Ohhhh right. I knew I forgot to do something. See, due to how busy December can be with all of the holidays and shopping and everything, I knew in advance that I probably wouldn’t get to do much blogging or site updating for a while. I’m sure most people could understand that and forgive me.

The only problem is I kind of forgot to mention this a month ago back when, ya know, I last blogged. See, I knew I forgot to do something.

I’ve gotten a bunch of emails lately (which I just now got around to checking) from people wondering where I’ve been and that’s when I realized I forgot to make my “Have a Happy Holiday, I probably won’t get to blog for a while” post.

So… better late than never. Have a Happy Holiday (which is already over) and have a safe and happy New Year (still made it in time!).

I’ll be back to blogging and updating the site before you know it.

If you mention diet and cereal together, the first thought you’ll probably have is Special K. The reason why is obvious… Special K is one of the first cereals I’ve seen that practically markets itself as a weight loss and diet tool. Case in point:

I just saw a commercial for Special K. It took quite a while for me to realize they were behind the commercial because honestly, it could have been for a weight loss pill or ab machine by the way it sounded.

I don’t remember it word-for-word. If I did I’d recite the entire thing back to you so you too can experience it just as I did. I can however sum up the two messages this commercial was supposed to get across.

1. You’re more likely to lose weight if you eat breakfast.
2. You’re more likely to lose weight if that breakfast is Special K cereal.

First of all, you’re more likely to lose weight if you consume less calories, burn more calories, or do a combination of both. That’s it. End of discussion. (Full details are here: How To Lose Weight)

Second of all, Special K cereal in and of itself does not cause weight loss in any way whatsoever. It’s just calories. There are no weight loss vitamins, minerals, ingredients or magic fairy dust in it that makes it any different than any other calories. Sure, it’s low in “bad” fat, and that’s always nice. Sure, it’s low in calories too, but so are most of the other cereals that are similar to it. It’s most all calories just the same.

Do you know what that means? It means that if someone is going to claim Special K makes you lose weight, or even just slightly helps you lose weight, you can equally claim that it makes you gain weight. Why? BECAUSE IT’S CALORIES. They control what your weight does, not specific foods. Eat too much Special K and you’ll gain weight no different than if you ate too many potato chips.

They market it as this miracle diet food because, compared to eating a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast, it makes a MUCH better choice. But, so does oatmeal, or fruit, or egg whites, or whole wheat bread, or another cereal like Cheerios. As long as you eat the same number of calories worth, they will all have an equal direct effect on your weight loss.

As a cereal, Special K is one of the good guys. It’s a much better choice than the other sugar-loaded junk cereals, and it actually tastes pretty good. But, as a diet or weight loss food, there’s really nothing magical about it when compared to any similar food with a similar (or better) nutritional makeup.

So sure, if you are currently eating 750 calories worth of junk for breakfast every day, and you replace it with 250 calories worth of Special K cereal, you’ll end up losing weight. But just know that the Special K itself isn’t the reason. It was the 500 calorie reduction to your diet that made this happen. You could have eaten 250 calories worth of any cereal you wanted (even the junky sugary ones) and it still would have caused weight loss with all else being equal.

So if you enjoy Special K and want to make it part of your healthy reduced calorie diet… go for it. But if you think it alone will make you lose weight… you’d be wrong.

Weight loss doesn’t cost a thing. That’s why The Lose Weight Diet is free. There are absolutely no weight loss products that you need to buy, period.

In fact, there are actually certain products that you should purposely avoid buying at all costs. I even wrote a list detailing 10 ways to tell what those weight loss and fitness products are.

But, with all of that being said, I think there actually are certain weight loss products that you should buy. So far, I’ve conveniently come up with 5 of them, which is the perfect amount to make a pretty list out of. So, without further ado…

The 5 Best Weight Loss Products

5. Gym Membership
Ok, so a gym membership isn’t really a “product.” However, it is something that can be used for the purpose of weight loss, and it does cost money. To me, that certainly qualifies it enough to appear on my list of the 5 best weight loss products. Why, what you were expecting to see here? Recommendations of diet pills and ab machines? HAHAHAHA!

