Nutshell:
1. Change to the Ideal Diet, ideally avoiding all cooked foods.
2. Minimize sweet fruits and dried fruits.
3. Emphasize vegetables.
4. Minimize nuts and seeds and eat them early in the day.
5. Minimize avocados or eliminate them all together.
6. Eat only 2 meals a day and if eating 3 meals a day make breakfast fruit and vegetables and salads for lunch and dinner.
7. Eat on a schedule.
8. Avoid all snacking between meals.
9. Eat no later than 6pm
10. Eat mono-meals occasionally.
11. Fast for one 24 hour period a week.
12. Fast for a 3 day period once a month on the weekend when you can rest.
13. Follow the Ideal Juice Diet for 1-10 days on lower calorie fruit and veggie juice sparingly and made fresh.
14. Dine only if you are in emotional balance.
15. Practice "Get well slow down behaviors" at each meal.
16. Keep a food journal and a personal thoughts dairy to become more aware of your eating habits and motivations for overeating.
17. Exercise regularly including stretching, aerobics, weight training to the extent that you are capable. Emphasize aerobics to increase caloric output.
18. Exercise instead of lunch or dinner.
19. When your tired rest!
20. Join a support group like Over-eaters Anonymous or church support group that wont base its program on the SAD diet.
21. Create a support system of family and friends.
22. Practice energy enhancers not energy robbers.
The chicken feed factor refers to the equally inordinate weight gain of both chickens and humans through their food consumption of a poisoned food supply that precipitates fatty tissue formation. In the early 50's it took 14-16 weeks to bring a chicken to slaughter weight and required 3.4 pounds of feed to yield a pound of chicken meat. Today it takes just 7 weeks and 1.9 pounds of feed to yield that same pound of meat. This has been achieved by great cruelty to to the birds and health risk to the consumer. Chickens are fed arsenic, aspirin, antibiotics, tranquilizers and growth hormones all of which we consume when we eat these tainted birds. To get the fat off the hips and out of the arteries simply get the fat out of your diet. The SAD diet is 37% fat the Ideal Diet is 5% fat. We are the most overfed and yet undernourished country in the history of the world. The average American consumes 3,393 calories a day, the highest in the world. It has been noted overweight people underestimate their caloric intake by 833 calories a day. We are overfed in the sense that we are consuming vast amounts of highly caloric foods and undernourished because they are nutrient devoid calories. For each 3,500 excess calories we ingest we gain 1 pound of fat. So if you are 10 pounds overweight you have consumed 35,000 extra calories! High fat foods have 3 times the calories of a high carbohydrate food such as fruits, veggies and nuts including avocado who get such a bad wrap.
For the vast majority of people food is the drug of choice. The television shows 10-15 food commercials an hour. We connect food to love, friendship and happiness. And with the supermarkets filled with food like substances and restaurants with entrees that exceed our daily allotment of all categories it is no wonder we are a nation rampant with eating disorders, unconnected, misdirected people taking in more food than needed. Everyone is familiar with Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia but we don't always think of overeating as an eating disorder. Compulsive over-eaters are Bulimics without purging. Then there is those of us who just can't determine the difference between cravings and hunger. To put it simply true hunger is a genuine demand for food based on actual physiological needs of the body. Cravings are counterfeit hunger based on emotional needs food cannot fulfill and is stimulated by external cues: arrival of mealtime, sight/smell, thought/mention of food, certain places or people....almost anything!
The hypothalamus or "The Appestat" is located deep in the brain. This spot in the brain is about the size and shape of a small clam shell. It has two functions one of which is to trigger an awareness of hunger and the other to sense satiety. If it works properly and the individual has a healthy relationship with food he lives a life at normal weight. Scientist believe the most important stimulus for triggering hunger is blood sugar. When blood sugar drops you will develop true hunger sensations. If you were to exercise aerobically for 20 minutes your blood sugar will rise to the level equivalent to eating a meal and hunger will disappear. So in reality exercise nourishes the body by releasing blood glucose from our fat storage. Regular exercise over a period of months causes people to eat less, to lose weight and feel better. On a side not the appetite thermostat works on a 20 minute time lag. The hypothalamus does not call for a halt to eating until insulin reaches a certain level in your spinal fluid. So what this means is that from the onset of eating it takes about 20 minutes for fullness to begin. The point is we can do a lot of damage if we over eat in that 20 minute time period. The frightening thing here is that many of the foods on the SAD diet require little or no chewing and a compulsive eater can consume 5,000 calories in 18 minutes!
Now that we know about hunger and how we get hungry how do we short circuit overeating? Because the very act of eating has assumed such importance and been so perverted by the mass media, commercial interest, and social customs that many of us must literally be taught how to eat well. What we have to do is to determine the behavior that is causing our weight problems and address it by behavior modification. So for 21 days if you modify your destructive behaviors you will plant a new constructive behavior and be on your way to conquering your bad eating habits and ultimately your weight problems. Now I want to give you some get well slow down behaviors as the antidote to over eating. These will help you to slow down, enjoy your meals, restore controlled awareness and allow your appestat to function normally. Two critical things I want to note here: always eat in a designated eating area only (dining room), secondly eat as a pure activity, meaning except pleasant conversation, no distractions period! Now for the 10 simple antidotes.
1. Take 10 minutes to relax before you start eating.
2. Take at least 20 minutes to eat.
3. Put your utensil or food if no utensil is being used down between bites.
4. Take smaller bites.
5. Use a napkin between bites.
6. Stop for 5 minutes during the meal.
7. Keep second helpings at a distance.
8. Leave a little on the plate.
9. Leave the table when finished.
10. If possible rest after each meal even if it's just sitting down for 5 minutes to aide in digestion.
The Ideal Diet and these antidotes will give you the nutrition you need and discipline you need to lose weight safely and healthfully. We do have a choice as to how much body fat we want to carry. It may not be easy but there is hope even if you have tried everything! Check back tomorrow for part 2 of this blog where I will go into more detail on food, nutrition , appetite and weight loss and maintenance. I hope you have gained new knowledge and are enjoying this series. Tell your friends to check it out.
Yours in health, happiness and freedom,
Cherise
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