May 2012
By Sanjiv Ranjan
If weight loss regimens traumatise you, it is time to rethink your strategies, and listen to your body’s signals, says Sanjiv Ranjan
The human body is designed for perfection. It has six trillion cells working in sync to preserve every vital function. It is programmed to be fit.
Why then do we gain weight?
And why can’t we lose it at will?
Why is weight loss such a colossal struggle for most of us? The answer lies in the way we think, and the fact that we are not taught some elementary facts about our body, and the way it relates to food. When pursuing weight loss, one of the first things we need to know is that the body has a circadian rhythm of food.
Follow the circadian rhythm
The food cycle divides a day into three phases of eight hours each. The first phase is called the appropriation cycle. This begins at about 12 pm and goes on until eight in the evening. During this time, the body ingests food and breaks it down into its simplest form. The digested food is then absorbed through the small intestine into the blood stream.
The next phase, which lasts from 8 pm to 4 am, is the assimilation phase. During this phase, all the nutrients are assimilated into the cells, for the various activities they are genetically equipped to perform.
Then comes the elimination phase in which the cells release all the products of metabolism that is waste and toxins, into the blood stream from where they can be eliminated permanently through sweat, urine, and stools.
This is how the body preserves its integrity. Now if one were to eat food before 12 pm during the day and after eight at night,
By not adhering to the circadian rhythm, we create imbalance and confusion in the cells and metabolism | ||
then the energy required for digestion takes away from the cells the energy that it requires for assimilation and elimination. As a result, the above two processes remain incomplete, and the body is unable to fully assimilate all the nutrients. It is unable to fully excrete substances that are no longer required by it. This leads to excess weight gain and various lifestyle disorders.
Imperfect metabolism causes havoc
Incomplete assimilation and elimination interferes with the normal functioning of the organs especially those situated in the brain, like the pituitary gland, the hypothalamus, and the pineal body. The pituitary gland is the master endocrine gland, and responsible for proper functioning of almost all the major hormonal systems.
Hence, by not adhering to the circadian rhythm we create imbalance and confusion in the cells and metabolism.
It is important to understand, accept, and honour the natural rhythm of the body. Slowly reprogramme your eating habits. Make it a habit to limit ingestion of food to the appropriation phase that is between 12 pm and eight at night. The only exception to this rule is to eat plenty of fruits, drink lots of water, in case you feel hungry, and wish to satisfy the hunger beyond the time limit given above.
Fruits do not require energy for digestion, because either everything is already in its simplest form, or straightaway excreted as roughage. Hence, they do not interfere in elimination or absorption.
Try the above eating pattern, and watch the positive changes physically and mentally.
Your body listens to you
The next step towards losing weight is becoming aware of the power that your beliefs wield over your physical body. All your cells are constantly listening to your inner dialogue. They relentlessly eavesdrop on the invisible conversations you constantly have in your mind and they take you literally. It is now being scientifically proved that your beliefs are energy fields that surround your genes, and control their activation, or inactivation. Your perception controls the readout of your genes, which in turn controls your biological expression of health or sickness.
For example, if you are harbouring beliefs like, ‘it is difficult to lose weight,’ ‘I find it such a struggle to lose weight’ or ‘I have to starve to lose weight,’ your cells will alter your metabolism in such a way that it will become your reality.
One of the best ways to deal with such thoughts and beliefs, is to ask yourself, whose thought is it anyway? In addition, you may realise that you primarily picked it up from your parents, or your peers, or from the collective consciousness.
The next question you ask yourself is, ‘Does such thinking make me happy?’ If the answer is no, then you can simply ask yourself, ‘Why am I holding on to this thought? ’
The moment you do that, you have questioned a prevailing belief, one that is firmly embedded in your subconscious mind, and is creating your experienced reality. If you firmly believe that weight loss is difficult, then your body will ensure that the process is arduous, and your mind will continue to sabotage your cause.
The very act of questioning your belief will set you free. You will begin to form a new belief. One that makes you feel happy and empowered. For example, you can embrace beliefs such as, ‘I can lose as much weight as I wish to lose with ease and joy,’ or ‘weight loss comes naturally to me,’ or anything that resonates with your individual word power.
Understanding your relationship with food
The next step is to understand your relationship with food. There is no calorie count that is absolute. You will notice that there are basically two kinds of people. Those who eat everything and remain slim, and those who count calories, feel guilty about every biscuit that they eat, and still remain fat. Again, it is all about your inner dialogue, and the way you look at food.
When you start changing the way you look at food, the way you respond to food will change. The way your body metabolises food will change. If you perceive food as something that makes you gain weight, then your metabolism will slow down to create a physical coherence with your belief. However, if you eat food with joy and vigour, without any guilt, then your metabolism will rev up, and will not accumulate fat. Therefore, when you eat food, eat it with joy, eat it with love, taste every morsel, and believe it is helping you have a beautiful body.
You will be in for a pleasant surprise. The food will not add up to your weight. More than your food, it is the consciousness with which you eat that determines how food relates to you. When you feel love for your food, when you eat it without guilt, you can actually change the crystalline structure of the water and food molecules, and trigger off a chain of metabolic events that are conducive to having a perfect body weight, one that is right for you.
Dump the junk food
However, there is an exception to this rule. Many of us are addicted to processed and fast foods, which do not add any nutritional value to our meals, since they are poor in essential nutrients, and loaded with empty calories. We eat foods like cookies, cakes, burgers, chips, and other fried stuff only because we are addicted to them. We know that we should not be eating them yet continue to do so instead of reaching for a healthier option like fruit. At such times stop and ask yourself, ‘Why am I doing this to myself?’
The moment you question your behaviour it begins to transform. The witnessing, wise consciousness becomes active. You will notice the more you do this, the more your food habits will change. You will encourage foods that make you feel happy and good about yourself, and stay away from guilt-ridden eating. This takes practice and focus. But the change is permanent.
Step on to the scales with a smile
The next important thing is to weigh yourself every day. This daily ritual creates a biofeedback awareness mechanism. On the day you are five hundred grams up naturally you will eat better, avoid unnecessary foods, exercise more, and on the days you have lost five hundred grams, you will feel even more motivated than before to keep up the weight loss spree. It works both ways positively.
It also prevents those shocks that you get when all of a sudden you weigh yourself and find yourself three kilos heavier. Or, when you cannot fit into your favourite pair of jeans any longer, and you wake up to the fact that you have gained weight.
Guzzle water
Lastly, it is important to drink plenty of water and eat fruits, if you want safe, easy, and quick weight loss. Fruits ensure the vital functioning of your body. They provide you all the enzymes, energy and bio catalysts that you require. If you eat a variety of fruits then your energy will remain high, because very little of your own energy is expended, as fruits do not require any energy for digestion. It is always better to eat a banana instead of a cookie. It is not the calories that matter as much as the available nutrition. Fruits give you the extra energy required to get into an activity mode.
Drinking water, a litre a day for every kilo you want to lose, is the key to a quick effective weight loss programme. It is important to have small targets for weight loss, maybe not more than five kilos at a time. If that is your target, you should be drinking five litres of water every day.
Love your body
These are a few body basics that you need to know before you start your weight loss project. The simple easy steps are as follows. Add movement to your regimen because the human body is designed for movement. You could start with an average paced 40-minute walk every day. Movement helps in the release of endorphins, which are the body’s natural mood elevators.
Lastly, be kind and patient with yourself when you look at the mirror. You may not have been able to follow your regimen perfectly, you may not like what you see in the mirror, but it is important to make peace and treat yourself with love. That sets the note for transformation.
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