Physical weight can add up quickly for the human body, so much that we almost don’t realize what has happened until we are in shock one day when we step on the scale and truly admit it.

Weight gain is allusive. It’s almost like an entity, a ghost or some other dimensional being, is growing inside us, or on top of what we already have. Our body grows on us. Our size can double, but we don’t grow a second heart, or another set of lungs.

How can a person gain twenty or thirty pounds in a year and not really notice it is happening?

It happens because life itself becomes “heavier” as we age, and our focus shifts to coping and away from thriving.

Some of the things that cause weight gain, or an increase in fat mass, don’t have anything to do with eating. Antidepressants, like SSRIs can cause weight gain even if they are helpful in treating anxiety. Anxiety causes the release of cortisol, a hormone that leads to an increase in fat mass. Aging, metabolism and hormone imbalance play a role in weight gain.

When we are trying to balance life, we are trying to get to a place of feeling well enough to carry on with our responsibilities and hopefully enjoy our free time when we have it. As we get older, the focus on our physical body tends to shrink and shrivel.

As we age, we may value time with friends and family, holidays and events, more than finding time to engage in self care. The priority becomes planning a vacation to the beach and looking forward to having fun, this replaces our younger priorities approaching a vacation – such as dieting to look good in our swim suit while we have fun.

We tend to stop noticing ourselves when we worry about everything and everyone else. As we slow down, we push ourselves even more. Time keeps going faster, and as our clothes get tighter, before we know it, a year or two has flown by and as we watch our/their grandkids grow, we failed to notice we did too. Time seems to go by fast, and weight seems to come on fast.

Where did all the weight come from?

Another allusive part of weight gain is that so many of us don’t really think we eat that bad. This is where we need to shift how we see things.

The average American eats really bad, not just a little bit bad.

Look at what pops up when we ask about the “average American diet.”

We should be looking at how we eat in an entirely new way, if we want to be realistic about feeling good, and being lighter. The Standard American Diet (SAD) really is quite SAD!

We have to stop buying foods that have a commercial. We need to look at our grocery bill, our choices, and commit to a new way of doing things. It has to be a long term commitment. Food for nutrients and for a clean, healthy body is the new inventory list for what will be stocked in the kitchen. Extras will not be an option.

This is like asking a smoker to stop buying cigarettes. If you don’t buy them, and you don’t have them in the house, you can’t light one up. Same with Twinkies and Cosmic Brownies, same with cereal and pasta, same with bread, ice cream and soda.

Once a wellness coach asks you to slim down your grocery list and your grocery bill – most people immediately feel an impulse to bing eat everything bad “one last time” before they begin. Just like asking a smoker to quit, once they know the quit date they are going to smoke away up until the last second. Knowing the cigarettes are not around will make them crave cigarettes more. It is the same with sugar, crunchy snacks and caffeine.

When given a healthy food list some also tend to start buying every single fruit and vegetable on the list and overdoing what is good for us. Overeating fruits and vegetables will not contribute to weight loss or improved health. Apples and grapes have a lot of natural sugar in them and so do carrots and corn.

Corn chips are gluten free – that doesn’t make them good for you because corn, a vegetable, is the ingredient. Rice is not good for us, even though it is a single ingredient food.

We are not trying to trick ourselves, we are trying to retrain ourselves about what is healthy.

We’ve managed to trick ourselves into thinking that using prescription medications that we see on commercials, ads for Online prescriptions like Hims or Hers, or expensive surgeries and procedures are what we need to overcome the aging process and the weight gain.

We have always wanted the “trick” so that we can have all of our treats too. In the 80’s it was diet pills, now it’s the shots. Synthetic medications and dangerous drugs are not healthy.

There’s no tricking ourselves about what is healthy. The real trick is to get ourselves to see that what we have always considered healthy is not the way to go. There’s a new, more natural way to real health.

If we want to be truly healthy, if we want to feel well and naturally be our most comfortable weight – we must change how we view food, how we eat, when we eat, and how we live. We have to know that the SAD is very sad, and that we are the generation who will establish a new normal. Commit to that.

Healthy is completely natural. Healthy is as healthy does. Clean water is the only beverage that is required for total wellness of the human body. Teas are plant parts steeped in hot water, and many have medicinal benefits. Plants, including food, have medicinal benefits.

Clean, single ingredient foods are required to sustain good health. Fresh air, sunshine, regular movement and mental stimulation are also requirements for feeling good.

The list of things to avoid is much much longer. Everything listed above that is common in the SAD are things that we should avoid at all costs.

In part, eating healthier means eating less and spending less on food. Our portion sizes in America are another reason why our diet and lifestyle philosophy instigates weight gain. We are convinced that more is better and we want more bang for our buck, including with food. We don’t mind synthesized stuff and food products.

It would be hard to image an America without Skittles and sour gummy everything. It’s hard to imagine an America without cereal. What about without food coloring? How could we decorate cakes? There are actually natural food colorings for that.

We will want to think about what the body actually needs and not what we are used to having. Our minds can convince us that we need something in order to have a good feeling about what we are committing to. As if we will sacrifice and eat healthy if we can just keep that Starbucks latte in our diet.

Instead, now we are committing. Our bodies are asking our minds to PLEASE! commit to a new normal of natural, necessary and nutritional.

Do not buy food products.

Do not buy any food that has a commercial, except from small locally owned restaurants. Do not buy any prescription medication that has a drug commercial.

I love dark chocolate. I’ll never give it up. I easily enjoy it in moderation and can buy it from people who make candies locally. I’m a foodie. I’ll never give up amazing meals at locally owned and operated restaurants, especially when I travel. At the same time, I don’t eat out that often.

Moderation is part of the new normal.

We’ve always known that “everything in moderation” is wise advice from our elders. We’ve always plunged into the depths of greed and gluttony when we have everything we could ever want and more at our fingertips.

Look under the tree at Christmas time in the average American home, does that look anything like moderation? Does the standard American diet look like one that considers “moderation” of what is bad for us?

There’s no fear of eating too many Brussel sprouts or too many egg whites. Too much salt on either of those items would ruin them. We know exactly what moderation is all about.

We have to establish new standards across the nation’s conscious household value system. We want our families to be healthy. How can we expand on this message?

We can send a message most easily to the profiteers, the businessmen who have commercials for their foods and their medications, by not buying their products.

We are in control of understanding that snacking all day long is not considered moderation, even if the snacks are healthy. Mindless eating is too easy to do.

There’s a huge difference between one serving of cashews and three servings of cashews. While three servings of steamed broccoli won’t hurt, try snacking on that instead of nuts.

A cup of trail mix is said to have 44 grams of fat and 67 grams of carbs. Trail mix is anything but healthy unless you’re on a big hike or running a marathon.

We have to raise our standards quite a bit on what we will consider to be healthy, and what we will allow into our bodies. We have control over how we eat and what we drink.

Good health and traveling in a light body are things that are easy to attain.

It takes time. But in this case, time is on your side.

It can feel like you’re years away from ever seeing your optimal weight again, but please remember, years do fly by!! So when you are doing things the right way consistently, you’ll be doing it for years, before you know it, you’ll have far exceeded your goals and you will be feeling better than ever.

Establish that new normal. Then you will be able to shift your focus to enjoying your life while traveling light!