It Has to be More Complicated than This!

With a goal in mind, there are only ever two choices – something that works, or something that doesn’t. That makes sense, doesn’t it? Obviously you are going to choose what works, aren’t you? Yet what a lot of people don’t know is that when it comes to losing weight, what they choose, what they think is going to work – actually won’t. What most people actually choose is to inflict upon themselves months of suffering, agonising, disappointment, and, eventually, failure.

This failure then has the knock on effect of lowering self-esteem, which triggers emotional eating and further weight gain.

Here are your real choices:
The Old Way: find a diet; join a weight club; weekly weighing and hoping; thinking about food all the time; constant battle with temptation; frequent failures; leading to feelings of guilt; then trying even harder; and 12 months later repeating the whole cycle.

Or,
The New Way: no diets; no public weighing; eat what you want; eat when you want; no rules, so no failure; no failure so no guilt; lose fat rather than muscle (muscle is what you lose when you go on a diet); enjoy, possibly for the first time, a healthy relationship with food; and eat less because you want to eat less – not because you have to eat less.

It Can’t be this Easy

Now I know the New Way seems too easy. There’s no suffering, no struggle, and no pain.

I know you like all that fighting against your desires and then giving in and feeling bad and deciding, since you’ve already fallen off the wagon today, you might as well just binge for the rest of the evening and start all over again tomorrow. If you didn’t like it, you simply wouldn’t keep on doing it, would you?

If that’s you then you might not like the new way because there’s no way to fail, and so no way to break any rules, and so no excuse, ever, for bingeing. You get to eat what you want when you want, and you’ll find, most of the time, because there’s nothing to push against, you just eat what you need when you need it; and eat what you enjoy when you fancy it.

The Old Way is a myth. It ignores how body & mind interact. It consistently fails to sustain weight loss, while teaching you to ignore important sensations like hunger which are actually the key to escaping from this nightmarish merry-go-round. But the biggest problem of all is that the Old Way focuses on food.

The New Way is kinder, easier and works long term because it works with your body and not against it.

Do What You Do, Don’t Do What You Don’t Do

Once you throw off the shackles of the Old and embrace the New you will realise that it isn’t about being Good or being Bad. You aren’t bad when you overeat and you aren’t good when you follow your diet, or eat healthily. You are just doing what you do when you do it.

And there’s no way round that.

You are always just doing what you do when you are doing it and so it’s totally pointless beating yourself up. Just think about that for a moment. How can you ever be doing what you are not doing. If you find that you don’t like what you are doing when you are doing it, then just stop – even if that’s mid-mouthful, or part way through a big bite. Just stop as soon as you realise you don’t like what you are actually doing, because each moment of awareness is a choice point where you can continue to do what you are doing, or just stop. There is no rule that says just because you’ve started you have to finish.

Choice Points

Each moment is a choice point when you can free yourself from the chains that bind you to your excess weight.

But if you choose to carry on with whatever you are doing – even if what you are doing is over-eating – then carry on with a light heart and enjoy every mouthful.

With the New Way you can forget about: diets; calories/Syns/Points; eating what you don’t like; the struggle; social isolation because eating out with friends just reminds you of all the good stuff you can’t have; and thinking about food all the time.

Life is here to enjoy, not to fight against. The same is true of your body. It’s here to enjoy, not to fight. It’s your personal transport system that takes you everywhere you want to go and lets you enjoy all of those places you visit and all of the experiences you encounter.

So doesn’t it make at least a little sense to take care of it?

Focus on Enjoyment & Pleasure

When you focus more on enjoying your life, you’ll find that your subconscious mind starts to work with you, because your subconscious draws to you more of what you think about. If you think about being fat, or overweight, or obese, your subconscious figures that’s what you want more of and it helps you to get it with cravings and urges and guilt and a whole load of other emotional baggage that drives you towards the cookie jar.

When you push against something it pushes back. As soon as you finish reading this go to the nearest wall and push against it with all of your strength. It might not seem like it but that wall is pushing back with exactly the same force that you are using against it. If it didn’t it would fall over.

