Your enzymes and your weight

  Heres the bottom line for weight loss: with a healthy digestive system, it is almost impossible to be gain weight on with whole, raw, live foods! Imagine that! You can eat anything you want, as much as you want (as long as it is raw, whole, live food) and not gain an ounce in most cases. Exceptions include people with digestive or glandular disorders - though they will probably do better on raw, live foods. When you first start eating more raw foods, you may need awhile to cleanse, detoxify and rebuild your digestive system before noticing substantial weight loss. A weight problem is not an isolated issue, but is part of your whole being. An imbalance in one part of the body effects your entire system. Weight is a symptom of what is going on with your elimination system, glandular system, emotions, sleep patterns, stress levels, liver, colon, skin, lungs, blood, spirit and energy levels.

   The enzymes found naturally in whole, live, raw foods help with obesity at the whole being level. You see, enzymes do much more in your body than help digest food. Enzymes are responsible for every single chemical reaction in every single cell of your body. All your minerals, herbs, vitamins and hormones cannot do their jobs without enzymes. Your cant lift an arm or think one thought without the help of enzymes. In fact, you could say that enzymes are, biologically speaking, the source of life. A diet without a source of live enzymes is removed from the source of life. Things removed from their source of life slowly begin to die. For us, that leads to disease, excessive weight gain, depression - many of the maladies that plague us today.
   Though it is true that your body can manufacture the enzymes needed for digestion,  believe in the enzyme bank theory, which says that our bodies have an enzyme account. Every time we make a withdrawal from the account unnecessarily, the lower the balance. So as we get older, we have less and less ability to make enzymes. So getting as many enzymes as possible in our diet can make it easier for our bodies in the long run, and may make more enzymes available to us if we are running low in our account.
   With weight loss, for example, lipase, a fat splitting enzyme, is found abundantly in raw, live foods. However, few of us eat enough raw foods to get enough lipase to burn even a normal amount of fat, not to mention any excess. Lipase helps your body in digestion, fat distribution and fat burning for energy. Lipase breaks down and dissolves fat throughout the body. Without lipase, fat stagnates and accumulates. You can see it on your hips, thighs, buttocks and the stomach. Protease is another enzyme for maintaining a healthy body. Protease helps break down proteins and eliminate toxins. Eliminating toxins is essential when you are burning fat. Your body stores excess toxins in body fat. As your body begins to burn this fat the toxins are released into your system. This can sometimes cause water retention and bloating. Since Protease attacks and eliminates toxins, it is crucial to have plenty of protease during fat loss.

Cleanse your mind, emotions and spirit

   With weight management challenges, you need to carefully watch for emotional and mental triggers until your awareness of these have reached a point where they change naturally. This is where many dieters give up. At first it can be very difficult to be detached and nonjudgmental about our triggers. We all to often end up eating so we dont have to look at what we see about when were not numbing ourselves with food. If we ever get past that point, true emotional healing and mental re-patterning can occur. So try to objectively observe what your triggers may be. Research this field for yourself and find the resources you resonate with, from books and videos to workshops and spas.

   Some activities can help re-direct cravings. Take a walk, dance to some good music, take a hot shower, drink some herb tea, do something creative, call a friend, prepare a new raw recipe that takes some effort and time, cuddle with a loved one, meditate, chant or pray, drink more water (should be drinking water every two to three hours anyway), inhale essential oils, read a book. Laugh and have fun! Some people like to get counseling or join a weight loss group. Take the risk of talking with others who are going through the same things you are. It will be invaluable support. If your emotional baggage is contributing to your weight, you might find that a release ceremony is effective for releasing past wounds, hurt feelings and fear based on past experience. There are numerous workshops, books, videos, audio programs and websites dedicated to these subjects. Research them for yourself to find the ones you resonate with and that are in harmony with your own beliefs.
  Of course, no weight loss program would be complete without including exercise. Planning on joining a gym and doing more exercise, but dont hold your breath! Also do Tai Ji Quan almost every day. Tai Ji Quan or Qi Gong is great for building energy, toning the body and enhancing lymph circulation and cleansing.

Build Your Body

   Once you get your body clean and feeling healthier, you can turn your attention to building your system up. This is a vital second step on the path to permanent weight loss. This is another area for personal research, but here are some areas to consider.
   Colloidal Minerals
One of the overall good health supplements for normal weight, pain reduction and just keeping the body functioning properly is colloidal minerals. There are many good formulas out there. You may not dont need minerals every day. Raw foodists eventually develop powerful intuitive eating abilities. Dowsing or muscle-testing is also great.

   Essential Oils
Nothing works faster to help me relax than a few whiffs of the right essential oils. The right oils can be a valuable part of your weight loss program. It’s similar in thinking to aromatherapy. Regular inhalation of certain essential oils, such as grapefruit oil, has been shown to aid in appetite reduction, while others work remarkably well for relaxation. The use of essential oils isnt a magic bullet. But they can help you with food craving and hunger. The aroma of essential oils like orange, lemon, grapefruit, rosemary and peppermint can also help provide energy during workouts and when you feel sluggish. Use oils every day. Since many are antibacterial as well, they are great for working and living in todays polluted world and I feel that they give me a certain amount of protection from toxicity in the air, foods and general environment.

