WP_Query Object
(
[query] => Array
(
[category__in] => Array
(
[0] => 25
)
[post__not_in] => Array
(
[0] => 3070
)
[posts_per_page] => 50
[ignore_sticky_posts] => 1
[orderby] => desc
[_shuffle_and_pick] => 3
)
[query_vars] => Array
(
[category__in] => Array
(
[0] => 25
)
[post__not_in] => Array
(
[0] => 3070
)
[posts_per_page] => 50
[ignore_sticky_posts] => 1
[orderby] => desc
[_shuffle_and_pick] => 3
[error] =>
[m] =>
[p] => 0
[post_parent] =>
[subpost] =>
[subpost_id] =>
[attachment] =>
[attachment_id] => 0
[name] =>
[pagename] =>
[page_id] => 0
[second] =>
[minute] =>
[hour] =>
[day] => 0
[monthnum] => 0
[year] => 0
[w] => 0
[category_name] => nutrition
[tag] =>
[cat] => 25
[tag_id] =>
[author] =>
[author_name] =>
[feed] =>
[tb] =>
[paged] => 0
[meta_key] =>
[meta_value] =>
[preview] =>
[s] =>
[sentence] =>
[title] =>
[fields] =>
[menu_order] =>
[embed] =>
[category__not_in] => Array
(
)
[category__and] => Array
(
)
[post__in] => Array
(
)
[post_name__in] => Array
(
)
[tag__in] => Array
(
)
[tag__not_in] => Array
(
)
[tag__and] => Array
(
)
[tag_slug__in] => Array
(
)
[tag_slug__and] => Array
(
)
[post_parent__in] => Array
(
)
[post_parent__not_in] => Array
(
)
[author__in] => Array
(
)
[author__not_in] => Array
(
)
[search_columns] => Array
(
)
[suppress_filters] =>
[cache_results] => 1
[update_post_term_cache] => 1
[update_menu_item_cache] =>
[lazy_load_term_meta] => 1
[update_post_meta_cache] => 1
[post_type] =>
[nopaging] =>
[comments_per_page] => 50
[no_found_rows] =>
[order] => DESC
)
[tax_query] => WP_Tax_Query Object
(
[queries] => Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[taxonomy] => category
[terms] => Array
(
[0] => 25
)
[field] => term_id
[operator] => IN
[include_children] =>
)
)
[relation] => AND
[table_aliases:protected] => Array
(
[0] => wp_term_relationships
)
[queried_terms] => Array
(
[category] => Array
(
[terms] => Array
(
[0] => 25
)
[field] => term_id
)
)
[primary_table] => wp_posts
[primary_id_column] => ID
)
[meta_query] => WP_Meta_Query Object
(
[queries] => Array
(
)
[relation] =>
[meta_table] =>
[meta_id_column] =>
[primary_table] =>
[primary_id_column] =>
[table_aliases:protected] => Array
(
)
[clauses:protected] => Array
(
)
[has_or_relation:protected] =>
)
[date_query] =>
[request] =>
SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS wp_posts.ID
FROM wp_posts LEFT JOIN wp_term_relationships ON (wp_posts.ID = wp_term_relationships.object_id)
WHERE 1=1 AND wp_posts.ID NOT IN (3070) AND (
wp_term_relationships.term_taxonomy_id IN (25)
) AND ((wp_posts.post_type = 'post' AND (wp_posts.post_status = 'publish' OR wp_posts.post_status = 'acf-disabled')))
AND ID NOT IN
(SELECT `post_id` FROM wp_postmeta
WHERE `meta_key` = '_pilotpress_level'
AND `meta_value` IN ('','employee')
AND `post_id` NOT IN
(SELECT `post_id` FROM wp_postmeta
WHERE `meta_key` = '_pilotpress_level'
AND `meta_value` IN ('' )))
GROUP BY wp_posts.ID
ORDER BY wp_posts.post_date DESC
LIMIT 0, 50
[posts] => Array
(
[0] => WP_Post Object
(
[ID] => 3333
[post_author] => 3
[post_date] => 2016-02-17 05:05:04
[post_date_gmt] => 2016-02-17 05:05:04
[post_content] =>
So you aspire to draw gasps of delight, rather than horror, as you pedal through Portland in the nude. Or, perhaps you just want to look good in a thong by summer. Well, you’re reading the right article. Your friends won’t tell you this, so I will–nobody wants to see a guy in a thong. Please, don’t leave the house in that. Now let’s address your body. If you’ve tried eating less and exercising more and that hasn’t worked, these tips will make the difference.
