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www.wholehealthresources.com
Natural Weight Loss
is a free e-newsletter that addresses the physical,
mental/emotional, and spiritual aspects of weight
issues. A healthy, fit body is the
natural outflow of shifting your attention from food and
weight to balanced health, emotional harmony, and joyful
living.
Our culture is looking in the wrong direction for
solutions to its growing weight problems. Weight
issues are issues of your Whole health. Your body is
communicating to you that something is out of balance and
needs to be changed. Instead of looking for
the deeper messages, many take a superficial
approach-- dieting.
Reducing food intake, taking drugs, starving oneself, and fad diets
will never bring long-term results. You may lose some
weight temporarily, but you'll still be struggling and won't
resolve the deeper issues and conflicting intentions that
created the problem. Nor will you be happy and free.
You can have so much more with my “Whole Health” approach –
radiant health, emotional harmony, passionate living,
abundance, loving relationships, and joy and fulfillment
from life. Balanced health includes all of these factors,
and their lack 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 your body is affected by a
variety of factors, internal and external, this e-zine
offers suggestions for the Whole person.
Culinary Alchemy:
Flavors for Weight
Loss
(Part I)
We
all eat regularly, and the food we consume is
regenerating our body, mind, emotions, and spirit.
Most people do not have a clear understanding of which
foods are best for overcoming personal weight and health
imbalances.
There are many popular books on nutrition with each
offering the perfect diet for everyone,
regardless of one's unique condition. They
have all helped some of the people some of the time.
Often popular food plans are used with
little or no results, or worse, yet, undesired results.
There are conflicting views in almost all popular
dietary programs.
However, each one is limited by a narrow and fixed way
of thinking. Their ideologies and methods differ;
however, their principle is the same: everyone should
eat according to the same rules.
For
over two decades I have studied nutritional therapies
and have discovered that the principles of Traditional
Chinese Medicine provide an accurate method for
determining which foods are best for each individual.
Not everyone benefits equally from the same foods.
TCM offers a unique dimension to food analysis. It
classifies food and disease according to specific
patterns, therapeutic properties, subtle energies, and
flavors. With this knowledge it is easy to
determine which foods are best for each individual's
constitution and condition. This is an
intelligent, effective and sensible way to restore your
body to good health and balanced weight; to maximize
vitality; and to establish a clear, focused mind and
emotional harmony.
Did
you know that eating certain flavors can help you lose
weight and restore health? The five flavors can
help you create balance and bring you into harmony with
seasonal influences.
According to the system of flavors developed by
traditional Chinese healers, the following flavors are
important, each one having specific therapeutic
properties. They include: sour, bitter,
sweet, pungent, and salty. Often cravings for
certain foods are really a signal that you need the
particular flavor. You don't need every flavor at
every meal. While it is desirable to have each
flavor every day to maintain balanced weight and good
health, some imbalances benefit by emphasizing specific
flavors.
Understanding the
various flavors of foods can be a helpful guide in
choosing appropriate foods for weight and health issues.
The same flavors or foods that, in moderation, can help
reverse certain conditions, can cause discomfort, excess
weight, and
illness when eaten
in excess.
This
four-part article will help you understand how to use the
five flavors to eliminate excess weight and improve your
health. For purposes of nutritional healing, it is
also helpful to know the thermal nature; i.e., whether
they are warming or cooling.
In this issue I'll discuss the
pungent
flavor since it is related to the fall and winter
seasons. The next 3 issues will focus on salty,
sour, bitter and sweet flavors.
Pungent Flavor
Pungent foods and herbs
clear phlegm and mucous (which
means bloating, puffiness, edema, difficulty losing
weight), improve digestion, stimulate
slow metabolism,
disperse poor circulation, affect fluid balance in the
body, improve sluggish liver function, and relieve
arthritis. They also increase blood flow, dry
congestion, especially respiratory infections, keep the
lungs clear and open, and warm and stimulate the body.
Pungents include spicy, hot and aromatic flavors.