Cleanse Your Body

      The Colon
   If you are not having two to three good bowel movements every day, you probably have a toxic colon. If the colon is not fully releasing the waste that accumulates there after each meal, that waste rots, turnings putrid and toxic. This toxic waste leaks back through the wall of the colon into your bloodstream creating dis-ease and making it harder to lose weight This also creates a condition where your body feels it needs more nutrition, sending you signals to eat even more food. When your system is toxic, you have less energy for exercise, which can also contribute to excess weight. In every instance of weight management with which I have been involved, there was toxicity of the colon. When the colon is toxic, it is also a breeding ground for parasites, causing yet another toxicity problem that can interfere with weight loss. Parasites are often hidden cause of colon toxicity, low energy and weight imbalance. You can pick up parasites almost anywhere these days: walking barefoot in the yard and house, if you have indoor pets, eating greens that have not been properly washed, swimming, eating cooked meats. A good herbal parasite cleanse might be just the thing for you. One of the first thing usually recommend for people who want to lose weight is a good colon cleansing. Remember, if you have any medical problems with your colon, such as colitis or Irritable Bowel Syndrome, please check with your doctor first - your digestive system can be gently healed with more live foods, but it may require a slower, specialized approach.
      Your Liver
   The liver is a vital organ for the health of your body. Its impossible to maintain good health with an unhealthy liver. Due to high pollution levels in air, water and cooked food, a liver cleanse can be helpful before beginning a raw diet. An effective liver cleanse can take weeks. Just taking something for a few days is not sufficient and not even a good idea as it can lead to a “healing crisis” or sudden shock to the body. If you havent done a good liver cleanse within the past 6 months to a year, a toxic liver may be part of your inability to lose weight. Research the various programs available and choose one for yourself. Prefer an herbal liver cleanse that includes milk thistle, one of the best herbs for cleansing the liver.
      Your Blood
   If the colon and/or liver are toxic, believe your blood is probably toxic, too. To support your body in losing weight, believe that it is good idea to cleanse your blood. As always, research available products and programs yourself. Prefer a gentle herbal approach that includes red clover, one of the best blood cleansers. Red Clover is gentle and very effective, even for children.
      Yeast
   Yeast is another hidden, insidious obstacle to weight loss. Make sure that you dont have a Candida problem. If you do, there are herbal products to deal with it naturally. Research and find a good formula. Eliminate sugar, wheat and white flour, MSG (monosodium glutimate) and Aspartame (NutraSweet) - this is automatic if you eat raw foods. Initially, as your cells dump the candida into your blood, it may seem worse, but eventually a raw diet will eliminate the excess candida.
      Misc
   For reducing heavy metal toxins, the herb Cilantro is good. Just munch on it fresh or make a tincture. There are many other cleanses (kidneys, lungs, etc.) but these are the major ones. Believe that it is important to eliminate the biggest nasties from your diet right away: refined sugar, MSG, aspartame (NutraSweet) and hydrogenated oils. Stevia is the best herbal alternative to sugar, though it may take some getting used to. An herb called Gymnema Sylvestre is also useful in dealing with reducing sugar in your diet, as it helps directly with sugar cravings.
 

Weight Loss is About More Than Just Diet

    Wellness is holistic - all aspects of what makes us human: mind, body, emotions, Spirit, affect our health and happiness. If you can accept this interconnected perspective of life, if you see your health as related to the emotional, mental and spiritual aspects of your life, then the raw food lifestyle is for you. Raw food isnt a magic bullet. Strictly speaking, it isnt even a weight loss program. It is part of a healthier, new lifestyle that requires responsibility, commitment and time to incorporate properly into your life.

   When you make that commitment, you are empowering yourself to take the first steps towards a lifestyle that is intrinsically based on nutrient dense organic whole food. Such a diet is naturally rich in all the nutrition your body really needs, while low in carbohydrates and calories. Numerous studies have proven that a low calorie diet leeds to weight loss and increased longevity, a longer healthier life. Thats simply the natural result of a raw foods based lifestyle - making it almost effortless once you learn how to do it and get comfortable incorporating it into your own life.
   The reason most so-called weight loss programs fail is because there are at least three things you must do before even starting a new diet and exercise plan that most of these programs dont even consider, which can lead to unrealistic expectations and impatience.
   If you dont prepare you body beforehand, you can experience uncomfortable detoxing as your body suddenly dumps toxins trapped in fat into your system. This can create cravings for cooked foods, believe it or not and other unhealthy things. You may also have deeply embedded lifestyle patterns that are difficult to suddenly change. After many years, or even decades, of eating cooked and processed foods that dont fully nurture your body, your body has made several adaptations at the metabolic level in order to survive. Changing these takes a little time and varies from person to person. So before attempting to jump into a raw food diet, it is important to do these three things, gently:
   1. Cleanse your body of toxins built up by years of cooked foods
   2. Re-build your body, especially your immune, digestive and elimination systems.
   3. Cleanse your mind, emotions & spirit.