I am 59 years old and as often happens with age, I’ve developed arthritis in several joints. This has caused pain and limited mobility in my right knee and my left hip. The pain and dysfunction in my knee have been intermittently occurring for several years.

Recently, however, it has worsened to the point that I was having trouble walking my dog Jasmine, because my knee buckled several times during the walk. The issue with my left hip has been occurring for at least 6 months, at times causing such severe pain that it forced me to purchase a walking cane to relieve the pressure on my hip.

Recently I decided to purchase ReAlive because I read about the huge number of scientific studies showing that collagen consumption may have a positive effect on joints, reducing inflammation and pain while improving range of motion. And studies on cacao consumption indicate that it may have an anti-aging effect. (Arthritis is a symptom of aging for many of us.)

So, I mixed 1 tablespoon of ReAlive into my coffee every morning and drank it. At first, I didn’t notice any difference. Within 3 weeks of starting ReAlive, though, I was walking Jasmine several times a day without my knee buckling even once. And no pain. My knee feels great! Meanwhile, the discomfort in my hip is barely noticeable, and I expect it to disappear soon.

I credit this positive change in my arthritis symptoms to ReAlive, and I’m signing up for autoship!!! ~Christine M.

I have always struggled with weight and tried many different diets and programs but nothing worked.

Rita’s SANE Story – 62 Years Old 60lbs Melted away

At 61 years of age, I started to accept that my obesity was my reality, and resolved to stop trying.

One day, as I was googling how dieting affects metabolism, I came upon some information on Jonathan Bailor and his new book, The Set Point Diet. To be honest, I still didn’t think this would work, so I borrowed the book from the library; I was not going to waste any more money on dieting, and I was intrigued by the idea of being able to lose weight without hunger.

I must admit that I was skeptical. You’re telling me that I will no longer crave pizza and pasta? I don’t believe you! But I found it to be true. After following the program for three weeks, most of my cravings disappeared. On occasion, I still crave chocolate but when I’m on outings, I can pass them up knowing that I have my SANE chocolate dessert waiting for me at home. I also love that I don’t have to count calories; I still eat until I’m full, I just eat better food.

Now, almost one year later, here I am 60 pounds less, I feel better and am enjoying life more. My knees don’t hurt as much and my cholesterol level went from 233 to 187. And I feel much younger than 62; I actually feel like I’m in my 40s!

For those of you who are just beginning their SANE journey but are worried about the cost of investing in your health, know that it is worth it. The weight loss may be slow at first but just keep going. I know that the SANE plan is the right tool for me and I am proof that it works. I’m looking forward to reaching my goal in another year! ~ Rita

Best news…my blood sugars have plummeted to almost normal levels.  Wow! didn’t see that one coming so fast.

• Age: 62
• Family: yes! 5 girls, 3 boys, 3 grandchildren.  Youngest daughter is a senior in high school
• Occupation: homemaker with journalism education
• Where in the world can you find me? Iowa
• Year I went SANE: May 30, 2018
• Current height/weight 5-3”, 150 pounds
• Health before/after SANE I still struggle with blood sugars, but now I know why (heavy metals.  My health was ok before, now it is amazing.
• Favorite SANE meal:  death by chocolate cupcakes with chocolate chips. I love fish.
• What words of advice can you give to someone just starting their SANE journey?  It’s more about progress over perfection.  This is a total acceptance, guilt free zone.  You are home!
• Hobby: rosary maker, gardening, herbs, gourmet cooking with mistakes and successes, storytelling, ping pong…I’m kind of competitive with it…and laughing at my kids jokes
• SANE words to live by: You are free to put anything into your mouth.  Put in good things for best results.

My journey to SANE still continues.  I love the freedom from sugar addiction this program taught me.  And I especially love the encouragement and tools given to me to succeed.  The big tummy is gone, my jeans are a size 4, but that is not my greatest progress.  My greatest progress is that sugar no longer runs my life. I can celebrate with something sweet, but I don’t have to have it as say, well, oxygen or water. I’ve lost a lot of weight.

Here is the reflection I wrote after one month.:   @JonathanBailor, I’ve been on this SANE way of eating for one month. What’s different?  I don’t crave sweets.  I used to think of them every day, especially when I wasn’t letting myself eat them. They had a starring role in my thoughts.  Not now!  Also, my hair looks better…softer, more vibrant…gotta love those veggies.  I do not leak when I sneeze nor do I have to brace my legs together..just in case.  Wow.