So when you push against your fat, it pushes back, just like the wall. And just like the wall it stays just where it is.

What you resist persists.

Whatever you push against just pushes right back at you. That’s what causes it to remain in your life.

Do What Works, not What Doesn’t

The New Way is based around how your bodymind works. Its focus is on what you want to have not what you want to get rid of. When you focus on slimness, when you picture yourself doing all the wonderful thinks the slimmer you will be able to enjoy so much more, your subconscious says “aha! This must be what she wants, better get to work on reducing urges to eat; increasing motivation towards enjoyment of exercise; feeling full sooner, increased enjoyment & pleasure with healthy eating, and more and more dissatisfaction with sweet, sticky, over-fatty foods”

The New Way shows you how to eat less and still feel completely satisfied by maximising the pleasure you get from eating. This is about discovering how easy it is to develop a healthy relationship with food that allows you to enjoy what you want, while reducing your weight naturally and easily.

More on How to Succeed with the New Way

If you would like to find out why the Old Way is a myth; if you want to know why you have been lied to; if you would like to discover the truth about metabolism and how you can make it work for you; then check out how to lose weight without dieting, for a free video. Or if you prefer a good read then have a look at my book that not only explains all of this in much greater detail, but also shows you how you can win at the Weight Loss Game How to Lose Weight Easily – and Free Yourself from Diets Forever

If you’ve found this interesting, then your friends probably will too. Be sure to let them know by leaving a comment below. Any questions for me can also be posted below.

Michael

There are two approaches to weight loss. The way that works, and the way that doesn’t. The vast majority of people use the way that doesn’t work. After all if what you did worked you’d only ever have to lose weight once. The vast majority of people who ‘battle’ with their weight are on a treadmill they can’t find the way off. The new diet,or maybe the old diet, is ‘tried again’ ever year, with the same results. Short term weight loss and a feelings of longing for what you are being denied. Longings that get so strong because of the implied injustice of being unable to eat what everyone else is eating – so strong that you eventually give in. Then comes the guilt and more eating to drive away the guilt feelings.

To put it simply – you deserve better than this.

If you want to get of the treadmill the video below is your first step. The rest is just as easy.

Hope you enjoy it.

I don’t know about you but I find invisible stuff difficult to deal with. Take electricity for instance. You can have a bare copper cable connected to a plug which is inserted into a wall socket. The cable is either lethal or totally safe depending on whether the wall switch is on or off. Looking at the cable gives no indication. The cable looks no different – safe or deadly.

Magnetism’s another one. It’s all around us. The Earth’s magnetic field goes right through us. It even has an impact on the iron in our red blood cells, but unless we have a magnetised compass needle we are completely unaware of it.

Gravity is a bit easier because we aren’t all floating around, but with gravity it’s more of an intellectual knowing. We never knew we should be floating until gravity was discovered. Things falling on the floor just seemed normal.

Chakras are also invisible. The big difference between a chakra and electricity is that you can’t prove a chakra is there. Not because we can’t see them (though some people claim they can – See Barbara Brennan’s Hands Of Light: Guide to Healing Through the Human Energy Field, where she describes them as mini-tornados), but because we can’t detect them without some human intervention. Chakra detecting instruments are still waiting to be invented.

The problem with Chakras, or energy centres, is that they:
• Are invisible
• Seem a little far-fetched
• Don’t lend themselves easily to rigorous investigation

However, what isn’t so easy to dismiss is personal experience. And my own personal experience strongly suggests that the presence of these whirlpools of energy could very well be a reality.

Many years ago I discovered I had some healing ability and while I was exploring that, I read some stuff about chakras being the focus of physical well-being. You couldn’t see them, but they were there. It sounded to me as crazy an idea as me holding my hands above someone’s body and their pain easing, but that was happening – and I didn’t understand how that worked either.

So next time I had a visit from a patient I had them lie down and I got my pendulum out and held it over the places where these chakras were supposed to be and to my amazement the pendulum would spin around. But the spin would be different over each location. Sometimes fast, sometimes sluggish, sometimes no movement at all, and occasionally the opposite way round to the others.

