Natural Weight Loss - November, 2009 ©2009 Deborah Barr. All rights reserved. The content may be forwarded in full with copyright intact. Click Here to subscribe to Natural Weight Loss and Whole Health Matters, free e-newsletters and to read past issues. In this Issue:
Welcome to
the November issue of my Natural Weight Loss™
e-newsletter. My
vision
is to help you create a healthy, fit body and mind in safe,
healthy, effective, enjoyable ways.
It's not my intention to
strengthen your ability to diet, but to educate you to listen
and interpret the true messages your body, mind and
emotions are giving you.
Students often ask if I was ever overweight. Some are relieved to see that I'm not, while others are disappointed that I'm not struggling with weight issues. In an odd way they feel I'd be more believable if I were overweight.
A professional colleague told me
that people look up to me as a guru--something I'd never thought
of. He suggested I share my story.
Please know that I do not
want to be your guru. It's nothing personal. I respect you too
much and know what you're capable of. You do not need a guru
other than the one within you. You'll have greater success and
happiness when you learn to listen to your inner guru.
I am passionate about the
potential of people like yourself, and love teaching
the wisdom I've gained from nearly 3 decades of professional
study and clinical experience.
It's thrilling to witness the evolution of clients. By this I mean observing clients and students access and use the innate wisdom they didn't know they had to transform their bodies and health--with far greater ease than blindly following another diet trend.
I do hope you'll join me for my
Be Your Own Weight Loss Guru TeleSeminar
beginning December 7.
To get you started, I'm
offering a FREE
Holistic Weight Loss Teleclass on November
12 and November 21. Register early. These classes are sure to
fill quickly.
My Personal Weight Loss Journey
Often people ask what my
secret is for maintaining a slender body and vibrant
health. Some believe I bypass all carbohydrates and fat,
live on salads and exercise for hours daily. Others are
convinced I count calories and keep mine to a bare
minimum.
Many suppose I am extremely disciplined and say no to all the good foods they assume I really want. The beliefs of others about my health and weight go on and on: "you must have a fast metabolism" or "inherited thin genes"; or, "you are simply lucky".
I'd like to dispel those
myths and let you in on my secrets for maintaining a
healthy, fit body for 30 years.
I eat hearty, delicious food and could not maintain my busy, active lifestyle eating salads and nibbling on carrot sticks. I never count calories, and avoid everything labeled low-fat, fat-free and diet. My habits and choices require no discipline-I eat what I want to eat, and never think about my weight.
My ancestors were not
slender, and my metabolism is healthy because I've created
it that way. I get exercise a few times a week engaging
in activities that I enjoy such as yoga, walking, dancing,
biking, swimming, and kayaking.
In my teens and 20’s I continually struggled to lose an extra 15 pounds. This may not sound like a lot to you, but the struggle was as great as though I had 100 pounds to lose. My hips and thighs were 2 sizes larger than my upper body and were huge to me. I often felt ashamed to be seen--especially when I was with my slender friends. My Mother’s weight problems were far greater than mine. She was quite heavy most of her adult life. She didn't really talk about it and there was no dieting hype at that time. I sensed her struggle and unhappiness with her body. I watched her attempt and fail at following a weight watchers program over and over. She'd be good for a while, then give in to her insatiable appetite for foods that were not allowed. With each passing year she gained more weight. Take a few steps back in time
I do admit that in
my younger years I was a strenuous dieter--consuming low-cal
foods that were devoid of nutrients and in direct opposition
to radiant health and happiness. This worked as long as I
could muster the discipline to do it.
I used to drink bottle after bottle of
zero-calorie diet
soda to fill me up. At times my sweet cravings were so
insatiable that I would have cake and ice cream for dinner
instead of real food. I'd often go to bed early and hungry
(grumpy too)
to avoid eating. I over-exercised strenuously daily since
this was my profession at the time.
