Dieting to lose Weight Made Simple using the principles of the "Brown Bag Diet"

I've been asked a lot of questions about the brown paper bag itself. Was this an actual brown bag or was it figurative?

The answer is it was real. It was a five or six pound brown paper bag. This is the size often called a lunch bag. You can usually found them in drug, food or discount department stores in the aisle where plastic bags. and picnic supplies are stocked.

Even though there were times when I did away with the bag and ordered things from outside sources I found my best success with compliance was when I packed the brown bag and brought it to work. I even found it a good idea to plan my lunch and pack it in a bag even if I had the day off and was going to remain at home.

If I worked the evening shift my late meal came from the brown bag just like my lunches were. However when I ate evening meals with my family at our home I ate without the assistance of the bag. Never the less I still pre-planned those evening meals. If I didn't go through that exercise I was less likely to adhere to the rules of the "Brown Bag Diet".

Speaking of the rules of the "Brown Bag Diet" let me give you the final three fundamental precepts. For review remember the first six were: 1. Take on the effort of reaching your weight loss goals, one day at a time. 2. Pre-plan each day's meals (either the night before or the morning of) 3. Pack your meals literally or figuratively in a brown bag. 4. If it's not in the brown bag (your plan) don't eat it. 5. Divide your budgeted food plan into meals and snacks. 6. Meals more frequent that three within the day's budget are allowed. (Three meals daily is the minimum standard. Less than three meals daily constitutes skipping meals.)

Here are the final three:

7. Skipping meals is not allowed.

8. Making up for past indiscretions is not allowed

9. Prior approval from your physician, dietitian or nutritionist for your planned meals is required.

Now that you know all the rules you don't need to read the book or follow this blog do you? Well the book has three hundred four pages and I think you would do well to continue reading the book or blog because what follows is how to prepare mentally, to psyche yourself up, to meet the requirements of the program. When you do that you'll find the "Brown Bag diet works", as it has for others.

You can see that these basic precepts/ principles complement most of the diet plans described in the monographs that will appear later on this blog or in the book. My mission is to make it easy to adhere to these fundamental precepts/principles.

I'm preparing a press release for the media. I want to let them know that we're seeking one million people to commit to our program to each lose at least one pound on our kick-off week in January. When that's ready I'll post a copy on the blog and I'm going to ask you to help get the word out. By myself I won't be able to reach all the media from the largest to the smallest. But with your help we can do it.

In the meantime keep recruiting folks to join the programs. Write down the blog address for them. Just like will make your task of dieting easier you can help recruiting people to join to reach our goal of losing at least one million pounds. How long that will take is up to all of us together and the more there are of us the quicker we'll reach it. I don't know if there is a Guinness record for this but if not we'll have to get them to include it in their publication.

In my next post you'll begin to find out what all the diet programs in the market today have in common and how they differ. I think this will help you choose the one plan that suits you and of coarse you'll be able to apply to "Brown Bag Diet" principles to make it easier for you to achieve your goals successfully.

Erwin Posner, R.Ph.

Can all of us together lose 1 million pounds?

How can a group of people lose 1 million pounds?

My name is Erwin Posner and I’m the author of “The Brown Bag Diet” –tips & clues for dieters from the pharmacist’s notebook". I began to compile notes over a period of 15 years about successful dieters who patronized my pharmacy. I put the tips and clues in my book (BBD) and I’d like to share those tips with you in this blog.

I believe in the whole/part method of learning. Successful dieting usually means learning or perhaps unlearning unhealthy habits. Since “the Brown Bag Diet” is a technique rather than a specific diet it requires learning. The best way to learn the technique is to do so bit by bit. You know, baby steps lead to giant ones of progress. That’s why I plan to put a small portion of my book on this blog each week. Each week we can, as they say, get better and better in every way. We can all help one another to reach our goals successfully by joining together on this project.

Before we begin I’d like to share a thought I heard at a recent lecture. That was that the human brain isn’t that much more advanced than some lower animals. So why have humans advanced and our dogs, cats and rabbits are no farther ahead than they were thousands of years ago. Because, the lecturer said, we know how to network our brains. Each generation of humans uses it’s collective brain power in tandem to advance knowledge. The next generation uses the knowledge we developed as a base to advance their knowledge. Our dogs and cats can’t do that.

I can see that you’re asking, “ What does that have do with dieting to lose weight", brown bagging or for that matter the title of this piece, Losing 1 million pounds"? It’s simple. I think we should fortify our effort by networking with 1 million other dieters. You can lose 1 pound in 1 week. One pound isn’t much. It doesn’t take much education or training to figure out how to do this.

I’d like to give you all an assignment before we begin the text of the book. Enlist everyone on all of your email lists to join with us by adding the BrownBagDiet blog link to their bookmarks. Let’s get 1 million people to join us. Then let’s all lose 1 pound together.

That will be a lot of weight to take off our shoulders and a lot of other places.

Let’s give everyone one week to get the word out to their email contacts. Then lets all lose 1 pound in the following week.

I think we can do it. What do you think?

Erwin Posner, R.Ph.