"I am fat, can't get a date and depressed". "Why don't you get on the Brown Bag Diet program?"

"I'm fat and depressed. I can't get a date. What should I do?"

1. If this is what you're thinking but don't want to embarrass yourself by expressing is vocally -read on.

2. Suppose you're this person who wants to get their life in order but your weight prevents you.

3. Suppose you're not that really bad off but you're weight keeps creeping up and you don't know what to do.

4. Suppose you feel like you eat like the proverbial bird but you aren't losing weight.

Just suppose there are a million reasons why you are either gaining weight or not losing it.

Well if one million other people like you get together you can all either cry on each other's shoulders (misery loves company) or help each other lose a little at a time starting with one pound.

You need help .

You've already started since you've found this Brown Bag Diet site. The Brown Bag Diet program may currently be the single best diet program around.

Join us (FREE) and we will help each other to start losing weight by pledging to lose our first pound. If we recruit one million people to join us we can lose a million pounds in the first week and we'll be on our way (weigh) to success.

My name is Erwin Posner. I wrote the book, "the Brown Bag Diet - Tips & Clues for dieters from the Pharmacist's Notebook". We need one million people like you to join us in losing weight so individually we can each be ONE IN A MILLION.

I am reproducing my book on this blog. I put the tips and clues from the BBD book on this blog and we will all do our best o follow them. Starting in January our push to lose a million pounds begins. Help us recruit a million people to join us. Help us help each other to lose the weight we want to lose.

All of the help you receive is FREE OF CHARGE TO YOU. At a later date, when our success becomes well known, I may find a company to sponsor the book so you can have hard copies as well as this online version.

Forward our blog address to your contacts. Let's reach the million mark. Let's each of us be a ONE IN A MILLION success.

Erwin Posner, R.Ph.

our blog is:

http://BrownBagDiet@blogspot.com/

Don't forget to pass our url around.

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.

Did you see an ad that says, "Look Like a Supermodel & eat all you want?"

Did you see an ad that says, "Look Like a Supermodel & eat all you want?"

If that pipe dream is what you're after you might as well consult with the tooth fairy. Remember this. Since every one's genetic makeup is different we are predisposed to certain body types. But whatever our predisposition is we can make the most out of it. Like the U.S. Army says in its commercials, (you can) Be all you can be.

So let's get on with the process to get the most out of what we've got.

In the last post I noted that my doctor said I needed to lose weight but being very snide he said, "You probably won't". My reaction was, "Oh yeah".

I needed to have a plan of action. I didn't want to start inventing the wheel again. I'm a pharmacist and I've seen both success and failure amongst the patients I've served who have tried to lose weight on a variety of plans. I thought about which plans might be good for me and I chose one that I felt was reasonable for me to follow.

Many diets work well. A doctor or dietitian can help you design a diet. My diet consisted of well- balanced meals with items from every food group. The key to this diet was keeping portions reasonable sized. I've reviewed many of the major diet plans in this book. Some of them concentrate on certain food groups to the exclusion of all others. These can be medically sound as long as a physician closely monitors them. The reason for the need to be monitored on one of these diets is that there may be a potential for irreversible damage to vital organs with some of them.

One of the reasons I chose to go with the portion control plan was to give myself variety even if I needed to restrict quantities of some of the elements of the diet. Of course choosing doesn't guarantee losing, but everyone has to start somewhere. Making a conscious choice was a wise way for me to begin.

Compliance with the plan I chose was another key to reaching my goal. I found the trick was to be compliant with my diet plan over the long haul. That's where the Brown Bag Diet comes in. My tips and clues found in this book offer the dieter many ways to think about achieving the task of losing weight and sticking to the plan they have selected. I tried all the tips. You can choose those that suit you best.

Making a point of eating while in a state of heightened awareness made portion control possible. I needed to elevate my state of awareness to be able to judge the size of the portions I should be eating. I tried concentrating on my food and the process of eating. I didn't allow myself to be distracted by things that were peripheral to my task of eating.

