The
only way to lose weight is to eat less, and the only way to eat less is
to have all the nutrients you need and be able to digest and use those
nutrients in less food.
And
by "all
the nutrients
your body needs", I mean things like cholesterol,
carbohydrates, animal
fats and real (full-array) salt (not table
salt) as well as the things we normally associate with healthy eating like vitamins and minerals. These are all vital to your health
and you cannot live, let alone lose weight permanently and healthily,
without them.
This
is not
a quick weight loss diet. This is a get healthy first and then lose
weight diet. You may lose a gratifying amount of water-weight
at
the beginning, as with many new diets. Don't count on it to last. You
should expect to lose about a pound a week on this diet when
your
body is ready, and you should not try to lose more than two pounds a
week. You do this by changing your lifestyle and eating habits.
You
don't
need to
count calories. Keep track of the amount of time
that
you feel hungry. You should feel hungry at least an
hour
before every meal. When you want to start losing weight, then
reduce portion sizes and skip meals so that you feel hungry at
least 6 hours a day. The best meal to skip is breakfast, as that is
when most energy comes from burning
fat. If you have built up
enough reserves of
all
the nutrients your body needs, you can stay hungry without being
compelled to eat. If you are unable to tolerate being hungry that is
your body telling you it does not have all the nutrients it needs
and
you should continue adding more healthy food to your diet. If you are
unsure of what foods you may be lacking, try
taking the healthy
eating bingo quiz (below) and see what you are leaving out of your
diet.
The
way to lose weight in a healthy manner is:
1. Eat Less
2.
Have
all the nutrients you need in less food
3.
Have
the enzymes to digest those nutrients
Notes
Don't
expect to lose too much weight, if any, in the winter. Winter
is
a time for eating meat and storing fat. Your body needs the extra
insulation and will be reluctant to give it up when it is cold out.
When it gets warmer, you can reduce the amount of food you eat, as long
as you still include all the necessary nutrition.
Healthy Eating Bingo
Quiz
See
bottom of page for printable image of
the Healthy Eating Bingo Quiz. Including
these items as a regular part of a healthy diet will make it
easier to insure that all the nutrients needed are obtained. Check
off every item you have eaten in
the
last 36 hour. If you can
regularly check off all
the items on this card, then start
reducing portion size and/or skipping meals so that you feel hungry.
If
you can't
check off everything on this quiz as having eaten it in the last 36
hours, click on these links to learn more about what you need in
order to
include these nutrients in your diet:
Row
2
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A
serving
size can be a
tablespoon or even a teaspoon. Raw liver can be
the size of a pea.
One way to eat less is to
fill your plate with small bowls and then put your small portions in
them. This works especially well if you have to live wtih people who
will remark, "Is that all you're eating?" if you try to limit portion
sizes. Here is a meal on a regular 9" dinner plate of mock pizza with
sourdough bread with tomatoes and cheese, sauerkraut with clabbered
milk, wild caught fish with olive oil, lemon juice and garlic, raw
ground venison with chopped garlic and ginger in soy and tabasco sauce,
edible flowers primula and dandelion and a lemon balm leaf. Lemon
wedges scattered around the plate help fill it up. You can even add a
few empty containers so no one knows how little you're eating.
Take
the teacup challenge. Look at the healthy eating bingo quiz. Get a tea
cup and saucer. Now
make a meal out of *all* the items listed, fitting it onto the saucer
and into the teacup. You can drink the bone broth, kombucha and ale
separately for taste's sake, but no more than 6 ounces total of all
three, and at least an ounce of each. Then fit a small serving of
everything else on the saucer. This is a good way to get used to the
idea of eating a very small serving size, but eating a wide range of
super-nutritious foods.
When
your body is ready to lose weight, you will be able to feel hungry
without succumbing to the temptation of binge eating. If you do need to
binge eat, it's OK if what you are binge-eating is sauerkraut, yogurt,
wild-caught fish etc. If you are binge eating high-sugar foods, drink
live ale along with it to help ferment it into vitamins and alcohol,
and then continue to eat this healthy diet. You will not be able to eat
less until you pay your body back the nutrition it needs
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General
Principles To Follow
*
Eat something
lacto-fermented such as sauerkraut
or kimchi or pickles
with every meal.
* Eat whole,
unprocessed foods. Do not eat canned, packaged or processed
food.
Eat only
food. Mostly plants, a little meat.
*
Eat meat and eggs from pasture-raised animals.
*
Eat wild fish (not farm-raised) and shellfish from un-polluted waters.
*
Eat full-fat milk
products from pasture-fed cows, preferably raw and/or
fermented, such as raw milk, whole yogurt,
kefir, cultured cream and
whole raw cheeses.
*
If you have to use vegetable oils, use only extra virgin olive oil,
expeller-expressed sesame oil, small amounts of expeller-expressed flax
oil and virgin coconut oil. Use as little as possible. (Vegetable oils
are not necessary for a healthy diet, except virgin coconut oil.)
*
Use animal fats instead of vegetable fats or oils. Render your own lard
and tallow by simmering in water.
*
Eat fresh fruits and vegetables, preferably organic, bio-dynamic or
naturally grown.
*
If you eat grains, use whole grains and soak them in whey overnight to
eliminate the anti-nutrients. (Grains are not necessary for a healthy
diet.)
*
If you eat beans
or nuts, soak or sprout them first. (Beans are not necessary for a
healthy diet).
*
Drink raw, fermented or lacto-fermented beverages every day.
*
Use naturally-fermented or cultured condiments such as
naturally-fermented soy sauce for flavoring (do not eat any soy
products unless them have been naturally fermented) or cultured (sour)
cream.
