So probably everyone reading this has tried dieting. It's the American dilemma where so many in the world are going hungry yet here as a country we are overweight. Personally I went through the merry-go-round cycles of dieting and have tried so many different diets it's a little insane. From vegetarian to vegan to Atkins to not giving a damn about what I ate to the Cave Man diet and mostly what I found was that 1- none of the diets were sustainable over a long period of time, 2- I simply did not have enough information about my own personal diet and what it should be, 3- I didn't have enough information about what I should and should not be eating and finally 4- I didn't know how foods were digested by my body nor did I know why diet is so important.
I started reading, researching, asking friends, talking to doctors, and I asked and read and researched and finally came across a doctor and his book that made perfect sense. I read the book (oh my god was that tedious) and I loved what I read for many reasons the best of which was it made total sense! I have re-read it and parts of it many times since and I keep it on a table in my living room for easy access. Since this website is not about promoting this or that I will leave the name of the doctor and his book out for now. If you want the names just drop me an email.
The first aspect we will look at is the use of the word diet. There are two basic uses of the word- the first as a verb and the second as a noun: "to restrict oneself to small amounts or special kinds of food in order to lose weight" is the verb and "the kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats" is the noun. I prefer the latter example and that is how I am going to implement what I believe may work very well for you.
The first step is to weigh yourself at the same time every day. Personally I use this method- I get up, use the toilet, and then weigh myself. Some days when I know I ate wrong the day before I skip a day but never more than one day- you have to be a little stern with yourself for this to work.
The second step is to educate yourself on what you should be eating. What you should be eating. Not your children or your spouse or friends or anyone other than you. This is very important. You need to figure out what your body wants and needs and actually it's quite simple. The math on this is quite easy and it's that each day at least 70% of the food you eat should be leafy, green vegetables. Of course you should be eating organic only food or as much organic food as possible. Fish should be on your diet more than meat and again either wild caught or organic only- if possible.
Now the most important part I think is this- it's not so much what you eat as what you don't eat. There's a reason why fruit ripens in the autumn and there's a reason humans and animals eat a lot of it prior to winter and that's to gain weight for the winter when there used to be a shortage of food. Our "global" trading cultures have distorted our eating cycles so that nowadays there are really no cycles. People make drinks from an assortment of fruits and vegetables everyday all year long but again traditionally why does fruit ripen in autumn? So people and animals eat it and gain weight prior to winter because there used to be a lack of available food. Why do farmers feed grain to cows and pigs? So they gain weight of course and what happens when we eat grains and when we eat animals that have been fed grains? We gain weight, of course!
To repeat myself it's not so much what you eat but what you do not eat.
Let's get back to weighing yourself everyday at the same time. Do that and either remember what you ate the day before or, if that is a problem, write down what you ate. On iPhones there's a simple app called Notes on the home page and you tap it, it opens, you type what you ate, click Done and it's saved. Simple. Then tomorrow if your weight has gone up, which by the way it can vary by several pounds if you're not careful with the foods you eat, you can examine what you ate and make the appropriate changes.
Certain foods contains chemicals that cause our stomachs to not digest food properly, leaving us constantly feeling hungry, leaving us with belly aches, gas, etc. By keeping a journal you can go over the previous day's foods and decide which one may have caused the issue. We can discuss this further if you decide to move forward.
One more thing to interject is this: You should be drinking good water. The way to determine how much water to drink is this: take your weight and divide that by two and then divide that answer by 16 and that's the number of ounces of water you should drink each day. So I weigh about 200 pounds and half that is 100 pounds divided by 16 is 6 (close enough) so that's 6 pints of water a day. I have a pint every morning before my coffee, another before breakfast, one before or after my daily hike, one before lunch, one before dinner, and one an hour or two before bed. Yes I do get up to pee each night but I was doing that before so there's no change there.
Okay back to the sustainable diet. I am Irish, Danish, and English descent so absolutely of white European descent. I am a third generation American. Our diets and the availability of food has changed so dramatically in my life it's crazy. Add the pollutants, the chemicals, the genetically modified plants, and the globalization of food imports, etc. and there should be little wonder about why so many people are overweight. The reason I point out my ancestry is that the foods that grow here in California are very different than the foods that grow in my ancestral home and the foods that grow here are very different now than they were 50 years ago. As humans we need time to adjust to new foods and new food groups but we haven't been given that time. Plants, etc. also need time to adjust but we rarely give them that time. We've modified them and we spray their fields with nasty chemicals. In some places in America farmers have needed to plow in styrofoam to give the plant roots something to hold on to as the soil is so depleted of organics. But I digress.
