Default to yes for things that you want to accomplish

This is another of the tricks to help you accomplish something meaningful. I primarily use it when I want to improve in some way. It sounds very simple, and it is easier said than done, but it’s much more effective than “winging it.” As I say often, you must act with intent. It is up to each of us to decide what is important. What about ourselves do we want to improve?

It is tempting to choose something very simple and vague. I don’t want you to say, “I want to eat better.” Anyone can eat better without putting in any effort. If you eat two large McDonald’s fries a day, you can eat better by throwing two fries into the garbage before you sit down. That’s an improvement, but not much of one. You can do better than that. You can say, “I won’t eat fast food or bad carbs.” For this tool, be as precise as possible. Instead of, “I want to exercise more,” say, ” I will work out hard every Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.”

So, what does it mean to default to “yes?” If you want to work out those days, then on Sunday morning, you say to yourself, “Should I work out today?” The answer is always yes, unless there is a compelling reason to override it. It is ridiculous to evade the default to Yes by saying, “I don’t want to,” or that you need to meet someone for drinks. Don’t do it. However, if there is a compelling, urgent reason not to work out that day, of course, override the default, but think through it very carefully. As I say in my other book, cheating on a diet or exercise routine is really cheating yourself.

My wife’s goal is to exercise every day she’s not working. She was off yesterday, and we had plans for the day. She asked, “Should I run before we go?” I immediately answered, “Yes.” That is the trick. No wiggle room. She could have said that she’d run at the end of the day. But something could have come up. She could have been tired, had a drink, whatever. She defaulted to yes and ran the best she had in a long time. With this tool, you won’t be perfect, but if your default is to say yes, you will do well.

I no longer need to think about this tool to get myself to exercise, because the habit of nearly daily exercise is so ingrained in my life. I have recently been using it for social events with loved ones. I am by nature a homebody. I don’t like parties or crowds. I like my routine and generally don’t want to vary from it. But when my wife or son asks me to do something (as long as it doesn’t involve strenuous work outside), I want to do it. Unless I have something planned that I can’t miss, which is uncommon now that I’m retired, I default to yes and do it.

Once a habit is ingrained, as I said, you won’t need to pay attention to this trick. An example that comes to mind is wearing a seatbelt. You definitely should default to putting on your seatbelt when you get in the car. In a few weeks, you don’t even think about it. You always wear a seatbelt. If you aren’t strict, defaulting to yes, or opting in, as some people call it, you will debate yourself. “I’m just driving to the corner, or the roads are empty, so I don’t need to wear it.” If your goal is always to wear a seatbelt, wear it every time, and soon, it’s a habit.

That is what you do with every important goal. Get out of bed, exercise certain days of the week, don’t eat bad carbs, read something worthwhile every day—whatever is meaningful to you.

I hope that most people want to improve some aspect of their lives. If your life is already perfect, I am happy for you, and you have no reason to read the rest of this post. If there is something in your life you want to improve, there are three tools I find effective. I will discuss the first, “Do What’s Important First,” in this post. People I know say that I have willpower and discipline. Maybe so, but I use a lot of tools and tricks. This is one of my favorites.

The tool, Do What’s Important First, applies to anything you want to accomplish. I use it for habits I want to develop, getting in shape, and choosing which trip to take next. It also works well for less important choices, such as which hike to take on a trip in the mountains. The concept sounds obvious, but most people don’t do the important thing first. They procrastinate. Kids work on their pencil drawer and the text’s font before they start writing the term paper. Many people plan to start a diet and exercise program on January 1, rather than today. Write the paper first, and start eating better right now. This concept is critical in starting habits because they are so difficult to develop.

Years ago, I read several studies showing how good pushups are for your health. This study in JAMA shows the link between the capacity to do pushups and the risk of a future heart attack. (This is not one of the studies that got me started on this habit, but it is impressive.) I do pushups virtually every day. I have only missed days when I was ill or getting a colonoscopy.

