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How to Lose Weight

Weight Loss II
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A DOZEN WAYS TO LOSE WEIGHT WITHOUT LOSING MONEY

Chemical energy is stored in chemical bonds, and there are a lot of chemical bonds in fat. So, if you are overweight, you contain a lot of stored energy. Now is the time to use it!

1. The only way to lose weight is to burn more calories than you take in. This means either eat fewer calories, or exercise more. Preferably both. (Weight loss is not for anyone who is pregnant or nursing, nor is it for growing children unless advised by their doctor to do so.)

2. It is not how much you eat that puts on the pounds, but what you eat a lot of. You cannot get fat on a mostly raw food diet. This means you can eat all of the raw veggies, sprouts, salads and fruits that you want. You need never be hungry while losing weight.

3. An easy way to lose weight even if you don't want to become a raw food vegetarian is to become a regular vegetarian. Meat contains fat, and even lean meat is over 10% saturated fat. Drop meat, and you drop weight.

4. Another easy way to slim down: simply skip desserts. Whenever I want to drop a few pounds, I drop dessert. For me, doing so results in a sure-fire one-pound-a-week in weight loss. If that does not seem attractive to you, remember that it means 10 pounds off in 2 1/2 months; over 50 pounds in a year. Instead of ooie-gooies, end your meal with fruit, especially dried fruits. Yes, they do contain sugar, but no fat. Now you just try eating two handfuls of raisins or dates. It is very hard to do, because the natural mix of sugars, minerals, and fiber in fruit have a self-limiting effect on the appetite.

5. Sweeten with honey or molasses. Again, these are sugar sources but you simply cannot eat a lot of either. I know I could gobble up a box of chocolates easily, yet the very thought of eating a half cup of honey stops my appetite cold.

6. Want to control your appetite without even giving up dessert? Adopt the motto of a 94-year-old Vermont friend of ours: "Life is short: eat dessert first." Seriously, if you do eat a bit of sweet food about 15 minutes before your meal you will eat less at the meal. This is at least partly because appetite is linked to blood sugar levels. Do you remember what your mother said? "Don't eat that candy now; it will spoil your appetite." Exactly!

7. Yoga stretches are one of the best forms of exercise I know. The basic postures are described in books at the library, such as The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga. Yoga classes are inexpensive; check your local high school or college for a beginner's course. I learned yoga on board ship while crossing the Pacific in 1973, and I've used it ever since. As a college student, I could JUST BARELY touch my toes. Now with my kids headed for college, I can touch my palms to the floor. I can't wait to see how flexible I will be at age 100!

8. We all have learned to walk by about age one, and most of us have since forgotten how. Walking is probably the greatest exercise of all. Did you know that a mile of walking burns just as many calories as a mile of running? And the walking is easier on your knees and ankles.

9. Good weight loss need only be one, perhaps two, pounds per week. Crash diets often crash right back, with weight gained back almost as quickly as it was shed. Take your time. A pound lost each week is 50 pounds a year (with a two week vacation allowed for!)

10. The ultimate weight loss plan is vegetable juice fasting. It is nourishing, safe, and feels great. I've written about this at length in other articles posted at this website. A search for “fasting” from the www.doctoryourself.com mainpage will quickly find them all for you. Books by Paavo Airola, N. W. Walker, and Dick Gregory also contain very helpful information on fasting.

As with any weight loss diet, vegetable juice fasting results in permanent weight reduction only when combined with regular exercise. Exercise seems to reset the appetite at a lower point.

11. You've seen those weight-loss powders and liquid meals. How would you like to make your own? Here's what I make mine with. It is a modification of the breakfast developed by Dr. Jacobus Rinse to help clear plaque out his arteries. (It worked, by the way.) I used this approach to lose 25 pounds myself.

Combine two tablespoons of lecithin granules (a lipotrophic or fat-transporting substance), half a teaspoon of vitamin C powder, and a teaspoon of calcium-magnesium powder with your favorite sweet fruit juice. Stir it well and drink it. I usually follow it with a "chaser" of some more "undoctored" juice. This stops my appetite for hours, easily taking me to lunchtime. To improve the value of your breakfast drink, you can add a teaspoon of nutritional yeast for the B-vitamins. Alternatively, you could take a B-complex supplement. I always take a multiple vitamin and 800 International Units (I.U.) of natural vitamin E along with the mixture.

12. Please remember that if you walk away from all of this at some point, you have not failed. You only fail by not coming back. We're in no hurry. Nature has been patient with us for years.

There is no trick to losing weight. It is simply a matter of deciding to, knowing how, and following through. I've worked with people so overweight that they had difficulty squeezing into an armchair. I have seen them lose up to 65 pounds by following even some of the ideas mentioned above. The side benefits are tremendous: more energy, better self-image, and a longer, healthier life.

If they can do it, I believe that you can do it.

Here’s what one reader from Oregon says:

"I am seventy years of age and morbidly obese. Diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure four years ago, have enlarged prostate, diverticulosis (itis?), chronic esophagitis, and GERD to name some of what my Doc says. I do not have high blood pressure, but have a chronic arrhythmia that occurs when exposed to any significant amount of caffeine. I abused coffee when I was younger. And I am a pensioner with no resource except my Social Security and two other tiny pensions. I didn't mention the joint problems with two knees and the lumbar spinal region.

"A mess? Surely, but a little over three weeks ago I started on your "eat for $12.00 per week" plan (http://www.doctoryourself.com/eatwellcheap.html). I follow the diet almost exclusively, but do go out occasionally for a veggie omelet. I bake my own 100% whole wheat bread, gobble frozen veggies, brown rice, have become a juice drinker (100% juice with no additives, of course). I haven't had any kind of a soda since I started, and I almost

always did one of those a day before. I make bean soup to enjoy even in the hot weather. I feel good and will start supplements when I have a few more bucks to spend. I feel better now (three weeks mind you) than I have in a very long time.

"Your web site is a favorite of mine and I can only offer my thanks for you turning the light on in my elderly cave. I am losing weight slowly, but steadily. Does your plan of nutrition work? Absolutely! Thanks."

For further, slightly humorous reading:

Put on your helmet for my infamous "Crash Course in Vegetarian Cooking": http://www.doctoryourself.com/cooking.html

Face it: my beloved Mother was a lousy cook: http://www.doctoryourself.com/moms_cooking.html

Please don't eat the aphids: http://www.doctoryourself.com/aphids.html

Andrew Saul is the author of the books FIRE YOUR DOCTOR! How to be Independently Healthy (reader reviews at http://www.doctoryourself.com/review.html ) and DOCTOR YOURSELF: Natural Healing that Works. (reviewed at http://www.doctoryourself.com/saulbooks.html )

For ordering information, Click Here .

Andrew W. Saul

AN IMPORTANT NOTE: This page is not in any way offered as prescription, diagnosis nor treatment for any disease, illness, infirmity or physical condition. Any form of self-treatment or alternative health program necessarily must involve an individual's acceptance of some risk, and no one should assume otherwise. Persons needing medical care should obtain it from a physician. Consult your doctor before making any health decision.

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