Weight Loss
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org,
please feel free to visit the school website)
Written by Laurel Sherer
This section of the course is about giving you more information on ways to lose weight through the food we eat. Nutritional ways of losing weight are ideally complimented with exercise, positive thinking, and lifestyle changes. However, eating good foods are a terrific start, even if other lifestyle changes aren’t made right away.
David Wolfe in Eating For Beauty (2002), tells us that eating nutrient-rich foods helps to prevent us from over-eating. If we eat foods that have very low or no nutritional value, our stomachs become full of food, but we will still feel hungry because our bodies our searching for the nutrients that they need. Plants that are domesticated and commercially grown tend to be high in sugar/starch and low in minerals. These foods, according to David Wolfe, include grains (such as bread, pasta, and beer), potatoes, and corn. Raw foods, especially those that are wild, are very high in nutrients. These foods give us a strong signal to stop when our bodies are full of the nutrients in the food we are eating. The flavor of the food changes when we’ve gotten the nutrients we need from it to a very strong flavor that is undesirable.
In order to lose weight, it is best to limit two groups of foods: starchy carbohydrates (potato chips, bread, beer, corn chips, rice) and cooked fats (pasteurized dairy and high fat meat). It is important to note that fats in general do not necessarily create fat in the body, but instead serve to lubricate joints, hair, and skin. There are even fats that help us to lose weight! Victoria Boutenko in 12 Steps To Raw Food (2002) tells that when she was overweight and began to eat raw foods, her body intensely craved avocados. She followed her body’s intuition and lost weight while eating large amounts of avocados. Boutenko later found out that avocados contain the enzyme lipase, which breaks down excess fatty tissue deposits. David Wolfe, in Eating For Beauty (2002), states that coconut oil is another fat that is helpful in weight loss. When farmers in the 1940’s tried feeding their animals coconut oil to fatten them, they found that these animals instead became lean and active. These farmers found that corn and soy feed successfully caused their animals to gain weight, so in turn corn and soy based foods cause humans to gain weight. These foods cause weight gain because they slow the thyroid. Coconut oil restores thyroid functioning for those who have hypothyroidism.
David Wolfe states that hypothyroidism, which is the state of having an under-active thyroid, has been targeted as the reason for excessive weight gain. While Wolfe says this is the case for some people, it is not always true. One of the contributors to hyperthyroidism is cooked, unsaturated oils. If someone does have thyroid problems, Wolfe suggests that he/she eat coconut oil, fruits rich in vitamin C, such as oranges and peppers, and foods high in B vitamins and enzymes, such as raw sauerkraut, and kelp. A helpful herb in reducing weight is stinging nettle. In Eating For Beauty (2002), David Wolfe states, “Nettle leaves increase the function of the thyroid gland, increasing metabolism, and helping to burn away fat, while increasing energy.” (142) It is important for people who take medication for thyroid conditions to use caution when coming off their medication. The Columbia Encyclopedia Of Nutrition (1988) tells us that fiber can additionally help with weight loss. “As the amount of high-fiber containing food increases, the quantity of other foods will gradually come down by itself. You will soon find yourself filling up with smaller portions… You can still enjoy all your gourmet delights; the only change will be that the size of your portions will go down and the fiber will allow you to accomplish this without feeling hungry.”
In Conscious Eating (2000) another practice for losing weight according to Gabriel Cousens is to stop eating meat. Cousens says that almost universally people lose weight when they become vegetarians. Further weight loss occurs when one stops eating dairy products, and one’s ideal weight is often easily discovered when one eats raw food.
It is not only what you eat, but also when you eat that is helpful in effectively losing weight. In Conscious Eating (2000), Gabriel Cousens notes that our digestion is best at certain times during the day. The biggest meal for many North Americans is taken during the evening, which is a time of very low digestive power. Cousens states that if a large meal is eaten after 7pm, or less than three hours before sleeping, the food does not become fully digested and putrefies in the digestive tract. Some spiritual and health practitioners choose not to eat after 2 or 3 pm because of the benefits of only eating when one’s digestive powers are the greatest. The Chinese system of health says this time is between 7 and 9 am, while the Indian system of health says it is between 10 am and 2 pm.
