ESCAROLE AND NAPA CABBAGE WEIGHT REDUCTION SOUP (WRS)
Rosemary, garlic, mustard and coriander flavor this Napa cabbage and escarole soup along with parsnip, onion, carrot and turnip. It doesn’t take long to decide if you like it!
Makes 28 cups
Reboot brain via pituitary gland via thumb acupressure.
TOMATO CORN CURRY RICE
Ever wonder what to do with fresh corn-on–the-cob besides eating it straight from the cob? I did, and this tomato corn curry rice is what I came up with. Super simple. Super tasty. Light and refreshing!
Makes 8 cups rice and 6 cups tomato corn
FRESH FRUIT AND VEGGIE YOGURT SALAD
Fresh corn with pineapple? Fresh apple with English cucumber? Kalamata olive and fresh basil? All marinated in dairy free yogurt with smoked paprika, coriander and brown sugar? Toss in some Himalayan salt? Super natural juice rush? That’s what I ate for breakfast for a week. I couldn’t stop myself. You’ll probably think it’s not that great, but for whatever reason I finished every last morsel and drop. Would I make it again? If I want to feel as good as I felt all this week, probably yes.
Makes about 8 cups
AFC GREENS AND BEANS CABBAGE WEIGHT REDUCTION SOUP ( WRS)
Some of us would prefer some options for the Weight Reduction Soup (WRS). When we tire of one soup, there’s another style, just as tasty and effective in weight control, to peak the interest of our palate! This WRS does that!
Makes 38 cups
While walking out and about a few days ago, I came across a patch of dandelion fuzz heads, separated from their stems, just laying on the ground in perfect round form, ready to be picked up and made a wish upon – outside of course, so you can spread the seeds. Seems these dandelions wanted a little help this year. Make your wish. I made mine.
WEIGHT REDUCTION SOUP (WRS)
FAT-FREE CABBAGE SOUP
This is my new favorite soup. I love everything about it. It’s simple, easy, doesn’t cost much and it makes a ton. This will be Steve’s and my lunch for the week. Today, for lunch he had 5 cups. This soup is definitely a keeper! I’m going to reduce my weight by eating this soup and lots of it. I just know it to be true, before I even start my WRS program! Ready? There is no part of any animal nor any fat in this soup!
Makes approx. 45 cups
Soy Products and Cruciferous Vegetables Reduce Breast Cancer Treatment Symptoms
Soy products and cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, kale, and Brussels sprouts reduce treatment-related side effects among breast cancer survivors, according to research published in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment.
Researchers followed 365 cancer survivors and compared symptoms such as hot flashes, joint pain, fatigue, and memory issues with soy and cruciferous vegetable consumption. Higher intakes of these foods lowered the odds of these symptoms, compared with women who consumed little or no soy or cruciferous vegetables. Researchers attribute the reduced risk to better regulation of estrogens, reduced inflammation, and increased intake of phytochemicals found in these foods…
Cannabilizing other animals is not a smart weight reduction method – short or long-term.
It isn’t healthy, it isn’t kind and neither is it efficient.
Plants are the only wise choice to make when looking to gain, reduce or stabilize weight.
Recently I started holding back posts for the purpose of releasing them on the same day every week, in response to reading someplace that people like the consistency of knowing what day new posts are scheduled to be released.
In doing this, I sometimes forget to post on the day I commit to, due to a shift in focus on some other matter. Thinking on it further, I might disappoint some people if I get on a schedule and then miss the scheduled date. I do spread myself thin with all the sites I maintain and creative work I do.
I don’t like feeling disappointed either.
So from now on, when I finish the typing and assembly of a post, I post it, no matter the day or the time.
Fat-Free Friday doesn’t mean I post only on Friday, just as I don’t wait till Friday to reduce or eliminate the fats/oils in any given meal or on any given day.
Check back now and then, rather than count on a certain day or a certain way. An important component of the creative and design process is the absence of some organizational restrictions which might block that process.
Since I was a kid my brain resisted that type of organization – doing the same thing in the same way every day, or even eating the same thing for the same meal in predetermined intervals. I worked in a factory once. Not long. I don’t know how people do it. The repetition. Year after year takes a special kind of brain.
Although I wear a watch, I rarely look at it. It’s just how I’m wired. And nothing to date has changed that – though I definitely tried to change it. It doesn’t mean I lack organizational skills. They’re there when I need to access them and I often do. It’s the time factor with me. I can work on one tiny aspect of a project for hours and be completely comfortable in that process. Yet, if I have to get up at a predetermined time in the morning it throws me off. I don’t like it. It doesn’t matter that I normally wake up at five AM.
