Your Physical Health

“Having the right moves”

“Treat your body like a temple so your soul will want to live in it.”

Put in simple english, weight loss happens when your daily calorie intake is lower than your calorie spending. NO matter how you put it, this is the only equation ruling your body.

Let me repeat it: Weight loss happens when your daily calorie intake is lower than your calorie spending.”

Furthermore, your weight will stay the same if your calorie intake is equivalent to your caloric spending. Makes sense.

Let’s start with your daily calorie needs:

Thank God we have what is called the Basal Metabolic Rate - BMR. This is the minimum calorific requirement needed to sustain life in a resting individual. It can be looked at as being the amount of energy (measured in calories) expended by the body to remain still.These include the energy necessary for your heart to beat, your lungs to breath, maintaining your body temperature, etc. The basal metabolic rate varies according to the person’s age, weight, height, sex, etc. Many web sites like: http://www.weightlossforgood.co.uk offer easy ways to calculate your BMR. First good news on this page: your BMR increases when your lean tissue percentage increases. This means, if you change fat for muscle your BMR will increase.

For example the basal metabolic rate for a 6 feet tall, 25 year old man, weighing 150 pounds is 1755 calories.

Of course, you do not lean on your back all day long!! Every physical activity requires a certain amount of energy to be accomplished.

Physical Activity Calorie Use Chart

The chart below shows the approximate calories spent per hour by a 100-, 150- and 200- pound person doing a particular activity. Information taken from the American Heart Association web site.

The logical conclusion here is: no matter what you do, MOVE! You can start with small things like walking to the convenience store, parking a little further from the door at the mall, playing a little more with your children, etc

To lose one pound of fat, a person needs to spend about 3500 calories for example.

It is said that 30 minutes of physical daily activity is a very good habit. If you are beginning your new active life or getting back on a healthier road, be satisfied with whatever you do. It all starts with one small step.

Take a moment now to notice that if you choose to eat ONLY a Big Mac (no fries, no drink) that is to say a 700 calories intake you would have to walk between 2 and 4 hours (depending on your age, sex, weight, etc) to walk it OFF!! You may think this is not fair, but that’s the rule your body goes by.

The lesson here, is to be very careful on what you put in your mouth. Hypnosis can help you get rid of the unwanted habits of snacking, emotional eating, overeating, etc. The Alpha-Power© program has been designed to address the problem of eating more than your physical needs. Being overweight is an epidemic and now touches over 50% of  North American adults.

You have to realize right now that a big part of the problem of overeating or making poor nutritive choices is a direct effect of television and media publicity. You are hypnotized by the food companies to eat the wrong food for the wrong reasons. YOU can choose right now to be more critical about the amount of television you are watching for starter.

Hypnosis will help you greatly to control your food cravings for other reasons than your natural needs.

In the mean time, whenever you reach for unhealthy food or food you don’t need (in between meals snacking), you can tell yourself this very accurate statement:

“I AM NOT HUNGRY. I AM BORED!”

If you want this little trick to work even better, you can say it out loud. This way, you will hear it which will address the message to another one of your senses. Even better, if you are not alone, this will probably start a conversation and you will have shifted your mind from its evil intentions (providing you with more calories you did not need in the first place).

You can also print this little sentence and stick it on your refrigerator or cupboard handle. Again, you will be putting to use your visual sense. Furthermore, this will probably have people inquire about your new eating habits and will reinforce your decision. Who knows, you might start an epidemic of healthy living among people you care about.

In case you are saying to yourself: “Wow! This is great. I want to increase my daily exercises but I do not have time to do hypnosis and exercise.” Let me re-assure you, I am just like you (like a dog running after its own tale...). In the Alpha-Power© (link to product page)program, I have included the Silver CD, which is called “Active Hypnosis”. Hence, I have recorded your hypnosis session over a very upbeat cool music. You can listen to it while doing your exercises. I certainly enjoy this way of combining exercising and hypnosis.