First, let’s just get this out of the way. Are you actually eating less? Rather than thinking of overeating as consuming more calories over the course of a day than you burn, start thinking of it as consuming more calories in a sitting than your body can readily utilize.
For instance, your friend Botswana consumes only 1500 calories a day—all in one meal—and she can’t understand why she’s not losing weight. Your other friend Mozambique eats five meals of 400 calories each, and keeps losing weight, even though he’s totaling 500 more calories per day than Botswana. Here’s the deal: Botswana is going so long without eating that her metabolism slows down. Even when she eats both lunch and dinner, her body still goes 17 hours from dinner to lunch the next day. So her body says to itself, “I’m gonna run on 1200 calories per day”—which she exceeds by 300 calories. But more importantly, she eats 1500 calories at once. There’s no way she’s going to utilize all that anytime soon.
Be like Mozambique. Eat frequently. Don’t go more than about four hours between meals (except from dinner to breakfast). Eat a protein-rich breakfast—egg whites, lean meat, beans, nonfat Greek yogurt, etc. Keep dinner light. Your metabolism will speed up. Stop snacking—don’t eat anything between your meals. Let your stomach empty out completely. You’ll get to eat again in just a few hours, so stop yourself before you get full. Didn’t your mom ever tell you not to pack the washing machine with clothes? They won’t circulate at all. They’ll come out dirty and moist. Well, the same goes for your stomach. The goal is not to fill your stomach to capacity; it’s to eat just enough to not be hungry anymore.
Now, if you’re thinking, “But Peter, the food I eat is so damn good, I can’t stop eating until my body will simply not accept any more!” then we need to have a different conversation. It’s called the Stop Going Unconscious While You’re Eating conversation. Wake up. You’re tuning out your body while you’re eating. It’s the only possible way to ignore your body’s cries of protest. Tune in instead.
If your food is so good, why not do everything possible to enjoy the experience? That means putting away your reading material and your cell phone, turning off the TV, placing a piece of duct tape over the mouth of your dining company, letting go of whatever you’re stressing about, pulling over if you’re driving, sitting down if you’re standing, and then savoring the hell out of that food. Always keep part of your attention on how your body feels, and as soon as you’re not hungry anymore—usually with an amount of food about one-and-a-half times the size of your closed fist—stop. Bonus: you won’t be in a food coma after lunch.
You’ll also have more leeway with meals if you limit yourself to only non-caloric drinks. Instead of soda or juice (which have a ton of sugar in them), or a latte (basically a huge glass of milk), just stick to water, unsweetened tea, or—if you must—coffee with just a dash of milk. If you want a calorie-free sweetener, try stevia leaf extract instead of the chemical stuff.
Meanwhile, make sure you’re getting enough deep, restful sleep—at least seven hours. Studies show sleep deprivation is associated with weight gain. Next, ditch the plastics. Most plastics contain chemicals known as exogenous endocrine disruptors that can throw off our hormones and contribute to weight gain. Never microwave anything in plastic, and stop buying water in plastic bottles. Haven’t you heard of that swirling island of plastic in the middle of the Pacific that’s half the size of the US? While you’re at it, stop eating food from cans, since they’re all lined with plastic containing bisphenol-A (BPA), a known endocrine disruptor.