I won’t leave my apartment or my desk in disarray. When I come home and open that door I want to see neat, clean and organized. I don’t leave the house with an unmade bed in it, or with dirty dishes on the counter, dirty pots on the stove. It makes me feel energized to be surrounded by my own efforts to keep everything in its place. I like efficiency.
Tell me I have to be some place in ten minutes while my living space hasn’t been picked up yet or I have yet to brush my teeth, and you might think somebody instantaneuosly sprayed me with a superwoman mist.
Yesterday was different. Steve walks in, I’m on the computer, it’s early morning, he says let’s go out I’ll buy you a coffee at Starbucks. I’ll be at the elevator. It’s a beautiful day let’s go out and enjoy it. Don’t worry, take your time. I thought What?! Where?! Now?! Just like that? My mind froze my body for a few seconds surveying what I had to do from the couch where I sat with my Chromebook on a wooden wine box cover on my lap.
Hmmm.
My superwoman mist wasn’t working. I got up, did about four minutes of preparation, not caring that everything was left undone, even the fruit salad and dressing I was developing in the kitchen with all the dirty dishes left where they were. The bed wasn’t made either. I hadn’t groomed yet. It wasn’t even nine o’clock on a Saturday morning.
Steve’s at the elevator. He really doesn’t like to wait, even when he says take your time. Secure Lilly Belle, freshen water, how do I look? Can’t be that bad. I showered yesterday, how bad could I smell? Just go. Go. Open a few windows to air the place. Steve was surprised to see me so soon. It was a beautiful day. We walked of course. Next thing you know I’m at Starbucks.
That’s a first for me in sixty-nine years.
While at Starbucks with half my coffee gone Steve says let’s take the bus downtown, we’ll finish our coffee at the bus stop, it’ll be here in seven minutes. We’ll just walk around, play it by ear, have some fun. I have to go to work tomorrow let’s enjoy my last day off. Like clockwork the bus arrived in seven minutes and we were on our way to what turned out to be a wonderful day from start to finish. Everything about it clicked.
It’s Cinco De Mayo. It’s the anniversary of the date we adopted Midnight Rose in 1996.
Donald Trump was coming to Cleveland which we learned when we couldn’t catch a bus home, because all incoming traffic had to be stopped. He’s our president – he’s the only president we have – he deserves to be protected everywhere he goes. Neither Steve nor I were put-off because we were put-out a bit.
It’s George’s birthday and we want to drop off a gift before he arrives to his party at a local tavern. We take the train instead and just did make our connecting bus to take us back to the beginning.
Lebron James even scored the winning shot in the third game against Toronto.
There’s a moral here about flexibility.
Okay, so Steve calls me and says he has an idea. He prefaces it by saying it’s crude, well not so crude, but still crude – a way to lose weight. Or something that could jolt a person into getting serious about losing weight. Of course it wouldn’t be for everybody, but it could help some people.
Yeah it’s kinda crude. But then if it works for some people, then what’s the crude-fuss about?
First thing in the morning, or whenever you first use the bathroom, using your smart phone take a picture of your first dump of the day and then every other dump you take throughout the day. Keep track. Print them out and hang them on your wall or scrapbook them.
Steve says he’s getting worried, ’cause he didn’t know he was eating as much as his dumps tell him he’s eating. Oh my God he says, did I eat all that? So I say, at least you’re getting rid of it. Then it made me remember something my mother said her boss told her when he was trying to lose weight. “If you want to shit like an elephant you have to eat like an elephant.” Evidently some people like to shit a lot, it makes them feel something, maybe powerful, maybe successful. I don’t know, maybe as a child being potty-trained they were praised for a big dump.
Maybe Steve’s right in that people should pay more attention to their dumps. Most people say they don’t eat all that much, but the dump doesn’t lie. So yeah, take a picture, many pictures, till you believe the dump. You ate a lot. A whole lot. Too much.
Remember, the dump doesn’t lie.
Instead of living one day at a time, how about two? What’s wrong with two at a time?
Live today cognizant of how you want to feel tomorrow. That gives you more control over what you do today.
No ‘Last Supper’ scenarios. Doing for one last time whatever you want to do before the big push tomorrow never results in a better tomorrow.
You instinctively know that to be true – that tomorrow you will feel worse, increasing the probability of another ‘Last Supper’, and another and another.
Alcoholics Anonymous may fare better by changing their ‘One Day At A Time’ motto to “Two Days At A Time”. That makes one think ahead a little more to secure tomorrow as a good day. It’s an insurance policy. Money in the bank. I put my order in early by one day. Today, in advance, I’m securing my future for tomorrow.
I like it.
I like being in control of the guarantee implied.
Nobody likes to lose, so ‘losing weight’ might not be the best phrase to apply to your goal of weight reduction.
