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JustLoseItwithBerta
Volume 1
Issue 20
05-20-2010
Hi , and thanks for coming back week after week! Thank goodness I always have more to share!
I want to thank those of you who so graciously took my very
brief survey last week. I am busily designing my next tele-class and am
soliciting suggestions from potential class members via this online survey. I
hope many more of my readers will take a few moments to participate! Even if
you are not interested in the classes, your input will help me tailor the e-zine
to suit your needs. I determine each week's content based on reader feedback,
so make your voice heard and help me address your issues by going to Design Your Own Class Reader Survey.Thanks for making this the source for information that is meaningful for you! I feel very motivated to get my act together this week. How
about you? There are always hard and
challenging days when we get tired and frustrated, feeling that the world, and
everyone in it, has turned against us. Thankfully, that is usually an
illusion. Feelings of alienation are
usually a reflection of something that is going on in your own heart. Once you
take a peek and accept the possibility that perhaps you have been a little over
dramatic and self-absorbed (you don't have to admit this to anyone but
yourself), you will feel a renewed sense of grounding and get back on track.
Becoming derailed is an inevitable part of this journey back to the true self:
body, mind, and spirit. I feel mine
energy flowing today after a good night's sleep and a bit of a reality check. It's
always good to ground yourself, knowing where your feet are-thankfully, at the
end of your legs! This week my blog is a continuation of the article I wrote
two weeks ago on addictions and the addictive personality. This week I am going to speak about the
danger inherent in transferring those addictions unknowingly. Find out how to determine if you are in line
waiting to level up? Just click www.justloseit.com/blog to learn what I know about it.
Tea Time with Berta: 
This is one I hear a lot. People know that when you start a weight loss
program you will always lose ten or 20 pounds, and then your body plateaus. What is a plateau? Just another unsolved weight loss mystery you have to
suck up and accept, right? Or, is it a trick the body plays on the helpless
dieter to show who is in control? Anyone on this plan? I find this type of thinking very funny. It's
as if you have been waiting for your body to get it together and lose some
weight for years, and finally it agrees and does so. Then, for no reason, it
one day decides, on its own, to stop, leaving you on the dreaded plateau, alone
and defenseless. The truly funny thing is that you accept this myth. You
actually believe that your body has the final say in your weight loss-that it
has a mind of its own and arbitrarily dictates when you will, and will not,
lose. Well, I don't believe in the big
bad plateau. It isn't real. In addition, I don't believe it's any harder to
lose the last ten pounds than it is to lose the first ten. Don't believe me? Let me explain.
First, let's look at the myth of the plateau. This is what you call it when you have tried
five diets in a row, dropped 15 pounds on each, and then just stopped-even
though you were doing exactly what you had done to lose the original 15. So
every time, after 15 pounds, the scale remains frozen in place. Well, it must
be what your body does, since it does it all the time, like clockwork, right?
Well, no. You see, when you start a new diet, you know you have to eat less
than what you usually eat to achieve a smaller body. Therefore, you make
changes and begin to eat for a body that weighs less than yours. At this point, you don't know exactly what
final body your are eating for: you think it's your goal-weight body, but you
don't really know exactly what your goal weight should be, do you? You can only get started, and eventually your
body will reveal it's perfect goal weight to you. So, when you stop losing weight, you haven't
hit a plateau; on the contrary, you have simply arrived at the body-weight for
which you were eating. If this is not
the body weight you desire, then something different has to happen. Now, if you
don't realize this, and if you don't tweak anything, and if you blame your
uncooperative body that does this every time, damn it, you will continue to do
what got you down 15 pounds. And down 15 pounds you will stay!
So, the next time you "plateau," remember my basic rules for
losing weight and go back to doing them. If you have forgotten the rules, refresh your memory by clicking
here Blog page: How to get started to check out what I have to say about portion control and
needing to feel a little bit hungry. Start bringing on that hunger-just a bit of it right before you go to
bed-and you will see that what you thought was a plateau was only your body
following your directions. Don't blame yourself! You just didn't have a map,
and you kept getting lost in the same place. Now you have an unerring guidance system, and you can find your way to
your final destination!
Almost forgot-the reason it appears harder to lose the last
ten pounds than the first ten is simple. When you start eating for weight loss
and improved health, it appears that you lose a lot, initially, only because you are
getting rid of retained water. After
that, it takes the same effort to lose the first real ten pounds of fat, not
water, as it does to lose the last ten. The true difference is in your head. The first ten were more important to you, and
you were more diligent about what you were eating. By the time you are almost there, you are looking pretty
good, and you are tired of being restrictive, so you tend to be less strict.
Let's get it together and push through; you're almost there. Think of it like the final sprint in a race:
it's hard because you're tired and have come a long way, but the finish line is
right there in front of you. Your body
will conform to whatever you tell it to do, so stop blaming the figment of your
imagination. Say adieu to the plateau and Just Lose It!
Did you know...
That seaweed has been a staple of the Japanese diet for
centuries! As far as I am concerned, seaweed has come a long way, baby!
