Live Foods And Weight Loss

 by Susan Smith Jones

As I mentioned in last month, our lives are made up of millions of choices. Moment to moment, we are always choosing. What we are consists of the sum of our choices: what we think, what we imagine, how we react, what we eat and how we move, what we say, what we feel and what we expect. It’s time to take back the responsibility for our own lives and start using the power that is ours to create what we want – a healthy, fit body and a fulfilling, joyful, peaceful life.

This month let’s explore more closely, through the life-affirming changes of one my clients, Danielle, the importance of our day-to-day food choices and the need to reprogram and retrain our senses to release self-limiting beliefs and habits. Your primary goal on this “Experience Aliveness” eating program is to get to the point where you are eating a reasonable amount of the highest quality foods – with as much raw, living foods as possible. Over 2,500 years ago, Pythagoras said, “Choose what is best; habit will soon render it agreeable and easy.” His sagacious words are just as relevant today as they were in his day, especially when it comes to establishing new healthy food and lifestyle habits.

DANIELLE'S STORY: CHANGE YOUR DIET, CHANGE YOUR LIFE

Danielle is a great example of how changing our diet and adding more living, whole foods can not only assist with weight loss but also improve every aspect of family life and self-esteem. Married, with three children ages five, eight and eleven, Danielle initially came to me for motivation and help in losing some fat, toning up her body and increasing her energy. As a first step, I asked her to keep a seven-day food diary and record exactly what and when she ate. She was instructed not to eat differently simply because I would be looking at the list; she had to be honest and write down everything, because there’s no other way to make a true evaluation.

When I received her food diary, it was quite apparent why she had gained almost 30 pounds in a year and always felt enervated. Her diet was about 60 percent fat, the carbohydrates she consumed were almost all refined, she usually skipped breakfast because she was too busy getting the kids ready for school and she always ate late at night. Her diary came straight out of my “encyclopedia of deleterious habits!” She rarely included raw foods in her diet or her family’s, explaining that it took too long to chew the food and she didn’t have time. Danielle also noted that her kids disliked raw foods, so only on rare occasions did she have a few fruits and vegetables in the house.

As I inquired more about her family life, routines, eating habits and so on, I learned that all her children were on the heavy side. The oldest girl was starting to be ridiculed in school because of her size. Not surprisingly, Danielle told me that her husband also needed to lose about 40 pounds. His blood pressure, cholesterol and triglycerides were much too high and his doctor had suggested that he go on a diet. I told Danielle that no diet was necessary. Her family needed a health makeover. I assured her that she had come to the right person for guidance.

My initial evaluation of how they ate and lived led me to suggest something very out of the ordinary. Knowing that they had a large house with a guest room next to the kitchen, I asked if I could stay with them from Thursday through Saturday night. I wanted to experience their lifestyle as a family, to see how they lived at home, when and what they ate and how they spent their time when not eating, in order to coach them in a healthier way of living. Yes, I brought most of my own food and I simply observed like a butterfly on the wall (I like butterflies better than flies) and took lots of notes. I had Danielle’s permission, when they were out of the house, to look through their pantry and refrigerator and all their kitchen cupboards. Sure enough, I found hardly any fresh, whole foods.

At mealtime, everyone salted the food before tasting it and their dining table was never without canned sodas or processed fruit juices, butter, sour cream and mounds of cheese. All five of them ate their meals quickly, without much conversation and without putting the utensils down between bites. Much overeating may be unintentional, since many popular foods contain hidden sugar and oils put there to stimulate the taste buds. This was definitely the case with Danielle’s family.

With Danielle’s consent, I made a clean sweep of her kitchen. The rest of her family went along, although they were far from enthusiastic. I removed all refined carbohydrates, including pasta, white rice, low-fiber cereals, pancake and cookie mixes, white breads and bagels and gave them to a homeless shelter. I replaced these with high-fiber breads and whole grains. I also rid their kitchen of margarine, mayonnaise, vegetable shortenings and oils. Next I gave away all the whole milk and cheese products. Those high-fat, calorie-loaded cheese slices provide between 80 and 140 calories per one-ounce slice, depending on the fat content. I replaced the whole milk with raw nut and seed milks; it turned out that they all loved the vanilla-flavor almond beverage the best after about two weeks of adapting to the new taste.

I took the entire family to the nearest health food store, showed them all the healthy alternatives such as veggie burgers and whole-grain pastas and, to the amazement of all of them, let them experience the produce section of the store. They were enthralled by all the colors and varieties of fruits and vegetables, many of which they had never seen before. We started with some of the most familiar – organic apples, oranges, pears, grapes, bananas and strawberries.