I’m not losing any weight.
I’m not losing…is a positive phrase that every human loves to hear or to say to themselves.
Yeah I’m NOT losing. I’m not a loser. I like that. Makes me feel good. The weight part is irrelevant except that being attached to ‘not losing’ is probably one factor in not losing any weight.
That show on television about weight reduction called “The Biggest Loser “is probably not a good idea – the title. Calling somebody a loser while in the process of weight reduction, with the dubious purpose of beating overweight people down, shames them. Maybe they’d reduce their weight quicker if the show stopped calling them losers. Maybe that’s the point of keeping the show running. I don’t know and I don’t care, but the people producing these shows should.
It’s all happening upstairs – in your brain and how your brain processes intel about you.
I’m reducing my weight. It sounds like I’m reducing my anxiety. Could be worthy of a look. What am I doing to reduce my anxiety or depression? I’m reducing my weight. Don’t even tell people. They’ll sabotage you with all kinds of signals.
Just reduce it and be fine.
FAT-FREE CREAMY CAULIFLOWER DRESSING
Sometimes fat-free gets complicated – till the cauliflower appears from out of nowhere and shows us how to do it! This is one version. Try your own and see how it develops! Then share it here!
Makes 4-1/2 cups
I want to feel my weight. Being numb to it isn’t helping to reduce it. When factoring in the time and effort it takes to wake up to it and stay awake, it isn’t worth whatever short-term benefit the ‘numb to it’ provided.
So each day for a while, in my mind, I will weigh less than the day before. In my mind, not on the scale. Use the mirrors, suck in the gut and lock in the concept of not feeling any worse tomorrow than you feel today, because your weight will not increase in your mind. You will make sure that it doesn’t by what and how much and how often you eat.
Do it for about a week – instead of watching your weight on the scale, feel your weight. All of it. Feel that which you are, knowing that each day will not be any worse – weight-wise – than the day before.
How does it feel, using all your senses – the ones science has yet to identify? It’s not helping you that the people and institutions controlling the science are so resistant and slow. You know you have more senses than the government says you have. Screw ’em. They may control the science, but they don’t control your senses – though they try mighty hard. You control how you feel and what you feel.
Feel your weight in absence of shame. There is no shame in waking up.
Diet-Related Diseases Are Leading Cause of Death in U.S.April 25, 2018
Diseases linked to unhealthful diet and lifestyle choices, such as diabetes and cancer, are the leading causes of death in the United States, according to data published in JAMA.
Researchers compared mortality for hundreds of causes and risk factors and found that heart disease, lung cancer, high BMI, and high blood pressure and blood sugar were all among the top risk factors for mortality. Dietary risk factors surpassed tobacco use as the leading cause of death. The authors note differences in risk factors at the state level and recommend targeted approaches to address these issues for disease prevention…
The US Burden of Disease Collaborators. The state of US health, 1990-2016 burden of diseases, injuries, and risk factors among US states. JAMA. 2018;319:1444-1472…
CAULIFLOWER WITH MAPLE MUSTARD SAUCE
You don’t need all the fat that we normally like to drench our vegetables in, when served a fat-free dipping sauce with these fresh steamed cauliflower buds. I’m happy it’s Friday, ’cause I know I’ll be doing my body/mind good!
Makes 1 cup sauce and 4 servings cauliflower
ROOT BEER DRESSING SAUCE
Barq’s Root Beer and Canada Dry diet Ginger Ale mixed with cocoa, dark brown sugar, Balsamic vinegar, coriander and allspice! Different but Delicious! Serve over salad, fresh sliced fruit (I like banana) or as a dipping sauce for veggie chicken nuggets! How about all three? That’ll put a smile on your Fat-Free Animal-Free Friday!
Makes 4-1/2 cups
PINK CHIFFON FAT-FREE SALAD DRESSING
Welcome to the new face of dressings. Not your ordinary look, taste or feel. This is a dressing that highlights and enhances wherever it is used. Neither the taste nor the texture, however, is as guilty as it looks! Experience its innocence! We’re not chopping down trees here, we’re just picking the ripe fruit!
Makes almost 3 cups
I say Cheese with Everything! This cheese.
Brilliantly done. So soft and powdery it melts on your tongue.
Mother nature fooled again. She’s so happy with it. Tears of joy.
Smells, tastes, smoothes like dairy, but it isn’t. It’s a plant. No one suffered.
This shaker cheese is so low calorie and low fat that you could sprinkle it on everything – soup, salad, sauce, veggies, salad, sandwich, plant meats.
It’s the strongest flavored grated cheese – any plant cheese – I’ve yet tasted.
