In 1999, 61% of adults in the U.S. were overweight or obese.    Americans spend $33 billion annually on weight loss products and services, and the problem is escalating.

Our culture is looking in the wrong direction for solutions to the growing weight problems of this country.  Weight issues are health issues and should be addressed as such. Excess weight is one way that our body communicates to us that something is out of balance. Instead of looking for the message behind the issue, most people take a superficial approach; i.e., “going on a diet”.

Natural Weight Loss Introduction - March 4

This class will provide a good understanding of the steps to losing weight joyfully, healthfully and naturally.  NO deprivation, drugs or fad diets.  You'll receive plenty of tips and handouts to get you started. Click here for details and registration.

A TeleSeminar allows you to learn from the comfort of your own home, or from anywhere that there is a phone available.  A TeleSeminar is a conference call, like a chat line, and includes discussion, some lecture, some questions.  TeleSeminars are highly interactive and the 'flow' works well. You can listen and absorb and/or engage in the discussion. You can always ask questions of the TeleClass Leader. 

Click here for details of the following TeleSeminars:

• Understanding Cravings, Binges and Addictions
• Your Unique Body Type -- What to Feed It
• How To Establish Balanced Metabolism
• How Your Mind & Emotions can Create a Healthy, Fit Body
• Resolving Conflicting Intentions

A slender, healthy, attractive body is your natural state. We'll remove the obstacles at every level.   If you’re looking for strategies  to bring you radiant health and easy weight loss, harmonious emotions, and a clear, focused, and positive mind, this workshop  is for you.  Excess weight has many gifts for you; the sooner you discover them, the more quickly you’ll lose the weight.

For more details and to register for the live Pittsburgh Workshop, click here.

Antidotes for Poor Eating

If you're like most people, you've realized that it's not possible to eat healthfully all the time.  In fact, there is no such thing as a perfect diet.  What you body needs is dependent on many factors including the kind of work you do; the type and amount of physical activity you engage in; lifestyle; all health conditions you're experiencing; environment, including the weather; your emotional state, age and more.

Have you found that you life takes you in many directions--parties, weddings, social eating?  Even with the best of intentions you end up consuming too much sugar, alcohol or high fat food.   Or perhaps you just plain overeat.  You may feel sluggish, bloated, puffy, irritable, depleted, exhausted, and heavy--physically, mentally and emotionally.

Don't despair!  There are many quick remedies for over-indulging.

Too much refined sugar?

I believe it's important to understand your body and the impact of your choices.  Doing so will motivate you to make better ones.  Here's what happens when you indulge in a lot of sugar and other simple sweeteners.  Sugar is weakening and passes quickly into the bloodstream shocking the stomach and pancreas.  This causes an acid condition which quickly consumes the body's minerals.  Food cannot be digested or assimilated efficiently because sugar weakens the digestive system.  This leads to blood sugar imbalances and many diseases.  Mental and emotional disharmonies result as well, including loss of memory and concentration, nervousness, irritability and other imbalances. 

Don't despair.  There are solutions that counteract the negative effects of all these unhealthy choices.

Here are a few things can you do to revitalize your energy, focus your mind, balance your emotions,  lose the excess pounds, and reverse the negative effects of overdoing sweets:

• A cup of ginger tea with 1/4 tsp. good quality soy sauce; grate or chop 1/2 tsp. fresh ginger.  Simmer in a cup of water 4-6 minutes.  Add soy sauce and drink.

• Eat a few salty, cured olives;

• Umeboshi plum - a pickled plum with a salty, tart flavor.  These are highly alkalizing and very high in minerals that are easy to assimilate.  Often used to treat digestive upset.  Use small amounts only-- 1/2 to 1 plum chopped and mixed with food or simmered in tea.

• Umesho - a concentrate of the Umeboshi plum.  This is a little easier to use than the plum.  Stir 1/4 tsp. into a cup of heated water and drink.  Add ginger if you have digestive upset.  Click here to order Umesho.

• Ume/Kuzu Drink (kuzu is high in minerals and alkalizing) Put one cup of cold water in a saucepan with a heaping tsp. of kuzu.  Stir to dissolve the kuzu.  Add 1/2 chopped Umeboshi plum or 1/4 tsp. Umesho.  Turn on heat, bring to a boil and simmer 3-4 minutes stirring constantly.  Turn off heat and stir in 1/4 tsp. good quality soy sauce. 

• Eat some naturally cured pickles like natural sauerkraut or daikon pickle (available at health food stores);

• Simple miso soup with root vegetables and wakame.  Takes less than 10 minutes to prepare.  Preparing it with miso paste will be more effective than the dehydrated miso soup, but, in a pinch, use the dehydrated soups.  Click here for recipe.

How to remedy the effects of fatty, greasy, oily foods

Too much oil and fat generates heavy, slow, sluggish feelings--physically, mentally and emotionally.  Fats cause cravings for excess sweets, coffee or alcohol, promote mental fogginess,  contribute to problems involving pain, spasms and cramps; candida yeast overgrowth; and dampness which causes bloating, edema and puffiness.  There are many others health problems caused by over consumption of fats which will be the topic of another issue.

If you've had too many high-fat meals, lighten up and do a few days of vegetables and broths only and include one or more of the following remedies to get back to balance and reverse the detrimental effects, including weight gain:

• Eat red radishes and/or celery.  Even more effective is daikon, a white radish.  Grate and eat it raw, or slice and steam 1-2 minutes keeping it on the crunchy side.

