Sheri’s Rants #12: Adulthood. Welcome to it.

“If it’s never our fault, we can’t take responsibility for it.  If we can’t take responsibility for it, we’ll always be it’s victim.”                    – Richard Bach

When our body starts to degenerate abnormally fast, or a big disease rears it’s head, or very suddenly nothing that used to work to pull our bodies into line works anymore – we suddenly have an urge to find the fastest route back to ‘normal’.  We think if we get that external thing fixed – the symptoms – we’ll somehow return to where we were.  I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve heard this from people who’ve ‘inexplicably’ packed on some pounds, watched their cholesterol skyrocket, the hormones get whacked, and the blood sugar start bouncing.

Sheri Lynn, age 47

What we start teling ourselves is ‘I’m just at that age’, or ‘We all have to die sometime’, or ‘Well, I’m over 40 now’…and a trip to the doctor may reveal a statement akin to ‘You’re just at that age where we see these things happen’.  Is that true?  No.  Is rapid degeneration, illness and imbalance normal?  NO.  If you are convinced that aging is natural and can’t be avoided then this is the reality you will create with your body.  How?  By doing the things that ensure this process!  Unwittingly, perhaps, but still.

In our culture, we accept that Big Diseases are NORMAL and will eventually hit you.  As we have proven time and time again with Genesis Transformation – this is not a truth.  YOU are responsible for your health and YOU can change it at any time – no matter what your age is.

I’ve had clients tell me, over and over – that they ‘have’ to be on cholesterol meds, blood pressure meds, anti depressants – because there is a biological hereditary reason for it.  And over and over, I’ve seen these same people go off a wide variety of these drugs – in some cases becoming physically ill from over medication – by changing their lifestyle choices.  Simply eating better and moving around.  It’s profound.  It’s miraculous.  It’s RARE in the medical experience.  Many doctors do not see their patients self heal because the norm is NOT a person who changes lifestyle habits with any level of certitude.

Realistically, the further down the degenerative path you are the longer it will take your body to heal – however you CAN start feeling better fairly quickly.  And as long as you are focused on the feeling better aspect, your body will pull into line and you will be amazed at the changes.  You do yourself a huge disservice to weigh your physical progress by whether or not the scale is dropping.  If your body has big internal work to do – you are going to get to feeling better fairly quickly but asking your liver to process stored body-fat for fuel may be a bit too much while that liver is learning to function appropriately – learning to digest, to process, to clean out toxicity in a way that moves your body toward health.  Respect that this is BIG work.

If you look at the years you spent abusing your body vs. how long it takes your body to turn around, WOW.  It’s fast.  If you do not respect your historical mistreatment of your body and expect instant results on the scale, you’ll get mentally whacked.  This is where self-responsibility comes in.  I say it’s being an adult about it. Do your expectations match your physical reality?

I had a particular cancer patient who, within weeks of completing radiation and chemotherapy, was anxious that her body was not dropping fat!  Her body had reached a level of disease that, unchecked – would lead to certain death.  As she learned to eat in a healthier way and exercise moderately – her body was slowly healing.  She did feel better, and her doctor told her she was recovering ‘abnormally fast’.  But her anxiety over the scale weight was unreasonable and stressful and led to binge after binge, and days of NOT eating to ‘balance’ the binging. This put her body into more distress.  To deal with the resulting mental depression, she began taking anti-depressants.  This client had a very difficult time wrapping her head around the profound level of jeopardy her body had reached by her lifestyle habits – and could not accept that her eating habits were causing deterioration!  Eventually, she did ‘get it’ after another positive cancer test -  and allowed her body to go into what we call the Fueling process for an unprecedented 2 years.  As her body nourished itself, the outward physical changes were remarkable.

Now, I understand that many people who come to Genesis Transformation are purely interested in fat loss.  We work very hard to educate people that a healthy body will drop fat with simple chemical direction resulting from specific lifestyle habits.  Very often folks have a very hard time wrapping their heads around that.   They want the pill, the supplement, the magic wand.  There isn’t one.  Not one that will serve you long term, in any case.

