Natural Cures Blog Carnival Promotes Weight Loss

photo credit: emilio labrador

Your Weight–A Key to Wellness?

Someone said to me the other day, “You are the type of person that no matter what you eat you stay thin and trim.”  I thought, “if only they knew the truth.”  I am tall and slender, but I work on it, all the time. In fact, I found my way into this local food “movement” through working on our diet to lose weight and obtain optimum health.

Today, I weigh in at 128. Last week, I weighed 125 (for a few days, at least). We have just been away for 5 days, and I find it most difficult to control my weight while traveling. So, now that we are back home, I will be planning meals to avoid carbs and sweets.

I noticed a few things on our trip this week. The free breakfast buffet at our hotel was 2/3 carbs, in the form of muffins, toast, cereal and pastries.  Luckily, we stayed in a suite with a full kitchen and made our own breakfast with farm fresh eggs we had purchased from a family farm, and low sodium bacon purchased at a grocery store. We had packed some of my awesome mini-muffins  that I made at home, which lasted us the whole trip.

The other thing I noticed were the large number of overweight people on scooter chairs (other tourists on holiday). Often, they were accompanied by their family members who were mobile, but had similar weight problems. I was saddened to realize that we are becoming a nation of people who struggle with their weight. And, when you look at the carb heavy all-you-can-eat buffets you can sort of understand why.

The first time I ever heard that carbs cause weight issues was actually from a female comedienne (I wish I knew her name, if anyone does, please let me know and I will give her credit). She was joking about how instead of eating two donuts, she realized she might as well just paste them on her hips. She went on to say that she had found that the best means of weight control was to avoid any food that was “beige” in color–pancakes, bread, waffles, muffins, cereal, etc. At the time, I thought it was hilarious.  But, I also took note.

Keith and I decided to lose weight 5 years ago.  At the time, I weighed 148, he weighed 185. His dad had just died a painful death from heart disease. My mother had lent me the book, South Beach Diet by Dr. Arthur Agatston.  In the book, he explained the concept of good carbs vs. bad carbs and good fats vs. bad fats. It resonated with me, perhaps because of what the comic had said about beige foods being BAAAD.

Last year, we saw an old Andy Griffith Show episode where Aunt Bea was trying to fatten up Barney Fife.  She piled on the potatoes and the biscuits on his plate–the beige foods. I thought when I saw this show, “how can we have forgotten this traditional wisdom?  How can Americans be so misguided in their food choices, today?”  I’m afraid the answer is marketing and advertising have convinced us that these manufactured foods are preferable. So, we eat them and perish.

So, the low glycemic approach advocated by Dr.  Agatston is what ultimately shaved 20 lbs off of me, and 30 lbs off of my husband.

Lose Weight for Optimal Health

We continue to practice the principles taught in that book, even though we now also follow the Weston A. Price dietary guidelines. In fact, we find the principles very consistent with what Weston Price has taught us.

In order to follow the South Beach diet, we stayed away from convenience foods, and cooked from scratch with more fresh ingredients. We ate eggs and turkey bacon instead of cereal. So, when we stumbled upon the Weston A. Price program, we were half way there. South Beach diet had already taught us that sourdough bread was lower on the glycemic index than regular yeasted bread. So, we were excited to find Weston Price recommending sourdough leavening. And, even more excited to know that some bakers ferment their bread for up to 7 days!

And, the idea of moving toward organic foods, and more naturally produced foods was something we started at the beginning of the South Beach diet, even though it was not part of that program. It just seemed like if we were going to get healthy, that just had to be part of our plan.

We are now plugged in to many local farms, and buying pasture raised meats which are leaner and are more nutrient dense. We find that we eat very small portions and are extremely satisfied.  For instance, one porterhouse steak gives us four portions, or dinner for two nights for the two of us.

We now buy pasture raised eggs, too, and have dropped the turkey bacon in favor of forest fed pork. I am now on a no-nightshades diet and discovered that turkey bacon is seasoned with paprika, which is off limits on this anti-arthritis “no nightshades” diet.

When I was hospitalized for major surgery a number of years back, I walked the halls with my IV pole for exercise. My mother had given me a cute teddy bear that I set on the pole and he accompanied me (his name is now IVEE).  The nurses told me that IVEE cheered up the other patients when they saw us pass by. One thing that struck me as I passed by room after room, is that most of the people in the other beds were overweight.

Obesity is a risk factor for many other diseases. If you have a weight problem, tackle it while you can. The younger, the better. It will give you many pain free, disease free years, if you do.

Thanks to our weight loss, my husband got off blood pressure medication, my cholesterol problem vanished, and my knee pain was greatly reduced. Our energy levels increased, our zest for life is now restored.

I would encourage you to find a program that works for you, and stick with it. The Liberation Diet is a new book by Weston A. Price Chapter Leaders, Kevin Brown and Annette Presley. It is an approach that follows the Weston A. Price dietary guidelines that you may like to explore.

Let’s hear from others.  What weight loss program do you endorse? What have been the pitfalls on your road to weight loss? Please share your dieting experiences, recipes as part of this week’s Natural Cures blog carnival.

Kelly the Kitchen Kop is submitting a whole side show of weight loss ideas from her blog.  Thanks so much, Kelly!

Kevin Brown, author of The Liberation Diet submits his TV interview on The Harvest Show, where he discusses the way to lose weight is to eat real food, as close to nature as possible. Great video, Kevin!

YOU”RE NEXT!

For instructions on how to participate in our blog carnival, visit our Natural Cures Tuesday page (also on the menu above). I will post on this page upcoming themes for the carnival.

Natural Cures Blog Carnival Logo–Artwork Credit: Digital Trash

This blog post is part of the Real Food Wednesdays Blog Carnival, see more entries at Kelly the Kitchen Kop blog. It has also been submitted to Works for Me Wednesday.