Lets NOT do lunch Diet

The Tally

2012-01-10T16:03:00.000-08:00

Wake up

2 eggs
2 pieces of toast
2 tablespoons of jelly containing high fructose corn syrup (next time you shop note how difficult it is to find one with sugar and NOT HFCS as an additive)
small glass orange juice
_____________________________
danish and coffee
___________________________
2 pieces of bread
3 slices deli cut turkey
1 slice mozarella cheese
small pasta salad
pickle spear
Tablespoon of mayonnaise
3 lettuce leaves
2 small chocolate chip cookies
_________________________________
bag of potato chips and a kit kat bar from office vending machine
________________________________
3 pieces of fried chicken (wing, thigh, leg)
mashed potatoes with gravy
salad
serving of carrots
dinner roll
cole slaw 1/2 cup
small piece of apple pie
________________________
8 0z. glass of milk
4 oreo cookies

Bed time

Where does all this food go? Your body knows not to waste it. It's trained not to waste the calories it has been blessed to have been given. It saves the excess calories that aren't burned. It saves them in the "bank" in case you need them on that rainy day, week, or month that never comes. Is your bank full of deposits?

The Dieters Prayer

2011-10-15T06:53:00.000-07:00

Lord, protect me from gluttony and harm,
as you protect me from hunger.

Pray, guide me daily to be filled with your love,
knowing,
that I do not live by bread alone.

As you provide for the birds of the field, and all living things,
I pray provide for me and all mankind.

Hallowed be thy name, Amen

The Slow Burn

2011-08-18T11:20:00.000-07:00

To conclude the Brandon and Miles therapy sessions:

What is anger? Is it a negative emotion? Is it something to be ashamed of & banished from your personality? No it isn't. It's part of you just like your capacity to love or befriend and help others is part of you. Anger is an extreme form of confidence and it is NOT inappropriate when the anger is justified. What is an example of justifiable anger? It is what I call the parable of Mr. Jones and here it is:

The shop owner, Mr. Jones, who works hard is robbed one day. He repairs the damage to the window the thief used to enter his store. It is an expensive repair. The police are helpful and supportive but the robber is not caught. Two days later he is robbed again. A little more goods are stolen. The robber breaks the same recently repaired window to gain entry. The thief leaves a note taunting the shop owner and admitting that he is the same robber who struck 2 days before. He has signed the note with the initials TMD
The shop owner repairs the window at his expense, buys replacement goods, and is robbed again 2 days later. In the store Mr. Jones finds another taunting note left by the thief TMD. He tells the shop owner in the handwritten note that he is going to continue robbing him until the owner leaves the neighborhood or goes broke. Each time TMD takes more and more goods from Mr. Jones's shop. This continues for months. TMD keeps robbing Mr. Jones until he is bankrupt. The shopowner never got angry. He just accepted his fate even though he was being exploited and harmed by TMD the thief.

Anger in this case is the normal and understandable response to being harmed by TMD. Every day most of us are harmed by the caloric loading of Three Meals Daily yet we tolerate it. We do get angry but we continue to be robbed of our well-being. We don't know who to blame though because we are doing what we were taught and told. We were told that Everyone should eat at least 3 meals per day. We were also told that smoking was a good method of weight control not so long ago. How did that bit of wisdom work out for us? You have the right to be angry about misinformation when it is harming you. Channel your slow burn anger at the concept that is doing the harm and change it.
Use the slow burn focus of your anger to outwit and overcome the thief who robs you everyday of your ideal weight and health.

What is Miles Talking About?!!?

2011-08-07T13:25:00.000-07:00

Brandon was puzzled. Miles, like so many therapists do, was talking in riddles. He was trying to lead Brandon to the answer to weight management by guiding Brandon to it without just handing it to him. He might as well be asking the old, "and how does that make you feel Brandon?" question. On the next visit with Dr. Miles Thompson Brandon told him, "Miles, the only thing I could come up with was "patience" or "determination" or "commitment. Things like that. I know based on our previous conversations that you want me to EXPERIENCE the answers to my problems rather than you just giving me the answer. I have come to understand that and don't disagree. Am I on the right track?"

"Brandon", Dr. Thompson said, "this may surprise you but the emotion you need to utilize is ANGER. I admit this is controversial so I need to explain further. Just like the other emotions this one helps you solve problems and accomplish things in your life. Anger is not always a negative emotion any more than kindness is always a positive emotion when you are being taken advantage of. Most of us refer to Christianity or other religious faith to determine if our behavior is acceptable. Is anger acceptable? Of course it is. Using Christianity as an example, did Jesus Christ ever use anger to resolve a problem? The answer is yes. He used the emotion to right a perceived wrong when he witnessed the Jewish temple being used in a way he didn't approve of. He drove the money changers out of the temple in an act of anger, even to the point of violence! Many modern therapists don't acknowledge that. I do, and believe it is very important! Please think about that Brandon and let's talk about this again.

