I’ve wanted to write a book on weight loss for several years but never found enough time. My personal story with weight loss was my inspiration. I don’t have a journalism background or any formal training but because writing this book was very important to me, I worked several months putting this book together.

I’ve been somewhere between chubby and thin all my life. It wasn’t until I reached 50 years of age that I made a conscious decision to stop yo-yoing and keep the extra weight off. It does take time to lose weight. I lost a total of 60 pounds and have kept it off for more than 10 years now. I’m a senior and just recently lost another 5 pounds of body fat. I don’t think anyone realizes how hard it is to carry around extra body fat until you become a senior. I don’t try to lose weight anymore but I am trying to build muscle while I lose fat.

Today I weigh the same as I did in High School. I’m working on building muscle these days and that means body weight exercise and Yoga to keep me limber and improve my balance. It’s great to still be able to ride a bike or jog around the neighborhood.

I’ve read hundreds of books, posts and newsletters from health and fitness websites and have done extensive research for this book and found that the science of weight loss is more well-defined today. It’s not as much trial and error as before. Much of what you see on the internet seems to be advertisement for products. Most sites seem to be selling something and most of us are tired of trying diets or pills that don’t work. I want to try and change your mind about losing weight. It may be easier than you thing. There are several good website that offer helpful information free. Check out my list of SOURCES on the last page. There are many good sites I didn’t list, but those on my source page are the ones I used to write this book.

I believe it’s about getting back to basics. Most of us put on body fat when we’re still in school because we eat too much of all the wrong foods. As an adult we add body fat from eating the wrong foods, that’s true, but also because we become less active. In school most of us are into sports, working out every day and as students we do more walking. Now we work at a desk most of the day and are only active on the weekends. Back to basics in short means there’s no short cuts to losing weight. You’ll have to start from scratch; forget everything you thought you knew about losing weight and forget about all those foods you love. The reason why most people aren’t successful losing weight is that they don’t want to give up their old life. They don’t want to give up their favorite foods or the overindulging after work and on weekends. Oh sure, they will sacrifice for a little while, but the thought of never eating those big meals again or those rich foods, that’s too much sacrifice; there must be an easier way.

If you really want to lose the body fat, and keep it off, you have to get healthy and stay healthy the rest of your life. Because it’s not really about losing weight as much as it is about losing the extra body fat that your body has to keep alive and it’s doing nothing for you except to drain your body’s energy. That’s the reason most of us don’t worry about losing weight until their over 50. When you’re over 50 you can feel that loss of energy. Before that most of us still have plenty of energy so we aren’t concerned about our weight.

Being thin and fit is a sign of being healthy and today that helps you in your career, your social life, relationships and gives you more energy to accomplish more.

It doesn’t cost money to lose weight, so anyone regardless of their income can change their life, lose weight and get healthy. I did it without buying any equipment, special meals or any diet pills and I’m going to tell you how.

Ray Gerts

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