Weight Loss Problems

Hi

I often talk to customers who have weight issues. One thing that seems significant is that most of these people have one of more of these issues...
a) Don't have healthy eating habits.
b) Don't have high self esteem.
c) Don't feel they have enough motivation to go it alone. Or don't know how to go about it.
d) Are often time poor and stressed.
e) Are very unhappy with their weight problem.
f) They really don't understand the physiology of why they can't lose weight.

It's about the way we see ourselves. This is not about looking in the mirror and seeing a fat/thin person staring back. It's about...
a) When we were children and saw what our parents ate. That was imprinted on our brain.
b) How they related to us? Were we a favourite or second best. Did they spend time with us or not? Or were we cast aside? Did we seek comfort in food?
c) How did we enteracted with them? Loving parents? Cold parents?
d) Did someone critisise us at school. Did we take it to heart without consciously realising that?

We need to learn to forgive that parent/person who affected us so much. Maybe they didn't know what a profound affect they were having on us at the time. Let go. In letting go we are healing ourselves not the other person. We are also severing that hurt/bad memory that is holding us captive and effecting our health.

Most of us don't realise that we are making choices each and every moment. From the time we stop our car at a fast food outlet, or pick up the phone to order that pizza...we can choose to drive away, or put down the phone and go do something else instead of ordering a pizza/big mac.

Ask yourself every time you put something to your lips whether this is nourishing you?
Give yourself permission to choose foods that will keep you healthy.
Stand in front of a mirror and say...I have done the best I could. I love myself. I am beautiful.
I didn't know until I tried to do this, how I perceived myself. And it took me a few times before I could actually do this. Keep trying till you are able to do this. It is so healing for the soul.

Bye for now.

How to control those sugar cravings

(CBS) The average American consumes almost 160 pounds of refined sugar each year -- a 25 percent increase over the past three decades. This is happening in Australia too. I don't know the exact statistics.

Cutting back on sugar consumption can be hard. Here are some tips on how to fight sugar cravings.

Research on animals suggests that sugar may have some addictive properties. A recent study from Princeton University found rats given too much sugar actually suffered from withdrawal when the sugar was taken away. And they continued to crave sugar for weeks afterwards. The only studies done on sugar and fats are not clinical studies. But have a look at the movie 'Supersize Me'.

Sugary foods usually contain fats -- usually saturated fats or trans fats, which can increase the risk for heart disease and diabetes. Eating too much sugar can also cause weight gain. And sugar can cause tooth decay.

To beat sugar cravings I suggest the following:

Don't Skip Meals
When you skip a meal, your energy level drops. As a result, you body begins to crave high-sugar foods to give you a quick energy boost. If you eat a number of small meals in a day, you'll have fewer cravings.

Eat Natural Sugars
If you find that you're craving a bowl of ice cream or a piece of candy, grab a piece of fruit instead. Fruit will not only satisfy your sugar craving, but it also contains fiber. The fiber will slow down the absorption of sugar in your body and help keep your blood sugar from rising too quickly, which can actually lead to even more sugar cravings.

Seek Out Natural Substitutes.
Don't use the artifical kind. There have been suggestions that they can be carcogenic.

Don't Buy Sugary Foods
Many people crave sugary foods late at night when the body's ability to resist is lower. So avoid sugary foods such as ice cream, biscuits, cakes, lollies and chocolate in your house. If the food isn't there to begin with, you can't eat it. Just get a bin bag and fill it with those foods and throw it away right now. Come on, you can do it. Don't be suckered in by your kids to buy more of the same either.

Shop alone (without your family as they will pressure you) with a list and only buy whats on the list.

Take suppliments
Some suppliments put out by vitamin companies actually help reduce sugar cravings. Like Blackmores Sugar Balance.


Take A Walk
Many people eat dessert after a meal. But instead, try doing an activity, e.g. walking. Do something with your hands that requires concentration.

See you next time.

4th November 2006

A yummy receipe from my kitchen

GROUND BEEF PATTIES (Hamburgers) - can be gluten free if you substitute the wheat flour with rice flour.
Ingredients
1 kg of ground beef
2 eggs - break into a bowl and mix well with fork.
1 grated carrot
1 small grated potato
1 small finely chopped (or grated) onion
½ cup of wholemeal plain flour
½ teaspoon of salt
a dash of pepper
Chilli flakes - optional

Method
Combine all ingredients in a bowl. The mix should be sticky.
Roll and then flatten so that they are as thick as a pen and two thirds the size of a CD.
Fry or grill on one side until the meat changes colour and is not bloody and then turn over and fry for a short time on that side.
Makes 12 good sized patties.

4th October 2006

Every heard of Dr. Baroody's book Alkalize or Die. It's hard to stick to what he suggests is a good diet but it does make sense.