Now referred to as sea vegetables, I was introduced to this interesting food
when I was very young. My father must have read that seaweed contained amazing
nutrients, because one day he came home with a very suspicious bag filled with
freshly "found" green slime-at least that is what it looked like and smelled
like. We rinsed them and rinsed them and
my mother made them into, well... a dish of seaweed. After spending the next hour
gagging it down, I swore that I would never do this to my children. Well, never
say never! Fortunately, the supremely
nutritious seaweed we eat today is not harvested at our local beach, and tastes
nothing like my father's find!
Sea vegetables can be found growing in marine salt waters
and in fresh water lakes. They are not actually vegetables, so they do not fall
into the plant or animal classifications, but to the algae species. Getting
hungry? Why would anyone in her right
mind want to eat algae? Well, it just so happens to offer the greatest
concentration of minerals found in any food. Sea vegetables contain virtually
all the minerals found in the ocean, which are the same minerals found in human
blood-pretty cool, huh? They are an excellent source of iodine, vitamin K,
folic acid, magnesium, iron, calcium, and the B vitamins, folate, riboflavin and pantothenic acid. They also have
plant compounds called lignans, which are known to prevent cancer!
Sea vegetables, especially kelp, are the richest source of
iodine, a component of the thyroid hormones thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine
(T3) that are essential to human life. Iodine deficiency is a growing problem lately, with more and more people
suffering from thyroid problems because of it. In addition, sea vegetables have
been shown to reduce the body's inflammatory response. They reduce the severity
of asthma symptoms and help prevent migraine headaches. Some studies show they restore
normal sleep patterns in menopausal women. The lignans seem to act as a weak
version of estrogen, alleviating hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms.
Consider opening your minds and your mouths! There are
hundreds of varieties of sea vegetables available, so try a few before you
decide you don't like the taste. They
are far too good for you to ignore. Find some you like, and make them a dietary
staple for the whole family.
My favorite things to eat!
Sea Vegetable Salad
This amazing sea vegetable is not only good for you, but
it's surprisingly tasty! Many of you
might have already tried some at your favorite Japanese restaurant. Once you get the hang of cooking with
seaweed, you will love the many ways you can easily add it to your favorite
dishes.
What you need:
½ package (2 oz.) arame
seaweed - You can find this seaweed in your local health food store or
Asian market. You might even find it in
the Asian section of your local supermarket.
½ package rinsed wakame
seaweed
6 carrots
4 medium white
turnips
¼ cup rice wine
vinegar
4 tsp. agave nectar
1 dash of cayenne pepper
¼ cup tamari (use
in moderation)
2 tbsp. gomahsio - this item is not actually
necessary, but if you want to try something new, then look for it in an Asian
market. It is much lower in sodium than
salt and is mixed with sesame seeds. If you cannot find it, substitute a small
amount of sea salt and some sesame seeds.
½ pound of tofu -
Now before you stop reading, try to keep an open mind about this great protein.
It is easy to make, and it absorbs the flavors of the other ingredients.
What to do:
Rinse the arame seaweed and wakame seaweed separately, but
thoroughly, in cold water for about 5 minutes. Don't let the seaweed soak too
long. Remove from water and squeeze
gently. Cut off tough stems from the
wakame, and then cut into smaller squares. The arame will probably not need cutting. Arrange the seaweeds in rows on a large
platter.
Shred or grate 6 carrots and 4 medium turnips. Arrange them on the platter with the seaweed.
Mix together the rice wine vinegar, agave nectar, and
tamari. Pour this dressing over the
platter of vegetables. Sprinkle gomahsio
over the salad. Cover and refrigerate
until ready to serve.
Simmer the tofu in water for 5 minutes. Place the tofu, 2 tbsp. of the water it
simmered in, 1 tbsp. rice wine vinegar, ½ tsp. agave nectar, a dash of cayenne
pepper, and 2 tbsp. gomahsio in the blender. Puree until smooth. Add more water
if necessary. It should have the
consistency of thin mayonnaise. Add more
rice wine vinegar, if you prefer your dressing on the tart side.
Sprinkle this salad with chopped scallions, and place a
tablespoon of the tofu sauce in the middle of each small salad plate.
Keep an open mind and enjoy!
Bon Appetite!
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Berta is a respected weight loss counselor who has educated and empowered hundreds of women JUST LIKE YOU to lose the excess weight that prevents them from living their dream and becoming the woman they were meant to be.
Her gift, and the reason her program is SO SUCCESSFUL, is her ability to break down every detail of your weight loss journey so you can be prepared for the challenges and understand the emotional components behind them.
This on-line program has been designed to bring you the same experience of her methods and common sense explanations that Berta uses in her successful private practice, at a fraction
of the cost. If you liked today's issue, you'll love her blog and the main site as it is being built, which you can find at JustLoseIt.com.
DON'T LET ANOTHER DAY GO BY!
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Prevosti publishes the free weekly e-zine Just Lose It with Berta,
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If you have "given up" on weight loss, or
know some one who has,
JustLoseIt.com is the place for them to turn for the
explanations of
why nothing has worked before, and better yet, the reason why
it will
work now.
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