If
you're feeling sluggish, dull, lethargic, or overweight,
you will benefit from the pungent flavor.
Some
pungents have a warming energy while others are cooling
or neutral. It's important to choose according to
whether your condition is too cold or too hot.
Some
symptoms of coldness
include: slow
metabolism, hypothyroid, weak digestion, gas, bloating,
poor circulation, loose stools, soft, fleshy muscles
(rather than toned and hard), feeling cold, difficulty
losing excess weight, frequent fatigue, certain types of
arthritic pain, sadness, apathy and depression.
Some
symptoms of heat include:
hypertension,
hyperthyroid, high cholesterol, tension or migraine
headaches, aversion to heat, memory loss, speech
problems, heart disease, constipation or sluggish
bowels, fever blisters, cold sores, irritable, outbursts
of temper, poor circulation, and red acne or red rashes.
The same foods and
attitudinal and lifestyle habits that cause excess
weight are the very things that cause the health
conditions listed above.
If
you have cold symptoms,
then daily include some of these
warming pungent
foods and culinary
herbs: parsley, scallions, broccoli rabe (rapini),
cabbage, onion, kale, leeks, mustard greens,
horseradish, garlic, anise seed, fennel seed, basil,
black pepper, celery seed, cinnamon, cloves, cumin,
fennel, mustard seeds, nutmeg, oregano, rosemary,
spearmint, wasabi, and turmeric.
Cayenne and other hot peppers are also warming pungents,
but are so extreme their effect becomes cooling after
about 30 minutes.
If you have
heat symptoms,
then daily include some of these
cooling and neutral pungents:
turnips, collard greens, broccoli, celery, daikon,
radishes, kohlrabi, marjoram, peppermint, and white
pepper.
Get
in the habit of using the above foods and herbs in
soups, stir-fries, stews, roasted vegetable dishes, and
braised vegetables.
Click here for
soup recipe using warming pungent flavored vegetables and
herbs.
Click here for vegetable recipe using cooling and
neutral pungent vegetables and herbs.
Calories Don't Count
Many of you
have been eating low-cal, low-fat, fat-free, and
artificial foods for many years and still struggle with
weight and health issues. I've had many clients
tell me their typical day's eating includes a dry cereal
with skim milk, a morning and afternoon snack of low-fat
yogurt, fat-free cheese, and fruit, salad with chicken, fish or other
protein for lunch, and a frozen, microwaved low-cal
entree for dinner. After months, even years, of
eating this way they still have not lost weight even
though their caloric intake is relatively low.
Calories don't really
count all that much in a weight loss plan.
Eating appropriate foods and flavors with the right
therapeutic values for your overall condition will
disperse excess fat, improve metabolism and circulation, eliminate many health problems, and
leave you satisfied. I've had many clients who
tell me they are eating more food now than ever in their
lives, and are losing weight easily and noticing
improvements in overall physical, mental, and emotional
health.
For professional help in
creating an individualized plan, call me at
412.421.7760
to schedule a
free
30-minute evaluation/consultation.
Are you recycling a
negative past and the emotions that go along with it? Do you experience excessive melancholy,
chronic sadness or grief, and/or emotional repression?
Is it difficult for you to let go of the past, holding
onto it with unreasonable attachment?
These
feelings contribute to health and weight issues and keep
them in motion. You cannot separate your mind and
emotions from your body. Emotions that are
expressed in healthy ways and resolved strengthen the
internal basis for good health and balanced weight.
What you eat plays an important role in emotional
health.
Incorporating many of the pungent foods listed above
helps clear not only physical stagnation, but also
mental/emotional stagnation. Pungent foods have an
expansive quality that can assist in clearing sadness,
grief, and depression. This is a beginning.
Having a customized plan incorporating therapeutic foods,
attitudinal healing practices for mental and emotional
harmony,
and other factors for your uniqueness may be the best
investment you will ever make.
The past keeps surfacing for you because it wants to be
resolved and to be freed. Ultimately, you are the
only one who can do this. Professional Holistic
guidance can make the process easier and quicker.
