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What Do You Have To
Lose™
Natural Approach to Weight Issues
June,
2003
This ezine is sent in HTML. If you are unable to
receive HTML mail, go to http://www.wholehealthresources.com/newsletter
/nwl0306.html to read online.
Natural Weight Loss™ is a free newsletter that addresses the
physical, mental/emotional, and spiritual aspects of weight
issues. It's my goal to shift your attention from dieting
and struggling with food and weight, to balanced health,
harmony, and joyful living. Balanced weight is a natural
outflow.
Studies show that
more than half of U.S. adults are overweight, and Americans
spend $33 billion annually on weight loss products and
services. Have you ever considered the possibility that we’re
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”. Reducing food
intake, taking drugs, starving oneself, or going on a “fad”
diet will never bring long-term results. You may lose some
weight, but you can have so much more with our “Whole Health”
approach – radiant health, passionate living, abundance,
loving relationships, and joy and fulfillment from life.
Balanced health includes all of these factors. Often it is the
lack of these things that contributes to weight
problems.
Natural Weight
Loss™ provides information, articles, tips and
resources to get you back to your center—the place where a
slimmer, healthier you is just waiting to emerge. The
foundation of my approach is Holistic. Because our bodies are
affected by a variety of factors, internal and external, this
e-zine offers suggestions for our many
aspects.
I'm very excited about my upcoming 6-Session
Natural Weight
Loss™ TeleSeminar
beginning Monday, July 7, at 7 p.m. est. 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.
This workshop will show you that a
slender, healthy, attractive body is your natural state. It’s
more difficult to be overweight than slender.
Weight issues are health issues, and indicate an imbalance in
body/mind/emotion/spirit. If you’re looking for a
strategy to bring you radiant health and easy
weight loss, harmonious emotions, and a clear,
focused, and positive mind, this class is for you.
Excess weight has many gifts for you; the sooner you discover
them, the more quickly you’ll lose the weight.
The only comprehensive program of its kind, the
ideas are holistic in nature, and based on 23 years clinical experience
and training in Traditional Chinese Medicine, Attitudinal
Healing, Yoga and Spiritual Development. This class is
facilitated by Deborah Barr, a
professional who has spent over 23 years counseling and
coaching those with health, weight and lifestyle
challenges.
For TeleSeminar details and registration,
click
here.
THE JOY OF
EATING
It’s a rare occurrence to find someone who eats
joyfully. Eating joyfully means having a hearty
appetite—an appetite for foods that are calming and
energizing, that help focus the mind, are easy to digest, and
have pleasing tastes. It means savoring the flavors and
textures while engaging all of our senses, and chewing
thoroughly in order to enjoy every last morsel. Joyful
eating means receiving and eating our meals in the spirit of
gratitude for nature, the farmers, the food distributors, the
retailers, the cook, and for ourselves. The first stage
of eating begins in the mind. Our attitude towards food
determines its effect on our bodies
Most importantly, joyful eating
means no guilt, no fear, and no food phobias.
Many people worry about and fear food constantly. These
toxic emotional and mental states have far greater impact on
the effects of the food than the ingredients themselves.
The food we prepare and eat receives our energy and our
consciousness, then returns it to us. Hence, we become
what is most like our thoughts, and often, that's
overweight.
Drop the Labels
Have you noticed the language we
use when referring to our weight imbalances—“fight the fat”,
“win the war on obesity”, “battle of the bulge”, “I’m watching
my weight”. Weight problems begin in our minds.
That’s right. Whatever shape your body is in
is a result of the thoughts, attitudes, and feelings you have
about yourself and the food you consume. Fighting and
battling wars, whether internally or externally, always
creates stagnation, discomfort, and more difficulties to fight
against. And those difficulties end up on our
bodies. Many believe the way to lose weight is to
declare war on our bodies and fight the fat. This
creates a resistance to what we really want—a slender, healthy
and attractive body. Giving negative focus to any
unwanted bodily condition (including excess fat) intensifies
its hold on us.
Our cells are thinking mechanisms
that communicate with each other and respond to our
thoughts. Our attitudes penetrate our cells, and our
bodies respond to our mind at a cellular level. We
become what is most like our thoughts. So, if you're
calling yourself fat and waging a war on your body, your body
will respond by being fat and giving you more to fight
against.
Relax and get in touch
with the tastes, textures, and aromas of real food.
It’s not complex.
Food can help us actualize our
dreams, and many are dreaming and fantasizing of a healthy,
slender body.
Despite popular belief, there is
no one way of eating that works for everyone, and there is no
one way that works for you all of the time. Popular fad
diets are extreme and many are drawn to them because their
personal condition is extreme. Problem is when we
continue with an extreme long enough we swing toward the
opposite extreme, always craving, struggling, and never
achieving equilibrium (and balanced weight).
As we move into warmer, damper
weather, eating a lot of foods that create heat and dampness
in the body will make it even more difficult to lose
weight. These foods include animal foods, cheese, and
eggs. Now's the time to lighten up with a good variety
of many vegetables, especially dark leafy greens like romaine,
kale, collard greens, watercress, mustard greens. These
and other bitter foods cool down heat conditions and dry
dampness (which is almost always present with weight
issues).