*
Make bone
broth and use it to prepare food or drink half a cup a day
plain.
*
Use unrefined, full-array salt such as Celtic sea salt or Himalayan
crystal salt. Do not use table salt.
*
Use natural sweeteners in moderation, such as raw honey, maple syrup,
date sugar, dehydrated cane sugar juice (sold as Sucanat or Rapadura)
and stevia powder. Avoid high fructose corn syrup.
*
Make your own unpasteurized wine or raw beer (ale).
Drink
unpasteurized
wine in moderation with meals.
*
Cook only in cast iron, glass, ceramic or good quality enamel, or wrap
food in leaves and cook over wood fire.
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*
Use only natural, food-based supplements. Supplements should include
cod liver oil and Vitamin C.
*
Avoid white flour and white rice.
*
Avoid hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats and oils.
*
Avoid refined vegetable oils made from soy, corn, safflower, canola or
cottonseed.
*
Do not use polyunsaturated oils for cooking, sauteing or baking.
*
Avoid fried foods, especially foods fried in polyunsaturated oils or
partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.
*
Do not practice strict vegetarianism (veganism); animal products
provide vital nutrients that cannot be found in an all-plants diet.
*
Avoid products containing protein powders or texurized vegetable
protein (TVP).
*
Avoid processed, pasteurized milk; do not consume ultrapasteurized
(UHT) milk
products, lowfat milk, skim milk, powdered milk or imitation milk
products.
*
Avoid battery-produced eggs and factory-farmed meats and fish.
*
Avoid highly processed luncheon meats and sausages.
*
Avoid canned, sprayed, waxed and irradiated fruits and vegetables. Do
not eat artificial food additives, eat only foods.
*
Buy local fruits and
vegetables if possible. It is not necessary that they are labelled
"organic" as long as the farmer uses natural, nourishing or
"biodynamic" growing methods.
*
Do not eat aspartame, artificial MSG or hydrolyzed vegetable protein.
Most commercial soups, sauces, broth mixes and condiments contain one
or more of these ingredients, even if it doesn's say so on the label.
*
Do not use commercial salt, baking powder or antacids. (Use 1/4
teaspoon of baking soda plus 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar for each
teaspoon of baking powder to be replaced.)
*
Do not use aluminum cookware.
*
Do not use deodorants containing aluminum.
*
Do not drink fluoridated water. |
My Story
This
is not a quick weight-loss diet. It is a get-healthy diet. First, you
have to repay all the nutritional debts you owe your body from a
lifetime of poor nutrition and unhealthy lifestyles, and then you can
lose weight slowly. You should expect to lose about a pound a month on
this diet. You may lose more than that when you first start off, but
don't expect it to continue. And on no account should you lose more
than 2 pounds a week. It may take years to lose a lot of weight -- it
took me 7 years to lose 85 pounds -- but, unlike fad diets, it stays
off, because the weight loss results from learning to live a new,
healthy lifestyle and not from depriving your body of the nutrition it
needs.
I
started this
website because after I lost 85 pounds many people wanted
to know "how I did it" and my answer, "I ate to get healthy, and losing
weight just came along with it." couldn't explain my entire diet. This
is my attempt to explain in an easy-to-understand manner how I got
healthy by eating healthy, and lost weight in the process,
and what I learned about what foods and lifestyles are healthy for us,
and what are not. I hope you will find it informational.
In
2001, I had edema, periods of rapid heartbeat, breathlessness and total
exhaustion from doing nothing (all the symptoms of undiagnosed
congestive heart failure). Walking was painful, which I
thought was fasciitis, but is also another symptom of heart disease. I
knew I
had to change my diet.
I
started out by eating only whole foods and massive quantities of
vitamin and mineral supplements, especially co-enzyme Q-10. Gradually,
as I lost weight and began to learn about how to get all the vitamins
and nutrients I
needed from my food, I reduced the amount of vitamin pills but
continued to take a few "superfood" supplements and heart strengtheners
(cod liver oil, time-released Vitamin C, Vitamin E, magnesium).
By
2008, after 7 years, I had lost 85
pounds -- this is not a fast weight-loss diet -- and regained my health.
I
learned
that we
Westerners eat far more food than we need, and that a healthy life can
be sustained by eating a lot less, so I ate a lot less. During the time
I was very obese I had been an all-day grazer, always needing to
snack during the day. I found that as I became healthier, I didn't
need, or want, to eat all day. I ate only 2 or 3 small meals a day and
nothing in between.
I
did this by making a decision that I would just accept being hungry for
part of the day. I found that after I had been eating super-healthy
foods for a couple years, that I was able to feel hungry without
getting a compulsion to eat, especially in the summer when I didn't
need food to maintain body temperature. So this is also not a lose
weight
fast and never feel hungry-diet.
In
fact, about the only thing this diet
has to recommend it compared to
all
the other diets that promise rapid weight loss and never feel hungry is
that you don't either lose your health as a result of the diet or
regain your weight after you have finished it, and it works. You will
lose weight, maybe not as much as you want as fast as you want, but you
will lose weight and you will be healthier in the long run, and that is
more important.
Nourishing
Traditions by Sally
Fallon
Full
Moon Feast by Jessica
Prentice
This is a good book if you like learning about indigenous customs and
following natural cycles. Includes using coconut oil, a rootbeer recipe
that calls for only 2 tablespoons of sassafras and easy and delicious
corn fritters.
Food
Enzymes for Health & Longevity by Dr.Edward
Howell
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