Back to the list. This first recommended “weight loss product” should be no surprise… a gym membership. Working out at home would be fantastic, but most people don’t have the space or money to really provide themselves with everything they need. A gym does. Sure, maybe you can fit a treadmill in the corner of your bedroom. And maybe you can squeeze a weight bench into the basement or garage. But let’s be honest here, these options do not replace a gym.

As if that wasn’t reason enough, there is always the thought that having your home double as your gym would kind of, you know, stop you from working out. When you go to the gym, you GO to the gym. You’re away from all of your house distractions. Phone calls, doorbells, family members, TV’s, and kitchens filled with food. At a gym you’re surrounded by workout equipment and… workout equipment. The only people around you are… working out.

Not to mention, when you have the option of working out at home, you also have the option of putting off your workout until “later.” This in turn creates the option of later becoming even later, and then eventually never happening.

Working out at home seems like it would be fantastic. But, it requires a certain amount of dedication and strictness to make it work, not to mention space and money as well. My recommendation… go get a gym membership.

4. Tape Measure/Body Fat Calipers/Digital Camera
Yes, this is 3 weight loss products in one, but there’s a good reason for that. A subject that I bring up a lot on here is the importance of tracking your progress, and these 3 products do just that.

The reason I place so much importance on tracking your progress is because, aside from being able to see for sure if what you’re doing is actually working like you want it to, it’s extremely motivating to see cold hard numbers proving that you are getting results.

For example, a tape measure will be able to tell you how many inches you lose/gain in various areas of your body. Nothing else can do that. Yeah yeah yeah, you might think you notice your clothes fit better or feel looser, but come on… seeing the actual numbers decrease is guaranteed proof of it. It serves as a real measure of progress, and it causes the type of motivation that makes you want to keep going and keep watching that number decrease.

Body fat calipers will tell you how much of the weight you lose/gain is actually fat. Remember, your weight can change (up or down) due to fat, water, or muscle. If you gain weight but your body fat percentage stays the same (or even decreases), that will tell you that the gained weight was NOT fat. This is a good thing to know. You can find one for less than $5.00 or get a fancy digital one for $30.00.

A digital camera will act as your truly accurate memory. I’ve mentioned this before… due to the fact that you see yourself every single day, it will be very hard for you to actually see differences in your body. Obviously you’ll notice something like losing 30 pounds. But, with a digital camera, you’ll see every single difference and every single bit of progress you make. It’s motivating to look back and see how far you’ve come, and it’s just plain entertaining to look back at what you used to look like. Your memory will not be anywhere near as good as actual pictures. Trust me.

3. Food
Alright, I know what you’re thinking. What is “food” doing on a list of supposed best weight loss products? Well, maybe I should have been more specific. How about, good food? Let me explain.

Weight loss is all about calories. Whether it’s burning more of them, or eating less of them, calories control your weight. And, guess what? Food contains calories. That means if you eat the right amount of food, and eat better types of food, you will lose weight. Therefore, food can be viewed as a weight loss product. Sure, it can also be viewed as a weight gain product, but honestly, when used correctly, there is no better weight loss product on the planet than food.

2. Digital Scale
The reason I didn’t lump this one in with the other weight loss tracking methods in #4 is because I wanted to include a little bit of extra explanation. First of all, I was really thinking of making this one just “scale.” After some extensive thought (about 15 seconds worth), I decided to go with digital scale. Yes, I have a good reason for it.

Your old fashioned bathroom scale just doesn’t cut it anymore. Don’t get me wrong here. As far as tracking your weight, it will do. But, I think if you’re going to take the time to weigh yourself on a regular basis (I recommend weekly), I say go for the best way of doing so which to me, is the digital scale.