MEATLESS MONDAY just encourages people to eat other parts of the animal one day a week. The animal’s eggs and milk used in a variety of ways doesn’t do any more good for a person’s health than eating flesh every day.
It’s not a sacrifice, since most people don’t eat flesh at every meal anyway. Grilled cheese sandwich, macaroni and cheese, egg salad, eggs Benedict, pancakes, potato salad are all considered meatless, which makes one wonder why they even do it, except perhaps for the sake of the dairy and poultry industries, that were whining to the government that their sales were down.
Fish isn’t included in the meat category by most people, that’s why the Catholics allowed its consumption every Friday in place of other animal flesh. It’s still an animal. People think they’re sacrificing something by not eating certain types of flesh – well yeah, they’re sacrificing an animal for a gut that doesn’t need it, a gut that doesn’t really want it.
The government goes round and round gambling with people’s health by rotating the animal abusing industries’ turns to be prosperous. Now it’s dairy, eggs and fish. Nobody gets healthier as a result of this manipulation by governmental forces. Beef and bacon are still in even though they’re out.
This site is about fat. You can google your own stuff and do your own research, however, people resist giving up fat more than any other category of food. The consumption of animals (any part of the animal) is addicting whereas plant foods are not.
Why? Fat. Fat is addicting. And the people who sell you product know that. They’ll lie all around it, but they know what tempts you and what doesn’t. It’s not the cocoa, it’s the fat in the cocoa and the caffeine and a bunch of other stuff.
It’s not the dry piece of lean, they call it, animal tissue. It’s the fat marbled throughout then laden with fatty sauces or served with dips and spreads and flavored butters that bring people back for more.
Years ago when America went on a low-fat binge, manufacturers ended up reversing their position and putting the fat back in their products, claiming that weight-wise the added sugar that replaced the fat was as bad as the fat.
Manufacturers don’t care what effect their product has on your health, they used that as an excuse to sell more product by putting the fat back in. Sugar alone is not a fat replacement. In fact, what they did was keep the higher levels of sugar in play while adding back the fat. It’s not the sugar by itself. Just like it isn’t the lean flesh by itself, it’s the fat and always the fat.
So if humans are addicted to fat, that must mean we’re addicted to animals?
We can become just as addicted to plant fats. Think about the number of kernels of corn it takes to make one tablespoon of corn oil, or the number of olives to make the same? It doesn’t seem natural to squeeze an extraordinary number of corn kernels for a small amount of fat. But we do it. Think on that.
One day a week go without any form of fat, or start with one dish or one meal. Fat-Free. It doesn’t have to be Friday, it can be any day, any meal, any snack or beverage, but do it, commit to it.
Heroin is addictive, so why is it here on earth? For people to become addicted?
Resist temptation is what the addict must do to survive. Eventually the addictive drug will kill you, just as the addictive animal will do.
The tenacity of evil, remember that. The slaughter industries are not going to go quietly. You need to take charge of yourself instead of letting everybody else, complete strangers, be in charge of what you consume.
Live or die is where it leads. Don’t believe me? Ask any addict. Ask any heart recipient. Ask any liver recipient. Need a kidney transplant? Good luck. How about your brain? How’s it working for you? Need a new one? It’s easy enough to get one by eliminating the need for one.
Stop eating all parts of any animal or anyone who may in any way resemble one, in case you have animal-confusion regarding what lives, breathes, thinks, feels, walks or crawls.
A plant is a plant. Eat those if you are in the need, or in want of a brain transplant. The lower the fat content even from plants, the better. A little now and then, and a mini binge rarely but it’s on the menu should you want to indulge.
WELCOME TO FAT-FREE FRIDAY.
We tend to become addicted to that which is not good for ourselves in the first place. We’re always trying to control the amounts of bad stuff we consume, in absence of controlling that which is healthy for us by consuming more of it more often.
Increase that which is good, decrease that which is bad, then eliminate that which is bad and a burden will lift from you. That everybody else does it isn’t going to make you live a longer, healthier, happier life. They won’t either, so don’t allow them to drag you down.
FFC COMMENT: Just when Coca-Cola sells its bottling business this news story comes out. I don’t doubt that bottled water is contaminated. I do take issue with only bottled water being under scrutiny here. How about all the other bottled beverages on the market? They somehow are magically decontaminated? If so, then just tell the bottled water people how to do it, to keep all bottled beverages safe. They should have included at least juices and soft drinks that are sold in the same type bottles as the waters in their study. But they didn’t, which leads one to believe there was an agenda by the soft-drink people to question the safety of bottled water. After all, bottled waters have significantly eaten into soft drink sales and profits.