When the spin was slow or non-existent I’d work on that area until my pendulum was spinning at the same rate as the other energy centres and the patient would report immediate changes in their body. A pain, or stiffness, would ease; mood would improve and they generally left feeling very much better than when they arrived.

So even though it doesn’t make much sense, in my own experience, chakras seem to be an invisible reality.

Because working with and balancing chakras seemed to be having such a beneficial effect, I delved a little deeper in to this whole chakra business and discovered some interesting things – like:

Perhaps working with chakras is a way to…

• Address causes rather than treat symptoms
• Heal from the inside out
• Restore balance to your life

There are seven major chakras and each one is responsible for the health & well-being of specific areas of the bodymind. I discovered that they act like valves controlling the intake of energy from the Universe (perhaps they tap into the energy of the Zero Point Field). When fully open, that particular energy centre is able to draw in all of its needs to nourish and sustain the emotional, physical, and spiritual needs of the areas of the body that are under its control.

And all you need to do in order to be fit, well, and achieving your dreams is to ensure that they are all fully open.

Life experience is what closes them down. Hurts, disappointments, losses… especially when very young, can have a devastating impact on the functioning of one or more of the chakras. The consequence of this is living on a treadmill where the same problems seem to keep cropping up, even though different people are involved each time. If your very different romantic partners all turn out to be the ‘same’ unkind, controlling, person then you probably have closed down throat and heart chakras. If you always have problems making ends meet and when you enjoy a windfall, an unexpected bill turns up to snatch it away, then look to your root and sacral chakras – your connection with feeling grounded and safe.

I’ve found that a pendulum (I use one made of lapis lazuli, but any weight on the end of a string or chain will work) shows up quite clearly the size, vigour and direction of rotation of the energy centres. And yes you can check your own chakras this way.

Chakra balancing is adjusting the energy, size, and rotation so that all chakras are the same.

Check them out and play with the energies and see if it makes a difference to how you feel.

And if you’ve enjoyed this article, or would like to share it with your friends then please comment below.

Michael

I’ve spent the last few days putting together a video presentation as an introduction to the chakras and what your energy centres can do for you.

I’ve included some of my personal experiences that suggest that this chakra ‘thing’ is real and needs paying attention to.

Michael

I’ve been waiting impatiently since last Thursday (when I clicked on ‘publish’) for my new Chakra Meditation CD to appear on Amazon.com’s pages.

This morning when I checked – there it was.

It’s a strange sensation seeing something you’ve worked hard at creating suddenly up there and ready to be judged by your public. I’ve sent out a few review copies and received positive feedback and some suggestions for future meditation recordings, so I’m confident that this recording will have benefits for regular listeners.

The scary thing about selling on Amazon is that people can say pretty much anything they want about your product and they don’t have to justify negative comments. Still, I’m open to feedback and always looking for ways to improve my products so I’m always happy to receive suggestions and ideas for products that will make a difference to your life.

One of the disappointing aspects of this process is Amazon’s royalty calculation for MP3s. They base it on the number of tracks and since there is only one track (even though it’s over 30 minutes long) I get the same royalty as a 3 minute track – which is next to nothing. For that reason alone I chose to not to sell Mp3 versions through Amazon. But you if you’d like an Mp3 version of this Guided Chakra Meditation you can get an immediate download from my website.

Anyway I’ll just have to see how it goes.

Time to start work on the next one I think.

Michael

My book How to Lose Weight Easily – and Free Yourself from Diets Forever is published in paperback today and is now available on Amazon.com.

Funny thing is, although it’s been out as a Kindle edition for several months, it’s never felt like a ‘real’ book to me because I couldn’t hold a copy in my hands. Now it does. Another interesting thing is that Kindle editions don’t have a back cover, so I had to put my thinking head on again and come up with some words and a design for the back of it.

But the main reason I’m telling you this is that I noticed there’s even a way you can get a copy for free.

