People assume that my weight loss came from hard work at the gym. Nothing could be further from the truth. I hated the idea of doing any form of exercise to lose weight. I knew that the math was against it being an efficient way to lose the fat. A four mile run for me burns about 400 calories. That’s nothing. It’s a tiny dent in my daily calorie intake. It’s super beneficial for my heart and my muscles, but not for weight loss. There’s only one way to lose weight: through diet.

When I say the word diet, I don’t mean temporarily restricting certain foods to lose weight. I mean that you need to change what you eat from this point forward for the rest of your life. You need to analyze and change your relationship with food. That is the only way you can succeed. If you’re not willing to do that, go back to the Tasty videos on Facebook and make a peach cobbler because this information isn’t for you. You can’t have it both ways, and anyone who says they can is lying and they are doing something behind the scenes they are not telling you about or not sharing.

I lost 110 lbs in a year without doing any exercise at all. None. Zip. Zero. Nada. Zilch. Nothing. The weird part? I did it all while eating until I was full, and the food was delicious. The food kept me from having cravings between meals, and it fueled my body sufficiently enough to allow me to eat three times a day: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

I meet people all the time who tell me, “I’ve started a program to lose weight. I work out at the gym for an hour or two every day!” I always tell them, “That’s great. Make sure you’re eating right, too.” They tell me, “I am. I am eating whole wheat bagels, whole wheat bread, whole wheat pasta and brown rice with all my meals.” sigh. Months later, when I ask how their program is going, without exception, every person has said, “Oh, I stopped that weeks ago. I just wasn’t losing any weight. I guess my body is just not compatible with being skinny.” This is so sad to me, because EVERYONE can be thin and healthy. The food you eat is the culprit!

By changing my diet alone, I was successful. I cut out sugar, grains, soy, dairy, beans, alcohol, and artificial sweeteners. I did a Whole30 followed by adopting the Paleo diet. It worked for me because I didn’t allow myself a single “Cheat day.” I call them Sabotage Days because cheat days don’t help you gain any unfair advantage; they destroy progress and can completely derail any work you’ve done to get you to that point.

I’m not implying that it’s easy. I know that it is not, because I had to go through it myself. I’ve been morbidly obese, and I remember how hard it was to give up certain foods. When I focused on all the things I could still eat that I enjoyed, it got easier. Once I got past the sugar cravings, it got easier still. After finding a dozen or so recipes that my wife found to be easy to make and inexpensive to cook, life got better. When I started seeing the numbers on the scale drop, or the sizes of my clothes drop, life got amazing. It didn’t happen overnight, and it didn’t happen without perseverance. It took a lot of willpower to stick to Paleo in the beginning, but now that it’s my lifestyle, it’s easy. Actually, I prefer it. I’ve had to eat meals here and there that were not Paleo, and I actually don’t like them much anymore. I can feel the unhealthy additives and taste the sugar added to everything.

The Paleo Diet is simple. It doesn’t involve counting points, calories, or portions. Just check out the Paleo Diet website and follow along. I recommend starting with a Whole30, but that’s completely up to you and not absolutely necessary to succeed at losing weight and getting healthy.