• Eat a tart green apple;

• Drink 3 cups peppermint tea or chamomile tea daily;

• Eat watercress and other hard dark leafy greens like kale or mustard greens,  and/or turnips, lightly steamed;

• Eat 1/2 to 1 sheet of Nori seaweed.  This is the seaweed used to make sushi.  It does not need to be cooked.  It aids in the digestion of fats and fried foods.

• Stir 3-4 TB. Vitamineral Greens into a glass of water and drink; click here for ordering information.

• Astra Diet Tea (resolves stomach phlegm and regulates stomach - pleasant tasting) or take Astra Diet Herbs (clears mucus and phlegm, facilitates digestion) - click here for information and ordering.

• Drink a cup warm water with juice of ½ lemon;

• Drink a glass of unsweetened cranberry juice (can dilute with water). 

Solutions for reducing alcohol's effects

Alcohol causes many of the same physical, mental and emotional imbalances as sugar.  Anger, depression, pain and inflammatory problems as well as depletion of minerals, dampness, puffiness, bloating, poor digestion and assimilation, and cravings for meat and salty food are a few of the consequences of overdoing alcohol.

If you occasionally overdo alcohol, here are a few remedies to counteract the ill effects:

• Eat a few anchovies or sardines;

• Umeboshi plum or Umesho, or Ume/Kuzu Drink;

• Drink a cup of heated water with ½ to 1 tsp. good quality soy sauce;

• Eat a few salty, cured olives; 

• Eat naturally cured pickles like daikon pickle or natural sauerkraut;

• Eat a bowl of simple miso soup with root vegetables and wakame.

• Eat a grapefruit.

• Have a few TB. raw honey in warm water.

If you’ve overeaten in general

• Take digestive enzymes.  I like Quiet Digestion and Chzyme by Health Concerns.  Click here to order.

• Take a walk. 

• Drink warm water with juice of ½ lemon, or room temperature water with unsweetened cranberry juice.

• Drink peppermint tea, ginger tea, or Astra Diet Tea.   

• Fast on broth, teas, and simple vegetables for a day or two.

• Make a kuzu drink as directed under sugar remedies.

The above antidotes are intended for those who occasionally overindulge and want healthy ways to reduce the harmful effects.  Some of them may be unusual for you, but if you want to change your condition, then it's a good idea to make some new choices.

If your diet consists of too much fat, sugar and alcohol on a regular basis, these antidotes may help, but in the long term it's a dangerous way to try to achieve balance and you won't be without health consequences at some point.

I'd recommend you get some professional Holistic and  Nutritional Counseling to understand these cravings and habits and find healthy ways to resolve them.  Click here for information.

Struggle ends when self-love, self-acceptance and self-respect are present.  These are qualities of the heart and soul and are kind and gentle.  When they are present you are in alignment with your Higher true Self, and no problems exist when in this state.

"Four weeks into the  recommendations you gave to me for weight loss and I have benefited in so many ways....  I have steadily been losing weight without weighing or measuring food or limiting my food intake; the new foods make me feel happier, content, sure of my self, more motivated, and I have more endurance.  My skin has also improved, and mentally I feel much, much better.  Overall, everything has improved."  D.H. Philadelphia

• Inner Fitness,  Click here for details. 
• Emotional Harmony Workshop   Click here
• Eating Your Way To Success  Click here

My background is in Traditional Chinese Medicine which sees the body/mind/emotion/spirit as intimately connected, each aspect influencing the other. I am also a trained Facilitator in Attitudinal Healing.  Attitudinal Healing is a process of uncovering personal beliefs and attitudes that prohibit healing any aspect of ourselves. It helps one gain an understanding of how negative or unhealthy states can work for us, rather than against us. You will create harmony, balance, happiness and strength and learn many skills for resolving conflicts in a way that everyone wins.

Counseling utilizes dietary therapy, attitudinal healing and herbal/supplement guidance. Programs are customized based on your health condition, constitutional strengths and weaknesses, age, and lifestyle. Coaching will guide you toward clarity in your thinking, empower you to remove obstacles and make changes necessary to reach your goals, teach you creative problem solving, and give you accountability in an environment where you are fully listened to in a non-judgmental way.

FREE initial session (30-40 minutes) can be done by phone or in my Pittsburgh office. Offer expires March 15, 2006. Call 412.421.7760 or send an email to health@wholehealthresources.com to schedule. CLICK HERE for Counseling/Coaching, and Attitudinal Healing information.

The Truth About Hoodia

Hoodia has quickly gained popularity as a weight loss aid since it came into the U.S. supplement market in 2004.  Studies show that hoodia gordonii boosts metabolism and provides safe appetite control to help lose weight without side effects.  It can also lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

Because hoodia gordonii is protected under CITES (convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), quality hoodia products should be certified by CITES, guaranteeing that it is cultivated and not wild-picked. 

Please be aware that there are numerous inferior products that contain a wide variety of fillers, or contain hoodia species, other than hoodia gordonii, that have no appetite suppressing actions.  These products are marketed as if they are pure hoodia. 

Because of this rash of inferior products, consumers should be cautious when choosing hoodia products.  Many online products and products made in other countries, especially China, are problematic because differing labeling practices and regulations make it hard to know what is actually in the product.

There is a superior hoodia product that I am very happy to recommend .

The hoodia in Leantain, manufactured by Health Concerns, a professional herb company,  comes from one of only three suppliers approved for export from southern Africa, and is CITES-CERTIFIED.  Health Concerns also has its hoodia certified as to genus and species by an independent lab, and once it gets to the U.S., Health Concerns thoroughly tests the hoodia for pesticides, heavy metals, and other toxins.  Health Concerns also verifies that the local San people are being employed in and benefiting from the production of the hoodia product used in Leantain.

Click here for more information and to order Leantain.