Is it really possible to eat more and weigh less? Yes, says Chef AJ, the author of The Secrets to Ultimate Weight Loss. If you want to look and feel your best this summer without having to count calories or go hungry, you will want to eat more plant foods.
“Regardless of how long or how deeply you have suffered from lifestyle related disease, excess weight or food addictions,” writes Chef AJ, “once you get the food right, there is hope for full recovery.” When you truly understand what to eat, you don’t have to worry about how much you eat. And don’t forget—plant foods can taste absolutely delicious!
Think first about what’s in your house. “If it’s in your house,” Chef AJ often says, “it will soon be in your mouth!” It’s not a question of if you will eat it, only when. Willpower is only required if you have to make a decision. And you never have to decide to eat something that isn’t there in the first place. When we remove all the unhealthy, toxic, or trigger foods from our cupboards and fridge, it will be easier to make better choices.
Chef AJ understands weight loss. She was over 300 pounds for a long time. She became obese at age 5 and by age 11, she was al-ready 160 pounds! Everyone in her family was obese so she figured it was in her genes. She remembers her grandmother losing her leg to diabetes. Her father wasn’t over-weight like everyone else, but he also wasn’t healthy. He had his first heart attack before AJ was even born! Everyone she knew was either heavy, sick or both. Even the ones who weren’t overweight had heart disease or diabetes.
One of AJ’s mentors later became Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn. He says that in terms of health, we all have a warranty period. And that means that most of us can get into our 40’s and 50’s with seemingly good health, but if we haven’t been taking care of ourselves, the warranty runs out and serious health problems start to emerge.
That happened in 2003 for AJ. On January 1, 2003, she woke up bleeding and through a sigmoidoscopy it was discovered that her colon was riddled with pre-cancerous tumors! The doctors told her if they didn’t remove them she would most assuredly develop colon cancer like many of her relatives. AJ refused surgery because she is allergic to anesthesia. But that one decision changed her life.
For the first 43 years of her life, Chef AJ says she rarely ate fruits and vegetables. She had been a vegan for 26 years, leaving off meat, eggs and dairy products, but she remembers 4 food groups that were the center of everything she ate –sugar, flour, oil and caffeine. And like most Americans, French fries and soft drinks were a big part of what she ate.
When she checked into a clinic called Optimum Health Institute in San Diego, California, she learned that all the processed foods she was eating and all the caffeine she was drinking was boosting inflammation in her body and if she eliminated these things and ate a plant-based diet, she could reverse her disease without drugs or surgery.
And that is what happened. By learning to eat whole plants foods, the polyps in her colon disappeared and she was able to lose weight as well.
Success Tips for a Leaner You
Keep a Food Journal. When you write what you ate through the day, you have a record of your real eating hab-its. You have to write down everything! Research shows that most people who write down what they eat lose more weight than people who don’t log their food. And writing it on paper is best.
Eat a Savory Breakfast. Pretty much all the countries with the exception of the U.S. eat vegetables as part of a healthy breakfast. Whether it’s vegetable soup in Japan, baked beans in Britain, or stir-fried veggies in China, most countries eat a savory break-fast. If you want to lose weight, make sure at least half your plate, even for breakfast, is from vegetables. This will dilute the calorie density of every meal.
Eat More Greens. Leafy greens are especially high in thykaloids, a compound which has been proven to turn off the hunger switch and fight cravings for unhealthy junk food. All vegetables have this compound but leafy greens top the list!
Avoid Calorie Dense Foods. Calorie density simply means calories per pound of food. Foods range in caloric density from about 100 calories per pound for non-starchy vegetables to 4,000 calories per pound for oil. A mere tablespoon of olive oil has more calories than 2 pounds of zucchini!
Understanding caloric density is not the same as counting calories or memorizing how many calories are in a cup of rice or blueberries. When you change the average caloric density of the food you eat each day, you can literally eat twice as much food in terms of volume yet take in half the amount of calories. So you never have to feel hungry or count calories, carbs or points. And here’s a huge perk—the most nutrient dense foods (opposite of caloric dense) are whole plant foods.
For better health, choose to eat nutrient-rich foods. You can find these in beans, vegetables, fruit and whole grains. Calorie dense foods include meat, cheese, refined oils, nuts, seeds, and avocados. Nuts, nut butters, seeds and avocados are healthy foods and are good to eat in moderation if your weight is at a safe level. But if you want to lose weight, it is best to avoid these until you can reach your weight goal.
Switching caloric dense foods for nutrient rich ones is the most important keys for eating well and being well naturally.