My diet plan told me how much food I could eat and still lose weight. I just had to stick to the principles by deciding what to eat and when to eat it. I made those decisions in the morning when my resolve was strongest. You may prefer to plan each day the night before. That works too.

I ate a sensible breakfast that followed the rules. Then I set out the food I would eat for the rest of the day - lunch, as well as dinner. I packed everything in a brown paper bag, even if I was going to eat it at home.

There were times when Brown Bagging wasn't practical. I certainly wasn't going to pack hot soup in my bag. Nor was I going to pack other hot foods when I ate evening meals with my family. For these times I would have to sharpen my awareness and make sure that I was eating properly. I was able to make judgments eating from each food group and eating proper size portions. With experience making these judgments became easier.

Before I go on I'd like to give you another three of the Brown Bag Diet fundamental rules or precepts.

The first three 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.

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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 than three, within the day's budget are allowed.

(Three meals daily is the minimum standard. Less than three meals daily constitutes skipping meals which is not allowed.)

When we continue in the next post I will finish telling the story of my personal program and give you the final thre findamental principles or precepts of "the Brown Bag Diet".

Keep recruiting for our one million pound weight loss program. One of our readers told me he passed our blog site to the health and wellness director of his company. They are in a big fitness program and can use a stimulating blog like ours. Tell your health department of your company or school that no official membership is required to join our blog readers and there is no fee to readers at all.

Our blog site is

http://brownbagdiet.blogspot.com/

Did anyone see our T shirts yet? If there is demand we can put our logo on mugs, kitchen magnets, baseball caps and many other things. Please let me know. Write me at brownbagdiet@gmail.com

Erwin Posner R.Ph.

News for Dieters: the BEST DIET program, the BrownBagDiet blog will now post 2 to 3 times a week.

I've been asked to post to the Brown Bag Diet blog more than once a week which is the frequency I began. I've agreed to increase postings to twice or three times a week. I hope that helps those that use the postings to boost their incentives to get on and stay with their diet programs. Let me know how this helps you.

In the last post I said, " If you follow the rules of the Brown Bag Diet you'll lose weight". I can say that because I've been there and done that. I developed the program but I won't mislead you by telling you that dieting to lose weight is simple. It is never simple. However it is something that anyone who is determined can do. You can do it just like I did and it won't take heroic measures to be successful.

I accumulated weight over the years. It didn't just happen suddenly. Most of it was gradual. Whenever I found myself buying new larger size pants or the next shirt size I would resolve to lose enough to return to the weight I had been when I made my last resolution. But the resolutions were just paper promises to myself that I wasn't keeping.

Finally at a medical checkup my doctor told me my blood pressure wasn't being properly controlled, my cholesterol count was over the in bounds line and my load bearing joints, (knees and hips) were taking a beating.

As a pharmacist, most of my work is done while standing and my knees and hips were feeling the pain of lugging around those extra beefy pounds. My doctor said, "You probably won't do anything about it but I'll write you a prescription for something to help you lose weight anyway".

Well those were fighting words. You know how the average American responds when he's told he won't be able to do something? His response is, "Oh Yeah?" And so was mine.

Even though I hadn't followed through on previous resolutions to lose weight, this time I was determined to find a plan that I would stick with. I wanted to show that ignorant doctor he didn't realize who he was talking to when he said I probably wouldn't do anything about being over weight. I needed to lose roughly forty pounds and I was going to put a dent into that goal before I returned to his office for another cholesterol test.

There's more to this story but I promised to tell you the basic guiding principles of the Brown Bag Diet so I will begin with the first three:

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 day of)

3. Pack your meals literally or figuratively in a brown paper bag. (Naturally if soup is on that menu it would be difficult to accommodate it in a small paper bag).

Tomorrow I will conclude my personal story and continue telling you about the other basic principles that make the Brown Bag Diet so successful.

I hope all of you are still recruiting partners who pledge to lose at least one pound so we can find a million dieters that together will lose at least One Million Pounds.

Our blog address is: http://brownbagdiet.blogspot.com/ Pass it around.