Brandon left the Doctors office and felt relieved. He wasn't sure exactly why he felt that way but he did. He had never thought about anger being used this way. It was shocking but clearly true. Christ had felt anger and used it in achieving what he perceived as a desirable outcome! How could anyone presume to think that anger is not a useful acceptable part of their personality!

Brandon Takes the Therapy Home

2011-07-16T17:56:00.000-07:00

The appointment with Dr. Miles Thompson was over. Brandon was driving away on automatic pilot because he was concentrating so intently on what his therapist had said to him in response to Brandon's last request for help.

This is what Miles told Brandon, "As human beings many emotions drive us Brandon. Ego, Id, Superego, fear, love, jealousy, greed, anger, just to name a few. These emotions or states of mind help us get through life. They help us deal with other people. They help us get what we want and need out of life just like our anatomy helps us get what we need. Everything about us physically and mentally by design helps us succeed. For example hearing and sight help us get what we need out of life. The same is true of emotions. If you see food or you see something frightening you react to it in a way that helps you survive. Emotions work the same way. I want you to leave this appointment today and begin considering what emotions or states of mind can assist you in losing weight and becoming healthy. Those emotions are part of you. They are powerful attributes ready to assist you just as much as your eyesight can lead you to a supersized cheeseburger or away from a very hungry lion. Understanding your emotions and states of mind and using them is how you open the door to the throne room and seize your crown."

He Who Wears the Crown

2011-07-09T18:42:00.000-07:00

"Brandon", Miles the therapist said, "five hundred years ago civilized nations were governed by monarchs." " In many countries those monarchs were perceived as god-like, or even god himself. This was true of the Japanese emperor as recently as the 20th century. He or she who wore the crown had absolute power. The same is nearly true of each of us today. If we are in good health and reasonably affluent we have near absolute power regarding our diet. We choose our food kingdom. We choose to make the consumption of food important or unimportant. We choose what, when, where, and how much to eat. We decide whether the consumption of food is secular or non-secular or a combination of both. We choose the contents, size and frequency of our plates sometimes blessed by our God."

Miles continued, "Some of us think very little about this power. In fact, many of us feel just the opposite of what I have just said. Many of us feel enslaved by our appetites and are the dogs being wagged by our tails"

Brandon said, "Miles, I would like to be the monarch regarding my diet. I would like to wear the crown but I feel more like a subject than a king. I feel like I am overpowered and subject to my appetite instead of the other way around. There are times when I literally feel, weak, faint, and I just eat and eat and eat every day and night. I know that is why I am fat. I am not a ruler or monarch. I am a dog being wagged by its tail.

I am going to change that Doctor! Help me change that! Tell me what to do!"

Brandon Gets an Ear Full

2011-07-02T07:42:00.000-07:00

After explaining to Miles, his therapist that walking through a grocery store or a mall food court, and watching people devour their supersized portions that one of the emotions he felt was anger , Miles asked Brandon if he had these other feelings as well:

1)betrayal,2) jealousy, & 3)manipulation when others consume a tray of food or for example when the dessert cart comes out at a restaurant. Brandon responded "Yes" to having those feelings from time to time.

Miles explained those feelings to Brandon this way:
"Brandon you are witnessing a very raw power. That is why you have those feelings. Those are your reactions to that power. Food in a real sense is a life and death issue. Deep, very deep in your psyche you know that. When you smell food cooking or witness other people eating food you in fact particapate in the consumption of that other persons food through your senses of sight and smell. The power is so strong that even as civilized and rational as we all are, if we haven't eaten in several hours we may find ourselves salivating though we eat nothing of what we see or smell. So, the truth is without eating the food we can be viscerally effected by it. That Brandon, is TRUE power. When something can effect us and cause a physical reaction through only sight and smell we must rationalize the effect or be overcome by it. For example, we rationalize that although we may be very hungry to the point of salivating, your civilized rational mind prevents you from clubbing the person next to you and taking their food. You rationalize it but you also may be left feeling angry, cheated, & manipulated, left out, etc. Right?

More from our new friends Brandon and Dr. Miles Thompson to follow......

Therapy for Brandon

2011-07-01T11:05:00.000-07:00

Brandon finally decided to let it all out. Rather than starting a diet without some kind of professional advice he had decided to seek out a therapist to discuss food issues. He had been visiting Dr. Thompson for about 2 months, normally on Wednesday afternoons and sometimes Thursday mornings. He had come to realize he had to be more open with the Dr. about his frustrations with food and diet.

