One way to address this problem is to learn how your body works inside before you are convinced that the latest diet fad will give you your perfect body.  I suggest the best nutrition education book I have found since college: Intuitive Eating by Humbart Santillo.  This is a user friendly book that, for one, will give you information about proper food combining and the glycemic index of food.  Eating foods that have a low rating on the glycemic index means that the food is whole and will energize you over a longer period of time.  

Water - Your body is about 95 percent water.  Water helps metabolize fat.  It cleanses and lubricates your body.  Make sure you are drinking enough pure, clean water.  My father, a physician, always told me to drink eight glasses of water daily.  This should be clean water, not tap water with fluoride, which impairs your thyroid.  You also need one “lick” of real natural salt to hold the water in your body so it does its job.  Box salt from the store is devoid of minerals and loaded with additives.  This salt leads to all kinds of health problems.  Real natural salt is full of minerals and supports your health.           

Take Your Vitamins -   Vitamins and Minerals protect your health and are necessary to help you digest and utilize the food you eat.  Today’s food choices are mainly processed so it is very important to take a highly absorbable vitamin-mineral product every day. 

Watch The (kind of) Sugar - Most sugar cravings are a sign of B complex  and magnesium deficiency.  Artificial sweeteners cause you to crave sugar.  This causes you to overeat, especially high fat foods.  Fructose causes your blood sugar to rise rapidly and drop just as quickly.  This stresses your pancreas.  Remember that diet meals in a can list sugar as the first ingredient.  Read the labels.  Know what is in the food you are consuming, and know what it will do to your body.  

Eat your healthy fat too - essential fatty acids are those nutrients that your body does not make.  Most people have heard of Omega 3, but there are Omega 6 and Omega 9 too. These healthy fats help burn fat out of storage.  Examples are flax oil or fish oil.  These fats can prevent heart dis-ease, balance hormones and assist your health and well being in many other ways.  

Try sound - I often recommend Chinese Healing Music to help with weight management.  It is very effective.  For people who are open to hypnosis, I find it can be very helpful.  The real “magic bullet” in the weight game is you, and knowing what will work for you so you reach your goal. 

Think, and Eat, in Moderation and Balance

Eat for you only.  Eat small frequent meals, chewing  your food thoroughly.  Digestion begins in the mouth. 

Try a baked sweet potato (without all the butter, try walnut oil for a change of health) for breakfast.  It will keep you going a long time.  Eat most of the protein, and sweets, at lunch.

Learn how to boost your digestion by understanding food combining.  A good trick to make potatoes “burn more slowly” is to eat them along with organic apple cider vinegar.  Eat them with a good hearty salad, and skip the meat.

Digestive juices needed for meat are acid; juices for potatoes are more alkaline.  Hear the dueling banjoes in the background?

Balance through food combining stops many digestive problems before they start.  

Oh No! its  the Stress Monster

The closer we get to the holiday season stress levels always seem to get higher and higher.  All the shopping, all the parties, the long lines in the post office, the long waits for parking at the mall, and a never ending list of things that seem to come with the time of year add a little more stress every day.  (A tip for less stressful, non toxic cleaning can be found at http://www.cleansafe.com)

Stress is one thing that seems to be in the way of weight management.   Its also one of those things we seem least able to manage well.  How about taking five with a cup of peppermint tea.  Peppermint tea calms your nerves, helps your digestion, relieves a headache, and fights off colds and flu.

Think your health and diet plan through before you start.  Know what you want to accomplish.  Your health is in your hands. 

Warm and peaceful holiday wishes to all of you who give up a few minutes of your day to read my column.  Thank you too for allowing me to share this information, because your health matters. 

Herbal Gerbil’s Holiday Nog

1 quart original organic rice milk, almond milk,  or soy milk (your choice)

1/4 cup coconut milk (Natural Value)

2 Tablespoons pure maple sugar, or maple sugar granules

1 Tablespoon pure vanilla

½ teaspoon nutmeg

Blend thoroughly with your blender or mixer, and refrigerate

Makes 5 - 8 ½ ounce servings

Health Matters is written by Gayle Eversole, RN, PhD, AHG. Gayle has been studying and using natural health for more than forty years. She has been a health professional for thirty years and was a professional member of the American Herbalists Guild.