Genesis Transformation is for the special breed of person who can accept the level of self-responsibility that health and lasting fat loss requires. You may not have that at the beginning- but it’s a muscle you’ll have to develop right alongside of the rest.

Sheri’s Rants # 11 – WILL IT BE HARD??

We’re human.  The first thing we want to know when we try something new is whether or not it’s gonna hurt, how bad, and if it’ll be hard.  This is a tough question to answer about Genesis Transformation.  I WANT to say – ‘it will hurt if you decide it will, it will be hard if you make it hard.’  Because that is the truth.  Many of our clients say it’s the easiest thing they’ve ever done (in terms of what they get back), and others bemoan every single pound coming off thier body (it’s never ever fast enough)- never delighting in the changes, never learning to enjoy real food, always looking for the quick fix – and don’t enjoy the ride at all.

I like to say that if it’s not fun, stop doing it!  That at least saves me from listening to the bitching.  A human body that is not appreciated and not having fun responds the slowest and takes the longest to heal.  Bottom line – if you’re not happy with you now, you’re not gonna get much happier when you weigh less.  Fortunately, most folks get down to having a good time as soon as they figure that out.  OOOOOH, that self-responsibility crap again!

In any case, I’ve compiled a list of what IS hard:

Will it Be Hard?
Let me tell you what ‘hard’ is:
Hard is looking at yourself with self-loathing and hating the mirror.
Hard is dressing to hide your self.
Hard is avoiding social functions so no one will see you.
Hard is avoiding swimming and beaches so you’re not seen in a swimsuit.
Hard is obsessively dieting.
Hard is worrying every time you eat that you will get fatter.
Hard is beating yourself up after every meal for not doing it ‘right’.
Hard is the negative self-talk in your head.
Hard is confusing all your diet rules and giving up on your self, daily.
Hard is going to bed at night and regretting your day.
Hard is joining fitness classes and gyms and not showing up and having that eat away at the back of your head.
Hard is not keeping up with your kids.
Hard is not being able to engage in simple physical activities because you are not physically capable.
Hard is the shame of the scale at the doctor’s office.
Hard is obsessively buying dieting books and materials.
Hard is eating weird shakes and pills trying, uselessly, again, to change what is happening with your body.
Hard is the mental battle you face with you on a daily basis.
Hard is resenting and hating the fit woman in the room, at the same time wanting what she has.

Genesis Transformation is easy.  You’re on the path, doing something for you, and learning to have a good time with it.

have fun,

Sheri Lynn

‘THE BASICS’ in a Crockpot!

These are easy and fast ways to cook up batches of healthy food while you are away from home, or even sleeping!  The leftovers in the fridge will feed you for days.

POACHED CHICKEN BREASTS

use this recipe to cook chicken not only for the current meal, but also for chicken salad or as an ingredient in other dishes.  For daily cooking, this is a very practical recipe.  You can even use frozen chicken for this one:

6-7 lbs skinless chicken breast, bone- in or not, rinsed

1.5 cups water

dried herbs: garlic, onion, bay leaf, poultry seasoning – whatever salt free seasoning you have.

Cover the crockpot and cook on LOW for 6 – 8 hours.

BUSY DAY BARB-B-QUE CHICKEN

Just as easy.  Find a low sodium barbecue sauce, or make your own.

1 whole chicken, 6-8 lbs, rinsed

1.5 cups barbecue sauce

Put the whole chicken in the crockpot, legs up.  Pour the sauce over it.  Put the lid on the crockpot and cook on LOW, 6-8 hours.

BAKED SWEET POTATOES (or yams.  same thing.)

I love sweet potatoes cooked this way – they stay nice and moist.  I also like them for breakfast, so this is yummy to do overnight.  Put the leftovers in the fridge and enjoy them for days!

6 sweet potatoes or yams, medium sized, washed and left dripping wet.  Prick each with a fork a few times.

Pile the potatoes in the crockpot, do not add water.  Cover and cook on LOW until tender, about 4-6 hours, depending on the size of the potato – the more potatoes in the pot, the longer it will take to cook them.  When done, remove from the pot with tongs.