Finally, remember this: In the whole history of the human species, we’ve only consumed large amounts of grains and sugars in the tiniest, most recent slice of time. Our bodies just can’t handle it—we get diabetic, fat, and hypertensive. Even in the last few decades, we’ve gone low-fat due to overly simplistic thinking about how we form body fat. In the meantime, our sugar consumption has ballooned, and so have our waistbands. If you want to lose weight, the single biggest change you can make to your diet is to cut way down on sweeteners and flour.
If you take my advice, you should be in good shape for the naked bike ride. Might want to get your suspension tuned up before then, too.
(Originally appeared in About Face Magazine, Issue 06)
Want to know more?
[post_title] => Look Hot in Time for the Naked Bike Ride
[post_excerpt] =>
[post_status] => publish
[comment_status] => open
[ping_status] => open
[post_password] =>
[post_name] => look-hot-in-time-for-the-naked-bike-ride
[to_ping] =>
[pinged] =>
[post_modified] => 2019-07-23 15:38:31
[post_modified_gmt] => 2019-07-23 15:38:31
[post_content_filtered] =>
[post_parent] => 0
[guid] => http://peterborten.com/?page_id=78
[menu_order] => 0
[post_type] => post
[post_mime_type] =>
[comment_count] => 4
[filter] => raw
[webinar_id] => 0
)
[1] => WP_Post Object
(
[ID] => 3231
[post_author] => 4
[post_date] => 2013-10-08 04:56:32
[post_date_gmt] => 2013-10-08 04:56:32
[post_content] =>
I get asked about coffee by patients so often that I thought it was about time to write an article thoroughly examining it from all angles. Unlike stronger recreational drugs, I think the potential drawbacks of coffee are usually fairly mild. But if you endeavor to achieve great health – and especially if you’re struggling with a health problem – it’s worth being honest with yourself about whether coffee is contributing to or detracting from this goal.
What’s Good About Coffee
So many people worldwide depend on coffee to wake them up, get them motivated, make them feel sharp, promote digestion, and even lift them out of mild depression. Is that so bad? Well, depending on your constitution, maybe not.
Scientific research has shown that coffee consumption appears to reduce one’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and colorectal cancer. One constituent that’s especially interesting and abundant in coffee is called chlorogenic acid. Chlorogenic acid is an antioxidant, it seems to slow glucose release after eating (so it may help maintain stable blood sugar), it promotes bile secretion, reduces gallstone formation, maybe reduces the incidence of liver disease, and probably promotes weight loss. Chlorogenic acid is much more abundant in green (unroasted) coffee beans than the roasted ones, which has led to the fad of “green coffee extract” for weight loss.
A drawback of chlorogenic acid is that it may interfere with the absorption of certain minerals – namely zinc and iron – from the intestines. For this reason, it may be best to consume coffee or take green coffee extracts a few hours apart from food. Or consider taking extra zinc (or a multimineral supplement). I don’t generally recommend consuming iron supplements, though, unless you have a known iron deficiency. Incidentally, coffee isn’t the only thing that has the potential to interfere with iron absorption. Many compounds (knows as polyphenols or monomeric flavonoids) can do this, and they’re found in black tea, peppermint, chamomile, chocolate, and other natural foods and drinks.
Due to its flavor, coffee acts as a digestive bitter. Like other bitters, it tends to “activate” the digestive system, stimulating intestinal movement and the production of gastric juices. However, if you add cream and sugar to it – diminishing its bitterness – you probably diminish its value as a digestive stimulant, too.
What’s Bad About Coffee
The energy-boosting, mind-sharpening effects of coffee result from the fact that it’s chock full of vitamins, minerals, and everything else our bodies need for good nutrition. Every cup is like consuming a complete, balanced meal.
Of course, the truth is almost the opposite. Coffee is a stimulant. And we’re stimulant addicts. Let’s just be real about that. The first thing I want to know when a patient tells me about their coffee habit is, “How would you feel without coffee?” If the answer is “tired” or “withdrawn” or “constipated” or anything else unpleasant, then I think it’s worth considering whether or not coffee is the best remedy. There are dozens of possible causes of fatigue, and most of them are not coffee deficiency. These issues are best addressed in a more direct, non-coffee way. If coffee consumption masks them, it means putting off a real solution.