My scale has gone down 4 pounds.  I thought I would have dropped ten…but I lost a little over an inch in my waist and the next size down jeans fit without any muffin tops.

So, I’m going to stop stressing about weight, stop lamenting that my waist is not where I want it…progress, not perfection… It’s headed in the right direction.  I’m celebrating all of the success stories I’ve read…just finished listening to what 8 months have done for one person.  And I’m going to share this way of eating with whomever seems ready for a change.  And I’m thanking God for bringing me here.  I’ve prayed for help for a long time.  Thank you.  On to month two!

Now I’m in month 8.  My skin is clear, my weight is normal, my hair looks shiny and vibrant.  My after picture is from my new hair cut!  My sugars weren’t going down like they should, and I found out I had heavy metals from when I was a kid.  I never would have found this out without SANE.  Now my SANE diet is just what helps the most with detoxing and I never feel deprived.  I will get my mercury filling out soon, and I haven’t even shared the best part.  It is the people on this journey with me!  They encourage and lift me up and broaden my horizons with new ingredients or recipes or what worked for them.

This is a no guilt, total acceptance zone where the next bite you eat can be SANE.  The decision is with me.  The SANER I eat, the better and faster my results.  I plan for some insane foods still, but I eat after a SANE meal so that I don’t overeat and also, I do not feel deprived.  What I am finding now is so strange.  The insane foods do not taste as good as my memory of them would suggest.

I have to say a word about my coach, Paul.  He went above and beyond in helping me follow this new way of eating and helped me not stall in guilt and shame when I messed up.  He helped me see this was a process and every step made me closer to my dream…not saying, oh well, pass the snickers and Pepsi, I’ve already failed.

I love this program…it really is just a normal way of eating.  It is not common, but it is so normal.  And as my body heals, I crave good things, more of it, and lots of green non-starchy veggies.  I do my exercises twice a week and “move like a human” the rest of the time.  I loved that Jonathan Bailor quote!  Good sleep, meditation, calm…. this is the fruit of SANE living.

Thank you SANE.  I’ve lost about 20 pounds, but the real story is I don’t gain and lose the same 10 pounds all of the time and my question to myself is ‘how do I feel’ rather than “how much do I weigh.”  I feel beautiful inside and out.  Joy comes from sharing goodness and beauty with others.  My tip for others?  Don’t give up on yourself.  You are wonderfully, awesomely made and someone out there is waiting for your encouragement.

“We knew eating less and exercising more worked short-term, but we didn’t know another option was available for the long-term. This is why understanding the science was so helpful for us. Eating more, as long as it’s SANE, is sustainable, enjoyable, and resetting our set-point. We couldn’t be happier with the results.”

Jonathan Bailor

I’m delighted to be collaborating with Jay and Jennifer Jacobs, two past contestants from NBC’s Biggest Loser, to help them eat SANEly and exercise eccentrically.

If you are familiar with Jay and Jennifer, you know they achieved wonderful success dropping a lot of weight quickly during their time on The Biggest Loser. Now interested in practical and lasting health and fat-loss—which is much different than short-term weight loss…and therefore requires a much different approach—Jay and Jennifer are beginning to live SANE, and I hope our experiences together will help you eat smarter, exercise smarter, and live better.

Jay and Jennifer…over to you.

Jay and Jennifer

Thanks Jonathan! Derek Johnson, the founder and creator of New Metabolism and the Executive Nutrition Director for The Biggest Loser Resorts, highly recommended SANE to us a couple of months ago as we were both looking for ways to live the rest of our lives at our personal best. For us our personal best is more than just losing weight, keeping it off and being physically active. It’s about living our best lives mentally and physically so that all of the areas of our lives become “well” too. And we’ve found that the mental journey is more often than not the toughest part of the journey.

That’s one of the reasons we really like what you’re sharing in SANE. Yes the book is based on “science”, but for us it’s also about the way you make it easy for us to start a new way of “thinking” about the why’s and what’s are bodies are doing vs. the usual weight loss/wellness formulas that are presented where you “do this” or “do that” without any real factual rhyme or reason to why we should. And based on the results of where our collective waist lines have been headed, eating and exercising without any real factual rhyme or reason isn’t working too well.

