In no way am I tearing down people's desire to lose weight and be healthy. I will be the first to support and bless that endeavor and cheer on anyone who is doing this! America certainly needs a good dose of reality as more disease abounds and younger and younger people are sedentary, unhealthy and obese!
BUT...please take a moment to understand that it's not about weight loss as a focus. It's about getting healthy. Focus on eating wholesome foods for fighting and preventing disease and the weight will come off. I have weight left to lose, but in the past few years, I have learned to turn my back on addictive habits, eating meals that consist of high nutrient foods first. That has been a huge journey for me because, like many Americans, the addictions were strong. I was not a caffeine junkie, but I sure was a sugar, fat, and salt aholic. Those foods leave cravings stamped deeply on the memory and desires for YEARS if not dealt with properly. I am happy to have reduced many of the disease related problems that I faced over the years, and to have replaced fat with muscle, as I have energy to be active now, which now leaves me with the freedom to go a step further and lose the extra weight.
I have been in the diet world for years. There was Atkins. And South Beach. Cabbage Soup. And on and on. I did what I knew. And for the most part, these diets all have some good advice in them, some of them more than others. What these people know is how to help people lose weight fast but their advice is not entirely healthy.
The newest diet that seems to be a fast and furious appeal to many women is Trim, Healthy Mama. I will say right up front that I am not bashing people on this diet in any way. I understand! I get it why this diet appeals to you. There is a huge success rate of weight loss and even some reversing of some disease. I am excited to know this...
BUT...I just want to say that if you are using this diet as a reference point, please be aware of several things:
1. I understand that TMH teaches people that it is unscriptural to be vegan and that one needs meat to make them healthy. I am disturbed by this. It is NOT unscriptural to be vegan (Genesis 1:29, for anyone interested in knowing the first food plan ever given). People do not need meat and dairy and eggs to be well. This is a marketing lie employed by industry to get you to buy more of these products. Go ahead and research it. I am not alone in saying this.
Having said that, however, I am also well aware that is is not unscriptural to eat meat, dairy and eggs. I am not a vegan. I still enjoy a good grass-fed burger with all the fixings once in a blue moon. I am in no way advocating that you are somehow less than the best if you eat animals. However, it disturbs me when in this info highway of how to be healthy, faulty information is majorly embraced and taken with delight as fact.
The problem with endorsing a meat, dairy, egg based plan is that you are eating more of these foods than ever was intended to be healthy. All that animal fat in your body promotes and hastens heart disease, among other diseases that are totally preventable. This generation has access to these foods at an alarming availability rate, many times higher than generations past could afford or even had available. Questionable growing practices of animals these days also puts an added health strain on your body, let alone the question of ethics!
2. I was part of the TMH group on Face book for awhile, and what I saw was that the majority of people were still basing their meals around animal products and not whole plant foods. If you are not going to be a vegan, then by all means, please know that nutrient density in foods (what our bodies need to grow healthy cells to replace dead ones and prevent diseases like cancer, diabetes, obesity, etc) comes from plants. Whatever diet or weightloss plan you choose, please know that the best way for your body to be well is not through a certain labeled diet. It's a lifestyle, a choice to change for life. The only known, successful healthy lifestyle is the whole food plant-based one. (Please note: this does not mean you must only eat plants, but that the majority of your food comes from plants).
I recently saw a picture of a TMH meal that blessed me: it was brown rice, topped with stir fried veggies. Now that's a meal that needs no label to make it good for you! That is a prime example of a meal that has a hefty amount of fiber and healing/cell building nutrients for your body. Add to that a hefty portion of raw veggies and fruits, beans and nuts and seeds a for the day and you have a good food plan that is best for your health AND will promote weightloss. (not to mention, make your dollars reach further than if you were planning your meals around animal-based foods)
3. TMH advises that you replace sugar with stevia, xylitol, etc. While I heartily applaud their counsel that sugar is a high calorie no-no and 'way overused in our generation, I give you a caution about these replacements. Many of them are not completely whole-food, good-for-you replacements. Be knowlegeable, do your homework before embracing this counsel as the best you can do. I have been taught by whole-food, board certified medical doctors to go without baked goods and desserts except on special occasions. I work this out in my own life as once a week indulgences that are made with a minimal amount of sugar or dates, whole grains, and little to no added fat from oils and butter. I have reduced my sugar intake drastically and many Americans would think it not possible, but hear me out. Think about it: when you have eaten your share of high nutrient, whole plant foods each day, how much hunger is left, do you think? I tell you: most days, I am not hungry at all when I eat 3 satisfying meals of whole plants. I learned from Dr. Joel Fuhrman to eat only when hungry (not saying I ALWAYS follow this rule but it is my goal to be consistent in this and it pays off), and there just isn't much room left in the week for eating cheesecakes, cookies, candy, etc, even if they would be made with out sugar. Also: some of the stevia, xylitols, etc are not pure and are mixed with other ingredients so I want to put a caution out there that these things need to be carefully considered before you use them. Make sure they are pure.
Again, take these things not as bashing of TMH or any other diet that has been labeled and mass marketed. I speak from a genuine love and concern because I have been down this road and in my extensive research on health through nutrition, I have found many of these fad diets and labeled diets wanting/lacking in complete wellness.
Bottom line is that weight loss requires a change because obviously what we were doing that got us to this place was not a good thing, right?!
It's simple in theory...maybe a little hard to do to get disciplined and to ride out the cravings that want to take over. But the simplest plan I have ever heard that truly makes sense and is good for both the wallet and the long term lifestyle is taught by more than just Dr. Joel Fuhrman. If I have at all piqued your curiosity you can do a little research and find that I have been taught by people with a success rate that has never been matched anywhere else that I have ever found. Look them up:
Again, I am not bashing anyone who follows any of the diets I mentioned. I just keep thinking that I want to just share that it goes a step further than following a diet and losing weight, and it is important that we do not believe faulty information, however sincere these informants are. I bless them for caring and for sharing, for sure! But I wanted to address some concerns I have because I don't like to know that my friends are receiving and believing faulty information.
Above all, I acknowlege that God is the healer and God is the giver of good health. I also acknowlege that he does not stand in the way of sinful, selfish mankind and that reaping comes with sowing, even in what we eat. Doesn't mean He doesn't love us, but neither does it mean that is His perfect will...just like being an orphan or widow is not His original perfect plan. I also realize that we will not live on earth forever. I am prepared to die at any time and meet my Maker, but while I live here, I want to live a productive life as much as lies within me.
Happy trails to you. And if you, my friend, weigh all this in the balance and still decided that TMH or any other labeled diet is the way for you to go, I will indeed love and bless you. I hope you lose the weight and/or find relief from whatever other disease is plaguing you...I really do hope that above all, your soul prospers and that you will be in good health.
Love always,
Marcia