Fatigue: If someone is fatigued because of depletion – and often I think of adrenal depletion (the endocrine glands most directly involved in our stress response) – then coffee is specifically a bad idea. Stimulants just drain these glands of what little energy they have left, and make recovery impossible. Adrenal deficiency can lead to reduced immune function, lightheadedness, sleep problems, anxiety and depression, inflammation, hypoglycemia, and other symptoms. If this sounds like you, see a naturally oriented healthcare provider, and meanwhile, try quitting coffee.
Hypertension: Coffee can raise blood pressure, especially in people who consume a lot of it. Regular coffee drinkers tend to develop some tolerance to this effect.
Digestive Upset: The combination of coffee’s acids, its bitterness, and its strong stimulating effects can cause digestive discomfort, nausea, acid reflux, diarrhea, and exacerbation of ulcers in certain individuals. Those with irritable or inflammatory bowel disorders, ulcers, or GERD should be especially cautious with coffee.
Sleep Problems: Despite our visceral understanding of what coffee does to us, many folks with bad sleep don’t consider that their coffee might be part of the problem. If sleep doesn’t come easily and deeply for you, you should at least avoid coffee after noon. Sometimes even just a morning cuppa is enough to disturb our slumber.
Anxiety: As with insomnia, it shouldn’t be surprising that stimulation can contribute to anxiety. Yet most of my anxious patients consume it and nearly all of them improve when they quit.
If you have insomnia, anxiety, or digestive upset, come up with a scale to evaluate how bad it is, then quit coffee and re-rate it after a couple weeks. When coffee contributes to these problems, it’s due to overstimulation. Frequently, as with adrenal fatigue, there’s a background of “diminished buffer.” It’s like running high voltage electricity through thin wires with not much insulation on them. It’s worthwhile to consider what kind of wiring you have, meaning, how sensitive your nervous system is to stimulation. Thin, stressed, and underslept people tend to be less able than others to handle caffeine and other stimulants well.
Dyslipidemia: Coffee can raise LDL and total cholesterol when consumed in large amounts. However, this may be meaningless in terms of the actual health risk it represents. Also, this effect is thought to be mainly due to chemicals that are very effectively removed with a paper filter.
Inflammation: A 2004 study examined numerous markers of inflammation in the blood of over 3000 Greek men and women. It found that in people who consumed over 200 milliliters of coffee a day (that’s about 6.75 ounces), all indicators of inflammation increased. The funny part is that in their conclusion, they wrote, “A relation exists between moderate-to-high coffee consumption and increased inflammation process.” Moderate-to-high coffee consumption?! Clearly they’ve never been to the United States.
Bone Weakness: High doses seem to be associated with increased osteoporosis and hip fracture in older women.
Dehydration: Coffee is a diuretic – it promotes urination. Medically speaking, sometimes there’s a need for a diuretic, but for most people, this property of coffee just means an increased risk of dehydration. Drink extra water to make up for this effect of coffee.
Pregnancy and Nursing: Coffee, especially in larger amounts, probably slightly impairs fertility in women (perhaps in part by interfering with iron absorption), increases risk of miscarriage, and may contribute to low birth weight. Lots of coffee consumption by nursing mothers may degrade babies’ quality of sleep and make them irritable. Pre-term babies seem to be more affected.
Acrylamides: Roasting coffee produces chemicals called acrylamides which are considered a “probable human carcinogen” by several public health agencies. It may be worthwhile to choose a light or medium roast, which, in my opinion, also produces a better flavor, and is also likely to retain more chlorogenic acid. (Incidentally baking or frying starchy things, such as flour and potatoes, also produces acrylamides, with French fries having the highest content.)