To us SANE for the first time gives all of us non-scientific people the “back story” to what our body understands, while we’re still grasping at straws trying to keep our wits about us as our minds, scales, and waists are on a wild roller coaster ride!

We were blessed with the rare opportunity to have been chosen to be contestants on NBC’s hit show Biggest Loser, and what we thought was going to be a weight loss journey really evolved into a mental and spiritual journey not only on the show, but especially after the show.

Yes it was truly life changing for us (Jennifer lost 114 lbs., and Jay lost 181 lbs.) and not taking anything away from our accomplishments, but when your full time job is eating the highest quality foods ever, exercising/moving 6-8 hours a day, and being trained with some of the world’s best trainers, that’s an amazing gift, but not a “weigh” you can live the rest of your life.

It’s not a secret that when most people lose a lot of weight at a pretty rapid pace it doesn’t take much for the weight to start creeping back on. And sure enough, that’s happening to us as well.

We were told that most likely we’d all put on about 20 lbs. after the show because our bodies would start to settle into their “new normal”, but when Jennifer and I started seeing the scale slide upwards 20, 30 and 40 pounds, we knew we needed to better understand how our new bodies were dealing with all this change, and although we had a pretty good handle on our new mindset, our bodies seemed to have minds of their own.

You already know from our frequent phone conversations, we love SANE’s position of “doing what works for you” and “sustainable results are all that matter,” and are therefore putting our own spin on some of the smarter science. We’ll of course see how that goes and are eager to find a sustainable and enjoyable eating and exercising plan that we can thrive on. We also come to the table thinking we’ve been metabolically-challenged our entire lives, have tried it all, and our questions and feedback are not only going to be coming to you from our experience and mindset, but also from the thousands of people we hear from online and offline as we travel the country who are tired, frustrated and disillusioned as to what to do next. I’m hopeful that our experience of “going SANE” and “getting eccentric” will benefit many lives beyond our own.

So… having test driven SANE over the past 30 + days, and even only following it SANEly 80% of the time, we wanted to tell you how pleased we are with the results. So if you’re game, we’re game to openly and honestly share with all who are interested in what we together can discover “mentally +physically” by applying what you’ve uncovered as we continue to live our “personal best!”

Back to you Jonathan!

Jonathan Bailor

Jay and Jennifer, I couldn’t agree with you more on the importance of the mental piece of the puzzle especially since what we’ve all been taught over the past forty years regarding “weight loss” has been proven to harm our health and lead to fat gain 95.4% of the time. We’ll cover the scientific “why” in the future, but from a common sense perspective, starvation and stress are not healthy. Eating less of our existing diet is simply starving ourselves and leads to terrible mental and physical stress. Exercising for hours per day is the other side of the same stressful-starvation coin. But sadly, all we ever hear is “eat less, exercise more” despite the proven fact that we’re more likely to quit smoking cold turkey than we are to achieve our long-term health and fitness goals with this approach.

We need a smarter approach. We need a less stressful goal. Fortunately, that smarter approach has been uncovered by more than 1,100 international research studies, and here’s a stress-free goal that is surprisingly simple once we have the right information: practical and lasting health and fat-loss.

As you stated so well, Jay and Jen, before any smarter science will stick, we have to shift the way we think about health and fitness. In my experience, the three most common mental challenges here are:

1. Avoiding the trap of trying the same thing over and over and expecting different results
2. Freeing yourself from disproven, but pervasive weight loss and health theories
3. Internalizing the difference between “short-term weight loss” and “long-term fat loss and robust health”

 

Avoid the Trap of Trying the Same Thing Over and Over and Expecting Different Results

We’ve all experience this, but we’re not to blame. We eat less. We exercise more. It doesn’t work long-term. Then we do it again. Maybe it’s a different DVD workout program or a different diet, but at the end of the day we’re still starving and stressing ourselves.

But what else are we supposed to do when this is all we hear about day in and day out? We’re doing the best we can with the information we’ve been given.

Exactly! The issue is the information. The issue isn’t us. We’re doing our best with bad information…and the results speak for themselves. And sadly, they’re not good.

However, once we get access to the proven science of eating smarter and exercising smarter, long-term health and fat-loss is surprisingly simple. And as a bonus, we’ll never be hungry again.