Although it may seam very surprising that hypnosis can be done while moving. One may have the impression that to go in hypnosis you need to be lying still, and listening to a very boring (oups! I mean relaxing...) script. Nothing can be further from the truth. When a person exercises, runs or dances, most of the time she is very engrossed in the activity and her mind is drifting on its own. This person is in the Alpha state, the light state of hypnosis. Most Olympic athletes are in hypnosis when they are performing their sport. What athletes call “being in the zone” is nothing else than being in hypnosis.

As a matter of fact, the professional golfer Tiger Woods uses hypnosis frequently when playing golf.

A brief word here on the miracle solutions: they don’t work. Weight loss is an annual multi-billion dollars industry worldwide. Of course, there will always be that one person for whom this particular quick-fix worked. In general though, the only way to have a healthy and lean body is by respecting its owner’s manual. Here is my short list of snappy solutions that don’t work:

1) There is not a miracle pill to make you lean and happy or else everybody would be on it. Keep in mind too that many medications have potential harmful effects. Many weight loss pills have been recalled after causing severe health problems.

2) Diets have proven to make people see their weight go down only to shoot up higher after because it doesn’t change their life-long eating habits. Furthermore,it is a known fact that when a person gets off a diet, she tends to eat more than before, having felt deprived.

3) Although cosmetic surgery has taken a gigantic jump in popularity, allow me to burst your bubble. First, any surgery carries risks to a person’s health like infections, haemorrhage, etc Second, you have to know that when a person has a liposuccion for example, her body reacts in a “funny” way. Hence, by being suddenly cheated of its fat cells, the human body becomes thirsty for fat and stores it more avidly when you eat it. In short, fat elements are stored more easily after a liposuccion. This could be considered good business for the cosmetic industry because it becomes a self-generated industry. On the other hand, you may want to reconsider setting yourself up for repeat surgeries knowing your body does not accept being cheated without responding.

4) Gastric bypass may have saved lives of people otherwise condemned to a certain death from their morbid obesity. We have to question ourselves though if the price to pay is a reasonable one? Like said previously, the human body does not accept to be cheated without fighting back. After all, we would not be seeking for drastic solutions if we respected our perfectly designed body in the first place. In short, statistics tend to show that one person out of 50 who had a gastric bypass will die from it shortly after. That’s a lot.

I had the sadness to see one of my patients die a couple of months after a gastric bypass. Learning that this otherwise healthy young 33 year old woman died has convinced me that this solution should be one of last resort. You also have to know that most people who had a gastric bypass go through a very difficult period of bad absorption (vomiting, anaemia, weakness, etc) from the procedure. I hope you are discouraged by now of using surgery for a quick fix. In case you are not, let me tell you that the stomach can regrow to its original size after a gastric bypass (by being stretched with daily food intake). Okay, so maybe we will need to respect our body’s way of functioning and play by its rules.

My good word of advise here is be patient. You did not accumulate this excess weight in one night. You will not loose it in one night either. Did I say it? BE PATIENT. A small victory is still a victory. A realistic amount of weight loss is 2 to 3 pounds per week.

There will also be plateaus because your body gets adapted to a new metabolism and is always looking for the best way to function. If you feel like you are stalled, just go back to the equation on the top of the page: eat less or move more. It is that simple...and be patient (studies show that the human mind learns best by repetition)

I voluntarily did not get into the whole body mass index topic because it is a vast subject. Many web sites offer you very easy ways to calculate your BMI. It comes back that the closer you are to your healthy-ideal weight, the less risk of cardio-vascular, metabolic (diabetes, hypertension,etc), pulmonary disease, etc you have.

What is your ideal weight? There is a tremendous amount of charts out there all meant to help you find this magic number. In short, your ideal weight is when your body feels healthy, comfortable (for you, not the magazine pictures you see). You will know when you have attained your ideal weight. Trust yourself and trust your body.