Other Factors to Consider
Dosage: Many of the studies revealing health problems from coffee consumption looked at people who consumed large amounts – like five cups a day. But before you dismiss them because you only have two cups a day, consider that a regular cup of coffee is just 6 ounces. That means your Venti from Starbucks is more than 3 cups. showing negative effects of coffee consumption
Additives: What are you adding to your coffee? It might be worse for you than the coffee. A 16 ounce latte contains about 14 ounces of milk or milk substitute. That’s a lot of milk, especially for an adult. If you use soy milk, keep in mind that it’s bean juice and many people have problems digesting it. If you get your latte from a café, it’s unlikely that they use organic milk or soy, so the soy milk is almost guaranteed to have come from genetically modified beans (and probably also highly sweetened). Dave Asprey, a self-styled “biohacker” advocates the use of “upgraded” mold-free coffee beans to brew your coffee and then, instead of cream and sugar, pureeing this with a combination of butter from grass-fed cows and medium chain triglycerides or coconut oil. Stevia, xylitol, or erythritol can be used as a non-caloric sweetener. He calls it “bulletproof coffee.”
Pesticides: Many coffee producing countries happen to be rather indiscriminate users of agrichemicals, and often the kinds and application of these chemicals are unregulated. Luckily, there are still farmers who grow coffee in the same way they have for generations – all natural. Look for coffee from Yemen, Ethiopia, and Sumatra, or anything that’s certified organic.
Traditional Thinking: Although coffee is widely and indiscriminately consumed by everyone who likes the taste or wants a boost, it may be worth applying the wisdom of traditional medical systems, which tend to view it as more of a medicine than a food. That is, it has specific properties – stimulating, drying, and heating, for example – that make it appropriate only for certain people. Just as one wouldn’t assume that everyone could benefit from an antibiotic, it might be shortsighted to assume that everyone’s body and mind should benefit from coffee.
In conclusion, if you choose to drink coffee, here’s my advice: Consume it in moderation, meaning one or two cups (six to eight ounces each) per day. Remember to rehydrate – drink as much extra water as the volume of coffee you consume. Consider using a paper filter to remove some of the unhealthy constituents. Skip the sugar and minimize the milk/cream. Avoid artificial powdered creamers. Choose clean, good quality, light to medium roast beans. If you use a coffee maker, clean the water reservoir (which harbors bacteria) with vinegar at least once a month. Know how your body and mind respond to it (the big picture, please), and if they don’t like it, respect their wishes.
Be well,
Dr. Peter Borten
[post_title] => Coffee: The Highs and Lows
[post_excerpt] =>
[post_status] => publish
[comment_status] => open
[ping_status] => open
[post_password] =>
[post_name] => coffee-highs-lows
[to_ping] =>
[pinged] =>
[post_modified] => 2020-08-03 19:43:51
[post_modified_gmt] => 2020-08-03 19:43:51
[post_content_filtered] =>
[post_parent] => 0
[guid] => http://www.thedragontree.com/?p=3231
[menu_order] => 0
[post_type] => post
[post_mime_type] =>
[comment_count] => 0
[filter] => raw
[webinar_id] => 0
)
[2] => WP_Post Object
(
[ID] => 7307
[post_author] => 3
[post_date] => 2019-03-27 14:05:46
[post_date_gmt] => 2019-03-27 14:05:46
[post_content] =>
When Samuel Thomson (1769-1843) was four years old, he happened upon an herb called lobelia growing near his New Hampshire home. Curious about the seed pods, he chewed some and promptly threw up. “Afterwards,” he later wrote, “I used to induce other boys to chew it, by way of sport, to see them vomit.” By “afterwards,” he meant for the next twenty years.
In his early twenties, he was out mowing a field with a group of men when he was happy to spot some lobelia. He tricked one of his coworkers into eating it, and the man immediately turned pale and began sweating and trembling. As he puked his guts out, the man told Thomson that he believed he was about to die. But after taking a nap, he ate lunch, did a full afternoon of labor, and, “told me that he never had anything do him so much good in his life; his appetite was remarkably good, and he felt better than he had felt for a long time.”1
Thomson went on to become the founder of a system of natural medicine based largely on using lobelia to purge the body of toxins. It had great appeal to the gritty, anti-elitist, and sometimes puritanical sensibilities of many early Americans.
