Losing Weight

Losing weight

Before starting any weight loss endeavor, make sure you are ready.  Confirm that it is time and right.  If your life situation hasn’t changed from what it was when you put on the weight,  there is a good chance you are not ready to lose the weight. If you are still in situations unaligned with your true nature,  losing weight is unlikely. If you are joyful in all things,  there is an excellent chance you will lose the weight and keep it off.

Every extra pound on your body is a reflection of some aspect of your emotional, mental, and spiritual life.  Losing weight and having it permanently stay off requires permanent change on all levels.

So before you go diving into a focused decision to lose weight, make sure you are ready for change; if you are not, you will only be frustrated with the process.

So now let us imagine you have done the internal work and made the life changes that needed to be made; you no longer need the extra weight, and you are ready to allow the world to get a little closer to you.

Weight loss now becomes easy. You will no longer confuse your emotional, mental, and spiritual imbalances with physical hunger. Instead, you will approach the actual caloric deficit you experience as hunger with a clear mind and adamantine (diamond-like) will.

Practically speaking, here is what you need to do to lose weight

  1. Make sure it is the right time, and your life is in order. Can you make this a top priority?
  2. Choose a diet of reduced calories and stick to it. How many calories you take in daily should equal  500 less than the TDEE (Total daily energy expenditure), which takes into account both body weight and level of activity.  Five hundred calories less than your TDEE will provide for a weight loss of one pound per week.  One pound of fat = 3500 calories.
  3. I recommend that you stop all carbohydrates. ALL! No pasta, cakes, cookies, grains, sugars, etc.
  4. Stop all dairy.
  5. Stop high-calorie foods such as nuts and nut butters.
  6. Limit your intake to items such as fish, salad, vegetables, and fruit.
  7. There are NO cheat days. Again, NO cheat days or moments. No birthday, holiday, or party excuses. You need to be ruthless.
  8. Understand you need to be hungry ALL the time; even after a meal, you need to feel physical hunger.
  9. Hunger is the best guide and your best friend on a weight loss journey.

How do we make hunger our best friend?    For millennia, mystics of all faiths have recognized the beauty and elegance of fasting as a way to get closer to The One True God.  When you embark upon a divine weight loss journey, the key is to reframe that perpetual hunger as a dedication to something greater than yourself.  Recognize you are experiencing this discomfort to refine your relationship with spirit.   I have used this approach many times, and during those times when I was able to enter a state of embracing the hunger, success was guaranteed.   I have actually had moments when, after reaching my weight goal, I would almost have to force myself to start eating enough calories to maintain my weight.  I cannot describe to you how good it feels when you dedicate this small part of yourself, your hunger, to a higher cause.

For those of you who have a relationship with The One True  God or any of its subsidiaries, this approach to weight loss may be perfect for you.

Another approach, another way to transcend the self-pity, feelings of denial, and suffering demons of hunger, is to ask the question:  If one of your loved ones, child, spouse, parent, good friend, or pet was terminally ill and that only by you losing weight would that loved one live and thrive, would you be able to lose the weight?   In almost all cases, the answer is yes.

When you choose to lose weight for something or someone greater than yourself, the hunger is no longer torture but a beautiful prayer to The One True God amplified by the small suffering of hunger.   When you lose weight as a spiritual practice, then the hunger becomes a reminder of your commitment to the welfare of not only yourself but those around you.  A noble life.   If you do this, I guarantee success—on so many levels.