When you can see the past from a positive perspective,
you will be free--free from struggle, frustration,
health and weight issues, and general lack in your life.
Call
412.421.7760
for a free
30-minute evaluation and consultation. This can be
done by phone or in my Pittsburgh office. 50% of
my clients are long distance and their success rate is
very high.
Other
options include my Inner Fitness Workshop and Creating
Emotional Harmony Workshop to be scheduled in the new
year.
You have a Higher Mind
that knows far more than your intellectual mind.
It communicates to you through your intuition and
gut instinct, and will never fail you. While
it's helpful to read, study, take classes, and get
expert advice, you ultimately know what's best for
you. Does it really make sense that there is
one way of eating, thinking and living that will
bring everyone balanced weight and good health?
This narrow mindset
will continually limit your potential, not only for
a healthy, fit body, but in every aspect of you
life.
The weight issue is trying to teach
you to go within, learn the art of inner listening,
and to learn to interpret the messages you are
receiving in healthy ways. If you fail to learn this, you will
continue your weight loss struggle.
What is the
voice of your Higher Mind communicating to you?
Is it telling you to stop the dieting cycle and come
from a more Holistic approach? Perhaps it's urging you to stop doing things you don't
want to be doing. Or is it telling you to spend
more time in creative endeavors that you've been longing
to do? Perfectionism, self-criticism, judgment,
and comparing self to others oppose a healthy, fit body.
Your Higher
Mind is always leading you toward things that will bring
you a healthy, fit body, passion, fulfillment, love, and abundance.
Resistance to that voice is creating your weight
problem.
Join me
in January
for my Natural Weight Loss™ Workshop and learn to be
your own weight loss guru.
Long distance learning from anywhere in the world is
available via TeleClasses. Join me from the
comfort of your home for these Natural Weight Loss
TeleSeminars. All you need is a phone and the
ability to receive e-mail class notes.
-
Introduction to Natural Weight Loss - December 28
-
Best Practices for Healthy Weight Loss
-
Detoxification and Cleansing
-
Understanding Cravings and Addictions
-
Creating Healthy Metabolism
Click here
for all TeleClass dates, details and registration.
Group Natural Weight Loss™
Coaching
will be available via TeleClass in January. Dates
will be posted on the website by December 18 or send an
email to
deborah@wholehealthresources.com for information.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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-
Detoxification and Cleansing
-
Creating a Life You Love
-
Creating Emotional Harmony
-
Understanding Cravings and Addictions
-
Healthy Metabolism
(affects
adrenals, digestion, energy and more)
-
How to Reverse Conflicting Intentions
(Attitudinal
Healing)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Deborah Barr is available to present
a variety of presentations or workshops to your organization or
company in half-day or multiple session workshops, or
60-90 minute presentation. These can be
customized to meet the needs of your group. Send an email to
deborah@wholehealthresources.com
or call 412.421.770
for information.
CLICK HERE for a complete listing of all
presentation topics.
Counseling may include nutritional
therapy, attitudinal healing and herbal/supplement
guidance, and other modalities. 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 minutes) can be done by phone or in my
Pittsburgh office. Offer expires December 29, 2006. Call
412.421.7760 or send an email to
health@wholehealthresources.com
to schedule.
CLICK HERE
for Counseling/Coaching, and
Attitudinal Healing information.
Nearly 50% of my clients are
long distance. We have sessions by phone and
recommendations are sent via email. Support is
given in between sessions.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Deborah Barr, 25-year Holistic Health
Counselor/Coach, speaker, and author, works with
clients who want to reverse weight and health
issues; achieve emotional harmony, radiant health,
passion, peaceful living, work-life balance, and a
life they love. She has received Professional
training in Traditional Chinese Medicine with an
emphasis on Nutritional Therapy, Whole Foods
Cooking, Oriental Diagnosis, Herbal Medicine, and
Shiatsu; Macrobiotics; Attitudinal Healing, Yoga and
Spiritual Development, Reflexology, and
Aromatherapy. 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. She can be
reached at
412.421.7760.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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