This was the day. He was going to let all his defenses and insecurities down and just "let it fly". It was exhilarating! Just the thought of getting it all out on the table to discuss and dissect with Dr. Thompson filled him with hope and happiness.

He parked his car and took the elevator up to Dr. Thompson's office. They greeted one another and sat down. He asked if he could just tell the Doctor about his frustrations at not being able to get to a healthy weight. Dr. Miles Thompson encouraged him to do just that.

"Well Miles" he said, "I find myself being angry and ashamed frequently every day."
"What is making you feel that way?" asked Miles.
If I walk through a grocery store, or the food court at a mall, I get angry and frustrated about all the good food there. The smell of food cooking makes me hungry but it also makes me angry because that hunger has caused me to be obese," Brandon revealed.

More on Brandon's therapy session soon.....

"The Natural"

2011-06-09T06:04:00.000-07:00

"He's a natural"......"She's a natural"......."You are a natural".......Whenever someone says that about you or someone else they are paying one of the greatest compliments anyone can receive. It means they see in someone else a touch of genius. Genius by definition isn't learned. You are either gifted with it or you are not. Einstein didn't study hard to become a genius. He was gifted by nature with genius about physics & mathematics.

There is one area of your life that you are a "natural". It is an area wherein you share that glimmer of heaven sent knowledge with the great thinkers, artists and scientists. You my friends........ are the Leonardo Da Vinci of your diet.

Your choice is to squander your natural gift or develop your gift for the enjoyment and fulfillment of yourself and others. I can help you develop your natural gift. Are you ready for the beauty and wonder that developing your natural talent can bring to you and others? If the answer is "Yes, I am ready" then comment back and lets begin!

The Beauty & The Wonder

2011-05-10T13:19:00.000-07:00

There is great appreciation for beauty in the world and there is great sadness. At any given time someone is experiencing one of those feelings. Certainly there is great evil in the world but there is an end to evil things just as there is an end to good things. A great evil ended recently when Usama Bin Laden breathed his last. A great good ended last month when one of the inspirations for my blog, Mr. Walter Breuning of Great Falls, Montana died at the age of 114. Until his passing he was the oldest living man on earth. Walter recommended eating twice per day and I recommend the same thing. I came to know of Walter shortly after beginning my blog many months ago. To know that the oldest living man at the time recommended the basic diet I had been recommending gave me reassurance that I was on the right track and that my advice was sound. I hope you take great comfort in that fact too.
My mother died last year. It will be one year exactly since her death on June 1st. I have wonderful memories of her youth and beauty that fill me with happiness on a daily basis. The sadness of her passing is part of me too though and that is the wonder of life. It is an astonishment that we can experience both feelings about such an event. To understand that is the essence of love I think. Good and evil return though don't they? They are like us. We live and we die but our "natures" do not die. They live on in others who do good and others who do evil. That will never end will it? Until the human race is no more there will always be another Usama Bin Laden type of person and there will be other wonderful women like my mother and sweet old gents like Walter Breuning. Astonishing!

Regarding the Apple

2011-03-30T03:30:00.000-07:00

A stem, a skin, some seeds and pulp. Polished or unpolished. Gala or Fuji. None are too big for your hand to hold. No plate, no fork, spoon, or knife required. All you need is a bite. Electricity? Gas? Oven? Range top? Superfluous. Its pleasing shape and color an eternal subject of the artist brush, rendered on canvas, holding its storied place in creation and knowledge. Certainly Sir Newton would agree, as would Eve and Adam, it is no unimportant delight. From the beginning, before we THOUGHT we knew answers to inevitable questions of lifes meaning the luscious fruit accompanied us, before we knew even to name it, springing out of the warmth, between heaven and earth, at limbs leafy end, for our grasping, to be plucked************************* I hope you enjoyed my paragraph. Every meal should be like that, savored, appreciated, and hopefully shared. Even if it is not shared, or can't be, you have your memories and your thoughts to accompany you. May they all be affirmatively apple sweet....... Stock Market: I am a buyer of (KCAP) and holder of (NAI) and of course...(AAPL)