Trying to see if the dial is nearer to the 0 line or the 5 line while standing on the scale is borderline torture. Not to mention, it could ruin the accuracy of tracking your progress. You’re not losing or gaining 10 pounds a week. You body is changing 1 pound at a time, sometimes even just half a pound at a time. If you can’t tell exactly what your weight is (and I mean EXACTLY) because you are unable to line up the stupid line with the stupid number on the stupid dial, then you can’t tell if what you’re doing is or is not working.

And as a huge fan of progress tracking, I think this is something you need to know.

Enter the digital scale. It will clearly print the numbers. Big, clear numbers. There will be no need to call a family member into the bathroom to help you figure out what your weight is. But even more important than that is the fact that most digital scales will give you your weight in half-a-pound increments. The good ones will go even smaller than that.

This may not seem so important now, but when you’re watching your weight slowly decrease each week, there is a big difference between seeing 200lbs two weeks in a row, and seeing 200lbs one week, and 199.5lbs the next. Progress is progress, but a digital scale will show it to you better and more accurately than an old fashioned analog scale will.

And if anyone is wondering, I use a Tanita brand digital scale that I bought in 2004 for $30.00.

1. Digital Food Scale
This list isn’t really in any order. If it was, food would probably be #1. However, I purposely went out of my way to put digital food scale at #1 because I wanted it to stand out a little extra. This will honestly be one of the most useful purchases you’ve ever made. This is actually the item that gave me the idea to write this list in the first place. I bought a new food scale a couple of months ago, and I can’t emphasize enough just how useful it really is.

First of all, it’s extremely small, extremely light and extremely easy to operate. It won’t be a problem to store, and it won’t be hard to use. You put the food on it (cooked, raw, whatever), and it says what it weighs. That’s it.

But now you might be wondering what exactly makes this one of the 5 best weight loss products. You know what your food weighs… but so what? I’ll tell you what. You take that food weight, enter it in on a (free) web site such as a Calorie Counter and guess what it tells you? Exactly how many calories and grams of protein, carbs, fat (and more) you are getting from that EXACT amount of food. Knowing this information is the absolute key to weight loss.

Sure, some foods have their nutritional information right on them, but what good is that unless you’re eating exactly 1 serving size? And even then, how do you even know if you’re eating 1 serving size? Look at the back of some foods. Serving sizes are measured in grams and ounces. It just so happens that a digital food scale will tell you how many grams and/or ounces your food weighs. So really, whether there is or isn’t nutritional information right there on the food… a scale would still be needed.

And I’m not telling you this as though it’s my guess. I weigh out most of my food. I know just how useful it is. It takes a second and it lets me know exactly how much I’m eating that meal and that day. Once you know this information, you can make your weight do whatever the hell you want it to do.

I use this $30.00 Salter Kitchen Scale. I seriously rank it up there with my computer and TiVo as the three most used items in my house.

So, there’s what I think are the 5 best weight loss products. Like I mentioned at the very beginning, weight loss is free. You don’t have to buy any of these things. But then again, you’d be better off if you did.

Hi. I’m not exactly sure if “easy” is the perfect word to use to describe what I’m about to say, but then again, if there really was a way to lose weight without changing what you eat (I’m being completely serious this time), then maybe it should be described as the easiest way to lose weight?

When most people think about weight loss, or really just their diet in general, they think food and eating. When they think about calories, or more specifically, a calorie reduction, they once again think food and how much less of it they’ll have to eat. While food does make up the majority of your diet and therefore the majority of your daily calorie intake, there is another aspect of your diet that’s being neglected by this thought process.

Drinks.

I’m talking soda, sports drinks, fruit juices, beer, and every other liquid that is drinkable besides water.

All of the above contain calories. Water doesn’t. And these liquid calories are a lot quicker and easier and less filling to consume than solid food calories. You can probably drink 500 calories worth of some liquid before you’d even have the time to prepare 500 calories worth of solid food.

So, while you should DEFINITELY get the food part of your diet in order, there are a surprisingly large number of people out there that could lose weight solely by changing what they drink, without even touching what they eat. See, I told you I was serious before.

