"Weight loss isn't rocket science. It's taking small steps and making common sense decisions."
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Weight loss is something one can do without jumping through hoops, cutting out all carbohydrates or starving yourself. It can be done with simple, easy changes in your diet and your lifestyle. Glen Schaaf of the Impact Group is living proof of this.
“Weight loss isn’t rocket science,” is Glen’s motto, and he is not shy about explaining how he has lost weight by keeping it simple. For the past five years, starting in his late 30’s, Glen constantly made changes to his diet, cutting fast food, cutting meat in general, but was still hovering around 220 pounds. In the process he became more educated about the foods he was putting into his body and during the past year, he has taken his newfound education, along with a consistent fitness routine, to lose the weight he wanted to.
Glen is not one to count his calories everyday, but he is aware of how much he eats everyday. What he does is simply avoid the foods that are overloaded with unhealthy ingredients. One example is sodium. He points to the Wendy’s spicy chicken sandwich as an example of food that appears to be healthy. While it is not too calorie heavy, it is overloaded with sodium. Glen, even though he likes it, won’t order that sandwich. It’s these small, simple decisions in his diet that has helped him.
Then there is his improved fitness. Prior to a year ago, Glen would run on a treadmill, but not consistently. He would go 2, maybe 3 days in a row but then would take a day or two off. A year ago he got consistent and started running everyday. He doesn’t go crazy overboard; he simply runs 20-30 minutes each day, 5 miles per hour. He usually does it in the morning as he watches the news, something he would take time for anyway. Now, he gets in his daily exercise, without losing any time.
After a year of smart decisions and consistent exercise, Glen has lost 30 pounds and is down to 190, which is as low as he’s been since he was 18. He likes to say it’s taken him 25 years to get back into shape, but regardless of the time table, he is now healthy and fit. As Glen says, weight loss can be done with small, common sense steps. And if you don’t believe it, ask Glen what happened to the 30 pounds he had a year ago.
Give canned pears gourmet appeal by gently simmering them with dried cranberries and spices. The result is so good people will think the recipe came from a celebrity chef.
Printed with permission from the American Institute for Cancer Research
