought that pops into your mind, you’re in trouble. If you’re in the habit of meditating and enjoy its benefits, when the idea of a hot fudge sundae hits you, you’re not at the mercy of that temptation. With your calm, relaxed mind, you can simply say “I’ll pass,” and do so without blowing a craving fuse.

These common mistakes and suggested remedies are by no means comprehensive. But by comprehensively addressing these errors, you’ll move toward achieving your weight loss and fitness goals.

Jerome Kellner is the author of The Maui Diet, and an educator specializing in healthy, permanent fat loss. To get the free Maui Diet Short Course or to contact Jerome, e-mail him at jerome.kellner@gmail.com.

The Biggest Mistakes to Avoid When Losing
Fat and Getting Fit

As author of The Maui Diet, I’m repeatedly asked questions like, “Why can’t I lose weight?” Or, “How can I lose more fat, the flab?” Or, “How can I keep off the weight I lost?”
Here are some crucial mistakes I see people make when trying to lose fat and shape up—mistakes that can easily be avoided using the solutions offered.

Not obeying “the feed limit.”
Most overweight people overeat. They disobey the feed limit. The double whammy is that they tend to eat too much of the worst kinds of food—junk carbohydrate and high fat foods.
The supersize movement has added to this problem—restaurants, fast food and other places serving oversize portions. A recommended serving size for a serving of rice or pasta is one cup. Get out a measuring cup and see if you’re serving yourself one cup. Chances are, you’re eating much more than that, because of the influence of supersizing .
You simply have to watch the amount—and kind of—food you eat. Just taking in a couple of hundred extra calories daily, even if you’re exercising faithfully, can doom your weight loss efforts. Obey the feed limit!

Not weighing in daily.
Weighing in daily is all about keeping seriously on track until you lose the weight you want to lose. And then keeping it off by continuing to regularly weigh in, making sure weight is not creeping back on. Weighing in regularly definitely works, studies show. I’ve found this tactic to work in my fitness program. It’s a good idea to weigh in at the same time, same way every day. I’ve found it really helpful to use a good digital scale that measures 1/10ths of pounds, because we really don’t lose—and usually don’t gain—pounds; we more accurately lose and gain tenths of pounds. Daily weigh-ins on this type of scale can really keep you honest and on track.

Not eating whole, fresh, natural foods, emphasizing vegetables, fruits, complex carbohydrates, and plant-based fats.
These are the crucial foods to eat for anyone who wants to lose fat and get fit. “Whole” means as close as possible as they come from nature—nothing taken away, nothing added. “Fresh” means the fresher the better; right from the fresh produce section at the market. “Natural” means if man made it, don’t eat it.
These foods are naturally filling, and satisfying. They’re naturally low in calories, and fat, and the fats they do have are healthy fats. They are devoid of saturated fats found in meat, poultry, seafood and animal products like cheese, other dairy products and eggs. Whole, fresh, natural foods are nutrient dense, which means they give you the most nutritional bang. Many overweight people eat so few whole, fresh, natural foods that they don’t realize how out of whack they are.
Just one example is eating sugary junk snacks of any kind. The sugar in such foods is addictive—the more you eat, the more you want to eat. The addictive cycle of eating such “foods” will doom any attempt to lose fat and get fit permanently.

Not doing all-important aerobic exercise with proper intensity.
You’ve probably heard you can’t beat simple walking for great aerobic exercise. And that’s true. But to lose fat, to burn fat, simple walking won’t do it, what I call walking and talking—casual walking.
To lose fat, you have to do high-octane walking, walking with intensity, with real determination and purpose. The purpose is to burn fat, and that means an 8 on the intensity scale, for at least 20 minutes a session. Striding briskly, arms swinging, really moving. You’ll feel your breathing. You’ll sweat if you’re doing it at the right intensity. If you’re not in good shape, work up to it to do it at the right intensity for at least 20 minutes. Do so gradually, respectfully asking your body to go with a bit more intensity each time. If you feel foolish walking at this pace, like you might look like one of those weird Olympic walkers, that’s a good sign you’re doing it at the right intensity. Forget what others think and have fun.
When you’re ready, and if you want to, you can start to jog, further upping the intensity level. You might want to ease into it by power walking a lap, then jogging a lap; or power walking for five minutes, then jogging for five minutes.

These common mistakes and suggested remedies are by no means comprehensive. But by comprehensively addressing these errors, you’ll move toward achieving your weight loss and fitness goals.

Jerome Kellner is the author of The Maui Diet, and an educator specializing in healthy, permanent fat loss. To contact Jerome, e-mail him at jerome.kellner@gmail.com