Cooling pungents disperse fats
from the body, stimulate metabolism and benefit digestion, all
of which will help with weight loss. These include,
radishes, daikon, peppermint, celery, broccoli, turnips,
marjoram, oregano, and white pepper.
Sour foods like lemon, lime,
grapefruit, sour green apples, sour plums clear heat and
counteract the effects of rich, greasy and high protein meats
and cheeses. Use small amounts regularly during the warm
months.
A word of caution: eating
too many raw foods, fruits, and juice will eventually leave
you weak, cold and craving high protein meats.
It's best to use whole grains (not processed carbohydrates) as
foundational foods and these benefit everyone. Then use
easy to digest proteins, fruits and other foods as
supplemental foods. Doing so will eliminate the swings
from one extreme in diet (and mood) to
another.
I believe
that dessert can and should be an occasional part of one's
diet, if desired. There are many healthy and tasty
desserts. So, I've included one in this e-zine--my Light
Lemon Pie.
Why not savor the tart, sweet,
refreshing flavors of this Pie.
Click here for recipe. This recipe uses no refined
sugars, no wheat or dairy and nothing chemical or
artificial.
How You Eat
Matters
What's your eating style?
Do you eat on the run? While standing, walking around
the house doing chores, working, driving the car, or talking
on the phone? Doing so will inhibit
digestion and assimilation and you will never be satisfied,
always looking for more.
Creating time to sit down, relax,
chew and enjoy your meals enhances the positive effects of the
food on your body. You'll metabolize more efficiently,
be more satisfied, and feel nourished physically, mentally and
emotionally. Giving thanks further adds to the positive
impact as does taking 3-5 long, slow deep breathes before
eating. Create your own pleasant rituals around eating,
and you'll discover it enhances overall wellbeing and helps
with weight loss.
Many
say they don't have time to sit down and eat. If that's the
case, I'd say it's time to examine your priorities.
Eating is one of the most fundamental ways that we nourish
ourselves. Not allowing oneself to eat balanced foods in
healthful ways is akin to making a statement of not caring or
respecting oneself enough for this most basic
necessity.
Stop Calling
Yourself Names –" binge-eater", "food
addict", "compulsive
overeater", etc. Each time you think and speak these
labels about yourself you reinforce their power over you and
your body. Our bodies always obey the instructions of
our mind, and if you’re calling yourself names you are keeping
yourself in bondage.
Reality and
thoughts are not separate. Giving one’s attention to
these negative labels enhances their effect on your
body. One of the most effective actions you can take
toward losing unwanted pounds is to create some new
labels that are positive, empowering, and make you feel
joyful when you use them. Think and speak them
daily.
I encourage you to come up with some of your
own. In fact, why not send an email to health@wholehealthresources.com
with your new labels (only positive ones)
and we’ll publish them in the next issue.
The essence of our all-knowing
spirit is joy and freedom. Our spirit responds to and
thrives on joy. When we are experiencing joy, we are
inspired (by spirit) to choices that will give us a healthy,
slender, attractive body. Thus, engaging in activities
that make us feel light, happy, and joyful will ultimately
lead to healthy weight. Adopting a loving relationship
and joyful attitude toward food brings mental/emotional
lightness and a body you'll
love.
Increasing joy on a daily basis is
essential for weight loss.
Everything we need to be in a joyful state exists right now in
our every day life. Joy is a feeling; an energy of
lightness, a knowing that life and everything in it is
great. For some, joy emerges when watching a sunset,
taking a brisk walk in the beauty of autumn, during
meditation, gardening, while observing or interacting with
children or pets, When we’re in this state we don’t need food
or alcohol or drugs to dull the hopeless feeling that comes
with lack of joy. Instead we use our daily meals as a
way to increase our joy.
Our spirit thrives on healthy
pleasures. Whatever activity we are engaging in,
including eating, can work for or against us. A change
in attitude will change everything. Look for what's good
and positive about ever choice you make and watch the pounds
melt away.
"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
Natural Weight Loss
e-Course, allows learning
at your own pace, in the convenience of your own home, any
time of day or night.
Designed for the
busy lifestyle. For
details, click
here. Eating Your Way To Success,
a Live Class at Chautauqua Institution,
Chautauqua, NY. Click
here for details.
If you haven’t done it on your own by now,
perhaps you need some expert guidance. For over 23 years I
have been helping clients achieve radiant health, weight loss,
vital energy, a nourishing lifestyle and passionate living
with my unique “whole person”
approach.
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. Click
here for complete bio.
I incorporate
Dietary Therapy, Attitudinal Healing and often,
herbal/supplement guidance, and other modalities. Programs are
customized based on your health condition, constitutional
strengths and weaknesses, age, and lifestyle. You will be
guided toward clarity in your thinking, removing
obstacles and making changes necessary to reach your
goals. You'll learn creative problem solving, and
have 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,June 28
2003. Call 412.421.7760 or send an email to health@wholehealthresources.com
to schedule. CLICK HERE for additional coaching
information.
My
favorite green products are Vitamineral
Greens and Spirulina. These are organic and
helpful for blood sugar imbalances, obesity,
overeating; and building and enriching the blood Click
here for details and ordering.
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