This gets my goat. I hate seeing an entire industry profiting off the misery of people who sincerely want to lose weight in a healthy and effective manner. These people have been duped, lied to, and paid through the nose for pills, patches, powders, programs, and even surgery to lose weight, often (most of the time) to find that these plans require a person to also “Eat a healthy diet and get exercise.” Well no kidding. Guess which part of the equation is causing people to lose the weight? It’s the part you are supposed to do in conjunction with the product you purchased and not the product itself.

I lost 110 lbs in a year without exercise and without any diet products or surgery. I did it without being hungry, without cravings, and without any gimmicks. I didn’t ever starve, and I didn’t have to count points, calories, or eat cabbage soup for months. Most importantly, I didn’t have to pay anyone ONE RED CENT to lose weight. How did I do that?

Whole30 and the Paleo Diet.

Both of these are free, and you can find 100% of the information necessary to complete a Whole30 and adopt the Paleo Diet online. They do sell books and there are literally tens of thousands of products that are available around Whole30 and the Paleo Diet, but it’s not necessary to purchase them. You can do it all without paying anything extra.

In the most simple terms, eat meat and vegetables and avoid anything with added sugar and grains. It’s that simple. Now, the difficult part is sticking with it, but that’s why I advocate the Whole30. It gets you past the sugar cravings, resets your body and your nutrition, and allows you to start the Paleo Diet on a clean slate. Your success is almost assured if you can make it through a Whole30 and then stick with the Paleo Diet.

Bonus Pro-Tip: DO NOT celebrate completing a Whole30 with non-compliant meals. Once you go off-plan, it becomes easier and easier to justify non-compliant meals and food items, and before you know it, you’re back to eating what you ate before and would need to completely start over again. Why jeopardize your progress by drinking a sugar-filled Starbucks drink?

Don’t buy the shakes, smoothies, or subscriptions to diet meals. Educate yourself with free materials online, buy good, wholesome foods at the local grocery or farmer’s market, and make the food yourself. You will lose weight, get healthy, and buy more time on this big, blue-green marble.