Our diet should be what sustains us once we get to our ideal weight. Once you begin eating locally grown, non GMO, organically grown meat, wild caught fish, organic leafy vegetables, and drinking sufficient amounts of good water to wash it down and help digest it your weight will find it's own level. You'll be amazed actually at how not eating certain things will help you lose weight.
Some of the foods to stop eating to see if this helps with your weight, digestion, etc., are beans, legumes, soy products and all grains. Just stop them temporarily and see if you feel better. Of course contact me for a more complete and comprehensive plan.
So weigh yourself each morning after peeing at about the same time. Only eat locally grown foods and keep a journal of what you're eating. If your weight begins to slowly drop then keep it going and if not then change what you're eating. For myself I find that eating grains with the husks still on (brown rice, whole wheat bread, etc.) causes me to gain weight but if I eat a wrap using a white tortilla rather than a whole wheat tortilla I don't gain weight. So that doesn't mean anything more than that's what my body likes! Many cultures do not eat the husks of seeds. The Chinese have eaten white rice for centuries and brown bread was only a staple of the poor while the rich ate white flour. I have friends who can eat all sorts of things without gaining weight but if I eat those same things I gain weight. I have friends who eat soy and have diets heavy with beans and they are overweight with gut issues. So your diet is 100% personal to you.
Another good thing to pay attention to is your stomach- if you're getting an upset stomach then stop eating what's causing the upset. Plants produce toxins to defend themselves against predators. When an animal eats a plant that makes it sick it stops eating the plant but when humans eat something that causes us to be sick we take an antacid or think there's another reason for the problem. Do not take antacids, etc. Your body is talking to you when it's upset and you should pay attention to what it's saying rather than trying to mask the message.
One important thing to know is that our food passes down into our stomachs and past our internal organs and, as it travels, it's digested in 8 steps. Read the 8 Steps of Digestion Along the walls of the small intestine are thousands of tiny fingers called villi. Tiny blood vessels (capillaries) in the villi absorb the digested food molecules and sends them off to the rest of the body through the bloodstream. That is so important to remember and that's why what we put in and don't put in is so important.
A little more on the topic of upset stomachs. Plants have figured out a self defence mechanism that works for each species. For instance roses grew nasty thorns to stop them from being being eaten. Green apples give us tummy aches until they ripen and turn red. Some plants like tomatoes can cause a reaction in our digestive system from the lectins found in the tomatoe skins and seeds. Many cultures remove the skins and seeds from tomatoes before ingesting them. Lectins can actually cause our digestive tract to not function properly. Peanuts contain large amounts of lectins and, as we know, peanuts are not nuts at all but rather legumes. A short list of well-known legumes include alfalfa, clover, peas, chickpeas, lentils, lupin bean, mesquite, carob, soybeans, peanuts and tamarind. Remember I'm not saying that eating tomatoes is bad but I am saying they might be bad for you to eat! I'm not saying eating apples is bad but I am saying eating apples might be bad for you to eat. Your diet is very personal to you. Just because someone says eating beans is good for you is it? If they cause you to gain weight and fart then are they good for you? (If you pressure cook beans it destroys the lectins so eating them would be better for you then and you won't pass gas.) Passing gas indicates your digestive tract isn't working properly. Also your stools should come out the shape of your colon, or very close. Properly digested food is excreted like that. If your stools are not relatively firm and a good shape then you should re-examine your intake.
Obviously there's much more to this than I can write here so if you want to learn more contact me. I lost 20 pounds and it's stayed off. The weight loss was a little bit of a roller coaster ride at first in that the fluctuations were confusing and baffling until I realized how personal my diet was for me. And how important, almost more important than what I was eating, was what I was not eating. Sustainable is the name of the game I think. Once you find a sustainable diet stick with it as much as you can. I like to say that your diet is not a religion or a relationship so cheating is okay. It's not about being perfect but rather this is about recovery from any dietary slip and being happy with who you are.
Always remember that my philosophy is this: You are in charge of your life. How you navigate the different aspects of your life is determined by how much you know and how much you understand. Learn and understand as much as you possibly can!

Questions? Email me at: peter@eplace.net
Telephone me at:
415.320.1440 and if I am unable to answer please leave a detailed message, and I will get back to you just as soon as I can.