While it may sound trendy and modern to hear that a certain celebrity is “doing a cleanse” it’s actually an old and enduring tradition. About 70 years after Thomson’s death, Arnold Ehret published the acclaimed Rational Fasting, with a similarly empowering do-it-yourself and clean-yourself-out message. 1939 brought Jethro Kloss’s Back to Eden – often regarded as a kind of bible of natural medicine – also focusing chiefly on the idea that disease comes from too much garbage in the body. Such philosophies have even older roots in Europe and Asia.
It’s an attractive idea to consider: maybe you can simply undo all your crappy eating habits. Maybe you don’t need supplements or surgery – you just need to get the evil out of you. Maybe you’re not lacking anything – you feel ill because of something bad that you’re carrying around or keep exposing yourself to. And maybe there’s some crossover with your religious upbringing – you need to repent for your sins and perhaps this is the way to do it. So, does it work?
As with many D-I-Y health trends, there’s a lot of hope that it’s going to fix everyone. But sometimes a cleanse is the right thing and sometimes it’s not; it can be difficult to discern. I’ve had patients report that all their symptoms – pain, insomnia, digestive upset, skin problems, fatigue, ADD, anxiety, depression, and more – disappeared when they did a cleanse. Most of the time, though, people say they aren’t sure if anything useful happened. And occasionally, they tell me they felt bad – achy, tired, foggy, depressed, etc. – which could be part of a healing process, or might just mean the cleanse wasn’t ideal for them.
From the perspective of Five Element philosophy, this would be the most appropriate time of year for a cleanse. We’re emerging from winter – the season of storage, rest, and inertia – and entering the “resurrection” of spring. (There’s a reason Easter was combined with pagan symbolism of spring – the “rebirth” we witness after the “death” of winter – flowers, eggs, chicks, bunnies, etc.) It’s a phase of new plans and rapid growth, and there’s a certain shedding that happens now. If you have cats and dogs, you’re well aware of what’s coming. We humans shed our bulky layers of clothing and extra “insulation.” Symbolically, it’s a good time to release an outdated image of yourself – to shed the limitations of your former life even – so that you can create yourself anew. Given these different expressions of shedding, a spring cleanse might take the form of a physical cleaning out, a psychological release, or a spiritual process (or all three).
We usually think of a cleanse as a deliberate expulsion of the unhealthy – an act of purging, scrubbing, or active detoxification – and it can be this, if necessary and appropriate. But more importantly, I believe it should entail a simplification and reduction of what you’re putting into the body (and mind). The body knows how to get rid of waste, but it may have a hard time doing so if it’s continually struggling to keep up with what you’re adding to it. So, as a general principle, aim to consume less and to reduce your consumption to things that will be gentle and easy to assimilate.
Unless you’re doing a more active detoxification or water fast, it’s enough to just supply your body with its nutritional needs in a simple, digestible format while cutting out anything that might be an irritant or harder to digest. The goal is to cause the body to expend a minimum of energy on digesting the food so that its resources can be dedicated to cleaning house.
During a cleanse, it’s also important to reduce your activity level. Again, the idea is to maximize the resources that are available for the cleansing process. The more intensive the cleanse, the greater the need to be really devoted to it. Besides doing less physically, it’s worthwhile to conserve mental energy. Likewise, while limiting physical consumption, it’s also advisable to limit mental consumption – take a break from news and other media so there’s less to digest on all levels.
Always stay well hydrated during a cleanse. Movement in the body occurs via liquid pathways, and the metabolism and excretion of toxins works better with sufficient water in you. Figure out how many pounds you weigh and divide that number in half. Then aim to drink that many ounces of water evenly over the course of each day. Ideally this water should be room temperature. You can drink more if you wish, but don’t have so much at once that you feel bloated or “sloshy” inside.
