You don’t have to exercise to lose weight.

WHAT? Yes, you read that correctly. I know, I know. This goes against everything you’ve ever heard. From people like your doctor, your friends… your skinny sister. It’s not that I think exercise isn’t important. It is TOTALLY important for lots of reasons. But it is not the most important thing you can do to lose weight.

How I lost 20 lbs over the course of a year without ever setting foot in a gym or making any effort to exercise

My first step was actually quite simple once I was ready for it. It did take some determination and a healthy dose of being fed up (pun slightly intended)

Step 1: I made the decision to change

You see, I was tired of being overtired and overweight. I refused to upsize my closet yet again, and I refused to keep on feeling sluggish, achy, and completely devoid of energy. I looked at my kids, full of life, and I felt miserable that I didn’t have the energy to be a fun and present mom for them. I decided that I’d had enough and SOMETHING needed to change.

Step 2: I changed what I ate

I realized food can be medicine or poison, and I focused on the nutritional value of what I was putting in my body.

If it had none, I gave it a pass.

I got rid of processed foods, excess sugar, and entire categories of foods that I found through my own trial and error to be counterproductive to my health (which for me included grains, especially gluten-containing grains, legumes, and most dairy).

I added in copious amounts of healthy fats like coconut oil, avocados, eggs, real grass-fed butter/ghee, and lard (yes, I said lard). And I crowded out the bad stuff with the good stuff.

These changes alone altered my metabolism completely. Weight just started to fall off. I ate well. I was always satisfied and never hungry. I didn’t count calories or points. And the weight JUST. FELL. OFF.

I began to feel great. Like early-20’s great. Better energy, better sleep, less stress, fewer aches and pains. And jeans that fit.

I went into my “too small” bin of clothes and loved that they were all fitting again. And I was able to completely get rid of the “bigger days” section of my closet. But better than that, I felt good in my own skin.

To be honest, I had almost given up. I actually thought that unintentional weight gain, sluggishness, and aches and pains were just a natural part of getting older. AND I’M A DOCTOR! It wasn’t until I started really delving into the idea that food is medicine that I realized there might be a better way. And now I know there IS a better way.

I made all of these amazing changes happen without EVER exercising. I know that when you’re feeling overweight, sluggish, and just beat, exercising is the last thing on your mind. You may think you NEED to exercise to be healthy… so you’re just waiting to jump start your weight loss for THAT DAY when you suddenly “feel” like working out. I’m so thrilled to tell you that you don’t have to exercise to start losing weight. But there are 2 things you do need to do: First you need to DECIDE that you want something different for yourself. Then you need to take an honest look at what you eat and kick the junk to the curb.

So here are some quick tips to help you shed those pounds by changing what you eat:

Become Unprocessed

You need to drop the processed food. Here are some rules of thumb for spotting processed food:

It has more than 5 ingredients
Any of its ingredients are words that you can’t easily pronounce or items you can’t buy on their own as a food
Any of its ingredients are crop oils (vegetable oil, soybean oil, corn oil, canola oil, cottonseed oil)
Sugar in any form is one of the first 3 ingredients (there are over 60 different names that sugar masquerades as!)
You see the words “color” or “artificial” in the list of ingredients

Eat lots of healthy WHOLE foods

This includes but isn’t limited to:

Leafy greens and a rainbow of vegetables
All kinds of berries and other yummy fruit
Healthy fats like coconut oil, avocado, olive oil, full-fat dairy from grass-fed cows, pastured eggs, real butter/ghee, and lard or tallow from properly raised animals
Meat from properly raised animals or wild-caught fish (properly raised animals get to walk on open pasture, are fed a natural diet – not foods that would not normally be a part of that animal’s diet – and are treated humanely. For instance, properly-raised cows are grass-fed, allowed to graze, spend a majority of their time outdoors, and are not force-fed a grain-filled diet as grains are not a normal part of a cow’s diet).

Drink LOTS of water

And get rid of sugary drinks (real sugar AND fake sugar). This means no soda, diet soda, “sports” drinks, sweetened teas, juice (unless you’re watching it being made and it’s mostly veggies), or sweetened/flavored coffee drinks. Just drink water. 80-100 oz/day. You’ll feel so good.

Replace your Processed Food staples with healthier options

It’s totally possible and you can be satisfied and happy eating food that nourishes your body.

Other than FOOD, the weight-gain-train can be fueled by several other factors.

How you deal with the stressors in your life, how much sleep you get, how your relationships are doing, and your overall satisfaction with your life are all almost as important as food. Are you getting enough sleep? Getting adequate sleep is one of the most important aspects of a healthy lifestyle because a well-rested body eats less, craves less junk, and has more energy. How are your relationships? Are they rocky? How is your career? Are you happy with your work? Are you fulfilled? If you have stress and conflict in your life, then that is for sure contributing to you hanging on to unwanted weight. Stress hormones increase hunger and cravings. And we all know that emotional eating is TOTALLY a thing. Working through those stressors will help you make your weight loss breakthrough.

In case you’re wondering, I DO exercise now. I hired a trainer just over a year ago (because I have ZERO internal motivation to do it on my own) and have been getting some intensive weight training 1-3 times a week since then. No, that’s not a lot. Yes, it’s better than nothing. And YES, I feel EVEN better and have lost EVEN more weight since implementing regular exercise in my life. Plus I love looking and feeling strong and fit, so it’s win-win-win all around.

But I want to make it clear that exercise played NO part in my initial dramatic weight loss or energy shift. So if you find yourself in a rut, feeling like you should be moving more but not having the energy to do it, or feeling like it’s an all or nothing thing (like you HAVE to exercise AND eat healthy to finally start losing weight), I’m here to tell you that you CAN make amazing progress without that exercise component. Don’t let your lack of motivation to exercise stop you from having an amazing breakthrough in your health. And when you’re ready to add it in (that time will come, I promise), you’ll feel EVEN better.

Praying for Vibrant Health for you and those you love,

Originally published 5/2/2016