Check out our new Brown Bag Diet T shirt at

http://www.cafepress.com/cp/prod.aspx?p=brownbagdiet.200447395

See you tomorrow.

Read today's weight loss tip and continue to the Secret of the Brown Bag Diet

Read today's weight loss tip and continue reading to find the "Secret of the Brown Bag Diet" .

Today's simple tip is one word.

"Consistency".

That's what made Lou Gehrig great. Consistency is what the BBD program intends to help you learn.

In our last post we all agreed that "You are ready". (to handle the secret of the Brown Bag Diet and be successful using it.)

I noted earlier that for this online version of "BBD" I need to break up the chapters to smaller parts for each posting. Therefore we continue to the "secret revealed".

Watchwords/Slogans form the basis for the tips that lead to success in the "Brown Bag Diet". I tested the tips of the Brown Bag Diet on myself. They worked. Then I invited a small group of fellow workers to try the program. We met every week in the employee lounge of my pharmacy and everyone was successful.

I knew I was on to something when one of the employees told me her fiancee joined her in following the program. She said he had never before been able to eat with reasonable discipline. Now, she said, he follows the watchword "Eat by the clock", religiously and doesn't snack between meals.

The watchwords don't change the fundamentals of dieting. They just sharpen your perception of yourself as you follow your diet program. This new thinking leads you to success.

Some years ago a math teacher had a fresh idea on how to teach math. He called it, "New Math". He reasoned that some students need a different approach in order to understand the way numbers work together.

Thousands of students used this approach and they reached a point where they could say, "Eureka or Ah Ha". "Now I understand it".

That's the point I want followers of the "Brown Bag Diet" to reach. The point where they will feel, "Ah Ha" and react instinctively by eating healthfully, well and feeling satisfied.

When we continue with the "Secrets Revealed", you will learn the NINE Fundamental Precepts of the Secrets.

Don't forget to recruit as many as possible to join with us in our push to lose 1 million pounds. Make some copies of our blog address.

http://brownbagdiet.blogspot.com/

Encourage everyone to join us as you pass our blog address out.

Don't hesitate to comment and let me know how the recruiting is going to find those 1 million people who will join.

Check out our new Brown Bag Diet T shirt with front logo and back message to participate in our 1 million pound march off at:

http://www.cafepress.com/cp/prod.aspx?p=brownbagdiet.200447395

Want more Brown Bag Diet items? Let me know.

Erwin Posner R.Ph.

The Secret of the Brown Bag Diet - part I

Some of you have asked something about my background and how I became the author of "The Brown Bag Diet - tips & clues for dieters from the pharmacist's notebook.

For reference you might go to the News-Line for pharmacists cover story that was done about me and printed in their December 20003 issue.

Last week I promised to conclude the introduction to the BBD and reveal

"The Secret of the Brown Bag Diet".

So here goes –

The medical world has come to the conclusion that being overweight is a "distinct disease state". That means that treatment is required for its own sake and not just incidental to other disease states like hypertension and diabetes etc. Of course medical science has a penchant for putting this in non- PC terms so being even 10 % overweight is considered obesity. Unfortunately this can make you feel bad about yourself before you even start to take corrective steps.

Yes, words can hurt. However we all need to recognize that the state of obesity crosses paths with a myriad of other serious disease states. Some of the common ones are hypertension, heart disease, arthritis, respiratory disease and even gout. By returning to and maintaining proper weight levels can help avoid long term negative consequences.

The outlook for those who maintain normal weight compared to being overweight can be the secret for living longer and enjoying a better quality of life. And the economic Impact of an overweight society is enormous. People of normal weight use fewer health services than the overweight. This is being recognized by industry where some companies are reducing the benefits of overweight employees or requiring them to contribute more towards their health benefits than their normal weight colleagues.

I’ve been told by health plans that they, together with their industrial clients, are seeking ways to give incentives to overweight employees to reduce to a normal weight level. They say that if successful these employees will use fewer sick days and lower healthcare costs will result.