Next week I’ll discuss some specific kinds of cleanses and common simple diets for cleansing. Meanwhile, if you’re up for a cleanse, I recommend taking some time to ponder and write about what exactly you intend to release (physical and/or mental) and what will be liberated, revitalized, or birthed through the process. Set a clear intention. If you resonate with moon symbolism, you might consider beginning your cleanse with the new moon (the next one is April 5th).
Be well,
Peter
[1] Thomson, S. (1835). A narrative of the life and medical discoveries of Samuel Thomson: containing an account of his system of practice, and the manner of curing disease with vegetable medicine, upon a plan entirely new. Columbus, OH: Jarvis Pike.
[post_title] => How to Consciously Cleanse
[post_excerpt] =>
[post_status] => publish
[comment_status] => open
[ping_status] => open
[post_password] =>
[post_name] => how-to-consciously-cleanse
[to_ping] =>
[pinged] =>
[post_modified] => 2019-05-28 20:55:28
[post_modified_gmt] => 2019-05-28 20:55:28
[post_content_filtered] =>
[post_parent] => 0
[guid] => http://thedragontree.com/?p=7307
[menu_order] => 0
[post_type] => post
[post_mime_type] =>
[comment_count] => 8
[filter] => raw
[webinar_id] => 0
)
)
[post_count] => 3
[current_post] => -1
[before_loop] => 1
[in_the_loop] =>
[post] => WP_Post Object
(
[ID] => 3333
[post_author] => 3
[post_date] => 2016-02-17 05:05:04
[post_date_gmt] => 2016-02-17 05:05:04
[post_content] =>
So you aspire to draw gasps of delight, rather than horror, as you pedal through Portland in the nude. Or, perhaps you just want to look good in a thong by summer. Well, you’re reading the right article. Your friends won’t tell you this, so I will–nobody wants to see a guy in a thong. Please, don’t leave the house in that. Now let’s address your body. If you’ve tried eating less and exercising more and that hasn’t worked, these tips will make the difference.
First, let’s just get this out of the way. Are you actually eating less? Rather than thinking of overeating as consuming more calories over the course of a day than you burn, start thinking of it as consuming more calories in a sitting than your body can readily utilize.
For instance, your friend Botswana consumes only 1500 calories a day—all in one meal—and she can’t understand why she’s not losing weight. Your other friend Mozambique eats five meals of 400 calories each, and keeps losing weight, even though he’s totaling 500 more calories per day than Botswana. Here’s the deal: Botswana is going so long without eating that her metabolism slows down. Even when she eats both lunch and dinner, her body still goes 17 hours from dinner to lunch the next day. So her body says to itself, “I’m gonna run on 1200 calories per day”—which she exceeds by 300 calories. But more importantly, she eats 1500 calories at once. There’s no way she’s going to utilize all that anytime soon.
Be like Mozambique. Eat frequently. Don’t go more than about four hours between meals (except from dinner to breakfast). Eat a protein-rich breakfast—egg whites, lean meat, beans, nonfat Greek yogurt, etc. Keep dinner light. Your metabolism will speed up. Stop snacking—don’t eat anything between your meals. Let your stomach empty out completely. You’ll get to eat again in just a few hours, so stop yourself before you get full. Didn’t your mom ever tell you not to pack the washing machine with clothes? They won’t circulate at all. They’ll come out dirty and moist. Well, the same goes for your stomach. The goal is not to fill your stomach to capacity; it’s to eat just enough to not be hungry anymore.
Now, if you’re thinking, “But Peter, the food I eat is so damn good, I can’t stop eating until my body will simply not accept any more!” then we need to have a different conversation. It’s called the Stop Going Unconscious While You’re Eating conversation. Wake up. You’re tuning out your body while you’re eating. It’s the only possible way to ignore your body’s cries of protest. Tune in instead.