People often can’t believe that I have done pushups every morning for years, but it’s true. This morning, I did three sets of 55 pushups about 30 minutes apart. How do I do it? It is important to me to do pushups daily, so I do it first. I get up, I do a set, then another, then another. That’s it. It took me years to build up to this level—I could only do a few when I started, and my form was terrible.

If I didn’t do pushups first thing every morning, or if I waited until later in the day, something would have always come up. I could be tired, hungry, busy—whatever. By 6:00 a.m., I have already done one of the things that is important to me. Other things are important, and I do them early also. Since I don’t enjoy doing pushups, it is especially important that I do them first. Ryan Holiday talks about doing the hardest thing first. It’s called swallowing the toad. I feel that way about pushups. On the other hand, I want to write something, anything, every day, but I enjoy it much more than pushups, so I can do my writing second, and so on. I talk more about wasting time here.

I wanted to get in shape in general, so I work out almost every day. Read about the benefits of exercise in my book, The Six Rules For a Healthier, Longer Life. I have trouble exercising before eating, so I exercise first thing after eating, usually when my wife leaves for work. If she’s home, we try to work out together. I will talk about spending time with others when I discuss another tool I use.

How does “Do What’s Important First” apply to choosing trips to take? Several years ago, my wonderful wife and I were debating what trip to take. We hadn’t been to Michigan for many years, so that was on our list. There were five or six other trips we had planned, including Yosemite and Oregon, where we had never been together. We chose Michigan because our dear friends, Jack and Suzanne, lived there. I have known them since I was about two, longer than any other non-relative. You never know what is going to happen, so we chose to go to Michigan. We had a wonderful trip, seeing the Upper Peninsula, Mackinac Island, and spending time with our friends. Less than two years later, Jack passed away. Had we gone somewhere else, we may never have seen him again.

This tool, to do what’s important first, helps when choosing less important things, like which hike to take. My wife and I love trips where we can hike all day long. I do the legwork—booking flights, arranging a rental car, and finding a hotel or VRBO, while she considers the hikes and chooses which ones we should do. Most of the time, I agree with her choices. In fact, I have never once been disappointed in her plan. In Oregon last month, we went on beautiful trails in places that didn’t sound all that great to me, but her choices were gold. For example, I was blown away by Smith Rock State Park near Bend.

My wife always asks me whether I agree with her plan for a day of hiking. My usual question is “What is the best hike here?” Whatever she answers, I respond with, “Let’s do that hike first.” If we save the best hike for later, we could be disappointed. It could storm, they could close the trail for a bear sighting, or I could sprain an ankle and not be able to hike. (If she sprains an ankle or even breaks a toe, it doesn’t stop her.)

If you want to make sure you get it done, then do it first. This also holds true in life’s big choices. If you really want to have kids, try early in your marriage. If you wait, you could become unable to have kids later. It happens more often than you may think. If you want a particular career, get started right away. Most kids who drop out, even those who say they plan to go back, don’t get a degree within eight years. So, if you want a career that requires a college degree, start early and work hard. Finish the degree first. Gap years may not have the same negative effect on attaining a college degree. Still, the ones who succeed after a gap year usually do something during that year to further their career and gain clarity about their career path.

Doing the important thing first is intuitive. Of course, you shouldn’t put off homework until you get home from a party. You shouldn’t go for a beer after work, planning on going to the gym right after. Still, it helps to actually focus on the concept. Many people never take the time to think it through. They believe they will have the time and motivation to go to the gym after a drink with friends. They believe they will feel like doing pushups and yoga after a big breakfast. More often than not, they won’t feel up to it. They will have completed the less important tasks (which may even be harmful) and ignore the important ones.

Should you consider quitting social media?

With the recent murder of Charlie Kirk, the harms of social media have again become apparent. I don’t believe his murder had much to do with social media, but after something horrible happens that is apparently linked to their political or religious views, there are reports of what people said on social media. Sometimes, a professor will get fired for a post on X, or a celebrity loses their job because of their views on violence against someone with opposing ideas.

