Life after Obesity

The word diet always seems to be taken as meaning a limiting food program, a weight loss focused set of food rules: to go on a diet. But your diet is simply what you usually eat. When I lost weight (I lost 186 pounds, without gastrointestinal bypass or liposuction), I used a high protein and relatively high fat food program, with zero sugar (not even in medication!) and zero high GI (Glycemic Index) foods (no flour, starch, fruit, or non-salad vegetables). It was sort of a combination Dr. Atkins, The Schwartzbein Principle, and, although it hadn’t been written yet, a little bit South Beach Diet. It worked for me and it was easy to stay with for a long time, but in the long run it is not probably the best choice for a lifelong plan; it is hard on the kidneys and the digestive tract.

My diet now is much more balanced. What I have found is once you have conquered the Yeast Beast (Candida), you can pretty much eat anything you want; you just can’t eat everything you want all the time, or as much as you want of anything all the time. And you have to pay for what you eat with sweat. Runners have known for ages that exercise is a license to eat. We are not runners, but we do walk with weights, and Godzilla, our Versaclimber, will burn off anything we want if we put in the time.

One of the important discoveries I made in working out a healthy diet once I began eating normally was the fabulous nature of fiber. Grandma always said that roughage was good for you, and research proves her wisdom: fiber, the part of fruits, vegetables, and grains that is neither digested nor absorbed, in foods is important to health. Fiber helps keep your intestines working comfortably and helps prevent disease.

Fiber comes in two forms: soluble and insoluble. Soluble fiber acts like a sponge; insoluble fiber acts like a broom. Soluble fiber absorbs water in the intestines, mixes the food into a gel, which slows the rate of glucose digestion and consequent absorption into the bloodstream. Insoluble fiber, the stringy stuff that holds plants together, does not dissolve in liquids and can absorb many times its own weight in water. This water adds bulk and softness to the stools and keeps them moving along.
After I lost 186 pounds, fiber became something of importance to my efforts to grow old healthy. When I looked back at Grandma and how she fed her family, I realized there was another important kind of fiber: indigestible bulk, which I call macrofiber. Before everything was prepackaged, chaff and bits of soil and even insects was not uncommon in food, and I believe our systems were designed to include this, and that they just do not work as well since we eliminated it from our diet. Putting macrofiber back in your diet in the form of whole raw seeds greatly increases digestive regularity and health, and reduces yeast overgrowth.

Fiber curbs overeating; fibers are filling without being fattening. High fiber foods require more chewing, and the prolonged chewing pre-digests the food and satisfies the appetite so you eat less. Fiber stays in the stomach longer than food without fiber, absorbs water and swells; it helps you feel full faster and longer.

Fiber, especially the soluble type, slows the absorption of sugar into the bloodstream, stabilizes the blood sugar level, and lessens the fluctuating highs and lows of insulin secretion. (Keeping insulin levels low and stable also helps the body store less fat.) Fiber also slows down the absorption of fat from what you eat.

As it travels down the intestines, the glutinous gel soluble fiber makes when it absorbs water picks up cholesterol and carries it out of the body, lowering blood levels of the harmful type of cholesterol without lowering the good cholesterol levels.

Most of my life, I thought that a bowel movement every few days was normal. If you know what I mean from experience, let me tell you: go do a colon cleanse or detox now, and then do what you need to do to determine how you have to eat for you so that you void every day. Not only is it great for your health, but you will feel better, noticeably better, every day.

If you’ve ever seen a Drano commercial, or dealt with leaves in the gutter in the fall, you understand what it means to the system when it gets clogged and backs up. Your digestive system works in much the same way and, like the clogged drains and gutters, when it is full of debris, all kinds of gross and mysterious things begin to grow. When our digestive systems are clogged, yeast celebrates as we are providing it with the perfect habitat: dark, warm, moist and full of rotting nutrients.

Your colon is full of mucoid plaque and toxins, much of which comes from what the over population of yeast in our digestive tracks excretes. This interferes with proper absorption of the nutrients we digest. Toxins, which are poisons to our bodies, can be reabsorbed into the bloodstream and re-circulated through the body, sometimes settling in an organ, joint, or muscle and wrecking havoc. Toxin buildup also interferes with the absorption of the Candida yeast fighting supplements you take to control the infestation. It can in general make us feel as tired and sluggish as our system. If you are over thirty and have never done a colon cleanse or detox, please make time to do a little research on the types and methods, as there are many different approaches and cleansing/detox tonics and aides.

