Just Lose It with Berta Newsletter Volume 1 Issue 36 09-9-2010
Hello !
Finally!! The end of summertime party
days! Why am I so happy to announce this
obvious fact? Well, if I could go back
to the kind of summers we used to have when we were young and carefree, I would
absolutely opt for those, but as grownups, we are far from carefree! This
summer I witnessed such pain as my clients and my readers struggled with the
humid weather and backyard barbecues and summer vacations-not to mention the
dread of the last holiday weekend, our last hurrah of the summer as I like to
call it. Finally our more
structured, scheduled life can begin again. Additionally, we're pushing right into some cooler weather-unless you live on
the east coast (the new west coast) where we might continue to experience
days in the 90s! Whatever the temperature, the
structure of our lives can rejuvenate us, reawakening the thinner being within. If you have been reading along, you
will know that I consider this time of year the second most opportune time to lose weight! Let's take advantage of the collective
September energy to get back on board (or keep going for some of you summer stars!). I promise that you will
find the going so much easier for the next couple of months. So, yeah for all of us! Labor day is over and has opened the door to
a whole new beginning! In
the "Tea Time" this week, I speak out about the entire "diet" mentality. Read on to learn why I do not believe in
dieting, and why. The "Did You Know?"
takes you on an exploration and breakdown of the two diet plans to which I most
object. I am also assuaging my guilt over
having directed you to cook up some probiotics a few weeks ago! This week I
tell you how to create a very easy and tasty meal! Have
a great week!
Berta
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Tea Time with Berta:
The Perpetual Diet I don't know why I cringe every time a new
"diet" comes to town and I have to listen to the excited chatter about the hot new "miracle meal." Just now, while sitting at my kitchen table, I heard
a discussion about whether or not the New Carb Diet really works? My stomach churns and my skins crawls! A few minutes ago, it was a whole question and
answer session on diet foods and how to get through a week. This was on the
evening news and the advice given made me want to scream STOP! Why does this type of programming evoke such an emotional response
from me? Probably because I know something that you might not know. That's not
completely accurate: I think deep down inside, you know it, too. What they're
selling or suggesting just doesn't work. It really doesn't! All of it is just a way to make you dream that there's an easy
route to something that in reality will
only come to you by eating properly and bringing everything into balance over
time. Boorrrrinnnggg! I hear
you, and I am with you, but that doesn't make it any less true. It's the reason people buy lottery tickets,
isn't it? Sure, every once in a while
you win a couple of bucks, but wouldn't you love to have back every dollar you've
ever spent on a lottery ticket? I could
probably retire today! And why do we fall for these types of easy fixes? Well, they're selling a dream, and they entice you to think that you might just be that one in a million who will win! In truth, someone does win, and you have all probably read stories about how most of those lucky
devils blow the dough in no time. Not all of
them, but most. Why? Is it possible that we have to earn the stuff of our dreams? Can we truly be thin and healthy,
wealthy and loved without putting any effort into it?
Just as it has seduced into believing that the winning the lottery will ensure our eternal happiness, the media has lured us into thinking that attaining our dream body-the body the media promotes-depends upon finding the "diet" that really works. That is why listening to the far-fetched claims surrounding the
latest "diets" drives me crazy. The promises of overnight success, and all the
other hooplah the publicists can whip up are designed to set up the readers for
failure. Sure, if you eat very few calories, their nutty plans will work...for a moment. But then, as always, life goes
back to normal, and you fall back into your accustomed way of eating, cooking, and preparing food. You can keep believing "them"
or you can take your life and future into your own hands and begin doing
something about it. The good news is that you can start right
now if you really want to own your life. Can you admit that you know what I'm saying is true? I have had a hard time this year writing about
weight loss because I never wanted to join the ranks of the "weight loss" charlatans. My method is not a gimmick, and my method
does not work in a minute and last a moment. My method teaches you to find yourself behind all the layers of lies
that you and I have told ourselves and those that others have provided for us. That's why hearing about another diet book or program-new or
old-makes me angry. I know that "they" are lying about what is true and what
isn't, and "they" are taking advantage of the consumers' vulnerability and
exploiting them for monetary gain. If
you are not prepared to follow the absurd plan these "experts" suggest for the rest of your days,
then not a single "diet" will work and you can be certain that you will gain
back every ounce you lose and probably more, to boot. To make matters
worse, some of these diets are positively dangerous to your long-term health. I'm not talking about the obviously silly
diets and diet pills that we might have all done in our younger years. Remember the grapefruit diet, the eggs and hot dog diet, and the quick-fix diet
pills that had us running on speed? I am talking about the plans that appear to
be based on solid scientific research because a doctor of some sort put his
name on it with the goal of making a buck. You see, whatever title someone
wants to put in front of her name, it doesn't mean her diet is safe or
healthy. It also doesn't make the plan work
for the long haul: no, they work for a moment and then they don't. I believe we can all learn, or relearn, how to eat properly
for the rest of our lives. We can learn that there is one way to eat-for everybody
and every body type and every health issue! There is really only one
way to eat, and whether you disagree or not, I stand by my postition. For instance, if a cow is to remain healthy, it must have
grass and water. Anything else will make it sick, and if you do nothing more than listen to the news, you know that it has. A lion drinks
water and eats meat: raw and generally fresh. That's it; anything else would make it sick. What would happen if fish ate something other
than fish and seaweed? Well, they would
probably get sick and die. This is
really quite simple. Look at the other animals around us: they eat what they
eat to stay healthy. Some have a tiny variety in their diets, but that is generally the exception.
