Weightloss vs Healthgain 

In case you have come to this website looking for weight loss advice… You have found it! Here is my advice: FORGET ABOUT WEIGHTLOSS! Yes, I am serious, just forget about it. Don’t dwell on it, don’t think about it, don’t count calories, don’t beat yourself up over it, don’t follow some funky diet. Instead, picture yourself doing all kinds of healthy things, focus on cleaning up the foods you eat, the liquids you drink, choosing the right physical activities for you and re-programming your brain to think happy. …and your weight will take care of itself automatically. Too many people, especially women, are trying to follow some beauty ideals about how our bodies and faces should look. Unfortunately, many of us forget about one big thing: the beauty of our mind and heart. There is no make-up or diet for this.

The word “weightloss” itself sounds kind of negative, I am “losing” something. Who wants to “lose”? Now, how does the word “healthgain” sound? Much better, right? Because you are “gaining” something, you are “winning” which makes you a “winner”! Yay! So, focus your attention on gaining your health back rather than on losing pounds. If you are a little overweight, healthy and happy, for God’s sake don’t change. If you are a little skinny, healthy and happy, for God’s sake don’t change. You don’t need to fit into some body size ideals as long as you are healthy and happy. So, stop eating for weightloss, start eating for healthgain! The following are some ideas to get healthy.

Cleaning up the foods you eat:

Your body wants and needs nutrition which it really only gets from “original” foods. Original foods are the types of food your body was designed to break down and absorb their ingredients to use for energy, to properly function and to repair and heal itself. Those foods are fruits, vegetables, nuts and a little bit of animal products such as meat but only every now and then and add some healthy oils like olive oil or walnut oil. Make sure that original foods are the majority of items you eat every single day. You can treat yourself to other things like chocolate, chips, cake, cheese, sausage etc if you must but really keep that to a bare minimum. Those kinds of “foods” are an invention of mankind that the food industry uses to lurk and tempt you with while sucking your hard-earned money out of your pockets. Next thing you know, you gain weight, your skin breaks out, you get pimples, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, acid reflux or worse, you develop diseases like diabetes, osteoporosis, obesity or even cancer and the medicine industry is next in line to suck the remaining hard-earned money out of your pockets. So, instead of going to the “Pharmacy” after getting sick from all the processed foods, go to the “Farmacy” first and PREVENT getting sick by eating “original” (unprocessed) foods as they come fresh from the farm. Makes sense? Here are some simple food swaps to clean up your food intake immediately:

Craving sweets? Instead of candy, eat fruit such as peach, grapes, cherries, watermelon, ripe banana, dried cranberries or raisins…

Craving salt? Instead of chips, eat olives, roasted/salted sunflower kernels, avocado with some salt, boiled egg with some salt…

Craving crunch? Instead of crackers, eat carrots, nuts, raw or lightly steamed cauliflower, broccoli, cucumber slices…

Craving creamy texture? Instead of cheese dips, eat bell pepper dipped in hummus, 3 teaspoons peanut butter…

Craving Reese’s peanut butter cup? Eat a Reese’s peanut butter cup. But just one! …maaayyybeee two if you absolutely have to …or three if they are small. But that’s it! No more! 😉  And then drink a glass of fresh water to flush it down and to give your body liquid to help digest the gooey chocolate treat and to bring yourself mentally back on track to healthgain. Look at processed foods as treats that you allow yourself here and there but not every day and certainly not in big quantities.  

Portion size:

Your stomach is about as big as your fist. It stretches as you put food and liquids into it. It can overstretch and enlarged if you constantly eat too much. After a while it will stay at a bigger size and your feeling of being full will come later and later. You will need more food for your stomach to send signals to your brain that you are full. That results in weight gain. Also, your stomach can shrink if you constantly eat too little or nothing at all. Small amounts of food will make you feel full quicker and you won’t be able to get enough nutrients. Therefore, the size of food you should put into your stomach on a regular basis should be about the size of your fist. That would be the optimal amount of food, about 4 to 5 times a day to keep a constant energy supply to your body for your daily activities. Be aware that the portion sizes at most restaurants in the US are way too big. You can easily make two meals out of one and I almost always do that. I take the leftovers home for the next day. That way, too, if my dinner costs $18, it technically only costs $9 as I have lunch for the following day. Or if you are eating out with a friend you can split one dish (and may even have room for dessert. Sweet!). Saving money. 😊 

