A client wrote to me recently about a diet that uses your blood type to tell you what to eat. She was completely stressed out over fixing three different meals at dinnertime. Her husband, daughter and herself have three different blood types, so according to the book, she needed to prepare three different types of food at each meal. (I would have been way beyond stressed.) This woman wants to lose weight, her husband is dealing with arthritis, and the daughter just wants peace at mealtime. I told her to quit worrying about blood types and concentrate on improving the overall health of her family. Overall health is the true goal of any dietary plan.
Eat a balance of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds, with a small amount of lean meat three times per week. Exercise 30 minutes daily and the weight loss, arthritis improvement and peace all will happen. It is really quite simple. She acted on my suggestions and her most recent e-mail had this to say: “The book is on the bookshelf, I have lost 12 pounds in the last 3 weeks, my husband’s arthritis is greatly improved and our daughter is glad that mealtime is a time of rest and relaxation. We are not perfect, but we have come a long way!”
Today more diet books are available than there are calories in a jelly doughnut! We are bombarded with “information” every day in magazines, on the Internet, on TV, and in newspapers. They all have the perfect solution to weight loss management. Instead of weight loss, let’s start concentrating on health gain.
Let me share something that could change your life forever. A healthy body is not overweight. Trying to lose fat on a fad diet is almost certain to fail for most people. Lifestyle change is really the only answer.
Aim for health and the weight loss will follow. It always does! How can we achieve health? Any diet that allows only one or two types of foods will not be balanced. Not only are they not balanced, they can be damaging to your health. You can lose weight on them, but it will be at a price, a price that will certainly be detrimental to a singer. Balance is truly the key to weight loss and good health. Some people do well on protein and some do well by staying with the complex carbohydrates. Then there are those that do well with a balance of both. Of course, added to these foods are raw fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds.
If you have a problem handling blood sugar — diabetes, hypoglycemia, or candida — you need more protein in your diet. Chicken, fish, organic eggs and raw nuts would be your best choices. No one benefits from refined carbohydrates (white sugar and white flour). Work on getting them out of your diet. I have many clients that benefit by giving up dairy products. If you are suffering from asthma, allergies, or arthritis, try taking dairy out of your diet and see if that helps. This is from a letter I received a few days ago. “Just wanted to tell you it only took 2 days for my arthritic pains to go away after giving up dairy products. I am totally amazed. I have been dealing with this all summer…had to give up walking because of my ankle…my knees were getting worse by the day and now I am practically pain free.”
Raw fruits and vegetables are a must! These foods have the life-giving enzymes the body so desperately needs to achieve weight loss and health. Try to eat raw foods at every meal. Eat raw veggies and fruit for snacks. If your blood sugar is a problem, have raw nuts with your fruit.
A typical healthy weight loss and wellness diet would be:
Breakfast: Plain fruit or fruit and whole grain cereal (you can use fruit juice instead of milk with the cereal)
Lunch: Vegetable salad and baked potato, brown rice, or a lean piece of meat (chicken or fish)
Dinner: Same as lunch; alternate your protein and carbohydrates. If you have a baked potato for lunch, then have your meat at dinner. Don’t eat starches and proteins together. They don’t digest well.
When you start out on a journey of health and weight loss, it is very easy to become overwhelmed by all the rules and guidelines. You need to remember that this is a whole new lifestyle, something no one can bring about overnight. In fact, it should not be attempted overnight as this is bound to set the stage for feelings of incompetence followed by giving up on the whole project. Rather, begin by incorporating the changes that make sense to you, those you can easily put in place with little effort. As you have those changes under control, take on one or two more.
First you must recognize that this is not just a diet, but also a lifestyle change. You don’t have to be perfect to make it work. The body will appreciate and capitalize on any good you do. Also, to most people the word diet stands for a temporary measure. For example, we go on a diet to lose weight; and once this is accomplished, we go back to real living. Of course it was “real living” that caused the weight problem in the first place. Thus, it’s “healthy living,” not “real living” that we want to go back to once we have achieved our weight loss. This health-producing way of eating is to be thought of as a lifelong lifestyle.
When you first begin following new dietary recommendations, after a few days or weeks, you will probably find that you begin craving everything that should not be eaten. Do not be discouraged by this, it is a normal occurrence and is due to a physiological change in the body’s chemistry. During that time, try to hold out and not submit to your craving. I know it’s hard, believe me! (I’ve never shared this with anyone before, but I’ve actually been known to leave the house at one a.m. to scavenge for chocolate!)
So when those times do happen, and they will, go ahead and eat a small portion of whatever you are craving, and then continue with the healthful program. Do not feel guilty when you eat the wrong foods. Keep in mind that you are developing a new lifestyle, and this takes time. Don’t beat yourself up for it! As each month passes, simply attempt to improve a little more. When you do get off the program, either because you just want to or you’re in a situation where you feel obligated to eat something that is not healthy, try to make wise choices. Select grilled chicken instead of a fried pork chop, and then eat only a small portion.
Doing this now and then will not destroy your overall progress to health and the body can certainly clean out and overcome the odd splurge meal now and then. Take note that these days of craving the wrong foods will become fewer and further between as time goes on.
You will also note that as time passes, when you do eat your “no-no” cravings, they will not taste as good as you remembered them to be, and in time you may find you don’t feel so wonderful afterwards. As the body becomes healthier, you will actually crave the whole, raw foods instead of the cooked, dead ones. The pH of the body will become alkaline as opposed to acid and you will find it much easier to stick with your new lifestyle. As time goes by, this diet will become easier simply because you have developed new habits which displace your old ones. If you slowly but steadily work on adapting to this new lifestyle, in one year you will look back and be amazed at how far you have progressed. You will reap the health benefits that go with the improved way of eating. Also, plan a diet program that fits your needs and schedule. Everyone is different.
Tailor a program that gives you a chance to succeed. If you are not hungry in the mornings, don’t eat, or only have fruit. If morning is a time you truly feel the need for something more solid, have an egg and whole grain toast. Maybe light evening fruit meals are more your style. Your chance of success improves greatly when you are comfortable and at ease with your diet program.
We as a nation eat too much. Quantity always outweighs quality. Here is the best way to accomplish the task of eating just enough: Eat only when hungry and stop when full. If you start eating before you are truly hungry, you will never feel the full sensation. And I have found, the more weight you have to lose the quicker the full feeling will come. Watch for it and stop eating! Last, but certainly not least, stop concentrating so hard on losing weight and start enjoying life. Enjoy where you are on the way to where you are going. Don’t let your weight interfere with finding joy in life. Find some way to bless someone else. For in giving, you will always receive the benefit.
Losing weight does not have to cost you anything. Losing weight should be a health-producing project, but it will only be that when you choose a balanced method of weight loss. Moderation in all things is truly the key. Ten years from now, you could be ten years healthier!