 

Freeing Yourself from Disproven But Pervasive Weight Loss and Health Theories

Escaping the trap of trying the same thing over and over and expecting different results is easier said than done because we’re constantly bombarded with marketing messages from those who profit off of our health and fitness struggles.

I find keeping three things in mind very helpful here:

• Remember that the perception that health and fitness is hard is profitable. Think about how much money we spend trying to make it easier to eat less and exercise more.
• Hundreds of billions of dollars of business depend on the continuation of chronic illness and weight gain. If we were all healthy and fit tomorrow, a lot of businesses would lose a lot of money.
• Staying health and fit cannot be complicated. It’s the most basic ability any organism can ever have.

Tying these three points together, the complexity and confusion comes from marketing and myths. The good news is that we can crowd those out by using proven science.

 

Internalizing the Difference Between “Short-Term Weight Loss” And “Long-Term Fat Loss And Robust Health”

I’ll go out on a limb and say that nobody wants to lose weight this month only to gain more back and get sick for the next six months. It’s critical to keep this in mind because things that DO help us lose weight short term often DO NOT help us stay healthy and slim long term.

I’ll take this one step further. If someone hopes to lose ten pounds in two weeks with no concern for what that does to their health or if it predisposes them to gain twenty pounds of fat back in the next two years, what we’ll cover here is not for them. I would, however, urge them to consider what they really want to accomplish. If they look deeper, they will likely see their goals are actually tied to looking and feeling a certain way and staying that way for the rest of their life.

I like to illustrate this with a little experiment: If you could wave a magic wand and look radiant and feel dramatically better while lowering your risk of diabetes, heart disease, and cancer but would weigh no more or less, would you be happy? On the other hand, if could wave that same magic wand and instantly weigh twenty pounds less but look and feel drained and deprived while increasing your risk of diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, would you consider that a wish well used?

 

In Sum

I’m so excited for our journey, Jay and Jennifer. Over the coming months we’ll simplify and apply a surprising and scientifically proven body of knowledge that enables you to trigger a fundamental metabolic change that enables you to look and feel better for the rest of your life while lowering your risk of diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.

So enough with being told to do the same thing over and over and to expect different results. Enough with theories that have been disproven but live on because the more we struggle the more money big food, pharmaceutical, and fitness corporations make. Enough with focusing on the short-term at the expense of the long-term. And on to practical and lasting fat-loss and health supported by the largest scientific analysis of wellness ever conducted, a program endorsed by the world-wide scientific community including top doctors at The Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins, and UCLA, and a lifestyle approved curriculum for RDs by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. On to SANEity!

 

* Testimonial Disclaimer: All of the testimonials were written by actual members of SANE Solution. Individual Results may vary. Please consult a physician before beginning any exercise or diet program.

I realized that I needed to make a change in my life after gaining 20 lbs from an arm injury. The injury rendered me inactive and I just didn’t feel good.  I was fortunate enough to be able to quit my job and focus on healing and my health in general.

Since I joined SANE, I am feeling better, and, after measuring in 15 different locations, I have lost 29 inches!  My sugar cravings are almost completely gone. I didn’t think the day would ever come when I didn’t want sweets. And when I do have something sweet, it’s in a much smaller quantity and is very satisfying.

SANE is different from anything else that I have tried in the past in that it includes technology which I have learned to use.  Also, I am not struggling with the program; I am much calmer.

The advice that I would offer someone who is just starting out on their SANE journey is to go through all of the steps, consume as much information as you possibly can, and really listen to what is being said.

Update – July 2019

I started the SANE Program in September of 2018.  I did really well starting out with the program, even though I have had many medical issues that I have been working through for quite a few years.  In fact, the inches came off so quickly that I needed to slow it down. The rest of me needed to catch up with my new size.

Now that I have tried to stabilize, I am ready to lose some more inches.  I have spent many years ignoring what my body has been telling me, and now I listen to it better.  I am not saying that I am perfect but I am much more in tune with my body than I have been in the past.  The food issues and physical issues have been quite a challenge and I am still working with my doctors. But with everything I am doing and working the SANE Program, I am feeling better.

Next month I will turn 64 years old and plan to be at my goal before I turn 65.  I don’t know what I weigh because I got rid of my scale but some of my clothes have gotten way too big for me and some of the clothes I couldn’t wear are loose on me as well.  I’m looking forward to being able to get into the smaller clothes and cleaning out my closet.