Total Health Breakthroughs: Free Natural Health Newsletter and Alternative Health Articles

In This Issue:

Are You Afraid to Be Thin?

By Dr. Matthew Anderson

All fat people say that they want to be thin. But research in the International Journal of Obesity shows that about 95 percent of overweight and obese people fail at weight loss. They do not fail because they are lazy and undisciplined. I believe they fail because many of them have a deep-seated fear of what will happen when and if they drop all those pounds.

Let’s assume for a few moments that you are one of these individuals. Here is a brief description of what occurs when you try to lose weight: The Gain-Lose-Gain Again Cycle.

You get sick of being overweight and decide to diet.

For a while you drop pounds.

Then without warning you lose control and begin to gain again. You feel possessed by a drive to eat and you cannot stop even though you know you are re-gaining all that weight you worked so hard to lose.

You hate and blame yourself and you may even feel a bit crazy.

Eventually you get sick of being overweight and you begin the cycle all over again.

The results are the same.

I have counseled hundreds of individuals who relate the same disturbing story. I have discovered that they share something in common: They all have a deep fear of being thin.

When their weight loss approaches a certain point they stop feeling fat. This is when their fear takes over and drives them to revert to fattening eating habits. The fear is often so strong that they have no way to productively manage themselves. This process continues until they gain enough to take away the fear.

Tragically, almost all diet programs have no understanding of this fear and provide no support, counseling or tools for discovering and managing it. Thus they make great claims about losing large amounts of weight, but never tell you that nearly all their weight-losers put it all back on in less than two years.

Is the situation hopeless? Are you doomed to be held hostage to your fear of thin?.

No. You can overcome fear if you identify it and then confront it with support.

The list below contains examples of fear I have collected from many of the weight-challenged people I have counseled. If you find even one item that applies to you, look more closely at yourself. Simply identifying a fear is a giant step on the way to overcoming it.

1. You may fear your sexual energy. Many individuals fear that they will lose control sexually if they lose weight.

2. You may have been raped and fat protects you from men: “If I stay obese men will not pursue me and I will be safe.”

3. Your self-esteem may be very low and you might actually feel undeserving of weight loss.

4. Your fat may be a way of resisting the growing-up process (baby fat), because adulthood seems frightening.

5. You may believe that losing weight might require you to make other scary or painful choices and changes (divorce, change jobs, lose friends).

6. Weight loss may require you to accept more challenges or responsibilities. Staying fat then becomes a form of safety.

7. You may fear being seen and therefore judged.

8. You may fear the loss of food as a drug and a hiding place from the difficulties of your life.

9. You may fear your own power: “Who and what will I be if I drop these pounds?”

Here’s a great exercise for exploring your fears of being thin. Write 25 different completions to this sentence:

“I am afraid to be thin because… ”

Don’t stop with five or 15. Do all 25. If you stop you may miss the best information. This technique will help you access your unconscious (your inner self), which contains the real reasons you cannot drop your excess weight. The first few responses to the unfinished sentence are usually superficial and obvious. Going to 25 will push you past the easy and often useless answers.

Once you begin to get deeper responses to this unfinished sentence you will see that your difficulties with weight loss are well founded. Many of my clients have said to me, “No wonder I had such trouble and failed so often. That fear is pretty intense.”

Identifying the source of the fear will give you valuable information. Then you can begin the inner work necessary to heal or manage it. Once you do this you will find the entire process of weight loss easier and your chances of success will increase greatly.

What might that inner work entail?

If, for example, you were sexually abused as a child, you might fear losing weight because your new thinner body would attract men who will harm you. Once you discover this you could see a professional counselor to face and heal the pain and lose your fear of men. Then getting thinner would no longer pose a threat to your well-being.

Another example that is prevalent among women is the fear of power: “Who and what will I be if I drop these pounds?” If you do my exercise above and discover that you have this concern you can learn to explore and express your power in manageable steps and not get “out of control.” As you begin to see that your personal power is your friend and can produce positive results in your life, the fear will shrink — and often your body will do the same.

In every instance, whatever this exercise reveals can be faced, managed or healed. Then the fear that blocks your successful weight loss is diminished. As it lessens you will discover that the process of long-term, healthy weight loss becomes easier.

The central issue here is your willingness to find the true inner sources of your fear of being thin. Once you make this powerful discovery you will be on the way to a healthier life and a thinner body.

[Ed. note: Dr. Matthew Anderson is an author (The Prayer Diet), counselor (35 years) and national columnist/expert on weight loss, motivation, self-management and relationships. To find tough-minded, outside-the-box guidance for taking charge of your life and/or your weight including Eating to Kill, Wake-Up 101 and Weight Loss as a Spiritual Journey, click here.]

Healthy Healing:

Flush Out Your GI Tract — Naturally

By James B. LaValle

Constipation may be more than simply uncomfortable. According to the National Institutes of Health, it may be a symptom of more serious health conditions, including the second-leading cause of cancer death in the U.S.: colon cancer. It’s important to take constipation seriously and treat it correctly.

