Weight-loss is About Being Healthy

As I explained in yesterdays blog, being healthy is sooner or later going to give you a balanced body, by for example losing weight if that is what your body needs. What healthy means for you is something you have to figure out. But it is in one way or the other always about ‘getting rid of’ things in your life that stop you from feeling relieved and at peace with whatever happens in life. ‘Getting rid of’ is often by changing something, a change in ‘the non-mass you’, the thoughts, feelings and emotions, or in the ‘mass you’, your physical body.

In the case of being overweight you probably have to figure out how and why you eat, but apart from that sometimes it is easier to start by your mass-solution. One excellent way to detox and lose weight is to do ‘Liquid Days’. It is simply done by eating liquidized foods for 24 hours.

The benefits are plenty: you let your digestive system rest, giving your body a chance to detox; you get more mindful while eating because you only drink when you are hungry, listening to your hunger, not when ‘it’s time’ to eat. That gives your detox system a rest so that it can get rid of some of the stored toxins. These are often stored in fat cells. Also you ingest more water (helps your detox) and your calorie intake is lower.

Basically you could liquidize any food but I suggest you stay away from the pizza and hamburger that day. We recommend you do 1-2 Liquid Days a week, until you reach your perfect weight. You will only after one day feel more energy, more sensitive and respectful towards what you put in your mouth. In modern medicine it is called intermittent fasting. Fasting has in many religions and health philosophies been a great tool to detox, center yourself and be mindful.

At our retreats we offer Liquid Days for everyone that wants to lose weight or just still their mind, but we never do juices for weight loss. It is important to get enough protein and fat so that you don’t fool your body into starvation and lower metabolism, which in the long run only will make you gain weight. If you have done a retreat with us you know your Dosha. If you are Kapha you can do two days in a row but I would not recommend it to Pittas or Vatas.

A typical drink is a liquidized vegetable soup with a hand full of pumpkin seeds, nuts or something else to get the protein and fat. You can also mix it with a mix of 2 of the 3 groups; pulses/rices/grains, as I have talked about in previous blogs, that is how you get protein from vegan sources.

So say you have pre boiled rice and beans, then you don’t need more than a handful of each, mixed in a vegetable soup with a spoon of olive oil, for a perfect meal giving you enough protein. A nice breakfast could be to mix rice, soy milk, half a banana, cinnamon and cardamon.

If you want to lose weight be careful with the sweet fruits. You can make the drinks taste nice with herbs like mint, spices, lime, lemon, grapefruit, and use less banana, tropical fruits, oranges, melons, etc, as the sugar content is high in these. We also recommend that you use a lot of green and leafy vegetables like spinach and kale. Drinks with these healthy (maybe the most healthy we can eat) vegetables are pure energy kicks, packed with chlorophyl and other nutrients. A nice drink in between meals are the ‘green juices’; mix green leaves with anything you like and loads of water. I love my spinach, lime, ginger, and mint drink.

Enjoy and let me know if you have questions!