Here’s what Amazon says:
Special Offers and Product Promotions
This item is eligible for our 4-for-3 promotion. Eligible products include select Books and Home & Garden items. Buy any 4 eligible items and get the lowest-priced item free.

So if you want to buy a few things from Amazon then you could add a copy of my book to your shopping basket. If it’s the cheapest item (not difficult because it’s only $5.99) then you get it for free. This is Amazon’s offer not mine, so you need to check it out with them, and I don’t know how long it will be available for.

Self hypnosis, is it easy – or difficult? Self hypnosis sounds a little too much like magic. But we all like the idea of something magical to take away the pain. Will self hypnosis do the trick though? Will it really be the solution, or just another distraction? The trouble is that so many times you’ve been promised a cure, but is this really the genie that you’ve been seeking?

Something isn’t working in your life. You know now that there isn’t a pill to fix it. But you see other people doing what you want to do and you want it too. But it seems either impossible or just needs more than you’ve got to give. How can it be so easy for them, when it’s so difficult for you?

You may have spent time seeking out the why. Maybe deciding it was your upbringing (it usually is), what was done or not done, or your school, or maybe something faulty with your genetic make-up. Some people even decide that they must have been ‘bad’ in a past life and are being punished. I know that thought has certainly crossed my mind on more than one occasion.

But the truth is – none of that is relevant.

All that matters is that you want things to be different and you are prepared to take whatever steps you can to bring that about. Notice that I say ‘whatever steps you can’ rather than ‘whatever it takes’. This is because ‘whatever it takes’ generally brings you face to face with your biggest fears and your biggest fears are the only reason you haven’t got what you want in the first place. If you weren’t afraid of doing what others do to get what you want you would already have it.

So, in a way, all we have to do is to remove the fear and what you want will flow right to you. The trouble with that is, of course, that right now the fear is with you. Thinking about doing what you fear, to get what you want, creates a huge amount of resistance. Resistance to taking any step that will lead you in the direction of the promised land. You don’t mind pretending to do something about it, but if you are going to end up doing what you don’t want to do, then maybe it would be better if you didn’t have what you want.

This is where self hypnosis comes into the picture. Self hypnosis is very like not doing anything. At the same time you can convince yourself that it won’t bring you into confrontation with your fears, but is actually solving the problem. What more could you want?

Self hypnosis is a way of staying totally safe, feeling like you are at least making the effort to change, and working towards getting what you want.

So is self hypnosis a way to kid yourself you are taking action when you aren’t? On the contrary, self hypnosis is a brilliant and wonderful tool for those very reasons. The biggest reason of all is that it is totally safe. When you use self hypnosis you do not have to confront anything you don’t want to, and even if you do choose to confront it, you only do so in your imagination and all of that is totally under your control.

The wonderful thing about using self hypnosis for bringing about desired change and attracting what you want into your life is that it is actually an enjoyable experience. You discover how to become wonderfully relaxed all under your own control. You discover how to use your amazing mind to release fear and bring about the changes that you want for you. You discover that you can have what you want if you use this wonderful tool correctly.

Once you’ve discovered how easy it is to take yourself into a trance, and make changes that you thought were impossible, doors will begin to open for you. Then you will realise the power that you hold within you, not only to control and shape your universe but also to attract into it anything you desire.

Michael

By the way, if you’d like to find out more visit the self hypnosis page on my website for details of how easy it is for you to learn this skill and get in touch with your own Power.

Inspired Action

One of the things I keep intending to do is to expand my range of cds and mp3 downloads. At the moment I think I’ve got two hypnosis CDs and just today I’ve increased my range of more spiritual recordings to three by adding my guided chakra meditation to my list.

But, as they say, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. So since I’m in the self-help and personal development business I thought it might be a good idea if I stopped intending and started doing. And that was it, pretty much, until I woke up one morning filled with the inspired idea (don’t you just love the way inspiration makes you feel?) that I needed to create a chakra meditation CD. I don’t know if you know the feeling that’s part excitement, part knowing. I usually ignore it, not because the ideas aren’t good, but because I’ve got bills to pay and so I need to think about what will serve my customers best. When I serve my customers best I make more sales and so everyone benefits. I mean where would we all be if we just did what we enjoyed?