SLOW-COOKED BLACK BEANS

Bar none, this is the best and most digestible way to cook beans – and far better and less expensive than canned beans.  You can keep some of these in the fridge, or freeze them – measured in single serving quantities.

1.5 lb  dried black beans, sorted and rinsed

9 (or so) cups water

4 cloves garlic, crushed

1 large yellow onion, chopped

All in the crockpot, on HIGH for 1 hour, until boiling.  Then 7 to 8 hours on LOW, until the beans are soft (a well cooked bean will crush easily between your tongue and the roof of your mouth – er – let it cool down before you try it – )

OVERNIGHT STEEL-CUT OATS

Steel-cut oatmeal is, by far, the best cereal you can be eating.  Between the protien, good fat, and fiber this is one power-packed grain and a favorite of fitness afficiandos.  Cooked in the crockpot, you have an instant breakfast!  You can double this for feeding a family.

1 cup steel cut oats

4 cups water

Combine in the crockpot, cover, and cook on LOW for 8 to 9 hours, or overnight.  Stir it well in the morning.

MILLET PORRIDGE WITH DATES

This grain has a mildly nutty taste and is very easy to digest.  It’s delicious with dates!  Again, instant breakfast in the morning.

1 cup whole millet

3.5 cups water

.5 cup chopped pitted dates

.5 cup almond milk

Combine the millet and water in the crockpot, cover, and cook on LOW overnight or 7 to 9 hours.  Stir a few times with a whisk if you’re up and think about it.  Turn the cooker to HIGH and stir in the milk and dates – cover and cook until hot, just 5 to 10 minutes.  Stir it well and serve with more almond milk.

Sheri’s Rants #10: ‘Decision Free’ Dieting

Want to lose weight really quick?  Do you want, more than anything, to see that scale on the floor drop about 30 lbs, overnight? 

“Cut your leg off.  That’ll do it.” – said by an exasperated gym partner, to me, many years ago, after a long nonsensical whine.

Many of us have done many crazy things in the interest of ‘weight loss’ without any thought to the quality of life we actually want.  What do we really want to feel like?  Look like?  We can get so obsessed with scale weight that we lose sight of the physical reality of our bodies.  Are we really willing to see that scale drop at any cost and yet be left morbidly pale, gaunt, loose-skinned, weak and overly tired?  Or how about losing bodyparts?

I became intimately acquainted with the grisly underworld of VLCD’s, or Very Low Calorie Diets, starting with the Decision Free Diet some years ago in Colorado.  ‘Maria’;  a woman 35 years of age, quite overweight, who had tried ‘everything’  was referred to me by a friend of hers.  Maria had a long history of dieting, and her latest adventure was with the hospital-promoted Decision Free diet.  She had rapidly lost 40 lbs, but the weight only stayed off for 2 months and now she was, in her own words, ‘fatter than ever’.  She casually mentioned she had recently undergone gall bladder surgery.  She showed me the products she was eating on the diet, as she was still utilizing many of them.  I found the products to have very low actual food value (in terms of whole foods).  Maria ate no fresh or whole foods, instead relying on the bars and shakes from the program.  Her caloric intake averaged 600 calories/day.

Within weeks, another woman contacted me.  Desiree, 46, was also very frustrated with the weight gain after a ’strict diet’.  She was still in recovery from gall bladder surgery, but wanted to get on my busy schedule early.  Desiree had lost 42 lbs on the same VLCD, and regained 60 lbs.  She was still eating the products promoted by the diet, and averaged 650 calories/day.

I met yet ANOTHER woman with similar experience – except the third woman had only regained about 25 lbs of the 33 she had lost.  She was in a state of panic, and had also had her gall bladder removed within a year of completing the diet.  She was eating the diet products ‘mostly’, interspersed with binging on ice cream and self described ‘junk food’.  Her diet averaged 720 calories/day – with some days at less than 100 and others over 2000 calories.

I was truly alarmed.  What struck me was that these women all spoke of having their gall bladders removed very casually, and when I expressed alarm at the number of times I was hearing this same story, none of the women became excited or surprised.  In fact, the third woman told me of two others, who had quick weight loss and had gall bladders removed.

