Connie started her career in weight loss back in the '70s and was very successful opening weight loss salons in the US and Australia. The business was successful because the women lost the weight they wanted to lose. But even back then, she saw that for many of them, if they didn't have constant support to keep it off, it came back on.
Our experience in the last thirty-some years helping people lose weight with a Whole Food Plant Based (WFPB) diet has a fabulous success rate too, but we also saw with some of our clients that they didn't always keep it off. It seems to be more than just knowing what to eat. There's a mental / emotional piece that we need to address as well if we want to keep it off.
Join us to hear more.
Dr. Goldhamer, the founder of True North Health Center, has some shocking statistics about the chances of someone who is overweight wanting to lose 5% of their body weight and keep it off for a year. The chances are 5%. Ouch! That means 95% of those who lose 5% of their body weight gain it back again within 12 months.
This is what gives rise to the saying "Yo-Yo Dieting." There are many ways to lose weight. The trick seems to be keeping it off.
What we saw was that, almost exclusively, what caused clients to "fall off the wagon" so to speak, returning to their old diet and lifestyle, was some stress or anxiety in their life that they turned to food for to shift the feelings they were having. To help them calm down and deal with the situation.
Fortunately, since we've started coaching our clients about the nature of the mind and how life really works, they have been able to lose the weight and keep it off indefinitely. With this new understanding, they create a healthy relationship with food and all of life.
To do this, we help them see that circumstances don't create the feelings we have. Circumstances are always neutral. What creates the stress and anxiety we experience is how we relate to our situations. What we think about them.
When our clients begin to see the role their thoughts play in creating the feelings they don't like to have, they are able to pause and let their minds settle down. With this, they see the situation differently, and it no longer creates the negative emotions.
Learning to see life differently, so that unexpected or unwanted situations don't throw us into a tailspin, nips the problem in the bud. Then, the first sign of a negative emotion arising is a signal to pause and let the mind settle down instead of allowing negative, fearful thinking to go around and around in our heads, maintaining those feelings we don't want.
This is what we refer to as creating a healthy relationship with life. Seeing that our experience in life comes from the inside-out (what we're thinking ABOUT the situation), and not the outside-in (the situation makes me feel this way), removes so much stress and anxiety. We find ourselves interacting with life in a much healthier way. Not reactive, like eating food to change how we feel, but responsively handling the situation reasonably.
If you would like to learn more about this way of relating to life, we offer a free, 60-minute Zoom call every Saturday to discuss the value of WFPB eating with short videos from experts like Dr. Goldhamer, a new WFPB recipe each week, and time to explore the nature of the mind that leads to a healthy relationship with food. Leave us a comment below if you'd like to learn how to join us or would like a free consultation.
The recipe this week is a Quinoa Chickpea Pesto Bowl. Like all of our bowls, it’s a wonderful combination of high nutrient dense foods, made with a rainbow of colours and flavours we love.
To your Amazing Health,
Connie and Bill
Quinoa, Chickpea, Pesto Bowl (Serves 2)
Bowl Base:
2 cups cooked quinoa, about ¾ cup uncooked
seasoned chickpeas (recipe below)
roasted sweet potatoes and peppers
cooked greens
pesto (recipe below)
1 avocado for garnish
Seasoned Chickpeas:
- 15 ounce can chickpeas, drained
- 1 tablespoon No Salt Seasoning
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon curry powder
Sweet Potato/Peppers Roasted:
- 4 cups cubed sweet potatoes
- 2 bell peppers, red, orange or yellow, cut in chunks
Greens:
- 1 bunch kale or chard, washed and torn in small pieces
Instructions:
Cook quinoa in 2 cups filtered water. Bring to a boil. Turn heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes.
Pre-heat oven to 400º F. Add chickpeas and seasonings to a bowl and stir well to coat all the beans. Pour onto a cookie sheet with parchment paper or silicon mat and bake for 20 minutes until toasty.
On a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicon mat, roast potatoes and peppers at 400º for 40 minutes.
In a fry pan, add greens and ½ cup filtered water. Bring to a boil, turn heat to low and simmer until tender (approximately 15 to 20 minutes).
Make Pesto.
Pesto:
- 3 cups fresh basil
- 1 cup cilantro
- ¼ cup pine nuts
- ¼ cup cashews
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- 3 medium cloves garlic, peeled
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 1 tablespoon No Salt Seasoning
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Add all ingredients to a food processor and mix well until thoroughly blended.
When all food is cooked, assemble into a bowl and add sliced avocado for garnish