Cleaning up the liquids you drink:

The number one liquid that you consume most every single day needs to be water! Forget all those sodas, energy drinks, sports drinks, juices, milk drinks, mixed and sweetened coffee drinks, alcohol… They just exist, again, for the food industry to take your money. Focus on plain water or unsweetened tea. You don’t like plain water because it has no flavor? You don’t like unsweetened tea because it is not sweet enough? Well, that’s sad because apparently the food industry has raised you to only like products that have been artificially flavored and sweetened. But your body was not designed to process their products. And your wallet shouldn’t pay for this. Actually, in the end your health will be paying for this… hello weight gain, diabetes, ulcers… Time to go back to your roots. Start drinking more plain water and tea. To make that transition, drink only two thirds of the processed drinks you are currently consuming, then cut back to half and cut back again to only a third and even less. Over time your taste buds will adjust to become more sensitive again and you will notice how sweet these artificial products truly are! And no, you don’t need milk! Milk is for babies to fatten up quick and grow fast. Adults do not need milk. Many teenagers and adult people are lactose intolerant, which means that their bodies can’t process the milk of another species. Which is actually quite normal. Where else would you get your calcium and Vitamin D from? Vegetables such as broccoli, mushrooms, spinach, eggs and sunlight. It’s a nice play by the food industry to add vitamin D to the milk to make you believe that you need milk to get enough Vitamin D. Makes me sad that so many people believe it and pass it on to their children. So, again, back to your roots, drink plain water and unsweetened tea, stay hydrated, help your body to function properly and gain your health back!

Choosing the right physical activities for you:

Some people love to run, some people love to swim, some people love to bike, some people love to lift heavy weights, some people love to practice martial arts, some people love to play volleyball, some people love to walk a dog, some people love to dance, some people love to bowl… what do you love to do? Even if you don’t like to exercise or sweat, there has got to be an activity you love to do. If you feel like you have no time to exercise, you can incorporate additional activities into your daily schedule such as - taking the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator - or you can make house cleaning and yard work an exercise by moving a little faster, clean in the rhythm of some good music, tighten all your muscles when you rake leaves or use buckets as weights and do arm curls when carrying them. Or maybe joining a group or some neighbors will motivate you to exercise. Get creative and get moving, no matter how and what and where, as long as you move your body every day for 30 minutes or more. You can do it! And “oh, I am on my feet all day working at an assembly line, so I move all day”, sorry, that doesn’t count as exercise. You are moving, yes, but you are putting wear and tear on your body. Whereas exercise targets certain muscles to become stronger and support your everyday movements.

Re-programming your brain to think happy:

Now this is a little trickier to accomplish but this is THE KEY to a truly healthy life! It all starts in your mind. Your mind is what decides what lands on your plate. Your mind is what decides if you are going to exercise or not. Your mind has the power over your entire body to keep it in positive energy or not. Your mind has the ability to make you feel happy or not. Your mind is what makes or breaks you. There is a lot of literature and studies out there explaining the entire process in detail of how your mind and your thoughts affect your body physically. For instance, Tom Woloshyn describes it in his book “The Complete Master Cleanse” starting on page 43. The long and short is, you can support your body’s health by thinking positive and happy thoughts, by laughing and by being at peace in your mind. A positive mind usually can keep the body healthy and strong. A negative mind often reflects in physical health problems. So how do you think happy? By focusing on the positive. By seeing the positive in every situation. By not dwelling over negative things. By being around positive and happy people. By doing things you like. By taking time for yourself and taking care of yourself. Acknowledge the good you already have in your life and show gratitude. Walk around smiling, be kind, spread love, less arguing and more accepting, you don’t need to fix everyone and everything, let go of things in the past, spend time with yourself, get to know yourself, find out what you want and what makes you happy, admire someone else’s beauty without questioning your own, don’t expect or assume things (expectations and assumptions are the worst enemies of happiness and peace!), picture yourself happy, focus on building the new you…

Once you become aware of how powerful your thoughts are, you will realize that everything in your life is how YOU allow it to be.