Unlimited Potential Healing Center

• Are you confused by conflicting weight loss programs?

• Have you tried all the diets that instead of reducing your bottom adds only to the bottom line of the weight-loss gurus and manufacturers of the products that they hawk?

• Have weight loss programs been too rigid or stressful–too much work for too little return?

There is no clear consensus among experts. Worse yet, they may offer opposite advice–eat mostly fruit and vegetables and grains, which are carbs, versus eat very little (Low Carbohydrate Diet), eat a low fat, low protein diet versus eat a high protein/fat one (Atkins), eat a high fat, low carbs (Keto), follow intermittent fasting, or….

Is the confusion making you crazy? Surely, if the experts disagree, how do figure out what is going to work for you even if some programs work for some people, some of the time?

#1. No one dietary or exercise program works for all.

Eat for your body type?

The evidence is that no one program works for everyone although there are various good ones that work for many. Body or blood typing may be a reason why. Ayurvedic Medicine brought to Western attention by Deepak Chopra in Perfect Health says that there are ten possible body types, each that require its own dietary plan and exercise program for maximum health and weight loss. Ayurveda determines the body type by a constellation of personality traits, and this can be obtained by a self-scoring questionnaire.

Eat for Your Blood Type?

But Dr. Peter D’Adamo in Eat Right for Your Type claims that blood type (O, A, B and AB) is what determines which dietary and exercise plan is necessary. He argues that our ancestors adapted over eons by eating their own specific diets. This adaptation to or lack of exposure to specific foods is what determines which are digestible or not, act like medicine or poison to the body, speed up or slow down the metabolism, compromise or assist in the production of insulin, create or upset or hormonal balance, and promote health or create problems such as water retention, thyroid disorders, ulcers, and more. In other words, by eating the foods that are right for your type, you improve your overall heath, of which one side benefit is weight loss.

#2. When you eat the foods that are right for you, for whatever reason makes it right, not only do you feel better, but that good feeling translates into being more active and, consequently, trimmer and healthier.

#3. Weight loss is a do-it-yourself project. 

With so many vastly different approaches, I believe that each person must do his own research, prudent self-experimentation on a “canʼt hurt” basis, and observe the results. Start with the obvious. Use your common sense! Let improvement in overall health and vitality be your guide.

#4. Start with the obvious & go on from there.

Ed Victor, author of The Obvious Diet, claims that most people already know why they are fat and what they need to do about it. He advises that each person come up with his own program rather than follow someone elseʼs because the rules you make up yourself are the ones you are more likely to stick to. Can you think of one thing which if you did on a regular difference would make a positive difference for you?

#5. Weight loss is first and foremost about improving overall health.

Weight loss and management is about loving and honoring yourself and reflecting that in how you take care of yourself. It is a side effect of greater health, and requires establishing a lifestyle of good eating, exercise and lifestyle habits (including adequate sleep, fun, and stress reduction) that are maintained long-term most of the time. Amplify every system of the body so that it is functionally optimally.

#6. Enhance Digestion

Live foods, enzymes, herbs and spices assist digestion. What doesn’t get digested, doesn’t get absorbed. This leads to cravings.

Consider food combinations.

Harvey Diamond in Fit for Life is claims that foods that utilize incompatible enzymes for digestion (i.e., fruits and anything else, or meat and starch) end up putrefying in your body, causing improper absorption of nutrients, fatigue and toxicity leading to disease and weight gain.

The Role of Elimination, Circulation, Respiration, Lymphatic System, & Muscles

Improve elimination with drinking lots of water, and, possibly doing a colon, liver, or gall bladder cleanse. Enhance circulation with exercise, dietary changes, herbs, or specific therapies. Enhance respiration with deep breathing, laughter, vigorous movement, and increased oxygen. Oxygen burns fat, reduces stress, and raises endorphins (your bodyʼs natural pain killers and feel-good chemicals). Build muscle because muscle burns fat. Enhance the lymph system with exercise or lymph drainage massage. Most importantly, get the toxins out of your body.