The most common recommendations for constipation are to take laxatives and/or to increase fiber and water intake. Laxatives are for short-term relief only, as long-term use can become habit-forming. Turning to increased fiber and water is preferable, but studies have shown that this is often not effective for alleviating constipation and can sometimes create other problems, such as gas and bloating. So what can you do?

Constipation occurs primarily because of decreased peristalsis, the muscular movement of the intestines that promotes digested food through the GI tract. But what causes decreased peristalsis? Decreased bulk in the stool, for one thing. (That’s what fiber and water are supposed to do - increase bulk.) But there are other factors that influence peristalsis.

Beneficial gut flora, also known as probiotics, are the helpful bacteria in human intestines that:

• Help digest foods.
• Manufacture vitamins, like biotin and vitamin K.
• Interfere with disease-promoting bacteria.
• Prevent immune system changes that lead to allergies and auto-immunity.
• Help absorption of nutrients.

They also produce organic acids like lactic acid that in turn help stimulate peristalsis. So making sure you have enough gut flora is crucial for many reasons, but it can also help prevent constipation.

Gut flora can be wiped out in the intestines by a number of factors. Antibiotics, corticosteroids, H2 blockers, and oral contraceptives are known to deplete them. So do some lifestyle factors like high stress, increased intake of refined sugars and excessive alcohol intake. So, to keep a good supply we have to get them in adequate quantities through diet or supplements.

Yogurt contains beneficial flora in low amounts, but usually they are not human strains so they may or may not live in human intestines. Supplementing with a good human-strain probiotic product is far better to ensure you are getting enough. We need billions of these bacteria, so I recommend capsules or powders with at least a 15 billion bacteria count per daily dose.

Magnesium is also extremely important. It helps relax the smooth muscle tissue in intestines that is responsible for peristalsis, so it is absolutely critical for keeping bowels moving regularly. The best-absorbed forms are magnesium taurate, citrate, malate and bisglycinate. I recommend supplementing dietary intake with 400 to 800 mg per day.

A good protocol for constipation is to start by taking probiotics and magnesium.  Probiotics can help with digestion of dietary fiber and so help people to tolerate it better.  And magnesium starts to relax the intestinal muscles. Together with the increased fiber and water, we almost never need to turn to laxatives.

[Ed. Note: Jim LaValle is an educator, clinician and industry consultant in the field of integrative healthcare. He is a licensed pharmacist, board certified clinical nutritionist and doctor of naturopathic medicine with more than 20 years clinical practice experience in the field of natural therapeutics and functional medicine. Named one of the "50 Most Influential Druggists" by American Druggist for his work in natural medicine, LaValle has authored 13 books, including his latest, Cracking the Metabolic Code. For more information, click here.]

Mind/Body/Soul:

Plan to Succeed, and You Will Succeed

By Scott Martineau

Marc Allen, author of The Millionaire Course, is the laziest millionaire I know. Despite the fact that he breaks a lot of conventional rules — like never working before noon, for example  — he has achieved great success. By paying attention to his own natural biorhythms and defining what is important to him, such as more time with his family than at the office, he has managed to create a unique version of success. Today he is a multimillionaire, author and owner of a successful publishing empire.

In The Millionaire Course Allen teaches that you too can accomplish anything you desire. Whether it’s a better body shape, a healthier lifestyle or a million-dollar business, it can be yours.

Achieving success in any arena, he says, requires a plan. It is a proven method that will help you gain your desires. A plan reminds your subconscious mind of what you desire. The simpler the plan is, the more powerfully it impacts your subconscious. Focusing on your desire by putting it on paper, in concrete words, allows your subconscious mind to get to work on it.

Use one page to write a very short and simple plan of how you are going to achieve your goal.  (Make one plan per goal.)  First, write the plan in your own way, without imposing any kind of structure on it. Once you’ve done that, you can consider using simple headings to organize your plan. But first, write it in your own words, whatever words come to mind. Let your subconscious mind show you what it wants as you write that one page.

After you have summarized it clearly, you can create an outline if you wish. Again, try to fit it all on one page.

The outline can be as simple as these three categories:

1. Mission: your broadest, highest reasons for doing it in the first place. (For example: I want to be healthier.)
2. Goals: the steps you intend to take to fulfill your mission. (I will lose weight.)
3. Strategies: the steps you will take to reach your goals. (I will join a gym and work with a nutritionist.)

It’s not just you and your running shoes that will help you into a better body. It’s you and your shoes powered by your subconscious mind — which is now, thanks to your plan, dutifully pointing you in the direction of your dreams.

[Ed. Note: Scott Martineau is a powerful motivational speaker and has been successful at helping thousands with his inspirational messages and pioneering ideas for self-improvement. To learn how you can unleash the true power of you, click here now.]

Exercise & Fitness:

My Top 10 Interval Training Workouts

By Craig Ballantyne

If you don’t have variety in your fat-burning interval program, you could end up at a fat-loss plateau. My experience as a trainer shows me that variety in your interval cardio program is one of the keys to keep that fat burning off.