So I lay there filled with this enthusiasm and also a debate about who would want this. In the end I gave in and said to myself, ok, if it’s that important I’ll do it. So as soon as I’d finished breakfast I got started. But first let me give you some background.

Chakra Balancing

Quite a few years ago I discovered I had some skill as a healer. I also read tarot cards and used to attend Mind Body Spirit fayres and festivals. One year I decided I’d set up my stall as a healer, rather than a reader, just for something different to do so that I could enjoy the challenge of how to make it interesting for the show visitors. I decided to focus on chakra balancing. I used a pendulum to detect health or otherwise of those energy centres known as chakras and then I used my healing skills to restore to good health any chakras that were out of balance.

What I quickly discovered was that, without being given any information about the health, or otherwise of my patient, my pendulum would quickly identify problem areas that my patient then confirmed. Let me give you an example. When a chakra is healthy my pendulum would mark out a circular path at a reasonable speed. When the speed of rotation was much slower then I knew there was a problem; or when the shape of rotation was not circular there was also a problem. No movement at all meant a completely closed chakra, and so the chakra required opening before balancing could commence.

I was testing the Third eye chakra (Ajna) on one patient and the pendulum described a distorted oval path – pulling over to the right. I asked my patient if she had any problems with the right side of her head and she reported suffering from persistent headaches. A few minutes healing and when I retested the chakra it was operating normally and my patient reported that the pain had gone.

The brilliant thing about doing healing this way is that the pendulum gives a very real demonstration of the state of the chakra so it is easy to tell when the healing is complete because the chakra is restored.

Chakra balancing is working in this way with all of the chakras in turn until they are all operating energetically at the same level and the size of the vortex (diameter of the circle described by the pendulum) is also matched. I always start at Muladhara (root chakra) for grounding and then work up the body until we reach Sahasrara (crown chakra). I found that during this process my patient would quite often drift into a deep state of relaxation.

Guided Meditation

Then move forward a few years and I had a patient coming to see me for help with IBS. IBS generally requires a long period of treatments. I used a hypnotic version of chakra balancing with her. I put her into a trance and then asked her to visualise the opening of the chakras while at the same time visualising a rainbow of colour moving up through her body. She always loved this and found it created instant relief and good feeling whenever I used it with her.

Fast forward to today.

All Mixed Up

The first thing I needed was a new script, so I sat down and wrote that in the morning. In the afternoon I recorded it and mixed it with a background music track. Then came the fun part. All of my other Hypnosis Cds and mp3 downloads are only available from my own website. My intention this time was to sell through Amazon using their Createspace publishing programme. My commission is considerably smaller selling this way but I hoped I might be able to reach a much bigger audience than my own website attracts.

And that was when the fun started.

Createspace’s upload facility is a bit primitive. I record on my laptop because I produce much better sound quality than I can on my pc, so I was uploading from there. But every time the screensaver turned on (it was a 90 minute upload – and although I do have fast broadband, this was CD quality and so is a big file) Createspace lost its place and restarted the upload.

I had to go rooting around in Control Panel to turn off everything that might turn the screen off or send the laptop to sleep, I turned off all of the unnecessary stuff running in the background and still it would drop the connection at around 20% uploaded. After 5 hours of this frustrating activity I put the file on a USB flash card and plugged it into my pc. Again I had to switch off all the switching off but this time it loaded. So a simple job took around 7 hours. If only they provided FTP upload it would be so much easier.

I called it a day.

A Picture’s Worth…

The following morning I had to design all the bits of paper that go into a CD case. I hadn’t realised there was so much. The booklet which serves as the display part in the front of the case had four pages – all of which needed images and text. The tray insert that goes underneath the CD and is visible through the back of the case also needed images and words.

So I went trawling through the stock libraries looking for suitable images. Then I had to make up some words to make it seem attractive to purchasers, without making any outlandish claims that I can’t prove. It’s difficult not to be enthusiastic about something you believe in and know that it has the power to bring huge benefits to people, but we aren’t allowed to make claims unless we can prove them. The fact that I’ve experienced it, and my patients have experienced it, is just not good enough for the advertising standards people.