You Know It's Nonsense

2011-03-16T19:28:00.000-07:00

In the current moment we sometimes miss the obvious. Later that day, or next month (hopefully not in the next life) we look back and see very clearly what we should have done to achieve an outcome we desired. But in that moment of truth, when everything was on the line, we made a choice and it was wrong. That moment happens every day for each of us who struggle with diet and healthy weight. Knowing that serious decisions await us every day can be daunting. Some days we just want things to be easy. Where we go wrong in the "diet moment of truth each day"is the assumption that we have to construct an elaborate plan of balancing carbs and proteins and fats at each meal and counting calories and that snacks have to be "balanced" like a protein bar that is "just right" calorically and balanced in the fat, carb, protein construct. I have news for you.........That is all nonsense. How can I say that! Doctors and diet professionals all agree on the protein, carb, fat balance! It's accepted fact that we need to eat 3 sensible meals each day and snack appropriately to not be hungry! Again, I am sorry to burst your bubble but that is all nonsense. Let me tell you why. The reason is simple. Human beings are NOT fragile creatures. The Great Designer made you to be much, much, more resilient and adaptive than that. You KNOW it is nonsense because YOU are that clever, adaptive, creature, that is the product of thousands of years of development. Your sources for food are immense in this wonderful world. And in the rare case when it is not immense, like it is today on certain coastal parts Japan, those dieters are finding they will adapt. They will move to other areas. They will change their diet and eat different things. They will waste little. They won't be concerned with whether their protein/ratio is correct or if they missed their mid-morning snack, because they learned acutely this week that to survive and thrive they must adapt. They are strong, like you are. As they look back on their lives before the earthquake/tsunami struck they are realizing how utterly predictable their lives were. Now, they are at their essential human selves. They are in survival mode. Of course, I am not saying that we all must live in a post-Tsunami mindset. What I want you to know is that you are as strong as those Japanese survivors are. Every morning when you wake up you are strong. You are nourished from what you ate the day before.. What you do with your day is up to you. You will have many diet "moments of truth" each day. Now you are armed with the knowledge that you don't need as much food as you thought you did and it doesn't have to be perfectly balanced. Act on that knowledge. It is a blessing to know it. Now you know.... thinking you need all that food each day is nonsense....that was the problem all along, looking back on it....it's clear.

The Daily Rut

2011-02-25T05:58:00.000-08:00

Ancient stone quarries are still being discovered. Ruts leading away from the quarries are visible even today though the quarries have been inactive for over a thousand years. The weight of the wagons leaving the quarry made that much of an imprint. The diet ruts we are in can seem that permanent but they are not. Some of us have been in the rut so long that we no longer even question it. If a wooden wheeled wagon that traveled those ancient roads leaving the quarry ever tried to take a new path it would inevitably break a wheel attempting to do so. The ruts were just too deep. It was better to just stay in the rut and complete the journey. Do you ever feel like that? You may attempt a change in your diet, but you know that next week, or next year you will find yourself back in that rut again. You will have gained back the weight you lost. You will eat breakfast, you will eat little snacks, you will eat lunch, you will eat an afternoon snack for a "boost", you will eat supper, you will have a bedtime snack. It's a very familiar rut. You may tinker with it by going "low fat", "high protein", "sugar busters", "weight sentinels", on and on, but the rut is there always pulling you back in. It's the concept that you need to eat again, and again, and again, and again, and again each day (3 meals plus snacks so you never feel "hungry") that is the diet rut. Some people are shocked by how many times they eat per day when they see it written the way I have just written it. But it is the truth. There is an irony in our country that never seems to gain mention. We often hear about how there are children in our country who "go to bed hungry" every night and we must feed them via things like school lunch programs to combat this problem. But, conversely, how often do we hear that our nations youth are suffering from and obesity crisis?
So, which is it? Do we have a youth hunger crisis or a youth obesity crisis?
The first step to getting out of a rut is to recognize that you are in one. You can get out of your diet rut, without breaking a wheel. I would like to help you do that.

The Equation

2011-02-09T09:34:00.000-08:00

The typical person wants to lose weight in America. We are so blessed to have the luxury of this kind of want. We don't "want" for enough food to sustain our body weight us we "want" for some way to shed body weight. In many other countries around the world it is just the opposite. Those people struggle daily to find, afford, enough food to eat to avoid malnutrition.

A great many of us worry not only about our weight but the overall tone of our body. Many of us want to look appealing for our wife or husband, boyfriend girlfriend etc. Healthy tone that the human eye finds appealing is the result of a balance of diet and the right kind of exercise. It really is that simple. The healthy equation is mostly constant with (A) being the right amount of calories consumed + (B) being the right amount of exercise equaling (C) a healthy toned weight.

It is when either (A) or (B) become less than ideal that we get a poor (C). It is a simple equation but so many of us ruin the equation every day with our eating and activity habits.

If it is so simple why is it such a struggle? The answer to that is that (A) is controlled by a very powerful force called ....hunger and (B) is NOT driven by a force equal to hunger. Need a little help?