Not only should you have variety within your training week (or example, alternate between two different workouts, rather than just doing the same interval workout each time), but you should also change these workouts every four weeks.

To modify your interval training workouts, you can:

• Switch exercise methods (even using bodyweight exercises for intervals).
• Increase or decrease the length of the interval (while decreasing or increasing the intensity, respectively).
• Increase or decrease the number of intervals per workout.
• Increase or decrease the rest time between intervals.

Here is my list of preferred ways to do your intervals, ranked in order from best to worst, based on my experiences:

1. Sprinting outdoors (and hills might be the absolute best).
2. Strongman movements (farmer’s walks, tire flips, car pushing).
3. Kettlebell swings, dumbell swings or sandbag swing.
4. Bodyweight interval circuits.
5. Treadmill running.
6. Stationary cycle (upright preferred).
7. Stairmaster.
8. Rower.
9. Swimming (really only works for competent swimmers).
10. Elliptical and crosstrainer machines.

[Ed. Note: Craig Ballantyne is an expert consultant for Men's Health magazine. If you're looking to burn fat, build muscle and quickly step into the body you have always wanted with just three workouts each week, check out Craig's fat-loss system by clicking here.]

Alternative Eating:

An Apple a Day for Heart Health

By Dr. Jonny Bowden

Grandma was right: An apple a day really does keep the doctor away. And, as it turns out, probably a whole lot more than just the doctor. New research examined the dietary habits of over 34,000 women in the Iowa Women’s Health Study and found that three foods stood out for their significant ability to lower both the risk of coronary heart disease and cardiovascular disease: Apples, pears and red wine.

The reason? Plant compounds called flavonoids. Based on food-frequency questionnaires and data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, researchers were able to approximate the flavonoid consumption of the women and calculate the impact of those flavonoids on their health. The results were impressive. Flavonoid-rich foods like apples were associated with significant reduction in heart disease and overall mortality.

The most abundant, most bioavailable and most studied of these flavonoids is a compound called quercetin. Apples are a significant source of quercetin, which has quite a resume of health benefits.

The quercetin in the apple is in the peel. The peel prevents the harmful effects of the UV rays of the sun from hurting the fruit and also prevents microbes from getting in. So quercetin is the first line of defense for the apple. It appears to have many of these same protective effects on human cells, acting as both an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant.

This is significant. In cardiovascular disease, inflammation and oxidation hasten the process of plaque buildup. So anything that reduces inflammation and oxidation, like quercetin and the other flavonoids in apples, is going to help.

And as an added bonus, quercetin’s antioxidant properties impact the immune system and react against cancer cells as well. Quercetin has been linked to a reduction in the risk of lung cancer.

So be sure to indulge in this fall’s apple crop. And remember — the good stuff is in the peel.

[Ed. note: Dr. Bowden is a nationally known expert on weight loss, nutrition and health. He's a board certified nutrition specialist with a Master's degree in psychology. Dr. Bowden is also a life coach, motivational speaker, former personal trainer and author of the award-winning book, Living the Low Carb Life. For more information, click here.]

Recipes & Nutrition:

Belgian Endive Stuffed with Apples, Walnuts and Gorgonzola Cheese

By Kelley Herring

Dr. Bowden’s article this week mentions several health benefits delivered by apples, so here’s a tasty apple-based recipe. Remember that the health benefits are found mostly in the colorful nutrients in the peel. When choosing apples, the redder the better.

Serves: 4

Time to Table: 15 minutes

Healing Nutrient Spotlight

• Quercetin
• Good Source of calcium, folate, copper

Ingredients

2 small organic Red Delicious apples
4 ounces organic Gorgonzola cheese
4 heads organic Belgian endive (Witloof chicory)
2 ounces organic walnuts (about 28 halves)
2 Tbsp organic lemon juice

Preparation

Separate endive leaves and place on a serving plate. You can use 16 leaves and each serving will be four leaves. Core apples and chop into 1-inch pieces. Place in a bowl and coat with lemon juice to prevent browning. Divide apples evenly and place inside endive leaves. Top with Gorgonzola and walnuts. Serve.

Nutritional Information

227 calories, 17 g total fat, 6 g saturated fat, 0 g trans fat, 3.4 g monounsaturated fat, 6.8 g polyunsaturated fat, 21 mg cholesterol, 393 mg sodium, 12 g carbohydrate, 4 g fiber, 6 g sugars, 9 g protein

[Ed. Note: Kelley Herring is the Founder & CEO of Healing Gourmet, a multimedia company that educates on how foods promote health and protect against disease. She is also the creator of Healing Gourmet's Personalized Nutrition Software and Editor-in-Chief of the Healing Gourmet book series published by McGraw-Hill, including Eat to Fight Cancer, Eat to Beat Diabetes, Eat to Lower Cholesterol and Eat to Boost Fertility. For more information, click

here.]