If you are one to weight yourself everyday, you have to know that muscle weighs more than fat (steak weighs more than butter). Keep this in mind if you are doing a body building program. Hence, it is better idea to observe your image than to weigh yourself. Thus, if you are more firm, fit better in your clothes, you are on the right track. The numbers on your scale may be increasing just because your muscle mass has increased. This is one situation where pinching yourself might be indicated. Feeling less fat between your pinching fingers will confirm you that you are doing well.

In case you are tempted to “pop a pill” in an effort to feel better, you have to know that all drugs
carry potentially harmful side effects. I invite you  to browse the Canadian Adverse Drug Reaction Information System (CADRIS) : You will find there that over 160 000 drugs have been registered has having potential adverse reactions since 1965...and those are the ones we know about. When it comes to health and well-being, the only logical way is to respect nature. Most undomesticated animals have understood that and are living healthy lives.

Eating the right food:

I am pretty convinced that you will not learn much from this section. It seams like we all know what food is right to eat, what is best for us, we just don’t make the right choices.

A rule of thumb is that the closer to nature the food is, the more nutritive it is. By processing repeatedly food, it loses its nutritive value. Hence, fruits and vegetables carry a very high quality content.

The Canadien food guide suggests that you eat 5 to 10 portions of fruits and vegetables per day.

Milk has been accused of many sins none really scientifically proven. It is still recommended to get your daily allowance of milk products (children and pregnant woman require easily 3 to 4 daily portions).

It is also recommended to have 2 to 3 portions of meat or its substitute (if you are vegetarian for example) per day. This will provide you with the wholesome proteins you need.

One place where I do not completely agree with the Canadian food guide is when they say we should eat 5 to 12 portions of bread or cereal per day. I think this is too generous.

Allow me now to share little tricks I find useful:

1) Healthy choices start at the supermarket. If you put nutritious food in your cart, that’s what you will have at home. Think of me whenever you hesitate to put junk food in your cart, smile and leave without taking it, feeling a complete sense of joy and victory.

2) It takes over 30 minutes for your stomach to know when it is full and send a signal to your brain to stop eating. Eat slowly.

3) There will always be food on earth. You only need to eat enough to nourish your marvellous body. Often, the portions we put on our plate are too big. This is one place where downsizing can be beneficial for everyone.

4) Water is the principal element of your body. Drinking generous amounts (6 to 8 glasses per day) of water will keep your body healthy and well hydrated. Make drinking water fun, add up ice, fancy up your glass, be creative.

5) If you fall off the wagon, you can always climb back on. Do not get despaired if you divert from your good pattern. Be a little permissive with yourself once in a while. Then, you can get back to your good habits, not feeling frustrated.

6) If you catch yourself eating mechanically, you can easily say to yourself mentally “STOP” and immediately regain control. If you want to make it even more fun, scream it if you are in the company of good friends (but not in a restaurant). That will certainly make you STOP. You can also push away your plate. This gesture alone has a powerful kinesthetic value on your brain. Here is my gift to you: I am now giving you permission to leave food on your plate. No matter what your mother told you, this one is really for your own good. It is okay to leave food on your plate when your appetite is satisfied.

7) Eating should be in the dining room only. Realize right now that most eating done in the kitchen or worst the living room usually consists of unhealthy snacking.

8) If we could all fall asleep right after dinner, we would be thinner. Most unhealthy snacking occur during the evening. It is as if we want to reward ourselves for having accomplished another hard day. There is many other ways of rewarding yourself, find one that is good for you.

9)You can say to yourself whenever you want to reach for food between meals: “I am not hungry. I am bored.”

10) It is never too late to do a good deed. This one is my favourite. This means that no matter how badly you neglected or, even worst battered your body, it has the wonderful ability to forgive you! Studies prove beyond a doubt that getting closer to your ideal weight and being active will give you a better health. It is as simple as that.

If you have consulted your physician and got his approval to start your healthy new life, hop on board right now!