Absolute Power

2011-01-11T04:57:00.000-08:00

As Lord Acton famously put it, "absolute power corrupts absolutely". But we don't have to worry about that because we live in a constitutional republic where power is divided among 3 branches. We don't have to worry about tyrants oppressing us.

But what about you? What about your diet? With few exceptions, we wield absolute power in that arena. You and I have the absolute power to eat only Reese's peanut butter cups at every meal. We also have the power to go on a "hunger strike" and eat nothing or almost nothing until we expire like many do every year from anorexia nervosa.

There are few arenas in life where we wield absolute power. The workplace?.....No. Intimate personal relationships....No. Friends.....No. Politics and society .......No. These are just a few areas of our lives where power is shared. There are many others. Absolute power is the exception. It is rare.

But NO ONE has the power to FORCE FEED you. As an adult in America you are in total control of what goes into your mouth for food. You have absolute power.

The surprising thing about this fact is that many of us "feel" exactly opposite. We feel enslaved. We feel tyrannized by cravings and urges. We feel "pressured" to eat certain things at certain times.

What I want you to know, and what you must know in order to manage your weight is that you have absolute power over your diet and with that power you can achieve precisely your desired result.

Does that fact make you feel confident or insecure?

I would appreciate your comments on how you will use your absolute power in 2011.

Towel Tossing

2010-12-19T06:00:00.000-08:00

Stay down Rocky!........

You were jabbed solidly in the first 2 rounds until your eyes were mostly shut. After that you couldn't see the The Big Lie throwing punches at you.
In rounds 3 through 6 you took shots to the body from his early educators, school lunch programs, mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks, and cultural traditions. Your midsection really took a beating.
When the 7th round ended, peer pressure and diet books had done their damage "upstairs" on you. By then you would have taken advice from just about anybody on how to beat the fighter that was pounding away on your head in the fight to control your body weight and health. There was no one to help you because personal weight control is mostly a man to man game. It was you against your opponent. In this fight his ring name is The Big Lie. Your only respite from him was between rounds when you got to rest a little before resuming the fight again, (like the sleep you get at night before resuming your day).
In the 10th round your trainer couldn't bear seeing any more damage done. You had become overweight from a lifetime of misinformation and misguided beliefs about healthy eating. You had been knocked down like so many others that had faced him and were trying to get up. The Big Lie who hailed from Threemealtownplussnacks, PA stood waiting for you to get up so he could finish you off.
Your trainer looked at The Big Lie and the damage he had done to you. He wanted you to survive to fight another day so he swung the towel around his head like a lasso in a big loop and tossed it in the middle of the ring shouting again, "Stay down Rocky"!!
The fight was over when the referee saw the towel land on the canvas.
The referee walked over to you grabbed your elbow, helped you get up, and whispered some words of encouragement in your pounded ear, "Twice a day, kid, Twice a day", "You can do it."

Living the Good Life

2010-12-09T06:01:00.000-08:00

The Big Rock Candy Mountain

All You Can Eat Buffet

Butterball Turkey with Stuffing

The "Carnival Cruise Diet"

Yes you can have seconds.

You can eat all you want.

"You just sit right there sir, we'll bring your food to you. You don't have to stand in line if you don't want to."

"Did you bring the antacid honey?"

"Please don't feed the bears"

"Comfort Food"

"It's Snack Time!"

Disconnected

2010-11-12T18:39:00.000-08:00

One of the reasons it is so difficult to manage your weight is that there is very little that you can compare it to. Eating and the effect it has on you is like nothing else. I try to draw comparisons with addictive behaviors like drinking (alcohol) and drug abuse but the truth is the comparisons are useful but not "apples to apples". If you drink alcohol to excess, or smoke or engage in other addictive behaviors it isn't difficult to say "your are harming yourself, STOP!" You can't just say "you are harming yourself, STOP EATING!"

You need to eat. You don't need to smoke. That is one of the BIG reasons managing your weight is so difficult and why it seems so futile. You have to eat to live.

When someone becomes anorexic they have gone completely in the other direction from the obese person. Whereas the obese person is "disconnected" from the effects of food consumption the anorexic person is so "connected" that they are fixated. Anorexic people are often intelligent formerly athletic people who can become so single minded that they become so fully "wired" or "connected" to monitoring their eating that it destroys them. Eating a cracker or one peanut can become a loss of control to the anorexic. They fear that loss of connection to themselves.

