- What you eat matters more than how much you eat, and why.
By Dr. James Carey, Ph.D. (computers)
Eight years ago, at age 50, I weighed 260 lbs at 5’9” tall. I decided to lose the excess weight. After a lot of research I went on a 1,500 calorie-a-day vegetarian diet, counted every calorie I ate, walked three to five miles a day, and at the end of 18 months I’d lost 20 lbs.
I was happy with myself, but I dreaded another 4-6 years on this boring “rabbit diet,” as I called it, if I was ever to get back to my ideal weight of 165 lbs.
At the end of that year one of my sisters (I have a lot of sisters and step-sisters) – already familiar with this - talked me into going to a hands-on Dr. Ann Wigmore Raw Living Foods Lifestyle training program. This program teaches that we should eat only organic, vegan, raw living foods.
In other words, no animal products whatsoever, and only items grown organically, without chemical fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides. In addition, it recommends lots of fresh sprouts and other foods that, if planted in the ground, would grow (that’s why they’re called “living”).
Oh… and nothing is cooked.
Interesting, I thought, but I’m a tough guy that can live off the land if I need to, and I can tough anything out if it’ll make me stronger (and better looking).
So I went to Creative Health Institute in Union City, Michigan, USA. At the end of my first two weeks I’d lost 20 lbs. At the end the month I’d lost 30 lbs. All this without missing a meal, without counting a calorie, and eating all I wanted. The best part was, the food was delicious, filling and satisfying.
How could this be?
There were several reasons, but, first and foremost, I was toxic. Every time we eat non-organic, processed food full of chemicals and artificial preservatives we’re ingesting toxins.
Now the body is a marvelous, self-healing, self-cleaning machine. So we put a load of toxins into our body at breakfast, and the body goes to work processing and expelling them.
In the middle of this bodily, life-saving chore we eat a lunch consisting of more processed foods and toxins. Now the body is overloaded and can’t process the toxins out as fast as we’re putting them in.
So the body wraps fat molecules around the toxin and parks it somewhere for temporary safekeeping. Over time these fat molecules accumulate until we find ourselves overweight, even obese.
That’s what had happened to me. When I went on the vegetarian diet I was still eating foods raised with pesticides, fungicides and herbicides – all toxins. Plus, I was still eating a lot of foods high in animal fats, like cheese and milk.
Dr. Jim at 260 lbs., December, 2000
When I went on Dr. Ann’s regime of raw, organic, living foods I greatly reduced the toxins I was putting into my body.
Sure, I was still ingesting some toxins – even the air we breathe, anywhere on the planet, has a certain amount of toxins. But the quantity of toxins I was ingesting was so much lower that it significantly changed my life.
Our bodies never rest, never take a day off, never decide to be lazy for a day. When my body said, “Oh, look, no toxins to process in this meal,” it then went looking for the toxins it had been storing in my body fat.
Dr, Jim at 170 lbs., August 2006, thanks to Dr. Ann's detox lifestyle
My body took those fat-stored toxins, ripped off the fat molecules, discharged them, processed the toxins, and discharged them, too.
Voila, thirty pounds of fat gone in thirty days, without missing a meal or going hungry. All because of what I ate, not how much I ate.
In coming articles I’ll talk about digestive enzymes and stress, how and why they’re important to our health, and how the raw living foods vegan lifestyle interrelates with them.
Yours in Natural Good Health,
Jim Carey
Midville, Georgia, USA
Dr. Jim Carey, PhD, DD, has been a raw living foods advocate for six years, ever since the Dr. Ann Wigmore program changed his life. You can learn more about Dr. Wigmore, N.D., and Dr. Carey at AnnWigmore.com.
He is currently doing an American television series about the raw vegan lifestyle. Episodes of his show can be seen at GrassyRoots.com.
Dr. Carey resides in rural Georgia, USA, where he loves to eat wild edibles, and travels extensively sharing the message of the raw living foods lifestyle.
Learn more at chiDiet.com - be sure to see the "typical benefits" statement.
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