(The gallbladder stores bile, which is released when food containing fat enters the digestive tract, stimulating the secretion of cholecystokinin (CCK). The bile, produced in the liver, emulsifies fats and neutralizes acids in partly digested food.  After being stored in the gallbladder the bile becomes more concentrated than when it left the liver, increasing its potency and intensifying its effect on fats. Most digestion occurs in the duodenum, where the bile from the gall bladder does it’s work.)

These women had 3 things in common.  The very low calorie diet, gall bladder removal, and a distinct resistance to being responsible to their food intake on most levels.  One of the woman was subsequently successful with following through with a health transformation; the other two were neither willing to be responsible to their own food choices, nor to eat as much food as their bodies required for health.

The Decision Free Diet is hospital promoted and advertises itself as ’simple, easy, few decisions, stay full’.  Women reportedly lose 2-4 lbs/week, and for men the weight loss is 3-5 lbs per week.  The calories average under 700/day – a VLCD.

In the words of the promotional material:

“This option uses a low calorie diet to promote significant weight loss… using only nutritionally complete HMR® weight loss shakes and entrees instead of grocery store food.  The Decision Free Diet is the easiest diet to follow as it requires no decisions about what to eat, no counting calories and no weighing or measuring of portions.”

Sound good to you?

Alarmingly, none of the women I spoke with questioned the apparently routine removal of gall bladders – and they each took it personally that their weight had come up so quickly.  They did not question The Diet – and when I asked them about this, they EACH said it was ‘doctor approved’ and ‘hospital sponsored’ and so could not be in error!

The current VLCD I see gaining in popularity is the HGH diet.  You eat under 500 calories/day and inject yourself with Human Growth Hormones.  Weight loss is purported to be fast and furious.  Long term results?  Currently unknown.  What I find disturbing is that this diet is being touted by some N.D.’s as well as M.D’s (as HGH is considered a health supplement in some circles).  I am increasingly getting questions by new Genesis clients  about why this is not a good diet – in other words, why waste all this time learning to eat healthily and only lose 1-2 lbs of fat a week when they can just starve and do shots and get skinny quick?

My answer is this – because our job is not to get you skinny quick.  Our job is to teach you how to take care of your body utilizing whole foods (not pills, not shots, not supplements) and exercise.  You will feel better and stronger than you ever have in your life, and you will drop body fat – and only body fat – while retaining and increasing your health.  You’ll not only KEEP your gall bladder, but improve the overall health of your liver and digestive system.

Okay.  Let’s get back to the gall bladder issue.  Fast weight loss can frequently equate with gall bladder removal because a VLCD increases the risk of developing gallstones in both the liver and the gall bladder, due to the lack of good fats in the diet.  As well, there is a more complicated process wherein fast weight loss results in a sudden formation of gallstones apparently as a result of increased cholesterol and decreased bile salts in the bile.  38% of patients who have had gastric bypass surgery developed gallstones within 3 months of the surgery, according to one study.

Why would cholesterol INCREASE with sudden weight loss?  Because as the undernourished body seeks to nourish itself, it will go after the most expensive tissue; muscle.  Human muscle, when digested by the body, increases cholesterol by rapidly raising blood fats.  The human body – specifically the liver – cannot metabolize more than 1 to 2 lbs of body fat per week, period.  And that is a healthy functioning liver.

This is why in Genesis Transformation we work gradually to clean up your diet and let you get used to it.  Your body heals very rapidly, your physical systems have time to regenerate, and as fat loss begins to happen it is natural, healthy, and in tune with your liver and gallbladder.  You get better and better, not worse and worse.  You can trust the results of the fat loss because you are a responsible part of the process. It makes sense, both to your head and your body.

The degree of speed at which this will occur is different for everyone, depending on both history and personal constitution.  The more you’ve  battered yourself with poor lifestyle habits the longer it will take for your body to heal.  Frequently, the folks with a more self abusive history are the folks who are inordinately impatient with themselves and have a more difficult time accepting the responsibility of self care.  With Genesis Transformation it is all about the responsibility of self care. We teach you how this works and YOU do it.  The empowerment of this process is incredible; it’s healing, it’s regenerating, and it’s a ton of fun.