***WEIGHT LOSS

Oh, how I punish myself with New Year’s Resolutions. This year, for the 57th year in a row, I have decided to get fit, lose the fat shaped like an inflated inner tube around my abdomen, and not be afraid to take my shirt off in public this summer. Yeah, right. I can say that I am a warehouse of facts on nutrition, genetics, exercise, supplements, self-analysis and articles on losing the fat and getting ripped like the professionals. I still have self-image issues despite all of this knowledge.

The Food and Drug Administration has released some startling figures about obesity in the USA. Apparently 26.7% of America is obese. Minority groups of blacks (36.8%) and Hispanics (30.7%) are even more obese. The trends are we are getting fatter. To be obese means that you are at least 30% fat by weight, which in turn makes us unhealthy. There is only one cause for obesity, and that is overeating. Sorry all you people who claim it is your glands or big bones. You inhale more calories than your body and lifestyle needs and create fat in your body.

The interesting thing about fat is that it actually helps us by absorbing toxins in our body. So we have to look at why the toxins are there, and why we have to generate so much fat to protect ourselves. Toxins can be generated from two sources. They can be introduced into the body by consumption or absorption, meaning that they are eaten or absorbed from our environment. Eating processed foods that contain preservatives and chemicals not found in nature probably is the primary source of toxins by consumption. Some nutritionists go so far as saying that if it comes in a box or a bag, don’t eat it. Not only are there chemicals in the food, there are chemicals in the packaging that are toxic.

A lot of the foods we eat that we think are healthy, such as fruits and vegetables, can be full of pesticides and growth agents that are toxic. The fact that people are ignorant of these facts contributes to a lot of the obesity found in the USA. It is interesting that in Asiatic countries, where obesity used to be unheard of, are now consuming more and more fast foods and beef, and obesity is now on the rise. I guess we are what and how much we eat.

The other cause of toxins in our body is stress. Worrying, anxiety and depression create a lot of toxic chemicals in our body, which cause us to eat more. Being around “toxic” people also causes stress, and that creates the desire for more food. There are two reasons for this. Many times eating comfort foods (which are usually fatty) will change the chemical balances in our bodies that temporarily relieves stress (chicken soup, for example) and we feel better. The other reason is happy memories attached to eating certain foods can lighten our mood, if not our bodies. I am particularly fond of ice cream, which reminds me of when I had my tonsils removed when I was six years old and I was given all the ice cream I could eat at the hospital to make my throat feel better.

We have to ask ourselves why we allow ourselves to get obese. The direct cause of obesity is overeating. A combination of emotional eating (eating when the body doesn’t need it) and eating toxic foods adds to the fat. The highest spiritual teaching is we create our own reality for our own enlightenment. If you apply that teaching, we have to accept the fact that we do this intentionally, even if not consciously. So why do we make ourselves look like this?

The answer lies basically in our subconscious, and the hidden delusion that we have to protect ourselves. For most people, body fat is armor that protects us from pain. Ironic, isn’t it that the way we choose to protect ourselves from pain actually causes pain, and a lot of it. Obese people, for whatever reason, don’t want to get close to people and to keep people away. This usually comes from some kind of emotional or physical childhood trauma, or eating habits formed early in childhood. In other words, we get it naturally; we are trained to do it. If we identify the underlying beliefs, and change those beliefs, it is amazing how quickly the weight comes off.

No matter what we do to lose weight, if we don’t heal or resolve these underlying issues, the best we can expect is the “yo-yo” effect where our weight goes up and down all the time. There is no pill that does this. This is “home” work, and requires great diligence and awareness to correct. As long as we hide in the delusion that we are protecting ourselves behind hundreds of pounds of fat, we will continue to be obese. When we finally decide to let go of these toxic memories, love our toxic companions or remove ourselves from our toxic environments, the weight will go.

There is no wonder that the USA is so fat. We are so attached to material abundance, being fat is a symbol of success and abundance. After all, we have most of the food in the world, and as we grow more and more obese, food riots are breaking out around the world. As a word of caution, when the Chinese come looking for payment of the trillions of dollars of debt we owe them, they know we don’t have the money to pay. So they will more than likely take payment in food, by force is necessary. Then we will have the opportunity to experience hunger like we never have before.

The easiest way to let go of our fat is to help others, to share the abundance we take for granted in this country. I won’t make any lectures on eating healthy foods and quit eating the processed foods that the medical/pharmaceutical companies are forcing us to eat so they can make money on the illness it creates. You can research that yourself. We can start to take food off of our plates and share it with the less fortunate. We can decide to heal our traumatic memories and let all of that go. We can start making more loving choices for ourselves. We can send food to the countries that need it and teach them techniques for growing it themselves. We can quit sending money that dictators use to amass fortunes and military arsenals at the expense of their starving citizens.

The good news is that I have lost 30 lbs. since the New Year. We will see how long this lasts.