What we see on social media then becomes news, with commentators on multiple networks sharing their views on how the post on X.com matters. Social media is not news. Social media is where people can say anything they want, good or bad, to a large number of other people. The social media platform enables and emboldens people to say what they feel, no matter how vile it is. Before social media and the internet, you would have to write a letter to the editor of a newspaper to have your views published. The editor would rarely publish a letter stating that someone deserved the violence perpetrated against them. If you wanted to be heard, you could also stand up on a soapbox (I had to do that in a speech class in school) and shout your views. Most of the time, you would be ignored.

Now, you can write what you believe, and in thirty seconds, it’s available for the world to see. Your words, good or bad, can be fed to my screen without anyone screening them first. There is no way to avoid these words and ideas if you use social media platforms. It takes extreme effort not to be affected negatively by these negative comments. Yes, positive comments and ideas sometimes can have positive effects, but the negative ideas overpower them. I believe people should have the right to write and say anything they want. But I don’t have to read it or listen to it.

Even when there isn’t terrible news spreading on Twitter or Bluesky, much of social media is unhelpful. If you click on a video in X or Facebook, you’re destined to weeks of similar videos on your screen. Every time you click, you waste minutes of your day, minutes of your life. As Ben Franklin said, “Dost thou love life? Then do not squander Time; for that’s the Stuff Life is made of.”

If you know me or have read my books (The Three Rules to Lose Weight and Keep It Off Forever, and The Six Rules for a Longer, Healthier Life), then you know I have never had success cutting back on anything and have only had success with completely quitting. All or None. That’s why I quit bad carbs and alcohol. A week ago, I decided to quit social media. Even if I don’t entirely avoid negative ideas, I will at least save time by not watching videos that don’t help me in any way.

Cal Newport, who wrote the superb books Digital Minimalism and Deep Work, wrote a post on this topic. I recommend you read it to see a similar take on the subject. I mention Newport in my post on killing time.

If you decide to quit, delete any social media apps from your phone and vow to never check X, Bluesky, Instagram, or Facebook on your computer. Post on these sites that your friends can reach you by phone or email. I don’t like texts, but if you do, then, of course, use texts. Our son often contacts us with FaceTime. It’s far superior to text and even a phone call, and I believe that FaceTime is the most important use of a smartphone. However, GPS, Spotify, and Audible are also invaluable.

If you have considered quitting social media but are hesitant, consider a break first. I often recommend this with alcohol. Start today and decide in 30 days whether you’re better or worse. If you’re better, then quit forever. If you’re worse off without social media, then I was wrong, but at least you made an informed decision. However, I expect you will be better. I have never met anyone who felt worse having abstained from alcohol for 30 days, and I doubt many people have regretted abstaining from social media.

Note: I wrote this several days ago and am only posting it on September 18, 2025. I just read on the news that Jimmy Kimmel’s show was suspended because of something he said about the Charlie Kirk murder. I am glad I will not be checking X.com to see what everyone is saying about that.

Is Keeping Busy Good?

I retired less than a year ago. Before I retired, the most frequent question I was asked was, “What will you do?” Now, it is “Are you keeping busy?” Have you ever thought about what keeping busy means? I do not believe in keeping busy. Playing a game on your phone is keeping busy, as is drinking whiskey every day with your buddies.

In my retirement, I don’t want a fixed schedule, but I want to do more than keep busy or kill time. I want to spend my time doing something meaningful. It doesn’t have to be working for a charity or knitting sweaters for people. I write. It is meaningful to me because I might help some people get healthier or lose weight. It is not for the money. My book, The Three Rules to Lose Weight and Keep It Off Forever, is meaningful regardless of whether others buy it. I can only control what I do.

I also find exercise meaningful, though it helps no one other than myself. The same is true with learning to draw. It is very unlikely that I will ever show my drawings at a gallery, and probably less likely than I will skydive next week. That is not the point. Meaning is within. But keeping busy is not meaningful by itself. Meditation is meaningful to many people, and no one would say it is keeping busy twiddling your thumbs.