If tiny particles of plastic are circulating in our blood streams and being deposited into our tissues, then all plastic containers need to be looked at – not just bottled water. Seriously, now.
Miami (AFP) – The world’s leading brands of bottled water are contaminated with tiny plastic particles that are likely seeping in during the packaging process, according to a major study across nine countries published Wednesday.
“Widespread contamination” with plastic was found in the study, led by microplastic researcher Sherri Mason of the State University of New York at Fredonia, according to a summary released by Orb Media, a US-based non-profit media collective.
Researchers tested 250 bottles of water in Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Thailand and the United States.Plastic was identified in 93 percent of the samples, which included major name brands such as Aqua, Aquafina, Dasani, Evian, Nestle Pure Life and San Pellegrino.
The plastic debris included nylon, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polypropylene, which is used to make bottle caps.”In this study, 65 percent of the particles we found were actually fragments and not fibers,” Mason told AFP.
“I think that most of the plastic that we are seeing is coming from the bottle itself. It is coming from the cap. It is coming from the industrial process of bottling the water.”Particle concentration ranged from “zero to more than 10,000 likely plastic particles in a single bottle,” said the report…
FINISH READING: ‘Widespread contamination’ found in bottled water: Study
FFC COMMENT: Only animals contain collagen. It’s a group of proteins not found in plants – supposedly. The body is loaded with it. So if you’re on the plant train and you want more collagen, you need to eat plants that boost collagen production. I don’t know if these do actually boost collagen production, but it’s the same list of fruits, veggies, beans, nuts with all the colors that are suggested to cure or prevent all other ailments.
Consuming donkey skin? Oh my God, what people won’t do to stay young looking. Just be the best, strongest, nicest God-damned old person on the God-damned planet and you will feel plenty young. Don’t let anybody chew you up and spit you out. I see people on television with lips that hang down to their neck. It looks ridiculous. Stop drinking all that coffee, tea, diet soda and alcohol and you might feel better. When you feel good you look good. Go for vibrant instead of everybody wanting to look like a barbie doll on steroids. It’s repulsive. Why would anybody want to take growth hormones? That’s what they fatten up cows and pigs with. It’s not normal to ingest large amounts of concentrated forms of animal parts – for any reason. Fanatics. They’re all fanatics.
Stop the insanity. Eat your plant foods. That’s what you’re lacking.
March 8, 2018 — As a cosmetics sales professional in New York City, Melinda Mora has always taken painstakingly good care of her skin. She puts on the latest serums, has skin-rejuvenating laser treatments, never leaves the house without sunscreen, and — for the past 6 months or so — spikes her morning smoothie each day with a hefty scoop of powdered cow, chicken, and fish collagen.
“Honestly, it doesn’t taste like anything,” she says, adding that her plump skin, stronger nails, and pain-free joints make her unusual breakfast choice worth it. “I’ve really started to notice a difference.”
U.S. consumers are expected to spend $122 million on collagen products in 2018.
For centuries, Chinese women have viewed collagen as a Fountain of Youth, routinely consuming foods like donkey skin in hopes of smoothing withered skin and preserving aging joints. In the United States, collagen became best known in the 1980s as an expensive injectable filler to plump lips and soften lines. But only in recent years, as companies have come up with more appetizing ways to take it (including fruity chews, vanilla-flavored-powders and easy-to-swallow capsules) has edible collagen begun to catch on here.
In 2018, thanks in part to a small but growing body of evidence suggesting it can improve skin, ease arthritis symptoms, promote wound healing, and fend off muscle wasting, U.S. consumers are expected to spend $122 million on collagen products. That’s up 30% from last year, according to market research firm Nutrition Business Journal…
FINISH READING: Collagen: ‘Fountain of Youth’ or Edible Hoax?
FAT-FREE ANIMAL-FREE TOMATO SAUCE
Totally fat-free and animal-free? Are you kidding me? Don’t tell anyone. Just serve it. It satisfies like ground meat and feels like there is definitely a fine oil in this fine sauce! Go for it!
Makes about 7 cups
RED AND GREASY
Steve says he wants red and greasy – a favorite of his and mine. Lately we’ve been so low-fat or no-fat that we decided to treat ourselves with more-than-usual-fat. Lighten up. You’re not going to lose all that fat in a day anyway! Have some fun with food! Serve over pasta of choice!
Makes 9-1/2 cups
We tend to think discipline is doing something we don’t feel much like doing, but we suck it up and do it anyway, because it’s good for us or somebody or something else.
Quite the contrary. True discipline is finding that which we enjoy doing and then doing it. Suffering is not a by-product of discipline nor a requirement.
Discovering our talents and applying them effectively is the effort exercised in the discipline process, that brings us joy not despair, desperation or dread.