Somewhere between the anorexic and the obese is where you want to be. That zone is what all the diet books, weight watchers, nutri-system, e-diet, you-name-the-diet are all about. What is the ideal diet? How can you get the nutrition you need and not become overweight or anorexic?
So much is written about what to eat, how many calories, what are the fat grams of that piece of bread, how many carbs are in that muffin, FORGET ALL THAT!!! THE EVIDENCE THAT EATING SEVERAL TIMES PER DAY, CALORIE COUNTING, JOURNALING, ALL THAT ANALYSIS TO JUSTIFY EATING AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN THROUGHOUT THE DAY IS NOT WHERE THE ANSWER LIES......
Instead, join me in becoming connected to WHEN you eat.
Everyone controls their own weight. You don't set the stage for weight gain when you are asleep. You do it when you are awake and consuming food. Whether you are aware of it or not you are pressured to eat several times a day. Society pressures you to do that. Weight Watchers and many, many, diet books tell you to do that. The diet community and your workplace and school pressure you to eat at least 3 full meals per day. The sooner you realize that fact and that 3 meals per day is TOO MUCH the sooner you will be able resist that pressure and you will be setting your own agenda. You will be connected, TO YOURSELF AND WHAT YOU REALLY NEED IN TERMS OF FOOD.

Busting Through

2010-11-04T17:42:00.000-07:00

Remember when it was getting your "second wind", then later in the last century getting "in the zone"? What is being referred to or described is that ideal state where you can accomplish things you couldn't normally accomplish. It's and "altered state."
( Like the movie of the same name from the 80's if I remember correctly!)
Is it necessary to get in the zone to lose weight in the right way? Well, it certainly won't hurt your efforts. That is why it is no coincidence that there is a very successful set of diet books based on a diet called "The Zone Diet" by Doctor Barry Sears.

How can you apply this to yourself and your diet goals? You can do this by embracing the fact your 2nd wind, zone, altered state etc. occurs when you are active and..... this is very, very, important : it is achieved when you are NOT EATING!
If you are running and getting your 2nd wind, or playing basketball and hit "the zone" and start making a basket with every shot you are not eating. You are in an active state but you are not consuming food.
This can be done with your diet and the truth is I believe it is necessary to lose weight in a healthy way. During the middle part of the day do not consume food! That is when you can enter the zone and your body is ready for you to do that. It awaits your guidance. It awaits your wisdom in this matter.

Bear Paw and the Campfire

2010-10-24T17:04:00.000-07:00

10,000 years ago in what is now South Dakota a young Native American boy has been given a big responsibility. His small tribe is moving their camp from on location to another. It is November and the nights and mornings are cold. On the way to their new camp they stop as darkness falls and build a fire for cooking and warmth. Early the next morning the 11 year old boy, Bear Paw, is told to keep the fire going as the men seek food and the other women and children sleep.
The fire begins to burn down. Bear Paw is getting cold even though he is next to the fire under a buffalo hide. He knows it is time to do something so he looks around the area for dry wood. Finding none he picks up what he can. It is not good fuel. It's green, a little damp from morning dew and heavy. A fire to burn efficiently needs oxygen as much as it needs fuel. Bear Paw doesn't know this. He thinks he needs to feed the fire. He doesn't know it requires a balance of fuel and air to burn hot, bright and grow in a healthy way that will warm his tribe. Bear Paw drops a sodden lump of grass and twigs on the embers. The fire grows quiet as it tries to stay alive and burning. It almost seems to gasp for air, but Bear Paw misinterprets those signals and just keeps feeding the fire thinking it needs more and more fuel. Smoke, a sign of inefficient burning billows up as the fire tries to clear the overload of fuel out. The fire seems to be a living thing as it seeks air by trying to clear the green and damp grass in flames. It can't . The temperature is lowered. The flames are gone. It sputters and grows quiet.
Your digestive system is the campfire. Bear Paw is your eating habits.
When you load your system over and over again throughout the day instead of smoke coming out of your ears you will feel sleepy about 2 or 3 PM and you will store your lunchtime calories. That is how your "fire" deals with the overload. A fire doesn't have expandable fat cells. You do.
Both you and the fire are being "smothered" but instead of growing cold and dying out you become overweight, obese, and prone to disease. Fires are short lived things but they are a great metaphor for diet. You are a longer lived thing but both of you can be so overloaded that you can't catch your breath either. If you can't run and you can't walk and you get the "shakes" during the day because you haven't eaten in 3 hours that is a sign you have been smothering yourself. It will be difficult at first because habits are hard to break but you need to learn to eat less of what you have been eating and examine the quality of your "fuel." Is it sodden, heavy, and too plentiful (3 meals a day plus snacks) everyday? You can make the change. Feed your fire, don't smother it. In the end you will burn bright, hot and healthy if you make the change you know you need to make.