The point I am making is there is no reason to talk about keeping busy. Doing something productive and meaningful matters, whether you are working or retired. Even on vacation, I like to do something meaningful—exercise, read a book, and see the sites. I don’t think about keeping busy.

Opportunity cost represents the potential benefits that a business, an investor, or an individual consumer misses out on when choosing one alternative over another.

Opportunity cost usually refers to money. If you buy a television for $1000, you don’t have $1000 to spend on food. We don’t think of the opportunity cost of time very much. I don’t do my lawn. Let’s say I pay the lawn company fifty dollars to mow my lawn. I don’t have the fifty dollars to go to dinner with my wife (If I would have gone someplace cheap). But, if I spend ninety minutes doing my lawn, I won’t have ninety minutes to read a book, talk to my wife, or fish with my son.

When we are young, we mainly think of the opportunity cost of money and don’t worry about time. We might drive fifteen hours rather than spend the money on a flight. We’ll ask a friend to give up three hours of their day to pick us up at the airport rather than taking a shuttle or an Uber. Maybe that’s appropriate when we’re young.

Many people ignore the opportunity cost of time even when they’re my age or older. I ask people in their sixties when they plan to retire. They might say, “six years.” Why? They need the money to retire. Read my post on actuarial tables. We don’t know how much time we have. I recently retired at fifty-five, and patients told me I was so young. They can only say I am young if they know how long I’ll live. If I work five more years and die or become disabled at sixty, then those five years of salary would have cost me fifty hours a week for the rest of my life.

Ryan Holiday quotes Seneca: No person hands out their money to passersby, but to how many do each of us hand out our lives! We’re tight-fisted with property and money, yet think too little of wasting time, the one thing about which we should all be the toughest misers. I can prove it’s true. If you had a million dollars and knew for sure you had ten years left to live. You’re forced to choose between giving up a million dollars or the ten years remaining in your life. Which would you choose?

In his superb book, Die with Zero, Bill Perkins teaches that money’s main or only value is buying experiences. If you give up experiences so you can earn more money, it is self-defeating. Working until you are 70 when you could retire at 62, costs you all the experiences you could have had for eight years. That is always a loss. I am healthy, but cannot do many things I could have done only a few years ago. No one at 70 can do what they did at 60. Even if you could, you might not want to at 70. Those experiences are lost forever.

I am not telling you what to do with your time or money. I am telling you not to ignore the opportunity cost of time. Watching TV means you can’t read a book. Doing your lawn means you can’t meet your friend for lunch. Working three more years means you miss out on several vacations with your family forever.

If I have a deathbed, I don’t want to lie on it regretting not spending time with my family or doing something meaningful. I certainly won’t regret not working for a few more years to earn a few more dollars.

Please back up your computer. I will give you the basics.

It happens all the time. Someone tells me that disaster struck. They lost their photos and important files. Losing files or photos is entirely avoidable. I haven’t used a PC in many years, so I don’t know the particulars, but the concepts will be the same as on a Mac. I will not be giving detailed instructions, just the concepts and how to get started.

I have very little in my house that I would cry over if lost. I have many photo albums, but since I started shooting digitally many years ago, I have also kept all the files on my computer. And I conscientiously back up my files and photos. I am sure most of you are the same. You have electronics, furniture, and other expensive items in your house, but little that is irreplaceable. Yet, you most likely lock your door when you leave.

Not backing up your computer is worse than leaving your door unlocked when you’re not home. My photos are irreplaceable. I look at them and remember my wonderful experiences. I show them to friends and family. Sometimes, I post them online. By the way, I love the photo above by Lauren Mancke on Unsplash because it has coffee and Post-its. I don’t write crucial notes on Post-its because they are so easily lost. I write them on the computer and back them up. Also, coffee is a common cause of destroying a laptop. I always drink from a mug with a lid and keep it where it won’t destroy my computer if knocked over.