Discipline liberates. It does not enslave as one might think.
~ Sharon Lee Davies-Tight
It’s time to get serious. Not that I haven’t been serious in my flight around the globe feeling out the terrain of weight gain and what causes it, besides over-eating. It’s just that I haven’t been serious about me actually losing the excess weight on my bones. I could have just eaten plain steamed veggies a few nuts and a few fresh fruits everyday and that would have done it. But people aren’t prepared to make that taste bud and palate sacrifice, and neither am I.
So, what better time to get serious than at breakfast.
I weighed in at 164 pounds: 7 pounds heavier than my last documented weigh-in on 5 August 2017, which was 157. I’m shooting for the thirties. I’m already there in my mind; I just have to do a little catch up. No lower than 130 no higher than 139. That’s safe and healthy for my frame, muscle fat bone content, activity level, injuries and age. Now find yours. That’s my figure.
It is about the weight once you consider and factor in everything else.
My total body has locked itself into the thirties. That’s my lock-in weight. No changes allowed. It took me a while to find it, but I did. I gained some weight since August 2017. I also gained some muscle and lost some fat. I got stronger despite my serious injuries. So here I am going for the gold of me.
So what’s for breakfast on this FAT-FREE FRIDAY the 13th?
Fresh fruit tossed with FAT-FREE AF ORANGE MAYO SAUCE (aka MORNING FRUIT SALAD)
The fruits I chose were:
ruby grapefruit, the whole fruit, not just half, peeled and segment
1 sliced banana
1 red apple, cored and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
FAT-FREE AF ORANGE MAYO fresh grind black pepper
fresh grind black pepper
https://fat-freechef.com/2018/03/04/fat-free-af-orange-mayo-sauce/
Toss it all together. Plate. Sprinkle with black pepper and eat.
Since this morning fruit salad contained 3 whole fruits, I spaced the consumption over a couple hours while I worked the computer, that way it functioned as breakfast and a mid-morning snack.
Now that’s a fruit salad to be savored!
I wanted to move mountains not become one. Gluttony is the only sin you can’t hide. It’s right out there, staring everybody in the face. A sin isn’t just an offense against someone else or something else, it’s every bit as much a sin against one’s self. If you can’t control your gluttony, then you’re a danger to yourself. Period. That doesn’t mean that fat people strike out against themselves instead of others. Aggression knows no fat boundaries as we saw in Ariel Sharon, former Prime Minister to Israel now deceased. Once regarded by me as the most violent man on the face of the earth – to others and himself – which means he was a danger to everybody. Out of control, eating a lamb a day, killing ten Palestinians a day, blowing up buildings, bombing schools, hospitals, libraries, bulldozing Palestinian homes to make way for Jewish colonies, taking people’s ability to survive and thrive away from them, uprooting their crops, bombing their police stations, ambulances. I could go on and on, but I won’t. It’s time to diet. I thought Ariel Sharon should lead those who aren’t starving in the world in losing weight. Perhaps if he had shifted his focus from destruction to discipline he would have found the peace he kept claiming he sought. Unfortunately he succumbed to his life style of excess and recklessness. Let him not be the example you seek to emulate in achieving your goals. No human is immune to reckless living.
Exercise isn’t going to make you lose weight unless you obsess on it, making it a second career – or full-time hobby. Toning, however, takes little time and effort, produces almost immediate results and makes you lose inches, making you look slimmer than you are, while you go about losing the excess fat baggage you carry around with you. You know it’s always there. Even in your sleep, every single second of your life your fat stays steady, like a friend you take with you as a companion wherever you go, whatever you do it’s there for you. You’ll feel a little vulnerable as you begin to shed that friend. You’ll wonder why you don’t feel more confident now that the fat is almost gone. You miss that power feeling the fat gave you. A crutch? It didn’t feel like a crutch. What then? A support. A massive support. A barrier – don’t mess with me. You can’t get too close, my troops surround me protecting me giving me the strength and courage and confidence to do what I really want to do. Lose that and who wouldn’t feel vulnerable.
You’ll get those power feelings back as you sculpt your body as you sculpted your life. That’s the real power that no diet can take from you. Your body is yours. The fat was on loan. You knew you’d have to give it up eventually. Waiting won’t help. You’ll just feel badly once you get it done that you waited so long. Well, maybe you needed to, but need is a loaded word. Ariel Sharon killed himself with his life style. You need to want to survive for you and only you. Okay use somebody else to get you started, then shift the focus back to you. You can bend your own rules. Really. You made them, now make an adjustment. If somebody holds you to something just because you said it, don’t let them prevent you from changing your mind. That prevention gives them too much power over you. That they want that power over you should sound off at least one of your alarms. You do have alarms you know. Every animal does.