What type of drink change should you make exactly? I can answer that question for you in just 4 words: Replace everything with water.

Soda is completely useless and should be avoided by everyone whether they are trying to lose weight or not. It’s just empty, useless calories. In a somewhat similar way, the same could be said about beer.

Sports drinks (such as Gatorade) can have their place, but a lot of the people drinking them are doing so in situations where there is absolutely no need for a sports drink. If you are playing basketball for an hour, fine. If you are running a marathon, go for it. If you are sitting around in your living room watching TV… do I even have to finish this sentence?

And about fruit juices… I know. “Fruit is healthy!!! You can’t tell people not to drink fruit juice!” Actually, yes I can. If you want the really good stuff (ya know, vitamins) that is in fruit… EAT FRUIT. If you want something to drink, DRINK WATER.

In Phase 1 of The Lose Weight Diet, you learn the ideal calorie reduction for weight loss to take place is about 500 calories. When most people hear that, they think food. While a lot of people will only be able to create this calorie deficit by eating less food, there are actually quite a few people out there that can accomplish this by doing something as simple and easy as drinking water instead of soda.

If you happen to be one of these people… then what in the hell are you waiting for?

(Oh, and just to reemphasize what I said before, even if you can lose weight just by changing what you drink, you should still make the effort to improve what you eat. Got that? Good.)

Halloween is a day when, for one reason or another, most people will come in direct contact with a large variety of food that they shouldn’t eat.

And it’s not just any food either. It’s junk food. It’s candy. It’s pounds and pounds of sugar and chocolate. It looks good. It smells good. It tastes good. Hey, I’ve eaten it before. It really does taste good.

And this food will be within your reach… all day. Hell, you will most likely have to pick it up and actually hold it in your hands while giving it away to the kids who ring your doorbell.

All of the above makes the probability that you will eat some of this junk food and candy quite high. The only problem with that is… you know you shouldn’t, and you know in the end, despite how insanely tempting it might be, you really don’t want to.

So, how exactly do you go the entire day without eating any of this wonderful candy?

Well, one group of people will tell you to go ahead and eat some. “Hey, it’s just one day out of the year, it’s no big deal.” And they’ll certainly mention that “As long as you don’t go TOO crazy, it’s good to reward yourself every once in a while, and Halloween is a perfect day to do just that.”

Thing is… I’m just not part of that group of people. I never have been, and I never will be. So if you want to hear that type of advice, find some other blog.

If you want to hear my advice, here you go… Don’t. Eat. Any.

Not a few pieces. Not one piece. Not one piece of a piece. Not one half of a piece of a piece. If you want to make it really interesting, keep written track of the number of times you really wanted to eat some of it, but didn’t. All night, keep updating the list. If you still have left over candy the next day, keep the list going then as well. Then, be sure to put this list in a safe place.

Now here’s where the fun comes in. Next Halloween, do the exact same thing. Once it’s over, get out the previous year’s list and compare the two. If you successfully go this entire Halloween without cheating from your diet, I guarantee that by next year, your list will be smaller.

Now I’ve never personally tried this myself. But, that’s only because I didn’t think of it until now. What I did do however was notice that by trying the “Don’t. Eat. Any.” plan of attack one year, every year after I have become less and less tempted by the candy.

This year when I’m giving out candy after candy, I might as well be giving out pencils or rocks. The temptation is just no longer there. I’ve lost interest in junk food. Some people may label me deprived because of my “Don’t. Eat. Any.” mindset. But honestly, how can it be deprivation if I have absolutely no desire to have any in the first place?

And at this point, this Halloween, that’s exactly what I’ve become… a person who just doesn’t have any interest or desire to eat unhealthy junk food on Halloween. And, by the way, I’m not just like this on Halloween. This is my everyday way of life.

Sure, it may not be for everyone. But honestly, the world would be a better (and healthier) place if it was. So, how can you become like this? How does it all start? Simple.

Don’t. Eat. Any.

Happy Halloween.