Jay North
If you are overweight and you’ve tried everything on the market, and you still have not been able to lose or keep off pounds … there is good news. Eat all you want! ‘Experts’ agree on one thing: what we consume/eat is what we are.
According to the World Health Organization, “Health is more than the absence of disease. Health is a state of optimal wellbeing.
Optimal wellbeing is a concept of health that goes beyond the curing of illness to one of achieving wellness and vitality.
Many of us have been brought up to believe that our health depends solely on the quality of the healthcare we receive … but hold on just a minute. The truth is your health is your responsibility. You are the only person who can make the lifestyle decisions that contribute to your wholeness and wellbeing. You are the one who must take the steps to preserve your health and promote your wellness. Only you have the power to create wellness for yourself. It is only a matter of choices and decisions you make.
Your power lies in the choices you make every day on your own behalf. Your behaviour and the choices you make in your life affect your health.
You can choose to do more of what’s good for you and the world around you, and to do less of what is harmful.
Remember now, this is just about choices and the ones you make are entirely up to you. You can choose to learn more about your health and the variety of natural healthcare options available to you … or not.
“All of us have incredible inner wisdom; all we have to do really is use it. As you gather information and experience, you will gain confidence in using your inner knowing to follow your path to wellness.” The American Holistic Health Association
The choices we make create the life we live (please keep this in mind when you consider ‘eat all you want’.)
Doctors have suspected for a long time that overweight people appear to have an increased risk of developing heart failure and are at risk of contracting diabetes, but most believed that the heart failure resulted from the diabetes ie. high blood pressure and coronary artery disease associated with obesity. This is all too common a denominator.
Now however, more attention is being given to a study published in the August 1 2005 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, which shows that obesity itself (and not just the associated medical conditions) can lead to heart failure.
Still want to eat what you’ve been eating for years – the behaviour that got you to this place?
Cancer Research UK believes that a comprehensive strategy must be implemented urgently to halt the rise in, particularly in children and young adults. Co-ordinated policies are needed at national, regional and local levels – policies that will have a significant impact on lifestyle factors, including diet and physical activity, as well as tackling pricing, advertising and access to healthy food.
Healthy food. What a concept.
Also very important, are clear, consistent and evidence-based messages for the public on healthy eating and sensible drinking.
Sustained and well-funded public education campaigns are needed, including messages on why and how to exercise, dietary control, and appropriate portion sizes. The ‘five-a-day’ message, encouraging people to eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables every day, needs consistent promotion.
Education on healthy eating for children – and their parents – is essential, and it’s most effective when accompanied by a supportive environment.
Public services, including hospitals and schools, should take a lead on providing healthy food options on their menus and promoting healthy lifestyle messages.
Well okay. We all need a little support from time to time … but do we really need it from city, state and federal government? In my opinion: No. That’s what families are for.
Stay with me now. I am going to give you all you want to eat all day long – and well into the night if you want too.
Cut Out All Alcohol Consumption
Alcohol was not invented for human consumption. This isn’t a moralist idea; it is just plain not good for the human body. Its components are not natural, and many double in pesticide for killing bugs. There is huge evidence in countless thousands of reports, available from any medical university or through a search on the net that links premature illness and death to people who are obese and drink too. Remember now: no judgments here, just informed choices. Drinking too much alcohol over time is also a risk factor for some cancers, especially when combined with smoking.
How We Choose To Live
Most modern maladies are caused by prolonged exposure to a combination of negative lifestyles and toxic environmental factors, including junk food and malnutrition, pesticides, antibiotics, microwaves, alcohol, chemical pollution of food, water and air, lack of exercise and chronic stress. These factors are further aggravated by the failure of modern medicine to recognise these things as agents of ‘dis-ease’ and death and the consequent failure to take preventative measures against them.
What Are We Eating?
Recent studies have shown that processed foods are a major factor in increasing numbers of people suffering from cancer, arthritis, obesity, dental disease and heart disease. Symptoms like dull hair, yellowing skin tones and loss of teeth are easy to recognise, but the source is rarely pinpointed: poor diet and stress are usually the cause.
According to many doctors, people can live for many years on foods that come out of bags, cans and boxes … but do these foods promote health? If they did, our bodies would not be suffering from poor health, fatigue and more serious health complaints.
Now, remember I am talking about choices here – and the choices you make are you own. Maybe think about how you would like to look and feel when it’s time to go to your granddaughter’s high school graduation …
Just Make the Right Choices!
Eat all the carrot and celery sticks you want — unless you have a problem with digestion and eating raw foods, in which case you can boil them and still eat all you want. The fact is you can eat all the fruit and vegetables you want (the exception being if you have food allergies or food intolerances, Ed.), lose weight, and get healthier at the same time.
Pills, Pills and more Pills
How many hundreds of diet products are on the market today? Hundreds. And several of them claim to be ‘safe and all natural’, which I personally mistrust, because they are manufactured.
What can be more natural then to eat an organic carrot or celery stick or apple or orange? People: forget the diet fads and pills and eat all you want, eat great soups, salads, steamed vegetables, in as big a bowl as you want, and I will guarantee you this; you are not going to put on pounds. As a matter of fact, they are going to drop off like crazy.
Sugar Kills
Oh, but you love sugar, I know: so do I. So I eat lots of it … only now I get it from fruit (the only exception for some people here again is fructose, Ed.), especially during the summer. Oh my goodness all those summer fruit and berries.
But it’s also not only about choices. It’s about habit and cellular memory. Your body craves white sugar, cakes and biscuits and soft drinks, because that is what you feed it so it gets used to it. But you can break the sugar craze. I did, so I know you can. Eat some organic grapes; they’re GREAT!
Honestly, breaking the habit for sweet stuff isn’t that hard. You can keep eating sugar; just get it from another source – a natural source.
Tons of information
There is no excuse anymore. If you don’t feel you have enough information to change, there are 1000s of books on the market on diet and exercise. One I would recommend is Fit For Life. It is an excellent read and an excellent source for eating well and losing weight. You can lose all the weight you want and still eat all you like.
You don’t have to join any system they’re selling on TV or join any clubs. All you really need to do is make the right choices.
Obesity is not a life sentence
Still thinking of what you call ‘yummy junk food?’ Okay, well, let’s see if we can’t come up with some substitutes that taste just as yummy but are good for you. We’ll even go for substitutes for the good stuff, like desserts.
Are you an ice cream lover? How about substituting the bought stuff with homemade ice cream or its close cousin, yogurt? How about getting an ice cream maker and making your own ice cream. You’ll find it’s hard to make bad-tasting ice cream. (Of course there was that time I tried to make pistachio ice cream and it was so bad that even my dog wouldn’t eat it and he acted like I’d tried to poison him, but hey, that’s not the norm.) Stick with me; give it a try and you’ll find yourself eating more healthily, feeling great, and really enjoying what you eat.
*This is an edited version of the full article which you can read on the below website.
