I am an educator with an expertise in fat loss. I have personally had an overeating and overweight challenge my whole life and I am a maniac when it comes to keeping lean. I am also a health nut so I do all things healthfully, including fat loss. I believe in natural foods. My beliefs and practices many might call hard core.

I hesitate to use the word secret, as it is used as a marketing scam in many areas, including fat loss. But I do in fact keep secrets, some things that I will reveal here. These are things I do to keep lean and fit I usually do not talk about. I keep them to myself and advise people to go the more traditional routes.

For example, I advise making breakfast your main meal of the day, but that is not the secret. Making breakfast a healthy, substantial meal is a great fat loss tactic. But my secret is that I do not eat what I usually recommend people eat, because such choices do not meet my standard that only premium fuels go into my body.

For breakfast I usually advise people to eat a whole grain cereal, hot or cold, served with soy, almond or rice milk. And some fresh fruit. Whole grain toast topped with a natural peanut butter or almond butter. Stuff like that.

That is a healthy breakfast, but outside of the fresh fruit, I do not eat those things often. Here is what I almost always eat for breakfast. I soak in water overnight old-fashioned oats, raw sunflower seeds, walnuts, and almonds, plus raisins and date pieces. That is my centerpiece; I call it super cereal. I will often have apple or banana slices or other fruit on the side.

Now this dish is not for everyone, obviously, but I think it is about as healthy as anyone can eat. All whole, natural ingredients, all raw, with plenty of protein, complex carbohydrates, healthy fats and fiber. It is nutritious, very filling and I am not hungry again for at least five hours.

I never eat boxed cereals, even if they are whole grain, and include flaxseed and other good stuff. These are in fact processed foods, these flakes or whatever they are. And of course they have added sugar, only now it is called evaporated cane juice. I just do not eat them.

I almost never go for almond, rice or soymilks. Except for some plain soymilks, they all have added sugar. I like them, I just do not drink them very often.

Another thing, these cereals and drinks are way expensive for my tastes. I pride myself on being frugal, getting the best bang for my food buck, and I eat more healthfully the way I do at about half the cost of these other prepared foods.

As for the whole grain toast and nut butters, these are things that go to the core of my overeating and overweight challenge. I have to severely limit these things. It starts with the buying, so I just do not buy them very often. It is too easy for me to eat bread slices. And really overindulge in gourmet, high fat, natural foods like peanut butter. I love it, can eat it by the spoonful; I spread it thickly on those bread slices, toasted or un-toasted.

Same goes for 100 percent fruit juices. I rarely buy or drink them. I love them and they are healthy but they are also huge sugar/calorie hits. I enjoy them very occasionally.

You get the idea. If you are like me, a natural food lover who really loves sweet drinks like fruit juices and high calorie foods like peanut butter, you just do not buy them very often. That is how I keep lean.

There, I let my secrets out. Some of them. I was not really keeping them a secret. I advise people on how to lose fat healthfully and permanently but most are not ready to eat the way I eat. Or restrict themselves from certain foods like I do. So I strongly urge them to get rid of all the really horrible, fattening stuff like dairy products, mayonnaise, meat, chicken, etc. I advise them to replace such foods with plant-based, whole, fresh, natural foods as much as possible. And I stand by that advice.

I do not expect most people to follow my personal hard core, maniacal standards. There, standards. That is a better word choice than secrets. But anyone who chooses to follow these will find they definitely work.