The trouble, it seems, is that not everyone is honest and some people just want the money without giving something of equal or greater value in return. So those of us who just want to make life a little easier for others find it difficult to get noticed.

Approval is always nice

Anyway, artwork completed and uploaded, Createspace approved of my artwork within 24 hours, even though they said it would be 20 days. I assume their approval means the quality is sufficiently high to grace the pages of Amazon alongside Cds from big publishers who pay graphic designers and artists huge amounts of money to produce the artwork for their cds. Then I had to buy, yes buy, a proof copy, pay lots of postage because they make them in the US and I live in the UK and wait four to six weeks for it to arrive.

Chakra Meditation Completed

You can imagine that after three days of hard work I’m not too impressed at having to wait four weeks to get hold of a copy, so I created an mp3 version and put it on my mp3 downloads page.

I’m looking forward to seeing the finished product, but I’m thinking I need to get started on the next one. So if you have any suggestions about what would be helpful for you, or just what you think might help a lot of people then please post them below. I’d love to hear your ideas.

I don’t know what the attraction is. I find the ‘natural’ sugar ones too sweet, and the artificial sugar ones just unpleasant. In fact the only time I drink any of it is when I mix it with beer – which is about six times a year, and even then I only use organic lemonade sweetened with agave syrup and without any other chemical additives.

But this isn’t a plug for organic lemonade. There is an epidemic of sweetened beverage drinking that some are suggesting is seriously damaging to your health – particularly if you are an American. But that’s largely because the obesity problem seems to be worse in the US than anywhere else in the world.

10,400,000,000 gallons of sugar-filled soda pop are manufactured every year in the US.

Each can contains the equivalent of 10 teaspoons of ordinary sugar. Can you imagine putting ten spoons of sugar into every cup of tea or coffee that you drink? It would be unpalatable. The only reason you can tolerate that amount of sugar in a can of soda is that the soda is acidic and the acidity counter-acts the excessive sweetness. In fact cola drinks are about as acid as vinegar. Would you drink a can of vinegar? Would you drink a can of vinegar with 10 added teaspoons of sugar? That’s effectively what you are doing when you drink cola.

But what exactly is the problem here – apart from the damage the acid does to teeth and stomach, and the damage the sugar does to teeth and the waistline?

The body, as I’m sure you’ll agree, is an interesting thing – especially when it experiences pleasure. But one of the really handy things that the body does is to keep you alive. It does this with loads of feedback mechanisms that allow corrections to be made when the chemical/hormone balance starts to shift away from optimum.

Food is satisfying. It creates a full feeling. As digestion proceeds it allows vitamins, minerals, fats, sugars and other stuff to seep into the system. The body also knows when it’s eaten because of this feedback system. So it knows if it is still in the process of digesting. Consequently, if you eat a big meal, you probably don’t want to eat another big meal shortly afterwards. The body is satisfied.

Sweet drinks don’t have that effect and the body fails to identify the calories as food. So the calories in these drinks are added to your calorie intake without any apparent bodily awareness of them. This is one of the reasons they lead to weight gain. There is also a suspicion that these drinks may stimulate desire for sweet high-carbohydrate foods. In other words they trick you that you are feeling hungry and needing something sweet when you don’t.

“The public now firmly believes that foods containing saccharin are effective in weight control, and has been persuaded by the soft drink industry (through the Calorie Control Council) that these benefits outweigh any possible health risks.”
Samuel S. Epstein MD

You can’t get out of it by drinking Diet versions of these drinks either. Rats who were fed saccharin ended up much fatter than rats who were fed sugary foods. There is a lot of uncertainty about the impact of artificial sweeteners so although they help you cut down the calorie intake from the soda, they may well be stimulating you to eat more unhealthily later on.

That’s not the only bad news.

A study of 90,000 women who regularly drank at least one soft drink a day suggested that they were 40% more likely to develop type II diabetes than women who didn’t drink this much soda.

