5 Top-Level Tips to Help You Hit Your Goals

Here are my five top-level tips to help you get there from here.

1. Be the Boss
I know very few people who would spot some random article of clothing left lying around and put it on.  People like the clothes they like and tend to choose them carefully.

Amazingly, people routinely see food on display, and simply eat it with no thought about what it is, why it’s there, who put it there, whether or not it’s something they really want to eat, or even if they are at all hungry. We joke about this and call it the “See Food Diet”—I see food, and I eat it.

Approach food at least as thoughtfully as clothes, jewelry, or antiperspirant. Choose what’s right for you, and try not to let other people’s random choices influence you. To exert greater control over your choices, do what I do and load up an insulated snack pack with some wholesome snack choices—fresh fruit, nuts, yogurt, hummus, etc.—you keep handy all the time.


Actively control the foods you choose to put in your body.

2. Simplify
There are a lot of competing claims about the best foods to eat for health or weight control, but the truth is simple and your choices should be, too.

Whenever possible, eat minimally processed plant foods. One good rule of thumb is that the very best foods of all have an ingredient list just one word long: blueberries or carrots, for example. The more of your diet you construct out of simple, wholesome choices, the better your weight and health will be.

3. Trade Up Your Choices
This relates closely to the previous point, but extends the approach to all packaged foods. In general, the shorter the ingredient list the better. There are better options in almost every food category, from bread to breakfast cereal, salad dressing to pasta sauce.

One of the many established virtues of better food is that it helps us fill up on fewer calories. If you need help making better choices, I recommend checking out information from NuVal (a resource that scores food based on nutritional value) and Turn the Tide Foundation, an organization I founded to empower people to achieve sustainable weight control and live healthier lives.

4. Call in the Cavalry
I think one of the mistakes The Biggest Loser participants make is losing weight in front of a national audience, rather than on their own. We all know that in unity, there is strength—but the strongest unity comes from the people we love.

Involve your whole family in an effort to eat better—not just to lose weight, but to find health. There isn’t a better gift we can give the people we care about, or that they can give us, than better odds at a long, vital life. You can help one another get there by making the journey together.

5. Move It to Lose It, and Gain Even More
Exercise is rarely the best way to lose weight, but it is an important element in weight maintenance and crucial to good health. Besides, by giving your body the motion for which it is adapted, you simply start feeling better—and that provides energy and motivation you can translate into better food choices. It’s a virtuous circle you can set in motion by setting yourself in motion every chance you get