The other major component of our lifestyle is exercise. We believe in the benefits of exercise not merely as a weight control endeavor, but to keep the body moving and functioning properly, from the muscles to the respiratory and circulatory systems to the digestive tract, which needs strong muscles in the stomach and lower back to keep the intestines moving food along properly and to void properly. We have Godzilla, our Versaclimber, the pole, our balance balls, the Bean, various ankle and wrist weights, hand weights, flex bands, and good walking shoes. If I go a day without exercising I feel a little sluggish; if I go several days I ache to work out.

Exercise improves physical health. Physically active individuals have a much better future health outlook than their sedentary peers. Even modest regular physical activity has a positive influence on people's health and vitality; a minimum of twenty to thirty minutes of moderate activity a day most days of the week will benefit health and assist with weight loss.

Exercise reduces your chance of developing and dying of illnesses such as heart disease by lowering illness risk factors such as triglyceride and overall cholesterol levels, while at the same time improving the levels of the good cholesterol. Weight-bearing exercise and strength training activities help to maintain, and can even increase, bone mass, reducing the risk for osteoarthritis and associated bone fractures.

Regular exercise lowers resting blood pressure rates for hours after an exercise session is over. In addition, moderate exercise may significantly reduce the risk of developing type II diabetes. Arthritics who exercise often experience more strength and flexibility in their affected joints as well as a reduced pain levels; exercise may delay or prevent the development of arthritis in other joints. Regular walking of over a mile a day has been shown to reduce the risk of stroke significantly. Exercise even appears to reduce the risk of developing some cancers, especially cancers of the breast and colon.

Exercise increases energy and feelings of vitality. Sedentary individuals often complain of being too tired to work out. Ironically, exercise improves our capacity for physical work so that people who exercise on a regular basis actually have more energy and greater strength and endurance for daily activities than do their sedentary peers. The feeling of increased energy and vitality is one of the first things people tend to notice a few weeks after beginning to working out on a regular basis. Energy tends to spiral, either up or down. If you do not exercise, you have less energy, so you feel even less like exercising; if you force yourself to exercise, your energy level rises, and it gets easier and easier to exercise harder and longer as your energy levels rise. An exercise session burns calories and elevates metabolic rate both during exercise and for hours afterwards. It helps to preserve and build lean muscle mass, and muscle burns more energy than fat, even when at rest. Exercise also works to suppress appetite, and research shows that one of the best things a person can do when depressed is to force themselves to exercise: the mood elevation effect is immediate.

Another important benefit of the proper amount of exercise is the ability it has to help regulate the digestive tract. The importance of having a well functioning digestive tract just can not be overstated. The evening constitutional had its grounds in good health practice, as does an apple a day.

It may help you while you struggle to lose weight to remember that losing weight, or keeping it off, is a matter of balancing that energy equation. You either eat less or move more or both. You’ve got to move it to lose it; exercise is the currency of health.

You need a certain amount of exercise daily to remain healthy. If you eat more than you need to, you need more exercise on the days you do. If you are trying to lose weight, you have to do the amount of exercise you need daily to balance what you eat, and you need to do an additional amount to work on the stored fat. The good news is, once you are in shape, it takes less exercise to maintain your desired weight and fitness level than it did to get there.

We reason with and bargain with ourselves allthe time and conveniently fail to recognize that we do so, or how self defeating it is. Start by making yourself go just one more minute after you’re sure you need to quit, and try to go a little longer each time. Do learn to listen to the ongoing conversation your mind has with you in your head.

One last word about exercise: Helena Rubenstein is noted for saying, There are no ugly women, only lazy ones. The face God gave you is the face God gave you and, unless it is severely disfigured, you do the best with what you have, and make-up is an option for enhancing your looks that simply takes learning, practice, and putting into practice. Believe me: I have seen drag queens in make up that not only put me to shame, but many movie stars. How much enhancement one gets from make-up is solely dependant on how much time, effort and patience is put into it. Not every woman can be gorgeous, but every woman can look her best. Ms. Rubenstein was not only talking about cosmetics; the effort we put into our bodies in the form of diet and exercise can make all the difference in the world. And regardless of what body God gave you, with few exceptions, having a great body is elective.

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All the tasks you have to do may make it seem like life after obesity is just more of the tasks you had to do to recover from obesity. What you get, however, is a chance at second adulthood. Every place you have ever gone, everything you have ever done as an obese adult will be different. It will be new again.

Other obese may be more aware of the fattism going all around them, and all the things said behind our backs, than I was. Perhaps that is why it seems so strikingly different to me. There’s not a store experience, a people encounter, a just walking down the street that is the same any more. People see you differently, so they treat you differently. You also go places you might not have gone before. You have more energy. You feel good about yourself. It’s a new start.

It is second adulthood, and it’s worth it.

Disclaimer: This article is educational in nature, and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. If you have a medical condition, please consult your physician.

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