Cleansing the body is helpful in reducing one’s weight through eating more alkaline cooked food, more raw food or doing specific cleansing programs. Staying positive and realizing you are doing your best at all times is helpful in reducing weight as well. There certainly are many emotions that are tied to eating. We often deal with any emotions of fear, boredom or anger by filling ourselves with food. One idea in dealing with this is to begin to question our reasons for wanting food when we feel like eating. Are we simply bored? Dr. Edward F. Group (http://www.weightlossobesity.com) suggests journaling ideas of what to do instead of eating when we are feeling bored, angry, or sad.
In Eating For Beauty (2002), David Wolfe gives us a point for thought: “Permanent weight loss comes through an inner transformation. This usually arises from an epiphany, a moment of clarity, a clear decision. When the decision has been made and a new path in life is chosen, the weight is already lost.” (88)
Kevin Trudeau is a wonderful force in the area of natural cures and healing, and he is a champion for the people against the bureaucracies that are trying to keep people from getting well without prescription drugs, surgeries, doctor visits, and other very expensive money-making institutions. He has written a book called Natural Cures “They” Don’t Want You To Know About (2004) and he has become a target for attack. However, he made his millions in business, and he is doing all he does because he truly believes in getting the word out to the world that there are natural cures for the things people spend billions of unnecessary dollars on. He doesn’t have to earn a living doing what he does, so he does it without selling any products whatsoever, only information, and therefore remains untouchable by the bureaucracies that would like to see him disappear.
Trudeau’s book is useful for many things that it includes and is a must read for anyone interested in knowing more about how easy it is to be cured and healthy, but the tips he gives for weightloss are quite appropriate here. One of the main problems with people who are seriously overweight is the fact that they don’t eat in the morning or during the day. Almost every seriously overweight person eats most of their calorie intake in the evening. Even if it is very little and doesn’t go over the allowance for a day’s intake, if it happens after 6 PM at night, your body is becoming a “fat storing machine” rather than a “fat burning machine.” What happens during the day is that the body thinks it is starving. Therefore, when it does get calories in the evening, it immediately stores as much as possible in order to preserve itself. The body thinks that it is in crisis and must store energy. Therefore, even if one doesn’t eat much food, the person will still remain overweight because the body has entered a vicious cycle that takes at least three weeks to a month to reprogram.
The best thing to do is eat immediately upon awakening, at least a glass of water and within an hour a large breakfast. Then eat small portions several times during the day to keep everything running evenly in the metabolic functions. Stop eating at night after 6 PM. If a snack is needed in the evening, it should be some very low calorie vegetable or fruit like celery, watermelon or grapefruit, and it still won’t interfere with the weightloss process. Even if exercise is absent, this turns the body into a “fat burning machine” because the metabolism is working the way it should, rather than the body believing that it is in crisis and must store food. Another great way to combat hunger in the evening is to drink a glass of water with a tablespoon of psyllium husks in it. This will not only fill your stomach up with zero calories, but give you the much needed fiber your body needs to keep the colon clean.
Below are a few (there are more!) of Kevin Trudeau’s tips from his book Natural Cures “They” Don’t Want You To Know About (2004) on how to become a “fat burning machine” rather than a “fat storing machine.”
- As soon as you wake up drink a full glass of water, at least 8 ounces.
- Eat a big breakfast within 45 minutes of awakening.
- Throughout the day, continue to drink 8 ounce glasses of water.
- Take a one-hour walk (or other exercise) once per day (or at least one half-hour). Walking is all you need to do, it doesn’t have to be a serious work out.
- No eating after 6 PM.
- Do a candida cleanse.
- Do a liver cleanse.
- Do a seven day colon cleanse.
- Do 15 colonics in 15 days for 30 to 40 minutes.
- Eat grapefruit all day long if you can handle it.
- Take enzymes.
- No high fructose corn syrup, white sugar, or white flour. Use rapunzel or stevia instead.
- Eat- three organic apples per day.
- Eat a big salad two times per day.
- Use apple cider vinegar and olive oil for salad dressing.
- Use a mini-trampoline in order to cause lymphatic movement in the body.
- Deep breathing.
- Magnetic finger rings will assist in weight loss.
- Add muscle by doing yoga or lifting weights.
- Fast for at least one day per month, or two weeks twice per year.
- Cheat whenever you want to! (to maintain sanity)