#7. Toxicity is a major consideration

Kevin Trudeau in his updated Natural Cures “They” Donʼt Want You to Know About says that most fat people have

• low metabolism caused by problems with the thyroid, pancreas, liver, stomach, small and large intestines, or colon
• under active thyroid, which can be caused by fluoride
• improper functioning pancreas, which can be caused by food additives, and refined sugar and white flour
• clogged and sluggish liver, which can be caused by medications, cholesterol reducing drugs, chloride, fluoride, food additives, refined sugar and white flour, artificial sweeteners, monosodium glutamate (MSG), and preservatives
• sluggish digestive system, which can be caused by insufficient digestive enzymes possibly from food additives, candida yeast overgrowth, or toxicity
• toxicity caused by medications, chemical residues in food, food additives, chlorine, fluoride, and insufficient exercise
• hormonal imbalances, which can be caused by toxicity or lack of walking, and are highly toxic in general. (Toxicity causes you to retain water and increase fat storage.)
• large appetite caused by improper assimilation of food from inadequate digestive enzymes, candida yeast overgrowth, or food additives
• eat when they are not hungry because of habit, stress, emotional eating, or physiological food cravings. (Physiological food cravings can be caused by toxins or candida yeast overgrowth.)
• eat larger portions than thin people because of larger appetite, inability to assimilate nutrients, physiological cravings, emotional issues, stress, and habit
• consume more “Diet Food”, which are loaded with artificial sweeteners, sugar or chemical additives that make you fat and are addictive.
• eat shortly before bed. (Late eaten food is turned into fat storage instead of metabolized.)
• are adversely affected by growth hormones in meat and dairy products
• think of themselves as fat–a self-fulfilling prophecy.

#8. Parasites, hypoglycemia, and allergies also cause cravings and overweight.

Two- thirds of all obese people have a sugar addiction characterized by craving for sugar.

#9. If you crave it, you are either allergic or missing some vital nutrient contained in that food!

People with a sugar addiction are conditioned to burn sugar not fat for energy. After the addiction is gone, the insulin level stabilizes and the person begins to burn fat instead. The sweetness in both sweetened and artificially sweetened drinks and foods tend to stimulate the appetite. People who consume them gain more weight than those who donʼt.

However, if you are craving a healthy food such as spinach, butternut squash, or fish, you may need the nutrients in that food.

Here is the test:

Do you feel better or worse one hour after eating that craved food? If you have more energy and are thinking more clearly, then it was needed. But if you are tired, sluggish, then you should limit or avoid that food in future.

#10. People overeat because they donʼt feel good.

Anything, physical or emotional, that causes you to not feel good, can cause weight gain, either directly, or because it creates a disinclination for physical activity, and a tendency to reach for fattening foods. Unfortunately, when you donʼt feel good, you may gravitate to alcohol or the quick-fix energy of fat, sugar, white flour, and caffeine. A weight loss program needs to address not just what and how but also why you eat.

#11. Anything that causes stress can trigger overeating. Anger and guilt head the list.

Even with the possible physical causes, most people are fat because of emotional eating and stress. Eating can be an addiction, and most people who are overweight by 50 pounds have a real psychological need that food is providing. Stress management and healing emotional wounds should be included in any comprehensive weight loss program. Unless you deal with the emotional or psychological reasons why you eat, any victories against the scale will be temporary.

#12. Donʼt blame your genes!

It is your eating, exercise and lifestyle habits, and stress – not your genes – that make you fat. While some people are born with a slower metabolism, learned behavior is more important than genealogy in obesity. What food habits were you taught? Did your family use food to reward or to show love, or to avoid confrontation and intimacy? Did your family use food to fill an emotional void, to comfort, to dull pain or boredom? Using food to satisfy emotional needs can get you into big trouble. Identifying with fat friends or relatives can also cause unconscious behaviors that duplicate their weighty results.

#13. Low calorie or highly restricted diets backfire!

The best way to gain weight is to go on low calorie diet! What your body loses is not fat but lean muscle tissue and water. Long term, low calorie diets are a form of starvation. Your body knows this, and becomes a very efficient fat-conservation machine in response. Low calorie diets and long term fasting can lead to a large insulin reaction that can block fat from leaving. It slows metabolism down dramatically to between 25-40%. This slower metabolism continues until up to a year after you have regained all the previously lost weight. After several weeks of a formula diet when you start eating again, your body may absorb fat by 300-400% above normal.

The more you diet, the heavier you get.

