January 2005

Fat Loss:
Food Rotation Can Help You

By James Williams,
Nutrition and Lifestyle Coach Level 2, Cranial Sacral Therapist, London

For many of us, just eating organic food isn’t enough if we want to lose fat.

Your body loves it when you eat unprocessed organic foods because they contain no toxins that end up being stored as fat. Your body appreciates you even more when you include lots of variety. Feeding your body a varied diet is called food rotation and is essential for fat loss and good health. How many days each week do you:

• Eat the same foods for breakfast?
• Order the same meals from the menu when you eat out?
• Make or take-out identical lunches every day?
• Get hooked on one food and then eat it to until you’re bored with it?

When I look at food diaries, it often reveals the scary picture that most people only eat up to 12 different foods! If this was the way things were meant to be, then why did Mother Nature give us thousands of varieties of fruits, vegetables, grains? We were meant to eat a varied diet and have done so for thousands of years.

If the "food police" searched your refridgerator tonight, what variety of healthy organic foods would they find?

So, how do you know whether you are stuck in a food rut and need to rotate? Caroline Mein, the author of Different Bodies, Different Diets, defines "rut eating" as eating the same thing three to four days in a row. People also rut eat when they consume the same food at the same mealtime every day. Many off-the-shelf diet books are in fact just rut eating regimes. They fail to include food rotation in their eating plans and take no account of the fact that your body is different from everybody elses! These are two of the key reasons why they do not work. Why rotating your foods will help reduce body fat:

1. Eating the same foods stresses the pancreas because it is continually producing the same enzymes to break the foods down. As the enzyme levels become depleted it results in poor digestion and makes it hard to extract energy from what you ate. The brain detects that your last meal didn’t provide you with enough sustained energy, so it stimulates you to eat yet again. The extra food costs you more money and subtly piles on the pounds.

2. A stressed pancreas may disregulate your blood sugar and trigger bouts of low energy. This causes you to overeat in a bid to get more energy, causing weight gain.

3. You are less likely to develop food sensitivities which rob your body of energy. This means you’ll have more energy available for building health and shedding fat.

4. You will be less likely to binge on treats because your palate is stimulated by a variety of tastes.

Now that you know how important food rotation is, how do you do it?

One of the main methods is based on taxonomy where foods are grouped together by their relationships in nature. This may work well for people with significant health problems. However, a more practical method of food rotation is to eat a specific food only once every four days. Quite simply it means if you eat beef on on Monday, then don’t eat it again until Friday. This approach has been used by well-respected holistic health practitioner Paul Chek, and his clients have found it very successful, particularly those with busy lives. Now that you know how to rotate your foods and that rotation will help you lose weight, you are ready to start.

Review your food diary and notice repetitive food patterns. Try a scientific experiment - for the next week, add more variety. Buy different fruits and vegetables at the grocery. Try at least one new recipe. Eat at a different restaurant. At the end of the week, notice your energy level and read the scale. Your body will definitely reward you for your decision!

Upcoming Total Fitness Class: Organic Cooking With Lee Townsend

One of the best ways to add variety to your diet is to learn new recipes.

Join us Saturday, Jan. 29, at 11 am for a cooking class in Atlanta with my client Lee Townsend, a Nutrition and Lifestyle Coach and amazing organic chef.

We'll be making soup, salad and a few raw food desserts. Class size is limited. To join the class, please call Catherine Carrigan at 404-350-8581 or Lee Townsend at 404-255-4521.

Catherine Carrigan's Raw Food Berry Pie

Many people think that "healthy eating" equals "boring."

Including a few raw food desserts in your diet is a great way to satisfy your subpersonality the Inner Child. This is the part of you that would rather be eating chocolate, ice cream and cookies and that begins to feel deprived if you don't learn how to nurture yourself.

The Inner Child becomes the Inner Brat if you become too strict. The Inner Brat is the part of you that will hold a temper tantrum and overeat if you don't vary your diet and don't include emotionally-rewarding treats that also happen to be healthy.

I have found that my clients are most successful with their weight loss programs when they learn how to nurture themselves in many ways - with exercise that feels good and with foods that satisfy them emotionally as well as nutritionally.

I am proud to say this is my creation. As you practice more healthy cooking, you can create new recipes too! Notice how I have included ingredients that I know will make me healthier. Without wheat or dairy, you can eat this pie and feel very satisfied without being bloated.

Crust

• 2 cups Brazil nuts
• 2 cups coconut dates

I think of Brazil nuts as great food for the brain. Brazil nuts are an excellent source of the mineral selenium and a good source of magnesium as well as B6, which is good for raising serotonin levels in the brain. I buy coconut dates at Life Grocery in Marietta — the dates are very soft and rolled in coconut.

Remember to soak the Brazil nuts for 12 hours in water. Rinse a few times. After 12 hours, drain the water off and slow roast the nuts at the lowest possible temperature in your oven for another 12 hours. Soaking and then slow roasting your nuts helps the body digest them more easily — plus they taste even more delicious that way.

I slow roast many varieties of nuts and keep them on hand in jars in my kitchen for use in my raw food desserts and snacking.

Put the nuts in your food processor and chop until fine. Add the coconut dates gradually until the dough sticks together.

Hint: This pie is so good I almost always make in individual serving containers, like Tupperware, so nobody in our household gets carried away. When I am taking a dessert to a pot luck dinner, I make it in a large pie dish and use extra strawberries to decorate the top.

Press the soft crust into the bottom of your container. Refrigerate while making the topping.

Topping

• 8 ounces dried blueberries
• 8 ounces dried cranberries
• 16 ounces fresh strawberries

Blueberries and cranberries are two of the best sources of natural antioxidants.

Soak the dried berries in water about 12 hours. Drain off the water to drink as a juice - just add about 1-2 ounces to a large glass, add stevia to taste and then add another 6 ounces of sparkling mineral water.

Wash the fresh strawberries and cut off the tops. Cut into thin slices. Reserve a small amount for decorating the edges of your pie. Mix the majority with the drained, soaked berries. Run half the mixture through your food processor for 10-20 seconds. Keep the other half to enjoy the texture of the whole berries.

Total Fitness Classes

Yoga: Join us every Tuesday and Thursday, 7:30-9 p.m., 4465 Northside Drive at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in McDonough Hall. For a map with directions, visit http://www.totalfitness.net/.

Qi Gong: Join us Wednesdays at 5:30 for Qi Gong, 1951 Northside Drive.

For more information about how you can be totally fit, please visit http://www.totalfitness.net/, or email us at Daylilly@aol.com.