Files are boring, but essential not to lose. I save receipts and warranties on the computer, and I recommend you do. They are easier to find and are not lost in a fire if you back up your files. They are also much easier to find when you need them.

Mac makes it easy to back up your files and photos.

The first thing to do is set up iCloud and check the box in the settings that says to back up the Documents folder to iCloud. Then, put all your files in Documents or subfolders of documents. There are YouTube videos on all of this. You will also find a checkbox to back up your photos to iCloud. Of course, do that.

Now, as good as iCloud is, it has a serious flaw. Evernote and Dropbox have the same flaw. Let’s say you delete photos or files from your computer. They will disappear from the cloud. You will be able to restore them on icloud.com, but only for a limited time. If you have an important file on Microsoft Word, and you delete some of it by accident, that change occurs on the cloud. After 30 days, it is gone forever. Onedrive does the same thing, though I don’t know how long the grace period is because I don’t use it. There are cloud back-ups, such as Backblaze, and you can consider them.

Macs have a feature called Time Machine. You keep an external drive attached to your Mac. Set up Time Machine (very simple and videos are on YouTube). Then, you can always find any file all the way back to when you set up Time Machine. I have a Crucial 2 TB SSD drive, which is smaller than a deck of cards. I highly recommend it. I leave it plugged in at home and take it everywhere I do anything important on my laptop. You can also restore your entire computer to any date since you set it up. That way, you can get rid of malware you installed by accident.

You still have a problem. I mentioned the flaw in some online systems like iCloud and DropBox. The obvious flaw in Time Machine is that if your house burns down or someone steals your computer, you also lose the backups on the hard drive. So, periodically, back up your documents folder and photos to another hard drive. Images are in a single folder. This is how you find it. I do this at least monthly. I keep the hard drive in a fire bag at another location. This is the one I got, and I expect there are numerous choices. If you can keep it at work, that would be great. Otherwise, keep it hidden in your home so someone is unlikely to steal it. I would also protect it with a password.

My wife and others think I am paranoid and crazy. (not only because I obsessively back up my files and photos. They are correct—I am crazy. But, for a few hundred dollars, I know that I won’t lose my files and photos. If a fire destroys my 32-inch Sony television, my old leather chair, or even my fairly new camera, so be it. Those are replaceable. Not my photo of my wife and son at Cracker Lake in Glacier National Park.

Stop Killing Time. You can think of hundreds of things to do better than that.

Several years ago, a retired person I knew told me about a game on their phone. I told them that I don‘t play games on my phone, and they said, “It‘s a good way to kill time.” Kill time? Why would I want to do that?

Benjamin Franklin, in Poor Richard‘s Almanack, said, “Dost thou love life? Then do not squander Time; for that’s the Stuff Life is made of.“ Centuries before Franklin, Seneca said, “We’re tight-fisted with property and money, yet think too little of wasting time, the one thing about which we should all be the toughest misers.“ And more recently, Tony Stark quoted his father as saying, “No amount of money can buy a second of time.“

I am not saying that you shouldn‘t enjoy yourself. If you want to play a game on your phone or binge-watch Netflix, then do it. Think it through, and do it with intent. Hang out with your friends and gossip. Fine. But do it with purpose. Do not do it because you are just killing time between getting home from work and going to bed.

Stop killing time out of habit. When I was practicing medicine, patients told me they had no time to exercise. A few minutes later, they mentioned the shows they were watching. I like television too, but if you cut back a bit, you would have time to exercise or do many activities more productive than ten straight episodes of Larry David, or whatever his show is called.

It takes effort to stop killing time. Since January 18, I have not had a job since I graduated from medical school over thirty years ago. I do not have a strict agenda. If I want to be productive and do something meaningful, I must think ahead and make a plan. It‘s not difficult. Think of a few activities that you find meaningful and do them. I exercise, write, manage this blog, shop, cook, learn to draw, and play piano. When my wife is home, we find meaningful activities we do together. Plan ahead and Begin With The End in Mind.