The Quiet Moments

2010-10-18T03:40:00.000-07:00

The Quiet Moments

You have them. You probably have more of them than a factory worker who comes home to a family with 10 stair step children. But even the factory worker with the large family will have his reflective moments. It is in those moments, left alone with your thoughts that you recount your past. Turning over in your mind the successes and failures you have experienced, you and I, and everyone else we know, assesses those ups and downs and the impact they have had on our lives. We consider the little things like menial tasks that must be done that day or the next. Also in those quiet moments we think about the big things, like our mortality (the ultimate personal big thing) and what we hope we can achieve before it arrives. We think about our loved ones and how lucky we are to have them. A crying child, a ringing cell phone, the arrival or departure of a loved one takes us out of that state of mind.

When are your quiet moments?

There are some inevitable ones common to all mankind. The few minutes at night just before you go to sleep is one. The few minutes you have when you are so highly conditioned, that you wake up a minute or 2 before your morning alarm clock tolls is another quiet moment. As you sit down to a meal with your family a Christian tradition is to say a blessing before consuming the food. That is another of the quiet moments. We purposefully impose quiet moments on ourselves in a formal fashion when we pray in groups. A common experience for many of us is a self -imposed moment of silence when a terrible thing has happened and we meet and bow our heads and silently regard that event or the loss of those people to us. It is our highest most personal way of honoring those losses. It is in our silence, ironically that we want to be heard by the ones we lost and connect with them and each other. We are trying to connect with them in a transcendent way. That state of mind is so touchingly, beautifully human. We are saying to ourselves in that moment and to those we are honoring that words are inadequate. That state of mind is one aspect of the strength you have as a human being. It is that state of mind that causes you to stop and regard the moment BEFORE consuming a meal.

To successfully manage your weight those silent moments are very important. Eating needs to become a very conscious act, but,as you know, modern society imposes the opposite. Fast food, the drive through window, a meal in a paper sack are what we have today. So to regard the consumption of food as a both a spiritual and physical act will not be easy. The moment is there though, just a few moments before the first bite.

An Old Photograph Reveals a Great Deal

2010-10-07T07:15:00.000-07:00

It's interesting to look at old photos from 70 to 100 years ago. What I am struck by is how few of the people pictured in those old photos are overweight or obese. Why is that?
I was looking at a picture of a team of firefighters recently from the 1940's while on a tour of Walhalla, SC and in the group of 30 or 40 men 2 of them appeared to be somewhat heavy. At a firestation near my home I sometimes see the firefighters outside of the station cleaning their equipment or mowing the grass. So far, without exception I haven't seen one of them that wasn't clearly overweight. Something (or many things) have/has changed in America to cause this. If you've been reading my blog you know that most Americans are overweight or obese. Current estimates by the medical community are that it exceeds 60% that are overweight.
You may have heard that the high fructose corn syrup producers are upset about how their product is coming to be viewed by the American public. I know that I will not buy any prepared food product that contains the stuff. It has become such an issue now with the public that bread makers commonly place the slogan "contains no high fructose corn syrup" prominently on the plastic bread bags.
The trend towards most of us becoming overweight if you were to graph it shows a steady increase beginning in the 1970's. Guess when high fructose corn syrup became a cheap alternative to sugar and began to be used more and more by the processed food industry?
My short little posts aren't the place to explain the science behind why high fructose corn syrup is not a great food additive. I encourage you to look into on the Internet. I also encourage you to start reading labels at the grocery store and see how many products you buy contain the stuff. I think you'll be surprised.
The HFCS producers are so upset about the public wising up that they have appealed to to the government to be able to change the name of their product to something more innocent. What is the name they want to change to?.......Corn Sugar

That One Thing

2010-09-29T07:52:00.000-07:00

When we were children we believed in Santa Clause. That hopeful but irrational idea lives on within us into adulthood and the evidence is on parade every day. It's on our home pages on the internet in pop up ads such as "acai berry diet breakthrough!" Another place that it is paraded out every day is in the television media. The latest celebrity/politician to capture our eye is a slimmer Bill Clinton. My understanding is that his weight loss began with demands from his daughter to lose weight prior to her wedding. Apparently she was ashamed of his appearance. Now he appears much slimmer and he's been making television appearances lately attributing his weight loss to becoming a "vegan" or at least not eating red meat or dairy. That is his "one thing". That is his "Santa" that solved his problem. The "Santa" delivered the diet gift just in time for his daughters wedding.