You don’t need to go to a spa or to set aside a big block of time to tone. In fact, you don’t even have to change clothes. Business suit, dress, it doesn’t matter. Toning isn’t going to make you sweat a lot.
Cardiovascular exercise, an autonomic response common to all animals in this kingdom we share, inherent in who we all are, strengthens the networks of vessels that deliver oxygen and nutrients via blood to all your tissues, most importantly the brain.
I designed a new, simple toning exercise. I get instant results in how I feel and look. I work from the middle out. I can’t do sit ups because of my injuries, so I take two pound weights (and I’ll progress to five maybe ten pounds), one in each hand hanging down in front of me, while standing, and bend slowly forward to the floor, stretching, then straighten back up. I do short rapid repetitions at all levels along the route from the floor to over my head with knees slightly bent, then with knees straightened but not locked – until my muscles burn and a little beyond, so that when I stop I can feel the energy release from those areas. That one exercise, that corresponds to the area of focus called the lifeline in yoga, strengthens all my body muscles, the entire front of me from head to toes and the entire back of me from head to toes and the entire sides of me. I then use a long pole to do stretching in all positions: front, back, side to side overhead. Then twist with the shoulders and whatever else I think to do with it: curls, behind back raising it toward shoulders to strengthen between blades and do it over and over again and instantly I convert this old jalopy of a body into a race car on cruise control – at least in my mind, and the mind is where it’s all happening.
Every day I do this. No pain involved, and I’m walking on air. Don’t anybody burst my bubble now and explain what’s happening as some dumb theory of ‘any exercise will do that’. Not for me it won’t. I’ve tried all the any’s and this does it. I can do it fully clothed, at home, in the office, while watching T.V. No stress, no strain, no sweat, no pain. And what I like about it is it’s all done standing up without access to a gym. And no exercise hangover. Wow. It’s something I enjoy doing. Whenever I think of doing it I have yet to feel dread. That’s warrior-style. To dread keeping toned is counterproductive to the warrior mindset. You don’t need to hate to do something in order for it to be effective for you. It’s like eating animal-free. Why suffer through tastebud punishment, when you can eat like royalty should be eating at half the cost? In addition to the survival advantage for those who prepare their own meals: no one can poison you, plus the strategies used to either follow instructions accurately or improvise, condition the brain for rapid action and reaction. The tastier the better. When you break from battle, a few o-o-hs and ah-h-hs and m-m-ms at meal time go along way toward soothing frayed nerves.
Some may inquire, why do we have to do battle, why can’t we live peacefully? Warriors love peace. That’s what a true warrior pursues – yet through non-violent means. Even if the entire world were at peace, we still would be battling the effects of the elements, disease, overpopulation, the need for food, medicine, clothing, shelter, schooling and jobs for all beings. And since disagreements will still arise in progressive democracies (not to be confused with dictator democracies that rule from a single mind with a veto), we need to prepare to do battle. Battle need not equate with violence unless you want it to. Why anyone would want it to and subsequently pursue that course of action is a mutation that is overdo for extinction. Extinction of a behavioral pattern can be induced by non-violent means.
You might think if you lose weight or exercise at someone else’s suggestion that they’ll take the credit when you become fit and trim. Not to worry. Nobody can do it for you. If someone could, they’d be the most popular and richest person on the planet. Similarly, nobody can motivate you, but you. All anyone can do is tell you what works for them and then you decide what works for you.
to be continued…
BECAUSE YOU’RE AN ANIMAL-EATER
I can’t help but think of the families of all those enslaved, tortured, slaughtered, broken up, destroyed forever, by the Hand of Human Men & Women & Children who through their actions say, YOU DON’T MATTER BECAUSE WE DON’T CARE.
Being skinny isn’t the answer.
Young girls who want to stay skinny aren’t prepared for womanhood. They want to keep their prepubescent figures, not ready to accept the challenges and responsibilities of adulthood. Guys who require that of women, want children for girlfriends and spouses, not adults. Forcing women to stay children is common to many cultures where men dominate. It’s a whole lot easier to dominate a child than an adult, so they keep their adult women children, by demanding they barely eat in order to keep the fat that goes along with womanhood off the bones they think they own.
For those who keep forgetting that they ate – those suffering from a short-term memory problem – put yourself on a schedule, once, twice or thrice a day, like you would take prescribed medicine. When a doctor prescribes you medicine, they don’t give you carte blanche to take it whenever and however you want, do they? If so, then you won’t get well. So what makes you think that the fuel you place in your body – medicine is what it is – is any different? If you don’t think that food can make you well or lack of it ill, try starving yourself and see how long you live without it.