In place of sodas and other canned drinks, I taught them how to make their own juice. The kids loved juicing and actually wanted to take it over as their daily job. Of course I encouraged them to start drinking more water. Danielle’s husband confessed to me secretly that he couldn’t remember having more than about six glasses of water weekly. When I told him that I drink half of my body weight on ounces of purified, alkalinized water every day, he almost collapsed in shock.

It took about one month for the family to adjust their taste buds to the new flavors, textures and colors of their foods. They basically switched from a white and beige diet to a banquet of rainbow colors. Almost half of their diet was now raw foods, with an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables. When you fill up on these salubrious foods, you nourish your body and actually lose much of your desire for junk or other processed foods.

After three months, it was time to introduce them to the benefits of consuming more raw foods and also showed them several simple raw-food recipes they could enjoy often. They were eager to move in that direction. After several un-cooking lessons, Danielle found it wasn’t so hard to cook healthier meals. As a result of eating more fiber and more nutritious foods, the family all lost weight, had more energy, balanced moods, and a greater sense of well-being that resulted in more positive attitudes all around. I encouraged them all to be more active instead of hanging out in front of TVs or computers most nights and weekends. Their higher activity resulted in sounder sleep for everyone. Danielle’s oldest daughter lost weight and joined an after-school sports team, which ended the ridicule and helped her self-esteem soar.

It’s truly remarkable how making a few basic changes in one’s diet can profoundly affect every area of life. The change this family had the hardest time with initially, but which ultimately turned out to be the most fun, was the one day each week of raw food. I suggested they not pick a weekend day but rather a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. They selected Thursday and from morning through evening ate only living foods – lots of fruits and vegetables, salads and a variety of other fun foods, including nut butters, sprouts, sauces, soups – even cookies and other desserts. The family came to appreciate Danielle’s gift for experimenting and creating new raw-food meals. A few weeks into their new health regimen, they started having friends over for meals to sample their delicious “health nut food.”

Even though you may not be eager to overhaul your entire food program, at least start by adding more raw enzyme-rich organic fruits and vegetables to your diet. I recommend the following program to my clients and friends. Make at least 60 percent of your diet raw each and every day. On Mondays, eat raw foods all day until dinner and on Thursdays, raw foods all day including dinner. This simple program will assist you to bring more living foods into your diet by spacing them out over the week. You’ll feel lighter and more energetic immediately, simply from eating more uncooked foods.

Sleepless in America
In addition to making a clean sweep of Danielle’s kitchen, restocking it with better food choices and supporting the family in being more physically active, I also encouraged everyone to make sleep a top priority – a non-negotiable, daily habit. Lack of sleep undermines your body’s ability to deal with stress and maintain a healthy weight. One way to tell if you’re getting enough shuteye is to see if you wake at a regular time without an alarm. If you require a buzzer to get out of bed in the morning, you’re not getting enough sleep.

How much sleep do we really need each day? Adults need 8 1/4 hours of sleep nightly to maximize their ability to function daily. Adolescents need 9 1/4; preschoolers, 12 hours; toddlers, 13 hours; babies need 14 - 18 hours of sleep every day.

And if that were not enough, researchers are now discovering that sleep affects your hormones that regulate satiety, hunger and how efficiently you burn calories. Put simply, too little sleep makes you hungry, especially for those foods that are high in calories and low in nutritional value. These include processed junk foods, especially those made with white sugar and flour and fried foods such as French fries and potato chips. Moreover, lack of sleep also primes your body to hold on to the calories you eat.

Are you interested in slimming down your body? If so, this may provide some help. At Columbia University in New York City, researchers found that people who slept six hours a night were 23 percent more likely to be obese than people who slept between seven and nine hours. Those who sleep five hours were 50 percent more likely – while those who slept four hours or less were 73 percent more likely – to be obese. So, if you are eager to drop a few pounds, make getting ample sleep each night a non-negotiate habit in your lifestyle.

I even recommend quality sleep because it makes for better relationships. If everyone would just get more sleep and feel more rested, people would be more thoughtful toward one another and the dynamics of a family would run more smoothly. We’d all be happier and in better moods – adults and children. What a wonderful gift that would be to give our family, friends, business associates, our community, and, in essence, our country.

© Susan Smith Jones, MS, PhD, is an internationally renowned motivational speaker, frequent radio/TV talk show guest, culinary instructor, holistic lifestyle coach and author of hundreds of magazine articles and 17 books,her latest, “Unleash the Power of NatureFoods: 50 Revitalizing Foods & Lifestyle Choices to Promote Radiant Health.” To order NatureFoods (autographed copies available upon request ) call (888) 606-4599, ext. 0 (M-F, 9-4 MT) or visit: www.SusanSmithJones.com