Richard W. Schmidt

You Can't Outrun That Brownie

An Innovative, Inverse APProach to Losing Weight

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What do you have to gain from reading this book and putting the advice into practice?

Your emotional payoff will be excitement and confidence, erasing the upset and bewilderment from when you went on previous diets. You'll finally win the war against overweight and past failed attempts. Reaching your goal weight and keeping the weight off will be a life–changing achievement.

So why will you succeed now?

I'm a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist with over 40 years of experience, and I have a passion for helping people. I designed an Excel spreadsheet that's unique and free. You'll decide the changes to make regarding the foods and beverages you know are keeping you overweight. After reading this book, you'll see opportunities to map out your personal path to goal weight. I created a Revolutionary Weight Loss Tool, which I'm excited to share with you. The book as a whole is fun and easy to read, and the chapters are short.

Both calorie reduction and exercise are essential for success, but only 1% of people can maintain weight loss from exercise alone. Remember the main title, You Can't Outrun That Brownie. Thus the focus of this book is on how to increase your knowledge of nutrition and then improve your diet.

Our modern sedentary lifestyle has collided with the overabundance and regular consumption of high-calorie, highly processed foods, resulting in record numbers of overweight or obese people. As a student of mine once passionately said, you are your own general in this war. It's a battle you need to win, as your life may very well depend upon it. You are worthy of this victory. You matter to yourself and to other people.

So now it's time to turn the page on your health by turning to Chapter One.

Purchasing Information

The Excel Files

The following Excel files are provided to you free of charge. To open any of the files, click on the file name.

Revolutionary Weight Loss Tracker example

Traditional Weight Loss Tool example

About the Author

As a six-year-old child in 1962, my favorite food was Skippy peanut butter and Welch's grape jelly slapped between two slices of white Wonder Bread: the standard peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It was my go–to food every day, sometimes twice a day. Of course I washed it down with a glass of whole milk. Let's not forget the go–to snacks: Twinkies, Ring Dings, Devil Dogs, and Funny Bones. The result was husky–sized pants as an adolescent.

I proudly became a Registered Dietitian in 1980. I began to teach weight–loss classes when I was in my thirties. I was now in shape, weighed 158 pounds, and looked lean and mean. I was great at convincing people to exercise but warned them that they would not be able to support weight loss from exercise alone. In my forties, I began to put on a few pounds but still looked good. My weight was now 172 pounds. I was told by many friends and colleagues that I was too thin at 158 pounds. What a fool I was; I bought into those opinions.

My career transitioned to management of food services. Teaching weight loss ceased, but I still had a sincere passion for this topic. Unfortunately, in my early fifties, I topped the scale at 202 pounds. I told myself that I knew better. Now I knew what it was like to be 44 pounds heavier than I had been. All the excuses I had heard from people years earlier who failed at weight loss, I was now using. Now I could relate to all those students who were 40 pounds overweight back when I was teaching in my thirties. I was now labeled pre–diabetic and hypertensive, and I had elevated cholesterol. That angered me so much that I said it was time to get my health back. I was no longer outrunning that brownie as I did in my thirties, when I rode my Italian Pinarello road bike two to three thousand miles per year.

I began to teach lunch–and–learn weight–loss classes at my local hospital during my lunch hour. Not only was I helping others, but I was helping myself as well. My students told me that my approach to weight loss was excellent, that what I taught about losing weight was finally making sense. Many students said I should write a book, and my response was, "I will when I retire."

I could not have written this book in my thirties. My 40–year career has provided me with countless invaluable conversations with many health care professionals about weight loss. In addition, listening to hundreds of people looking to lose weight afforded me the foundation to write a concise and purposeful book. My weight dropped to 180 pounds from 202 pounds. I was feeling so much better but wanted to drop another 10 pounds.

In April of 2019, I began to write articles titled "Food for Thought" for a homeowner's association. To date, I've written 40–plus articles, and I've also taught several classes for people living in this community. My passion to write and help others has been the gravy of my retirement. To write a book is a challenge that I didn't plan to undertake until several of the homeowners told me I should. They would say, "You're so enthusiastic about weight loss and helping people, so make sure you write your book like you talk." I've now heard from two diverse groups of people that said I should write a book. Was it my calling?

I retired at age 61 and have since lost another 12 pounds. The last 10 pounds were the most challenging. While it's true that it's harder to lose weight as we age, it can be done. I'm now 68 and weigh 168 pounds. I've reduced my blood pressure medication from 20 mg to 5 mg, reduced my statin drug from 20 mg to 5 mg, and my HgA1C is now normal. My exercise is consistent but not outrageous, as I know I Can't Outrun That Brownie. I love my new Peloton bike, a gift from my daughter, riding aerobically three to four times per week for 80 to 100 minutes each session.

I want to share with as many people as possible how to not only lose weight but to keep that weight off. That's an elusive dream for many people. I can relate to those trying to lose weight because I was that person. My only regret is that I didn't lose weight sooner. Life is too short, but we can lengthen our lives by losing weight and improving our health. As we retire, we want to be able to rock 'n' roll, not rock 'n' rot!