There was a man who arrived at the retreat on a mission, he wanted to lose as much weight as he could in a fortnight. Well I have never seen anything like this, often we would have people lose between 4 & 6kgs in a week. Sometimes we even had 10kg loses, but never a 16kg.
What did he do
Well the first thing I taught him was he had to throughly chew his food, I wanted him to start thinking of his spoon or fork as a loaded gun. He was not allowed to reload until he had finished every last mouthful by chewing. No water was allowed with meals, so he could not swallow his food with the water as many of us do, he had to chew!
The next step, given that his meals were now taking between 20-30minutes, instead of the usual 6 minutes, was to stop when he felt comfortable. Let me emphasise, not full, just comfortable. This would probably have been a portion size equivalent to about 60% of his previous meals. Most of us have been taught to over eat over decades, remember your parents telling you about the starving children in Africa.
I explained to him that after eating like this he doesn't have to wait a few hours before moving again, most of us eat so much we have to sit in order for our body to attempt to digest the extravaganza we would call a meal.
He moved a lot, and I mean a lot. He didn't stop moving apart from the meals. He walked, trained lightly, did classes and walked some more.
I left on a Thursday and returned on the Sunday, I was serving lunch and he was standing beside me. I asked him where he was from thinking he was a new guest, to my surprise he said "Blair, it's me!!", I almost fell over. We chatted and he mentioned he had lost 16kg. I think that a few kilogram's must have been off his face because I really didn't recognise him.
I told him that he wouldn't lose that much the second week, but he would still lose a little. Well, he lost another 7kg.
Now that is a lot, I do not promote losing so much in a short time. As the winner of the biggest loser who stayed with us told me, calories in must be less than calories out.
The secrets
50-75% of the diet should be raw(more on this in a latter blog)
Chew, remember the loaded spoon/ fork as a gun, don't preload.
Slow down
No liquids with meals (you produce saliva when chewing)
Drink fluids between meals when thirsty
And Finally the most important, move often, your 1hr workout a day is roughly 4% of your day.
Try to move every hour, it may be a walk to the toilet, it may be taking the stairs instead of the lift.
IT ALL COUNTS
My name is Blair Harvey and I have had the pleasure of working at one of Australia's best Health Retreat's for the past fourteen wonderful years. Over those years I have had the delight of working with a spectacular kitchen team, we all have an immense passion for cooking good healthy food that is unique and tantalizing to your taste buds. Together we have not only developed our skills in cooking wholesome, nourishing and out right delicious foods, but we have been committed to broadening our knowledge of healing with whole foods and exploring the beauty of healthy living. Because of our enthusiasm in the benefits of foods and there healing properties I developed a blog to help us SHARE what we have learnt with the rest of the world.
You will find tasty gems of wisdom on health, food and healing, helping to expand your mind and revitalize your knowledge of healthy eating.