I have even been asked if employers can sign their employees up to read this blog. No need to sign up. The blog is free. Each employee can simply be encouraged to sign in and read the info. However I may provide a weekly five-minute test sheet for companies who wish to quiz employees to see if they read the BBD blog regularly.

I didn’t forget my promise to you that I would reveal the Secret this week.
In the hard copy of BBD, revelation of the Secret takes eight pages so I’ll have to reveal it in two or three parts for this online version.

Here is the secret:

The Brown Bag Diet is not a diet.

It’s an eye opening series of watchwords and slogans that makes your diet program work better. To take off weight and keep it off you’ll have to find a way to change your eating behavior. If you find a new approach to view that behavior you’ll find it easier to change. That’s what the Brown Bag Diet can do for you.

If you follow the tips of "The Brown Bag Diet", you’ll lose weight.

Did you ever feel you needed a little push to help start and stay on a diet? Do you want some inspiration? Need some extra motivation? Are you sick of your doctor’s dirty looks? (You know- when he or she doesn’t say anything but you know what your doctor is thinking)

OK. You’re ready.

BBD can help you.
Watch for the next post - "The Secret" – (to be continued) -

Erwin Posner R.Ph.

You're NOT the only dieter - you're NOT alone!

You aren't the only dieter – You are not alone

In a song called "High Hopes" Frank Sinatra sang,

"Just what makes that little ole ant,

think he'll move that rubber tree plant"

Sure the little worker ant can't move a rubber tree plant all by himself. But when all of

this ant's brother and sister ants get together, Frank says,

"Whoops there goes another rubber tree plant".

So think of dieting on the "BBD" program this way: You may think the task of reaching a sensible goal for you is impossible but like that little ole ant - You are not alone. Your brother and sister dieters are in this fight together with you. Why? We're together with you to help each other because we all have the same need. And those of us who have already reached our goals are ready to help you and others because we understand your pain.

We plan to have one million people just like you begin our serious diet program right after the holidays so this is the perfect time to start psyching yourself up. We must believe that once we start we will succeed. We can do it together!

I promised to post a chapter of the Brown Bag Diet each week and since our most serious push begins after the holidays this is a good time to present the Brown Bag diet preliminaries.

So let us begin the text of the, " Brown Bag Diet – from the pharmacist's notebook, (tips & clues for dieters from the pharmacist's notebook".

Introduction

Dieting to lose weight has become a needed National pastime. It's needed because two thirds of North Americans are overweight.

This guide was written to assist pharmacists to counsel overweight patients. It offers tips and clues written in layman's language for those on weight loss programs. It's divided into segments headed by watchword/slogans. The segments or monographs are brief essays that develop ideas and principles encapsulated in the watchword/slogans. Each serves to deliver a succinct idea. Some segments are deliberately redundant for reinforcement.

The monographs are followed by a section of Flash Cards. They are easily memorized. The Flash Cards convey the message of some of the most important segments.

Links to important material available online from U.S. Government sources such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Task force on Prevention and Treatment and Prevention of Obesity, Weight Control Information Network and other organizations affiliated with the National Institute of Health are found in the appendix. However in this online version of the BBD book I will sprinkle these links throughout the general text of the book.

The objective of the Brown Bag Diet is to teach dieters to establish an easy to follow regular routine. It attempts to give the dieter a mental reminder of what it takes to complete each week of dieting successfully. Watchword/slogans rekindle the dieter's commitment to their program. Receiving new ideas and refreshing good older ideas on a regular basis enhances progress.

We often say, early detection gives us the greatest opportunity to treat, cure or arrest disease. In order to make diagnoses of disease medical science uses sophisticated tests and laboratory equipment. In the case of obesity early diagnosis is generally quite simple. Early intervention is difficult.

Next week I will conclude the introduction and introduce what you are all waiting for-
"The Secret of the Brown Bag Diet".

Don't forget to send everyone on your email lists our blog link. Keep forwarding it to all your contacts:
Http://www. brownbagdiet.blogspot.com

We want to get our one million dieters on board for the big push in 2008.

Erwin Posner, R.Ph.