If you have been on many diets, your metabolism may never readjust unless you undertake a vigorous exercise program. Exercise is the best way to speed up the metabolism, but hypnotic or auto suggestions also work, as do certain herbs. Whereas, artificial sweeteners or corn syrup and certain foods can slow down metabolism.

#14. Allow for some amount of “cheating”.

A long-term weight loss program should be flexible enough to include some occasional or small deviations from your program. For example, a small portion of whatever you want on an occasional basis so that you donʼt feel deprived and self-sabotage. Instead of buying a bag of cookies and then being tempted to eat through it in just a few days, buy one when you are out for your weekly shopping. Perhaps you want to save that special treat when you go out with others. For example, share a desert. The important thing is cheat outside of the house, and not to bring home those snack items that you would devour in no time.

#15. Start with Food Substitution

While it is common sense to lower the overall calorie consumption, it may not be necessary to reduce the overall volume of food (you can eat a lot of watermelon and lose weight). Food substitution is an easy way to start making changes without starving yourself.

What works for many people is to substitute fresh fruits and vegetables and lots of water, herbal tea, soup for anything that would cause you to binge. Increase the portions of non-processed fruit and vegetables and reduce the portions of fatty meat, cheese, etc. And most importantly, substitute food made from scratch from non-GMO foods for anything that is processed.

16. Make it easy or you won’t keep it going.

If your food plan is not easy, you won’t make it a lifelong practice. Make sure that you have quality food that you can grab readily available in the house, or when you go out if you go past mealtime. One way to do this is to cook your dinner in bulk, package some for tomorrow’s lunch, and freeze additional portions. Then you have only to move out of the freezer (or move down to the main part of the fridge) a few hours before to defrost for a quick meal. Avoid microwaving to do this as microwaved food also is toxic.

16. Pay now for good quality food or pay doctors later for poor health.

Substitute food that is organic from food that is not.  Almost all corn and soy is GMO (genetically modified), but the list of GMO foods is growing. Do some research. GMO foods are toxic because your body does not know how to process them, and toxicity is linked to weight gain. High fructose corn syrup, aspartame, and MSG (now known by many other names–google) is known to cause weight gain, so avoid it completely. Read the labels. 

17. Exercise is important, but not all exercise is equal.

Lean people move more. Sustained, repetitive movements like walking, jogging, cycling, and running burn fat. But quick, spurt exercise like baseball and basketball burn carbohydrates. The earlier in the day that you exercise, the greater your overall resting metabolic rate for the rest of the day. There is a 40-60% increase in fat burn if you exercise in the morning as opposed to the afternoon or evening.

18. Deal with what’s eating you.

This is where I come in as I specialize in helping people resolve mental and emotional issues, and then teaching them how to do it for themselves. There are lots of simple stress management tools and techniques that are easy to learn and quick to do. These include self-hypnosis, the Emotional Freedom Technique, Glass of Water Technique, Walking Mantras (both outlined in my book Your Unlimited Potential, a complete self-hypnosis course), affirmations, the Infinite Intelligence Process (as outlined in my book Accessing More — Tapping into the Eternal, Unlimited Self with the Infinite Intelligence Process), and a host of other strategies outllined in another book of mine, Releasing Anger without Killing Anyone. 

19. Stopping smoking need not cause weight gain!

One-third of people who stop smoking lose weight because they feel so much better that they no longer avoid activity. One-third of people who stop smoking stay exactly the same. One-third of people who stop smoking gain an average of 5-6 pounds, which is usually gone in one year as the metabolism readjusts. Only 10% gain as much as 30 pounds. These are people who are simply switching addictions. They are probably eating to fill some psychological need. A good hypnosis stop smoking program can address those needs. Weight gain from quitting can be headed off with a simple plan to exercise, drink more water, and eat fresh fruits and vegetables, and practicing stress management tools.

#20. Create a Support System – in Person and in Meditation

Identify and associate with people who are following healthy routines – eating, exercise, stress management, or lifestyle – and with ethical values you respect. You unconsciously become like the people with whom you associate and identify. While it is important to have a network of support of people you see or talk to on a regular basis, it is possible to gain strength from those you only know of, even role models of people long dead. Put their picture on your fridge, or desktop. In meditation, link your mind with the universal consciousness that allows/allowed them to be healtlhy and strong, and live in a way you admire and respect.