Unless you’re preparing for a dry spell, whereby you need that fat to survive, thus the ‘trying to be your own camel’ trick, shed it and feel the weight of the burden you thought was psychological lift. It’s the only way to go. There are no benefits to being fat. Name me one valid one. No. Fat people freeze to death as quickly as trim people. In fact, if I’m going to freeze to death, I’d rather it be quickly. Why prolong the agony? If you’re fat and swimming in the arctic, you’re not only fat, you’re crazy fat.
You control the brakes.
There’s a wall? It just goes up – as you promise never to eat again, or only one meal or two or three. You defy yourself by marching to the tune of that guy or gal in your stomach screaming at you. You defy yourself, but not anybody else. I’ll show them. I’ll eat whatever and whenever I want. You know what? People only care about your fat when you’re fat. It’s like quitting smoking. Everybody cares if you smoke, but when you don’t they never mention it.
Nobody cares. So, praise yourself for your personal accomplishments. They’re personal. People don’t praise you for accomplishing something personal and keep at it. You’re the one who needs to keep at it. When you do something for the group or society, then maybe expect some praise, but if you don’t get it, once again, be your own best fan. That’s it. You have one fan that’s you.
Be your own best fan. Then keep your mouth shut about it. Nobody wants to know how much you love or admire yourself. Learn to rely on yourself for your own gratification, not a dead animal or an uprooted plant spun into some kind of fantasy object that resembles nothing that actually grows.
Sugar-free drinks don’t help you stay trim, in fact, they might have the opposite effect by tricking your brain into thinking you’re actually drinking sugar. It tastes like sugar, feels like sugar, smells like sugar, then it must be sugar.
Counting. People with obsessive-compulsive tendencies, mainly those who dominate the writing and publishing industries, count everything that can be counted and when they run out of things to count, they invent something to count. A half of this, a half of that, how many halves in…well you get the picture. My landlord called in response to a letter I wrote him and was concerned that I mentioned a word associated with mold more than once – twice exactly. Black. He should have been getting the meaning of the letter instead of counting and fixating on how many times I mentioned that the mold in my apartment is colored black.
I can’t do that. My brain rebels. I know what’s fat and what’s not. And if you’re fat, so do you. Just look at yourself and ask what you ate to get that way? Got a memory problem? I woke up one morning thinking I weighed 154 and the scale read 184. Two months later I weighed 195. My husband’s before picture disappointingly looked like his after picture after two months of eating whatever we wanted – on vacation – at home – isn’t always a good thing, when your entertainment becomes your daily meals. Let’s relax; let’s eat. Let’s recreate; let’s eat. Let’s go on vacation; let’s eat. Those poor among us who don’t have funds to do all the things that cost money, eat for recreation. It’s a cheap party. Stay home, put on a video and stoke up the barbecue. Buy at the grocery store – discount store – and you’ve saved a bundle that ends up on your backside two months later.
I was stunned – even started blaming it on the black mold in our apartment, or maybe somebody spiked my diet Pepsi with fat gaining chemicals. The old ‘blame somebody else’ standby trick. This is a cookbook, by the way. I’m the finest Animal-Free Chef in the world. I don’t replicate recipes, I design them. I’ve been trying to get a book published forever. I kept going back to the drawing board, when it wasn’t the recipes that were the problem; it was that the public wasn’t ready for something so good. Publishers didn’t believe that vegetarian could be exquisite.
Ever think of vegetarian when you think of comfort food? No? Mashed potatoes? Did you forget those? String beans cooked till they turn to mush? Chocolate chip cookies? Most comfort food is vegetarian. Macaroni and cheese? Most people in the world still think that cheese, milk and eggs are plants. The reason we don’t associate comfort food or good tasting food with plants is because of the good job the media does to discourage it – as a favor to the people over at BIG BUSINESS who give kick backs to the folks who promote their products. Ever see a skinny Disc Jockey? I don’t know why I just capitalized DJ. I’ve never seen one period, but I hear them talking a lot about trying to lose weight and how bi-i-g-g-g they were before they tried this herbal substance called ‘stomach bloater’. Just what a fat person needs, something to stretch their already over-stretched stomach further.
Nobody wants bloat as a solution to anything.
Some people get fat fast, some slow, some were overfed from birth and never broke through that feeding barrier.
It’s not always a slow road to body transformation, whether losing or gaining. One size or process does not fit all or almost all. Sure food is a factor. Amount is a factor, since our stomach tanks can only hold so much. Types of foods are factors, but there’s shaky ground surrounding food types. Timing may be a factor, though it’s probably a factor for some not almost all.
Have you ever lost weight and kept it off by something someone said to you or by something you read that spoke to you?
to be continued…