Colas are high in phosphate. Now the body needs phosphate for bone building and health, but it needs phosphate in balance with calcium. When this balance is upset, perhaps with daily cola intake, the possibility of severe skeletal problems developing is very real.

“It appears that increased soft drink consumption is a major factor that contributes to osteoporosis.”
Michael Murray ND and Joseph Pizzorno ND

A recent Harvard study found that daily consumption of sugary drinks increased the risk of heart disease in men. Drinking two 12oz sugary drinks correlates with a 42% increase in the risk of heart disease. That risk rockets to 69% if you drink three cans per day. The American Beverage Association, as you would expect, issued a statement in response: “Drinking sweetened beverages does not cause an increased risk of heart disease – not based on this study or any other study in the available science.”

I think denial falls more into the territory of psychology than scientific research. Mind you denial is pretty much what you’d expect as the response to any threat to a $40,000,000,000 per year industry.

So there you have it. There is a considerable body of evidence to suggest that sugar-filled soda is seriously bad for your health if you drink it regularly. There is also considerable support for the idea that diet soda may well cause you to endure cravings for sweet sugary foods and so, in the long-run, make losing weight much more difficult than if you drank fruit juices, water, or coffee and tea – without sugar naturally. But if you go down the route of fruit juices as an alternative be aware of the differences. A fruit drink has added sugar and frequently artificial sweetener too. Fruit juice is just juice. If in doubt check the ingredients list.

So the next time you fancy a cola, ask yourself if you really do long for 12oz of vinegar mixed with 10 teaspoons of sugar?

Found this interesting? Please feel free to add your thoughts on this subject below.

Michael

Got a news update from WDDTY, earlier today (which I’ll get on to shortly) that intrigued me because it suggested evidence for what I’ve suspected for a very long time – that it’s what you eat that matters, not how much of it. But as I was tracking down more details I came across something quite amazing – there is a place (I’m tempted to call it a restaurant, but I think that might be a little extravagant) in Las Vegas called the Heart Attack Grill. Now I know this shouldn’t surprise me, but I’m English, so it does.

I know it’s fun, but obesity is also Life & Death and this place seems to be taking over-eating to ridiculous heights. Mind you there are two hospitals just a short distance away!

They sell a 2lb, 8000 calorie Quadruple byPass Burger (4 burgers & Cheese on a bun with an optional extra 20 slices of bacon).

Their menu makes a sales point of the fact that the ‘flatliner fries’ are ‘deep fried in Pure Lard’ and their commercial tells you the side affects from eating there. These ‘may include sudden weight gain, repeated increase of wardrobe size, back pain, male breast growth, loss of sexual partners, lung cancer, tooth decay and liver sclerosis stroke. In some cases mild death may occur.’

But what got this place into the news was that a man had a heart attack while eating a 6000 calorie Triple byPass Burger. Mind you it got them a ton of free publicity and that’s never bad for business.

Anyway, that was a little digression – back to the calories that are different sizes.

What I started exploring was the research into the obesity states of Americanised Mexicans. It seems that the University of South Carolina has been looking at Mexicans in America. Apparently first generation Mexicans living in the US tend to stick to their traditional diet which consists of corn, beans, pork, fish, and a variety of fruits & vegetables such as pineapple, papaya, squash and avocado. Their children, however, consume diets high in saturated fats and sodium as well as large quantities of sweetened beverages.

It seems that second generation Mexican-Americans are two and a half times more likely to become obese than first generation Mexican-American relatives. There is no suggestion that more food is being consumed – just that what the diet consists of is fat and salt loaded fast food, rather than fresh meat, fruit and vegetables.

I can certainly confirm from my own experiences of losing weight that I don’t really eat less. I just eat different and the weight slowly and steadily drops away for as long as I maintain a healthy diet. So if you are struggling to lose weight, try making some changes in the quality of what you eat and forget about the quantities.

If you found this interesting then please comment below.

Michael

Ref: http://jn.nutrition.org/content/142/2/298