Spend time with your loved ones. Make them something, write them a letter, or plan a trip. If you‘re bored, don‘t drink alcohol, don‘t eat junk food, and don‘t go on TikTok. Any book on any shelf is better than social media. If you have trouble avoiding social media, check out Cal Newport and his book, Digital Minimalism.

The hardest part is not coming up with productive, meaningful things to do. There are blogs and books devoted to activities both before and during retirement. The hard part is starting. Once you start, it‘s easy. Say you want to learn to cook. Go to Udemy.com and sign up for a good book, drawing, painting, learning about money, writing, design, sewing, or photography. I could go on and on, but I don‘t have time. But whatever you choose, start immediately. Tomorrow never comes if you‘re procrastinating. And one day, it won‘t come at all.

Whatever you choose to do, make it meaningful. It doesn‘t have to make money or save the world. It only has to be meaningful to you. Don‘t mindlessly stream shows or flip channels (if people still do that) without any purpose. Even if you have a full-time job, don‘t kill the few hours you have for leisure. Act with intent. Stop Killing Time.

Don’t purposely let your child beat you in a game.

Let’s say you are playing checkers with your four-year-old. You may be tempted to let him or her win. Why am I against that? Checkers is a complex game. When our son was four, I didn’t want him to think that a four-year-old could beat an adult at a complicated game. I wanted him to learn that becoming skilled at something takes work and practice. If he can beat me at checkers or pool at a young age, without hard work, he might think he can master reading after a few days in school.

Also, like I said in my post about doing your kids’ homework for them, if you let your child beat you in a game, you are robbing him or her of the sense of accomplishment of winning without help. Until our son was about eight, I could beat him in video games. One day, he beat me, and I could see how proud he was. He knew he won on his own. Soon, of course, I couldn’t beat him in any video game. As I write this post, he is at a video game tournament. I don’t play him any more.

It is tempting to let your child win. You might feel that it will make them feel the thrill of winning. That might work once, but kids are smart. They will soon figure it out. They might beat you routinely at Mario Kart but lose to all their friends. Make them earn it.

As Ryan Holiday says in The Obstacle Is The Way, overcoming obstacles is what makes us better. If your kid can beat you at chess without trying, why would he work harder to be better at chess? I doubt Tiger Woods’s father let him win at golf. I am sure neither the Williams sisters never let each other win when they were growing up. They fought to beat each other, and that made them better.

In life, you have to earn your college degree, your job, or your promotion. (At least, I hope that is still true.) Why should you purposely let your child beat you in a game?

Nearly everyone has heard that drugs are harmful. I go a step further. Drugs are bad.

Nearly everything can be harmful. Smoking causes cancer, driving leads to car accidents, seeing friends can lead to respiratory illnesses. I rarely say that anything is good or bad. I don’t think cigarettes are necessarily bad. They are certainly the leading preventable cause of serious illness, but perhaps for some people, cigarettes provide benefits that outweigh the risks.

But I believe drugs are bad. I see no reason not to call alcohol a drug. It is arbitrary that we consider alcohol something different than cannabis or even heroin. Cannabis is from a natural plant, alcohol is made from fruit and grain, and heroin is made from the poppy plant. No difference. Many people can drink alcohol in small enough amounts to cause little risk or harm. You can have a drink every week or two and not drive, and your risk may be zero. It may even have benefits. But remember that heroin works similarly to morphine and other opiates, and we know that opiates have benefits. I wouldn’t want to go without an opiate if I broke my leg.

So, why do I think drugs are bad? The drugs I mentioned above and others, affect our minds and brains if taken in sufficient doses. That is part of the reason people use drugs. I am not talking about the occasional drink or marijuana cigarette. I am talking about heavier use, enough to alter our thinking. Our ability to think, plan, consider our lives, and be productive is what separates humans from animals. The iconic commercial about your brain on drugs wasn’t quite on point. It is your mind that matters. Animals have brains.

