Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of ads online for weight loss supplements that all make essentially the same claim – the diet industry sets its customers up for failure on purpose. While this is an ironic statement coming from companies hawking their own miracle diet solutions, I’ve been wondering if there’s any truth to it.

How can you expect to lose weight if you don’t know exactly how you gained those pounds? Dieting, like quitting smoking, is about a lot more than just eliminating certain foods or cutting back. For true success, you have to know your weaknesses and understand their underlying causes. So many diets are destined to fail because people don’t restructure their lives to support their changed eating habits. Without addressing underlying causes and habits, no diet is sustainable.

Want to lose weight but tired of weight loss gimmicks? Follow this sensible advice.

1. Eat only real food: how much of what you eat comes from a box? If it’s processed, it’s probably no good for you. Real foods are the foods that you find in the fruit and vegetable aisle of your grocery store. Come in a box? Read the ingredients. If there are too many, or the names of the ingredients are unpronounceable, then don’t buy it. In doubt? Leave it. Fruits, vegetables, complex carbohydrates and lean proteins should be your diet. Don’t waste your money on processed foods that will only bog you down.

When people say they want to lose weight, they’re usually talking about losing excess fat.

If you want to lose fat, then it’s important to know under what conditions fat cells multiply, grow ‘fatter’ or shrink. Yes, fat cells can get fatter also. They are the cells responsible for storing the unused calories you consume, so the more calories and less exercise, the larger they will get. What’s more, when a fat cell grows fat enough (3 to 6 times its original size), it multiplies. These new cells, in turn, can get fatter.

5 years ago, I was under a lot of stress and I was constantly coughing and had problems breathing. I thought I had a cold or some virus. Went I went to the hospital, they took an X ray and found that my heart was so enlarged it was almost the size of one of my lungs. My stress hormones were also elevated – they found high levels of cortisol in my blood. I discovered that I was born with cardiomyopathy (a disease that involves the weakening and inflammation of the heart). The doctors installed a defibrillator, as a protection in case my heart stops beating, to shock it back to life.

rganic cocoa does much more than just improve the taste of the product. It supplies more antioxidants than red wine or green tea, helping to fight cancer-causing free radicals in the body. Cocoa contains several neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, dopamine and andandamide, which help improve mood. It also contains the appetite-suppressant Phenyl Ethyl Amine (PEA), a compound that controls alertness and mental awareness.