I regularly experienced anxiety when faced with a social function. How would I be able to resist all the good food? My solution was to eat nothing all day and then overeat at parties and events. This left me with a tremendous food hangover--headache, fatigue, upset stomach, and irritability. Worst of all was the awful guilt, self-hatred and steady decline in my self-esteem. When I was 19 I went to our family doctor for some diet pills which he eagerly gave to me with no forewarning of the effects. My heart continually raced; I could not sleep and lay awake most of the night; I sweat excessively all day; and was freezing cold all the time. I had no appetite though. I could go without food for long periods of time with no hunger and no food. After about a week I flushed them down the toilet. Their ability to control my appetite simply was not worth the effects on my body. Pretty scary even for a 19 year old. These habits were leading me down a path of poor health, great struggle and unhappiness early in my life. My inner voice clearly told me so, but I did little to heed it and continued dieting. Years passed and I managed to maintain a healthy weight through rigorous dieting and deprivation. I then married and a few years later became pregnant. Friends announced to me that I would never be thin again after having a baby. I proved them wrong. Six weeks after the birth of my third child I was at my lowest weight ever. Those same well meaning (?) friends informed me that after age 30 I would not be able to maintain my weight. Wrong again! So many myths about weight.... I hope you're not believing them and allowing them to shape you. The Road Less Traveled I finally began to listen to my inner wisdom (you have it too), and was drawn to ways of perceiving health and weight that were neither popular nor accepted by mainstream. I had to search diligently to find teachers. I've spent nearly 30 years learning about food, health, and happiness from masters of Holistic Health. From them I learned the meaning of real food and ways to evaluate my own body's changing needs and how to fulfill them. I also learned that body, mind, emotion, and spirit are one continuum of energy. What I feed my mind (via attitudes and beliefs) influences my emotions, body and spirit. What I feed my body affects my mind and emotions, and so on. Those masters taught me food therapeutics/energetics and how to use that knowledge to create a genuinely positive, focused mind, emotional harmony, and an energetic, healthy, fit, disease-free body. For the first time in my life I understood why I had extreme cravings and how to eat in ways that eliminate those cravings. You can't imagine the freedom I experienced when I no longer had to fight those nagging cravings with the most intense will power I could muster. What a powerful feeling to say "I don't want that", rather than "I can't have that", and mean it. I trained with some of the best Whole Foods cooking instructors who truly knew the art of cooking to re-create oneself. My kitchen became an experimental laboratory with amazing results for my own weight and health, and that of my family. My journey led me to study with spiritual masters as well
and I discovered that all life's challenges, including weight,
have a higher purpose. Spiritual healing
is vital and has nothing to do with organized religion, and
does not interfere with one's religious orientation.
With some focused inner work (attitudinal and spiritual), I've
released conflicting intentions and negative pay-offs that
kept my weight loss struggle in motion for many years.
I've found the higher purposes of my past weight challenges. Fast forward a few decades
I have lived through the frustration,
hopelessness, low self esteem, and struggle of carrying
extra weight and moved past that gloom decades
ago. My
weight has been consistently less than it was 10, 20, even
30 years ago--without giving it much thought. I love
everything about food, including eating. I've had
strangers in restaurants look at my plate and ask me how
much I weigh and how I can eat so heartily.
For me, life is too precious to spend time counting fat grams and calories and weighing and measuring food. Life has so many wonderful, happy adventures for me and for you. I've made the choice to live them and hope you will too. I know you’d love to learn the one secret or magic bullet that will permanently end your struggle. It doesn’t work that way. There aren't really any secrets and never were. Your weight challenges are part of your journey back to your authentic self--the part of you that is healthy, confident, joyful, resourceful, abundant, and more. You have an all-knowing intelligence within you that has always been leading you to your birthright of well-being. Most people do not know how to listen, interpret, and act on this all-knowing guidance.
The best thing I, or any other teacher, can do for you is
to teach and empower you to take your power back.
Simply following the popular diet of the day will not do
this. There are many tools from foods, attitudinal
practices, self-awareness exercises, breathing and
meditating, and others that will move you beyond
dieting as a way of life, freeing you to live the
joyful life that has been waiting for you to claim it. This program is for free thinkers with an open mind; a willingness to take responsibility for yourself; a commitment to taking inner and outer actions; and readiness to honor yourself and your priorities.