If your food is so good, why not do everything possible to enjoy the experience? That means putting away your reading material and your cell phone, turning off the TV, placing a piece of duct tape over the mouth of your dining company, letting go of whatever you’re stressing about, pulling over if you’re driving, sitting down if you’re standing, and then savoring the hell out of that food. Always keep part of your attention on how your body feels, and as soon as you’re not hungry anymore—usually with an amount of food about one-and-a-half times the size of your closed fist—stop. Bonus: you won’t be in a food coma after lunch.
You’ll also have more leeway with meals if you limit yourself to only non-caloric drinks. Instead of soda or juice (which have a ton of sugar in them), or a latte (basically a huge glass of milk), just stick to water, unsweetened tea, or—if you must—coffee with just a dash of milk. If you want a calorie-free sweetener, try stevia leaf extract instead of the chemical stuff.
Meanwhile, make sure you’re getting enough deep, restful sleep—at least seven hours. Studies show sleep deprivation is associated with weight gain. Next, ditch the plastics. Most plastics contain chemicals known as exogenous endocrine disruptors that can throw off our hormones and contribute to weight gain. Never microwave anything in plastic, and stop buying water in plastic bottles. Haven’t you heard of that swirling island of plastic in the middle of the Pacific that’s half the size of the US? While you’re at it, stop eating food from cans, since they’re all lined with plastic containing bisphenol-A (BPA), a known endocrine disruptor.
Finally, remember this: In the whole history of the human species, we’ve only consumed large amounts of grains and sugars in the tiniest, most recent slice of time. Our bodies just can’t handle it—we get diabetic, fat, and hypertensive. Even in the last few decades, we’ve gone low-fat due to overly simplistic thinking about how we form body fat. In the meantime, our sugar consumption has ballooned, and so have our waistbands. If you want to lose weight, the single biggest change you can make to your diet is to cut way down on sweeteners and flour.
If you take my advice, you should be in good shape for the naked bike ride. Might want to get your suspension tuned up before then, too.
(Originally appeared in About Face Magazine, Issue 06)
Want to know more?
[post_title] => Look Hot in Time for the Naked Bike Ride
[post_excerpt] =>
[post_status] => publish
[comment_status] => open
[ping_status] => open
[post_password] =>
[post_name] => look-hot-in-time-for-the-naked-bike-ride
[to_ping] =>
[pinged] =>
[post_modified] => 2019-07-23 15:38:31
[post_modified_gmt] => 2019-07-23 15:38:31
[post_content_filtered] =>
[post_parent] => 0
[guid] => http://peterborten.com/?page_id=78
[menu_order] => 0
[post_type] => post
[post_mime_type] =>
[comment_count] => 4
[filter] => raw
[webinar_id] => 0
)
[comment_count] => 0
[current_comment] => -1
[found_posts] => 25
[max_num_pages] => 1
[max_num_comment_pages] => 0
[is_single] =>
[is_preview] =>
[is_page] =>
[is_archive] => 1
[is_date] =>
[is_year] =>
[is_month] =>
[is_day] =>
[is_time] =>
[is_author] =>
[is_category] => 1
[is_tag] =>
[is_tax] =>
[is_search] =>
[is_feed] =>
[is_comment_feed] =>
[is_trackback] =>
[is_home] =>
[is_privacy_policy] =>
[is_404] =>
[is_embed] =>
[is_paged] =>
[is_admin] =>
[is_attachment] =>
[is_singular] =>
[is_robots] =>
[is_favicon] =>
[is_posts_page] =>
[is_post_type_archive] =>
[query_vars_hash:WP_Query:private] => 29e0dd07555fcb7bf6aba7967092d01a
[query_vars_changed:WP_Query:private] =>
[thumbnails_cached] =>
[allow_query_attachment_by_filename:protected] =>
[stopwords:WP_Query:private] =>
[compat_fields:WP_Query:private] => Array
(
[0] => query_vars_hash
[1] => query_vars_changed
)
[compat_methods:WP_Query:private] => Array
(
[0] => init_query_flags
[1] => parse_tax_query
)
)
Ou have some good points. I I’ll make myself sit down when I eat,even when I am alone,which is most of the time.I do love to. Sit at the tabl for a while after. A meal.