Every time we stress, eat junk food, food that has been made from refined products e.g. white flour, white rice, sugar, and battery eggs and chickens and veal (antibiotics to keep them free of disease) these are making our bodies more acidic. I told this to my cousin who is an intensive care nurse. She said that they are always monitoring the patient's ph level. If the acidity goes above a certain level the person dies. So, to keep free of disease we need to eat more alkaline foods like watermelon and rockmelon and another good one is juiced wheatgrass. If you drink wheatgrass every day, you will notice a marked improvement in your health and even your nails will be stronger.

Olha

Sugar holics anononymous

Hi

You may wonder why I would start up a blog like this? I am a reformed sugar holic. No not alcholic/smoker or drug addict or anything like that but something more insidious and labled as good for you...although cigarettes were too once, and so was cocaine and opium 65 years ago.

I used to look forward each day to eating at least one cake/bun per day. Also I added sugar to my tea/coffee. When I went out to buffett dinner I would make sure I had room for at least 4, 5 or even 6 cakes for afters. No I wasn't fat but I never felt well for a long time.

After the operation to remove some cartlidge from my knee is when I really felt sick but looked...slim and well. The more I ate cake wise the slimmer I got. I would get a bloated feeling in my stomach sometimes and I was burping all the time but didn't know why? I would get stomach pains and diarrahoea but any doctor/specialist I went to told me that I was nervous and should just get on with life and stop worrying. The burping began immediately after the knee operation I didn't get one night's sleep without waking at least 6 times from the burping. I was getting thinner and thinner. This went on for 5 years.

I finally found a doctor that diagnosed me with systemic candida or candida albicans. It's a yeast infection in the stomach. Any sugar, mushrooms, vinagar, wine, cheese, yeast was making me worse. I had to give up my cakes and chocolate.

Why did I get it? I was told it can be caused by antibiotics (which I took after my knee op and sometimes for chests infection before), stress, the pill, amalgam fillings (of which I had plenty), and steriods. It was the antibiotics after my knee op that really set the ball rolling on the bloating and burping - I was just like a brewery but didn't know it. I also often felt off balance, like I was thinking through a fog, in air conditioning - just like I was floating, and forgetful all the time. There are many more symptoms you can get which I will list below:
Cystitis, vaginitis or prostatitis
endometriosis
Thrush (oral or vaginal) more than once
Athlete's foot or fungal infection of the nails or skin
Severely affected by exposure to chemical fumes, perfumes, tobacco smoke. Are symptoms worse after taking yeasty or sugary foods or drinks?
Suffer from a variety of allergies
Abdominal distension - bloating, diarrhoea or constipation
Premenstrual syndrome - fluid retention, irratibility
Depression, fatigue, lethargy, poor memory
Crave sweet foods, bread, alcohol
Vague muscle aches and joint swelling
Vaginal discarge or irritation or menstrual cramps or pain
Lack of impotence or lack of sexual desire
If you answer yes to at least one of these then Candida may be present in your system.

What did the doctor tell me to do?
I was put on a anti candida diet -

1. No SUGAR of any kind that includes - glucose, sucrose, and all the other ones. Raw sugar, brown sugar is still sugar.
2. No fermented products - vinegar, salad dressing, wine, pickles, beer
3. No mushrooms - fungus makes it worse
4. No fruit that is old
5. No grapes - as they can hold fungus
6. No cheese - has fungus
7. No yeast - no yeast breads and that includes sour dough, rye, lebanese flat breads, yeast biscuits, etc
8. No raw peanuts as they grown under ground and can hold fungus.
9. No yeast spreads
10. No chocolate.
11. Avoidance of all goods that use refined white four.

So what could I eat:

1. Yeast free bread which can be purchased in the supermarket or Irish bread which is yeast free too. Damper - Australian.
2. Fruit and vegetables which are fresh and not stored for weeks.
3. Savoury biscuits - check packet for yeast and sugar
4. Any nuts other than raw peanuts.
5. Any nut spreads (not raw peanut spread - must be roasted) that do not contain sugar.
6. Tahini spread
7. Fish spreads
8. Honey - it's natural not refined
9. Brown rice
10. Wholemeal spagetti
11. Milk - preferably skim.
12. Butter - marg
13. Fish
14. Chicken
15. Meat
16. Shell fish - i.e. prawns, etc.

It wasn't so bad. I packed up any sweet things I had in my pantry and threw them in the bin. The next few weeks I went through withdrawals. I nearly went crazy walking up and down in the house wanting a chocolate or a sweet biscuit. I felt better for the first time in years. I kept to this diet for nearly a year and found that if I slipped up I paid for it by feeling lousy. But I couldn't get free of this candida. Then a friend told me about a naturopath that had helped them and I saw him. He put me onto some homoepathic drops (I had to still stick to the diet), and acidolphilus and bifidus and eventually I rid my body of this disease.

Why did I bother to put myself through all this? I read a book on candida by Leon Chaitow (Candida Albicans) which opened my eyes and make me realise that this was a serious disease and it would lead things like cancer.

Do not live life in the yesterdays, live life in the todays.

Bye for now.