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Is it time to rethink you weight loss strategies? How long have you been struggling with your weight? What’s your success rate? Perhaps you’ve tried over and over and failed to get the results you want and simply gave up. Don’t despair. It’s never too late to begin a Holistic approach to permanently transform weight and health problems into the healthy, fit body you were meant to live in. Four popular weight loss strategies that don't work Following the popular diet trend of the day Have you been following the popular weight loss trend of the day designed by someone who does not understand your overall condition, health, personality, age, activity level, stress level, emotional state, environment and lifestyle. A successful approach to weight loss resolves health issues, improves energy, digestion and elimination, provides restful, uninterrupted sleep, and harmonizes negative emotions. A healthy weight loss program uses real food and not chemical, preservative, hormone and drug laden, highly processed foods. These are not really food and your body doesn’t want them. Your discomfort, health issues, and excess weight are your body's way of communicating this to you. Enjoying food and eating is imperative to your success. Food is not the enemy. A Program that emphasizes the joy of eating will bring you to your goals more quickly. There is no one way of eating that works to bring everyone good health and balanced weight. Continuing to choose food based on their calorie and fat content is tedious and will not make you healthy, slender, or happy. My Be Your Own Weight Loss Guru© Program designs a flexible eating plan for your uniqueness. Forcing yourself to adhere to a rigid eating plan does not resolve the deeper causes. Nor does it bring long term weight loss, good health or happiness. You can learn to assess the best foods for your unique body, mind and lifestyle. No one knows you better than you. Weighing, measuring food, counting calories and fat grams Hundreds of thousands of people have been doing this for decades, and their weight keeps climbing. I’ve had quite a few of them as clients. Food is far more than the sum of its nutrients, and has specific therapeutic properties. Some foods dry dampness, a condition that presents as bloating, puffiness, and difficulty losing weight. Other foods are warming and can gently stimulate metabolism back to normal. Cooling foods can balance overheated conditions in the body that cause excess weight to stagnate. Reversing weight and health issues with nutritional therapy is not haphazard. Understanding your personal imbalances and how to use food to reverse them will result in easy weight loss and greater health, harmony, and happiness. Rejecting yourself Are you waiting until you lose weight to accept, appreciate and love who you are. Are you postponing living until you drop the extra pounds? It’s not possible to have a slender, healthy body from the place of feeling badly about it. Your body responds to your thoughts about it and is molding and shaping itself in response to what’s in your mind and your emotions. When you talk to yourself, what do you say? Pay attention to what you think and say about your body or any other aspect of yourself. How often do you hear yourself criticizing or putting yourself down? Negative judgment of self (and others) is a huge obstacle to success. Critical, negative, and self-doubting thoughts have power over your efforts to lose weight. When thinking thoughts such as, I can't do it, I'm not capable, I'm unattractive, fat, ugly, I'm a failure, I don't have what it takes....... These and other negative judgments are a way of rejecting yourself. You're telling your subconscious that you will only be loving and accepting of yourself under certain conditions. Do you treat yourself in cruel and brutal ways mentally? Do you berate yourself for not living up to your own expectations? How does all of this make you feel emotionally? I'd guess it all makes you feel even worse about yourself. And when you're feeling badly you'll make more poor choices that keep the weight issue alive. 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--important aspects of Holistic Weight Loss. When you make the worst of something it will never improve. When you criticize and complain about your body you’re improving your weight gain. When you find ways to be happy with where you are, things begin to change for the better. This couldn’t be truer for your weight and body. Waging War Have you noticed the language used when referring to weight imbalances—“fight the fat”, “win the war on obesity”, “battle of the bulge”, “I’m watching my weight”. Weight problems begin in your mind. 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, creates stagnation, discomfort, and more difficulties to fight against. And those difficulties end up on your body. Many believe the way to lose weight is to declare war on their bodies and fight the fat. This creates a resistance to what you really want—a slender, healthy and attractive body. Giving negative focus to any unwanted bodily condition (including excess fat) intensifies its hold on us. Your cells are thinking mechanisms that communicate with each other and respond to your thoughts. Your attitudes penetrate your cells, and your body responds to your mind at a cellular level. You become what is most like your 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.
Four Things
You Can Start Doing To Practice awareness. Learn to recognize what your body really wants and when it’s satisfied (not stuffed). When you’re 75% finished with the food on your plate, ask yourself if you’re satisfied. If the answer is yes, save the leftovers for another meal. This may take some practice. Many people have reported that they do not know when they are satisfied. You'll learn to listen to and understand the cues your body is giving to you through Holistic Weight Loss. It’s better to eat 4 or 5 small meals than to overeat at 2 or 3 meals. You will have more energy and mental clarity by eating to the satisfaction point rather to the point of fullness. Make a list of non-food things that satisfy you. Make some of them simple things that you can do regularly. Far too often you’re trying to fulfill unmet needs with food and it just doesn’t work to bring happiness or good health. Eat real food that comes from the earth rather than a chemical factory or food processing plant. This means vegetables, whole, unprocessed grains, fruits, and proteins that are easy to digest. Get rid of preservatives and chemicals; hormones, steroid and antibiotic laden foods; and processed foods. Those extra pounds will come off easier and many health conditions will disappear. It’s very difficult to achieve a healthy, slender body as long as there is an internal war going on. Communicating to your body how unhappy and dissatisfied you are with it is an internal war. Start a list of positive aspects of yourself. Add to it often and read it daily. You’ll soon realize that you’re drawn to foods that support your positive attitude about yourself. Don’t underestimate the power of doing this. The better your relationship with yourself, the quicker your body will respond. You’ll learn about the therapeutic properties of foods at my Be Your Own Weight Loss Guru© TeleSeminar beginning December 7. This Holistic approach helps you make sense of contradictory diet theories and myths and addresses the main causes of weight issues. You’ll learn how dieting causes weight gain, how to determine the best path for your personal condition, and discover the most important and overlooked tools for losing weight. You'll discover how you've been getting a pay-off from being overweight; conflicting intentions within you that lead to self-sabotage, and how to end that cycle; learn how to re-create yourself from the inside out and much, more more. I Can Help You Create the Body and Health You Desire Without Struggle, Deprivation, Drugs, and Dieting Hype. Join me for my Be Your Own Weight Loss Guru™ TeleSeminar beginning December 7, 2009. Click here for details. I’m offering a free Teleclass, Holistic Weight Loss, on November 12 or 21. Click here for details. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Holistic Weight Loss FREE TeleClass -- November 12 and 21 Are you frustrated with attempting and failing at rigid weight loss plans? Have you tried all the fads—counting calories and fat grams, deprivation and unsatisfying meal plans—maybe even dangerous drugs and ineffective supplements? Are you ready for a kind and gentle approach to weight loss and radiant health—one that satisfies your body, mind, and emotions and yields permanent results? Do you want to stop avoiding living and begin enjoying your life to the fullest? This TeleClass will provide a good understanding of the steps to losing weight joyfully, healthfully, and naturally. No deprivation, drugs, or fad diets. Click this link for details and registration ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Be Your Own Weight Loss Guru© TeleSeminar Begins December 7
There are many coaches out there who are great for motivating you, but lack the knowledge, professional training, and experience to provide effective nutritional therapy, holistic advice, and emotional and attitudinal tools that are customized for your age, activity level, lifestyle, all health conditions, constitution, emotional state, with modifications for season and climate. This is not a one-size-fits-all approach. We begin with two sessions in December to pre-pave your way to a successful start to the New Year! Call 412.361.8600 for a free 20-minute phone session to determine if this Program is a good fit for you, and to receive a few tips to get you started. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Health-Supportive Weight Loss Aids Click this link for money saving discounts ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Free Offer 30-minute Coaching/Counseling Session -- By Phone or at my Pittsburgh Office Are you suffering with weight and health problems? Have you accepted them as normal, yet know they can be changed? Are you too close to your issues to recognize what's holding you back? Could you benefit from having a counselor/coach who can strategically help you achieve your goals? For over 25 years I have been helping clients achieve renewed health and energy, weight loss, passionate living, a nourishing lifestyle, and inner peace with my unique whole person approach. My background is in Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nutritional Therapy, Holistic Health, Attitudinal Healing, Energy Medicine, Yoga, and Spiritual modalities. CLICK HERE for Complete Bio. I will help you achieve results more quickly and easily, remove obstacles, and make the process of change easier. FREE initial session (30 minutes) can be done in my Pittsburgh office or by phone. Offer expires November 25 and applies to new clients. To schedule call 412.361.8600 or send an email to deborah@wholehealthresources.com. Click Here for additional Coaching information. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In less than 3 weeks I lost 20 pounds, lowered my cholesterol, improved my sleep and have tons more energy. Your Program is great! J.D. Philadelphia "I lost 10 pounds in 4 1/2 weeks. PMS and backache are gone. My energy and attitude have improved and I feel happy, confident, and in control of my weight and health. I am eternally grateful for your wisdom." "After two weeks on your program I'm eating a ton of food and am 10.5 pounds lighter. I feel thinner all over. I'm delighted and I'm satisfied and I'm not killing myself with exercising. Something is positively changing in my body. You are just an endless resource of knowledge. Thanks!" "I came to your weight loss workshop initially to lose weight, but it ended up to be so much more. I often forgot about losing weight and focused on what foods made me feel good and the weight just came off. It was amazing. And it's effortless to maintain my weight. Your classes have changed my life. Sounds a little dramatic, but it's true." "Priceless is the word I would use to describe this TeleSeminar. I learned many tools that I can use in any situation to reach my goals. I look and feel better than I can ever remember, and at the same time am more satisfied than I've ever been." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We're approaching year's end, and it's best to begin NOW to let go of what's not working. Create a vision and plan and have your new strategies in place before you move into 2010. Don't let the Holidays be one more excuse for delaying your greater good. Health and Peace to You, Deborah Barr I've entered the sweet world of tweeting with Twitter and invite you to connect with me there. Click here to follow my tweets. Subscribe to Whole Health Matters and Natural Weight Loss e-newsletters and preview past issues by clicking here.
Program developed and facilitated by Deborah Barr, 25-year Holistic Health Counselor/Coach, speaker, and author, works with clients who want to reverse health and weight issues; achieve emotional harmony, radiant health, passion, peaceful living, work-life balance, and a life they love. In 1985 she founded Whole Health Resources, the premier Holistic Health Center in Pittsburgh. WHR’s mission is to promote the healing and development of body, mind and spirit, and to teach an understanding of the relationship between diet, attitudes, lifestyle and wellness. She offers free help through her 2 e-zines, Natural Weight Loss, and Whole Health Matters, and free articles at www.wholehealthresources.com. Send an email to subscribe@wholehealthresources.com to receive free newsletters.
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