For several years, I have been writing about my need to lose weight. For the past four years, I have been experimenting with various solutions for myself. I don’t believe in “diets” and have known that the heart of my program needed to be fruits and vegetables. Having given up drinking (1976) and smoking (1988), I know how to overcome addictions. But food is different. I can’t just quit food.

But I have designed a food program that is allowing me to lose weight. I used a modified fast to begin losing weight. The fast lasted for five days until I started to show weight loss. I was losing weight slowly. Then I added the gym to the mix in a week or so. When I go the gym without the weight loss, I eat more because “I’m working out”. So I thought I’d reverse the process.

What did I do also to begin losing weight? (1) I began saying two things upon awakening: “I can. I will”. (2) I needed to shrink my stomach so that I could feel hunger physically. Some people can do this in 3 days—it took me 5 days before I felt my first tinge of hunger. What a great feeling! For the 5 days, I ate sparingly being careful to choose from all the food groups. Every day, I told myself that I could do anything for a few days.

Notice that I never told myself to lose weight. I told myself to learn how to eat less. To help with the cravings—which go away after your stomach is shrunk—I kept cut up celery hearts and carrots. I ate as much as I wanted of the celery and carrots. Warm soups and/or drinks help appease an out-of-control appetite.

Mar7

Basic Diet for High Energy

Posted on March 7, 2010 by kberman

1) Your daily food plan is built around your favorite vegetable. Try several and remember to make it as delicious as possible. You may have several vegetables that you love. If so, rotate them daily. Eat this if possible between 11 AM-4 PM. This vegetable has to be a large enough serving to totally satisfy you. I count 300 calories for my sweet potato because I cover it in margarine and dark brown sugar.

2) Determine the food problem that gets you into trouble. Most of our overeating comes because we don’t discipline ourselves about the calories we are eating. Learn to read or research the calories in everything you eat. This chart will teach you how to read labels.

3) Also decide what type of eater you are. What one thing do you not want to live without? For me, it is having food to chew. Apples are always in my refrigerator for a sweet chew—at 100 calories each I sometimes have several over a day.

4) When you are feeling emotional, you need to drink as much water or other liquids as you can to delay the eating. If you aren’t hungry anymore which is what will happen, give yourself permission to eat the food later when you are hungry.

5) I created a Greek salad that is low in calories for my non-sweet chewing. I cut up the ingredients and keep them separated until I eat some salad. Without the dressing, the ingredients will last several days. I write more about this salad in my food plan.

6) I dislike the word “diet” because it sounds like deprivation to me. Food is one of God’s greatest gifts and is meant to be enjoyed. Food is the basic reward for many people. So begin noticing when you are eating emotionally and drink more water before the food

7) I am 65 years old but I had bought into that “you have to have breakfast” so this was a revolutionary idea to eat when hungry. I live with a slim person who generally doesn’t eat until his evening meal. I have nagged him for years about not eating all day and he has always assured me that he wasn’t hungry.

8) Since my overeating occurs at night, the later I start eating means I am eating less than I would be if I ate at any time I wasn’t hungry. Another of the 7 rules from The 7 Secrets of Slim People is to think of your fist to learn portion control. The fist is the size of your natural stomach.

9) Begin learning portion control. If you check out any of the more popular diets with food included, you will see that the main reason you lose weight on these programs is because you are eating much smaller portions. The Changemaker Weight Loss Plan does the same with one major difference. You will choose the foods you love and will learn how to eat them in moderation.

Make a list of all the foods that you love and enjoy. After you have the list finished, make a food list that you can include in your weight loss plan. The foods that you know you may not be able to use restraint with put on your foods for the future list.

Mar7

About the High Energy Diet

Posted on March 7, 2010 by kberman

About the High Energy Diet

“The concept of energy and the flow of that energy in the human body is the core of the current explosion in healing. The healing principle is to “balance” the energy in the body by using relaxation to counter the body’s reaction to stress.” The Berkeley Holistic Health Center

The High Energy Diet integrates all the tools for living a healthy, balanced life. Many times busy people will see or read something that they would love to integrate into their lives. They also lack the time to plan and execute a total health plan.

The High Energy Diet includes food/diet choices, exercise choices, and emotional/mental techniques for stress reduction. All the pre-tests, measurements, references for each of the three categories (diet, exercise, and emotional/mental tools) are given.

We have spent 30 years researching, enjoying, and implementing self-help, exercise, diet, nutrition, spiritual, emotional, mental, psychology and addiction books. Our central focus is on holistic healing—mind, body and soul. So the High Energy Diet includes the books we have found to have become our “textbooks”.

These books are incorporated in our Changemaker Library. Our goal is that each person using the High Energy Diet can create and continually change her/his health plan. Health takes effort to maintain. Each of us knows what we need to attain our highest level of health.

The real secret to weight loss is portion control. That is the main reason diet companies sell the food with the diet. The portions are regulated and controlled. For portion control, learn to use measuring cups and spoons to correctly choose the right portion. Some suggested portions are included in an article in South Florida Sun-Sentinel January 21, 2008 article.

The newspaper lists the following comparisons.(1) 3 ounces of meat/fish (about the size of a deck of cards), (2) 2 tablespoons of peanut butter (the size of a golf ball), (3) 1-1 1/2 ounces of cheese (the size of three dominoes, (4) 1 piece of whole fruit (the size of a tennis ball), (5) 1 cup of milk (one serving fills a regular coffee cup), (6) 1/2 cup of cooked pasta ( one serving fills a cupcake liner), and (7) 1/2 cup of cooked vegetables (about the size of a yo-yo).