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)