Updated on December 31, 2020

Are you tired of the standard “New Year’s” advice? If so, this post is just for you!

Below is a post that I’ve updated several times throughout the years, which features some “outrageous advice” to help you achieve your goals…

The original text is below, followed by some expanded thoughts… enjoy!

“Now that the New Year has come and gone, most of us have already had time to ditch our resolutions.  Or, if you’re like me, you stopped making them years ago. 

After all, they always fail don’t they…?  Well I’m here to share with you some outrageous New Year’s advice that you might just be able to stick with.  And maybe you’ll even thank me for it someday.

Outrageous New Year’s Advice!

->> Don’t Exercise More: that’s right, I’m a physical therapist and I just advised you NOT to increase your exercise level.  What in the world am I talking about?!  Exercise is good for you right…well, yes and no.  Here’s what I mean: if your resolution is to exercise more in an effort to lose weight, I’m telling you right now it simply won’t work, so best not to even start.  On the other hand, if you want to exercise more to strengthen your muscles and improve your cardio-respiratory health, please go right ahead.  Just don’t expect to lose weight in the process.  Unless of course you plan to change what you’re eating….

->> Eat More Food: now this is a tricky one.  First I tell you not to exercise, and then I tell you to eat more food.  Surely I want everyone to gain weight after reading this!  Not quite.  What I’m telling you to do is eat more REAL food and stop snacking on garbage and low-calorie junk food in an effort to curb your hunger.  If weight loss in one of your goals, don’t plan on going hungry (aka dieting).  Instead, replace the crazy processed food with real food, such as fresh vegetables and high quality proteins and fats.

->> Eat More Fat: but wait, fat is bad for you and makes you gain weight, right?  We should be eating “complex carbs”, whole grains and low-fat dairy products.  Look around you and you’ll probably agree that eating these foods isn’t exactly working for anyone, with the exception of your annoying neighbor who has the metabolism of a humming bird and can eat anything he wants and never gains a pound!  But for the rest of us, eating carbs, grains and dairy will typically make us gain weight, while eating REAL, high quality fats (such as healthy oils, nuts and real animal fats) will actually help us control our weight and satisfy our hunger.

->> Eat Loads of Sugar: just kidding!  If there’s one thing you do this year, eat/drink as little sugar as possible.  This will hands down have the biggest impact on your physical health.  A good place to start: ditch the sugary drinks (juice included) and replace them with water.  And one last thing to remember: all of your basic carbs and grains turn to sugar in your bloodstream, so cut them down as well if you can.

Alright, how’s that for crazy advice!  Most of you that really know me can appreciate that I’m my own little brand of crazy, but at least I mean well 🙂  For the record, I’m not qualified to give any advice regarding nutrition or dieting, but I’m very passionate about it.  So please feel free to disagree!”

So here’s a little more of an expanded discussion of the 4 points I talked about in the original article, just in case you wanted to hear more of my crazy ramblings!  

More Outrageous Advice…

->> Don’t Exercise More:  At the end of this paragraph, I mention how people who exercise don’t typically lose weight…unless they change the food they eat.  I’ve seen this about a million times from patients and friends alike.  I’ll hear something like this:  “I want to lose weight, but I can’t exercise because my back hurts.  And my back hurts because I can’t exercise.”  It’s a common misconception that you must exercise to lose weight.  The single biggest factor in losing weight is CHANGING THE FOOD YOU EAT.  Notice that I didn’t say “change how much food you eat” or “change how often you eat.”  No, it’s really much simpler than all that: change what you eat.  Now, most people don’t want to hear this, and I get a lot of resistance from people when I tell them this simple truth.  “You mean I can’t eat bread and pasta?  I don’t think I can live without bread and pasta..”  Well if you really really want to lose weight, you can make it happen.  Exercising will help you achieve a stronger, healthier body and it does wonders for helping with stress management.  Combine it with eating better food and you’ll be on the right track.  But if your only goal is to lose weight, changing what you eat is 90% of the equation (in my humble opinion 🙂

->>Eat More Food: this next piece of advice really just builds off the first piece: change the food you eat and eat plenty of it, so you’re not always hungry.  Here are some of the best foods you can eat (for weight loss and general health):

Eat More of These Foods:

• As many fresh vegetables as you can get your hands on.  If you want to try something crazy, try eating at least one cup of vegetables with each meal.  I’m a little extreme, but I go for around 3 cups of veggies at each meal, including breakfast.  It took me a while to get used to it, but now I love it!
• High quality meats: think of hormone and anti-biotic free beef, poultry and fish.
• High quality fats: healthy oils like olive oil, coconut oil and avacado oil.  Nuts and seeds are also good choices (in small quantities).
• Fresh fruits: these are a delicious treat at the end of the day, especially when they’re fresh and local.

Now for the foods to avoid…this is potentially quite a long list, but here are the highlights:

Avoid or Minimize Eating These Foods:

• Carbs: whether simple or complex, carbs like breads, pastas and cereals turn to sugar in your bloodstream, and excess sugar will be stored as fat.  On top of that, there’s little to no nutrition in most of these carbs.  And yes, you can get fiber elsewhere, like from veggies.
• Refined sugars: this is coverd in the third bullet point from the original article, and I like to think they’re kind of a no brainer.  Avoid them at all costs!
• Processed foods: here’s an easy tip when choosing food: if you can’t pronounce the ingredient, don’t eat it!  Better yet, if the ingredient list takes up an entire paragraph, put it back down.  Your body will thank you :-).

The last 2 topics (Eat more Fat and Eat Loads of Sugar) were more or less just covered, so I’m going to wrap up this post.  As I said earlier, I’m in no way an expert on nutrition, it’s just a passion of mine.

So if you have an opinion you’d like to share, please shoot me a quick email at Luke@GordonPhysicalTherapy.com!

To Your Health,

– Luke