weighed more
than 400 pounds. I tried every diet I could think of
to lose weight. I even worked face to face with the
late Dr. Atkins for two months, and after charging
me thousands of dollars, the best he could do was
yell at me for being so fat.
Every diet I tried ended up the same way. There
would be a whole list of foods I wasn't allowed to
eat. I'd follow the diet to the letter. I'd lose a little
weight through sheer brute force and willpower.
Then there would come an inevitable point when I
couldn't take it anymore and I'd have a huge binge.
Whatever weight I had lost on the diet would come
back in a matter of days, and a week later I'd be 5
pounds heavier than when I started the diet. This
pattern of losing 10 pounds and gaining 15 pounds
started in 1990, until by September 2001 I reached
my peak of 409 pounds.
Then I had turning point. On September 11, I
narrowly missed being on UAL flight 93. That
experience left me feeling like I was living on
borrowed time. Here I was, killing myself working in
a high-stress Wall Street job that I hated, and the
universe had just given me a second chance.
So I decided to get off of the dieting roller coaster
once and for all, and I resolved never to diet again.
Instead I was going to try to figure out why my
body seemed to be forcing me to gain so much
weight. I decided to find out what I could do to get
it to want to be thin again. Armed with a solid
background in biochemistry from the University of
Pennsylvania, I spent 12 hours a day researching
everything I could about the hormones, enzymes,
neurotransmitters and chemical massagers that
cause weight gain.
I learned that losing weight sustainably isn't about
counting calories, but about creating the proper
hormonal environment in your body that's
conducive to weight loss. Since stress and
emotional issues can cause an unfavorable
hormonal environment, the issue needs to be
addressed from a mind-body perspective. We need
to take a holistic approach that looks at our
psychological and emotional life, as much as what
and when we eat.
Over a two-and-half-year period I lost 220 pounds,
without dieting. I've been the same weight now for
over 10 years and I still don't diet. I eat whatever I
want, whenever I want.
These were the keys to my transformation:
1. I stopped dieting and started nourishing
my body.
I learned through my research that my body was
chronically starved for certain key nutrients, such
as omega-3 fatty acids, live foods and high-quality
proteins. I made sure I gave myself as much really
high-quality nutrients as possible. If I wanted junk
foods like candy, chips or pizza, I would eat them
whenever I wanted, without hesitation. Eventually I
lost my taste for all junk food as my body learned
to prefer high-quality, nutrient-dense foods.
2. I healed my digestion.
I discovered that one of the reasons why I was so
badly starving for nutrients is that my digestive
processes were compromised, so I was unable to
effectively extract the nutrients from the foods I
was eating. Digestion problems can also cause
inflammation and the inflammatory hormones put
our bodies into fat storage mode. I started eating
lots of fermented and cultured foods, and taking
probiotics and digestive enzymes in order to
normalize my digestion.
3. I got a CPAP machine for my sleep apnea.
Sleep apnea is a condition that affects many
overweight people. It creates a hormonal
environment in the body that encourages weight
gain by causing elevated cortisol levels, which
leads to junk food cravings and insulin resistance.
Sleep apnea is easily treated with a CPAP machine.
The machine blows air into your nose and mouth to
keep your windpipe open, so you can sleep through
the night without problems.
Most people who have sleep apnea don't even
know that they have it, although the people they
live with would know, because people with sleep
apnea snore very loudly. It turns out I had one of
the worst cases of sleep apnea that my sleep study
technicians had ever seen. From the moment I got
the CPAP machine I started having more energy
and less junk food cravings. And the weight started
to melt away for good.
4. I started using mind-body practices to
reduce stress.
Just like sleep apnea, stress causes elevated levels
of cortisol and inflammatory hormones. These
hormones lead to constant cravings and put your
body into chronic fat storage mode. Many people
don't realize how important it is to learn how to
reduce stress. I began meditating and visualizing
every morning, which I found to be extremely
effective for reducing stress.
5. I created a much more sustainable life.
I also lowered my expenses, moved to a more
affordable house and started growing some of my
own foods. My life felt much more sustainable and I
felt calmer and more supported. I loved knowing
that anytime I was hungry I could go into the back
yard and eat something fresh and full of vitality.
The stress hormones where no longer coursing
through my system, wreaking havoc and turning
my body into a fat storage machine.
6. I worked through some important
emotional issues.
Some people feel safer with extra weight on their
body. It's as if the body actually uses weight as a
buffer from the world. I was in that situation and I
knew I had to address the emotional issues that
were making my body feel unsafe. I started doing
visualization practices that helped to resolve past
traumas and to get my body to feel safer in letting
go of the weight.
Over the years I've found that 65-70% of the clients
I work with are using weight as a form of
protection. I call this "emotional obesity". When
you work through the issues that are causing
emotional obesity and break the association that
fat equals safe, the body is much more willing to let
go of the weight. After I broke this association and
the weight no longer served its purpose – that is,
the armor of fat no longer made me feel any safer –
the weight all but went away.
7. I detoxified my body.
After I had lost about 180 pounds I started doing a
lot of research about toxins and how the body
processes and deals with toxic chemicals. It turns
out the body uses fat cells to store excess toxins. I
realized that the last 40 excess pounds that my
body was holding onto was because it was a
storehouse for accumulated toxins. I started living
what I call a "detoxifying lifestyle". Basically, I
started flushing my body with lots of alkaline
liquids, like water with lemon juice or apple cider
vinegar, green juices, super greens and lots of
salads and sprouts. That did the trick, because I
lost the last 40 pounds much more quickly than I
lost the first 40 pounds, so the rate of my weight
loss continued to accelerate to the very end.
Taking a mind body approach that nourishes the
body and reduces the physical, mental and
emotional stresses that cause weight gain is the
most sensible and sustainable way to lose weight.
I've now worked with tens of thousands of people in
60 countries teaching this approach and we're
getting amazing results.
Sent From David Aniemeka
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