We embrace the idea that "one thing" (the Santa effect) is out there somewhere and that it will deliver us from being fat. That one thing could be going Vegan, consuming Acai berry, joining Weight Watchers, running for miles every day, whatever, but we desperately want to find or do that "one thing" that will solve our problem.

People are overweight and especially those who are dangerously overweight want deliverance from their problem. They are hoping to find that "one thing" than will make it all better like Bill Clinton did. I am not offering to be the superman you have been waiting for, nor your Santa, nor your guru or acai berry proponent, not your calorie sentinel. I do want to appeal to the strong, resourceful, intelligent person that you are. That intelligent resourceful person has begun to question how he got himself into the fix he is in and reverse those decisions. That person doesn't accept Santa beliefs or the belief that he needs to eat over, and over, and over, and over again in 8-10 hours. That person has looked at human history and realized that somewhere along the way we got on the wrong diet track

Happy Birthday Walter Breuning 114 years young

2010-09-23T08:42:00.000-07:00

As many of you know my blog and weight loss is based on eating 2 meals per day. One of my inspirations for the diet is Walter Breuning of Great Falls, Montana. Walter is not just the oldest living man in Montana or even the oldest living man in the United States. Walter is the oldest living man on the planet. He celebrated his 114th birthday this week and stood at a podium and made a speech about it! Walter eats twice per day and has done so for a long time.

When I tell knowledgeable people about my diet they often comment by saying, "oh, you're on a calorie restricted diet." Sounds negative doesn't it? Part of understanding my diet is how we as a people got on the "calorie excessive diet", when that began and why. Those who are on my diet eat at the correct time of day and are on "active persons diet" They are not on "a calorie restricted diet."

You don't need to eat 3 meals per day. In fact, it may be unhealthy for you to do so. Ask Walter, the oldest living man on the planet.

Feeling Nothing

2010-09-08T06:18:00.000-07:00

Imagine that you have just had a very satisfying supper. You ate your supper slowly. You had a large serving of chicken, beef, or pork, along with a vegetable, a large helping of mashed or fried potatoes and some bread or rolls, and a salad. After that you had a large serving of pie or cake. The cake or pie was really good so you had another piece. You also drank a large glass of water with your supper. About an hour has gone by since you first sat down to enjoy supper before eating your last bite of cake or pie. You are full and your appetite is long gone.

Now imagine that someone then brought out 4 large red apples for you to enjoy and a large bowl of oatmeal. They place it in front of you. You slice the apples into quarters to more easily eat them. They still seem too large to eat so you slice the quarters into eighths. You now have 32 slices of apple to enjoy plus the big bowl of oatmeal. How appetizing do you think those apple slices would be? What feelings would you be having as you observed the apple slices and warm oatmeal after having just enjoyed a full meal? Would your mouth be watering with anticipation? Let's say the apples and oatmeal were removed and replaced with a platter of 32 warm glazed donuts for you to enjoy. Now, would your mouth be watering and would you hastily eat half a dozen of the donuts after already eating a full meal including a large glass of liquid?

The feeling that you would have as you looked at the sliced apples and oatmeal or platter of donuts would be "nothing", no feeling at all, no appetite, no mouth watering anticipation. In fact your feelings might go beyond "nothing". Looking at the additional food might make you slightly nauseous or uncomfortable.

If you were to pick up the apple slice or donut and force yourself to eat it your taste buds would signal that it tasted bland, or too sweet, or mealy or mushy etc. It would seem to grow in your mouth and get larger and larger to the point that you didn't think you could even swallow it. You might in fact choose to spit the apple or chewed up donut out rather than swallowing it. That is the way your digestive system works. It sends "signals" to brain and vice versa forming a completed circuit.

That feeling of "nothing" is a daily goal for you. If you have been on the "nolunchdiet" for awhile it is a routine daily ocurrence. That is the feeling that you want to have during the day. After you have had a wonderful breakfast you will feel "nothing" when others are having their lunch. Your diet plan is in "mid- stride" at noon. By noon you are still using up the calories you consumed at breakfast. You will drink water or some other beverage of your choice at lunch and in the early afternoon but your appetite is being "managed" now by you. You are in total control of it, not the other way around. You gained control by trusting your own judgement about "when" you eat and your body and mind have learned to accept that because it feels the results and it now trusts your judgement. This is what I mean when I have said in previous posts that you are much stronger than you think you are. There are other aspects to your strengths too but this aspect is very important to your healthy diet.

What I have described above is what it is like to be on the "nolunch" diet. During the day you will begin to notice this change in how you feel about food. TRUST has entered the diet equation and it is in your favor.
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Stock market: Over the past few weeks I have been a buyer of (HPQ) & (BGS) and a seller of (GLD)