I have just lost 20lbs! Well, not "just". It took about 8 weeks. I am not quite at my goal but I am really thrilled with how it is is going. I feel like I have been set free for the first time in my life. I don't have to stress out any more.
About a year and a half ago I had gallstones and let me tell you the pain is out of this wold and kept me from doing anything physical.. I took the natural rout to cure them because I am really scared of surgery. Really scared! It turns out that the reason I had so may gallstones was because of my "healthy" fat free diet. The whole purpose of your gallbladder is to help you digest fat and if you don't eat fat then it just fills up with sledge. If you get it removed they tell you to never eat fat again. However, if you keep it then you must use it or loose it. Well, how do you eat fat and not gain a million pounds? This is when I found the primal blueprint. Read all about it
here. Mark Sisson talks about eating and living like our ancestors did. Some of the major points are to sleep, sprint, lift weight, play, think, and eat real food. *avoid all grains and most sugars*
So I got my kit and started doing it step by step. It was quite a commitment for me as far as price and time. In the end, fitting back into my size 8 jeans that I wore when I ran a marathon was worth every penny!
One of the coolest pieces of information I ever learned was that I must eat real fats to loose body fat. It is true... eat bacon and coconut oil and get the flat tummy of your dreams. Eat fat and feel full all day, feel happy, and have a clear mind. So I wanted to share a quick run down of the "good" fats the helped me loose weight.
Butter
Butter is a perfect food! It seems the more I eat the more weight I loose. Everything tastes better with butter.
Eating lots of butter stabilizes the blood sugar and significantly reduces or even eliminates sugar cravings. Over consumption of all things sweet and starchy are the real villains for those with ill health, NOT wonderful, healthy fats like butter.
The cell wall of every cell in the human body is supposed to be composed of saturated fat, the wonderful fat that is so abundant in butter. Replace the real thing with migraines or butter substitutes and the body will incorporate these inferior fats into the cell walls instead. With the wrong type of fat making up the cell wall, intercellular communication breaks down and the cell itself is weakened. Skin cells whose cell walls are composed of the fats from polyunsaturated vegetable oils (the main fat in the Western diet) instead of the much stronger saturated fats like in butter are more prone to damage from the sun, and (can anyone say) BROWN SPOTS? If, for no other reason than vanity, switch to butter and throw out those nasty vegetable oils. Your brown spot-LESS skin will thank you.
Fish oil
Fish oil contains omega 3, essential fatty acids which most Westerners are severely deficient in. Deficiency in these delicate omega 3 fats invites inflammation in the body which leads to innumerable conditions and illnesses. Unlike plain fish oil, cod liver oil also contains vitamins A and D in their natural state. Vitamins A and D, when taken together in a whole food like cod liver oil, work synergistically to improve the function of every system in the human body!
Olive Oil
As a child I remember my grandmother whipping up the most delicious dressings and marinated vegetables. She would always let me pour in the oil as she whisked the herbs and vinegar. mmmm....
Without a doubt, extra virgin olive oil is the best oil to use for salad dressings. Why don't all salad dressings at the store contain this wonderful Mediterranean oil? Canola and soybean oil are cheap oils and increase the profit margin for companies that use them instead of extra virgin olive oil. In case you haven't noticed, extra virgin olive oil is rather expensive in comparison. You trade a cheaper price on low quality oils with your health, so make sure you buy only extra virgin olive oil and not the cheap, highly processed vegetable oil substitutes like soybean, canola, cottonseed, corn, and safflower
Best to make your own salad dressing at home using olive oil, used traditionally for centuries for just such a purpose! Oh, and please don't use olive oil for high heat cooking! Olive oil is a delicate oil and is best used unheated, or at most, in a very low heat saute. NEVER fry with it. It's nutritional value is lost this way and the oil becomes damaged and unhealthy to consume
Tallow
Animal fats such as chicken, goose, duck, tallow, and lard have nourished Traditional Cultures for centuries.
When I make homemade chicken, beef, or duck stock, I freeze in one quart containers and then easily peel off the fat that freezes on top to use for cooking. Animal fat imparts valuable nutrition and wonderful flavor to roast vegetables. The reason many kids won't eat veggies is because they are so tasteless! Roasting organic vegetables in a bit if chicken fat makes them absolutely delicious. Have you ever wondered why the veggies in restraints are so tasteless and why most adults don't "like" veggies. No fat that's why. Now you know the secret that Traditional Cultures always practiced!
Please note that the toxins in the animal are stored in the fat. If you are going to eat the fat it is healthier to get grass fed animals with out all the vaccines. If your tallow comes from a feed lot animal it would be better used in candle making.
Coconut Oil
I Love love love coconut oil! I love it in my food. I love it just by its self on a spoon. I love using it as a skin moisturizer and a hair conditioner. I love adding color to it and making cosmetics out of it. I love that I have not gotten a sun burn since starting to use it.
Coconut oil is loaded with medium chain saturated fats which are utilized by the body for immediate energy! Want to feel better and have more energy? Incorporate this wonderful, healthy fat into your diet in copious amounts. Coconut oil is a highly stable oil, so much so, that you can keep it unrefrigerated in your pantry for years and it will not go rancid (I have a 5 gallon bucket in my garage .. it stays perfect through the long, hot Moab summers!) It remains stable even at very high heat, so it is the ideal cooking oil. I use coconut oil anytime a recipe calls for cooking oil or shortening.
Coconut oil is now known to be extremely heart healthy .. the Traditional Cultures that consume coconuts and coconut oil have some of the lowest rates of heart disease in the world (not to mention are some of the slimmest people in the world).
Physiologically, coconut oil stimulates the thyroid gland, so is a fantastic addition to the diet for those that tend toward hypothyroidism (by some estimates, some 80% of Westerners over the age of 25 fall into this category).
Lauric acid, a very important medium chain saturated fatty acid, is found in abundance in coconut oil. Lauric acid is highly antiviral, antibacterial, and anti fungal. And guess what? The human mammary gland produces lauric acid and it is contained in breast milk! Anyone with candida issues of any kind should be regularly consuming coconut oil in their diet. Rubbing coconut oil into the scalp and then shampooing out is a wonderful home remedy for dandruff, a fungal infection of the skin.
Well, there you have it. The Five Fats that when incorporated into your diet will most certainly improve your health and vitality. Once you throw out the Factory Fats you are currently using such as butter substitutes and vegetable oils and replace them with the Five Healthy Fats described in this blog, you will very likely begin to feel improved energy right away. The most striking change that occurred immediately for me when I got my fats right was a rapid reduction in sugar cravings! Getting the fats right is the only way I have ever found for people to reduce and eventually eliminate their sugar addiction. Any other approach is temporary at best and relies solely on will power rather than the body being nourished and not needing the sugar (remember that the body converts sugar to saturated fat, so if your diet is low in saturated fat, you will be plagued with sugar cravings that cannot be controlled). If this is your experience as well, I would love to hear about it as well as any other improvements you've noticed in your health once the fats get fixed.