We have a rational mind, as the stoics said so many years ago, and Ryan Holiday teaches in his books. Our rational mind allows us to be productive and create a better life for ourselves and our loved ones. We can set a goal and work to achieve it. Why would I want to weaken that rational mind? That is what alcohol and drugs do, unless you are one of the few who can do it occasionally and in moderation.

You shouldn’t need studies to convince you that drugs and alcohol adversely affect the brain and our minds. But here are a few: alcohol can cause a range of cognitive problems, but a study I recently found shows that drinking and passing out causes the most harm. Opiates have also been shown to harm our thinking. Everyone knows what heroin can do, so here’s a study, one of many, on oxycodone.

What about cannabis? So many people say it is safer than alcohol. Maybe so, but it affects the mind, at least when taken regularly. Here’s a study, again one of many. (A subscription is required so I cannot send the full study.)

We live in a time when alcohol and drugs are becoming normalized. At most restaurants, the first thing the server asks is, “Can I get you a drink?” Cannabis is legal in more and more states, and heroin is being decriminalized. There is a good argument for some decriminalization, and I am not saying we should try banning alcohol again. I do not intend to ever try drugs, and I plan to never drink alcohol again.

We are the only beings on earth (and possibly in the entire universe) that can think and plan. Chemicals that weaken our minds diminish our uniqueness, weakening the one thing that makes us special. There is definitely a time to relax and enjoy life. It is up to each of us to decide how much we are willing to give up for that enjoyment and relaxation.

Begin With the End in Mind

Everyone should read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Habit two is “Begin with the end in mind.” It is a simple yet powerful habit, and I consider it the most important one. It is critically important for success in anything you do. You have to define what success actually is. You must define your goal.

When I was in practice, hundreds of patients told me they were trying to lose weight. When I asked what they were doing to lose weight, they often said they were eating better. Great. I’m glad they were eating better, but does eating better make you lose weight?

Begin with the end in mind. In this case, it’s to lose weight. Figure out how to do it. The Three Rules to Lose Weight and Keep It Off Forever, Second Edition is the best way, but many diet plans work. If you want to lose weight, get my book or any of the dozen other good ones. You can even read some medical studies yourself. You will never see anyone recommend eating better as the solution to being overweight. It is poorly defined and doesn’t work. If you eat six Big Macs a day and cut to five, you’re eating better, but you won’t lose weight. Skipping a snack here and there will not do it. Winging it without a plan won’t work. It takes a dramatic change.

Studies show that diets such as mine, where you minimize or eliminate the sugar and other carbohydrates that raise your sugar, cause weight loss. Cutting calories below 1200 a day works. Eating better doesn’t. Dieters without a real plan don’t really have weight loss as their end, though they may think they do. Their end is to eat better. If their goal were truly to lose weight, they would figure out what it takes and do it.

If you choose the calorie-counting plan, which I don’t recommend, your goal is not just to cut calories—the goal is to lose weight by cutting calories. (I know it sounds obvious, but keep your final goal in mind.) For most people, it takes a cut to less than 1200 calories per day. When I asked patients how many calories they were taking in, they often said, “less than 1200.” I asked if they measured, weighed, and counted everything they ate or drank. Very few ever did. If your goal is to lose weight, you should know whether you are on the path to success. Half-measures don’t work.

The same is true with exercise. If you want to get in shape, that should be the end in mind. If you do what most people do and walk more, what will you have accomplished? Not getting in shape. It takes more than that. Walking may be better than nothing, but if you walk a mile or two a day, you will not get in shape. (You won’t lose weight either.) There are many exercise programs to get in shape. There must be hundreds of websites and books on training programs. Find one that appeals to you and do exactly what it says.

Beginning with the end in mind doesn’t guarantee success, but it is necessary for nearly everything important. If you want a good job, you can’t simply go to college and expect employers to come to you. Figure out what it takes to get the type of job you want and do it.  

Whatever your goals are, decide what you want to accomplish and figure out how to get there. The rest is hard work and follow-through.