So why are humans different? We're not! There is only one way for us to
eat, and if we eat differently, we will get sick, and we do. If we saw a lion in the wild that weighed
twice what the other lions weighed, wouldn't we wonder what had gone wrong? Certainly the animal
would look sick and would not be able to protect itself and would eventually
die. If we were to put the lion on a "diet," we
would tell him to go back to eating what he is supposed to eat, right? He
would have to get some exercise and start eating meat again, not hot fudge
sundaes, and certainly not low fat, omega rich, dark chocolate with artificial sweeteners.
No! he would go back to water and meat and exercise! Why do we persist in thinking we are the exception to this logical means of sustaining
life? And why do we look to the foods
that got us into trouble in the first place to get us out? Why do we still want to eat foods that our
bodies reject? Why do we
continue to eat foods that are killing us? We are supposed to be the most intelligent beings on this earth,
right? But still we believe that eating
processed, prepackaged, high sodium, reduced fat foods will make us
healthy. Is it any wonder that we are so
sick? And what sense does it make when
we become sick and scared and fat and panicked that we turn to "diets"
to bring us back to health? Absolutely none! That's the only answer I can come up
with. We have to start righting the wrongs we have done to our body. We do that by eating smaller portions of
healthier foods that are high in fiber, high in good fats and low in bad fats.
We do it by drinking water, lowering or eliminating sodium, eating more fruit
and veggies, choosing more fish and less meat. We do it by eating foods that the body doesn't reject. Do you realize
that breaking out in hives, secreting mucous, suffering from inflamed joints,
inflamed intestines, inflamed lungs, inflamed skin, and clogged arteries are
symptoms that the body is rejecting something you are putting into it? Forget about losing weight. Why not make it
your goal to just start eating the foods your body needs? Why not do it now
before you get too far down the wrong path to consider changing course? It's hard, but not unbearably hard; it's a
long road, but not terribly long; it's a bumpy journey, but not impossibly bumpy. Once you really start eating well, once you get on board, well...you have
already reached your goal. The rest is just a matter of time, and really not
that much time. How about it?
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Did you know...
that some of the diets out there are either dangerous, or
based on unfounded scientific claims? I would
like to break down a two of these in an effort to shed some light on the veracity of their claims.
I chose the two that have recently been getting attention. To be honest, I am
astonished that these books are still on the shelves. Please let me be clear, I am not against
"diet books" per se, it is just that some of them are truly hurting people, and
that infuriates me. There are plenty of
"diet" books out there that support healthy eating, but then again they
are "diet" books. And a diet is
something someone does for a short period of time to achieve a goal.
Afterward, almost all of the diets leave you hanging and wondering, "What do I do
now?" I believe in making healthy
changes that will support a healthy life. My plan allows the body to reclaim
the energy of youth, supporting it's nutritional needs so that you experience a
sense of actually growing younger, feeling your physical, mental, and emotional
load lightening every day. I believe
there is only one way to lose weight and to keep it off, and that's by making
changes in your lifestyle, not changing things for a few weeks around the
holidays. I would like to start with Dr. Atkins. More so than any other plan, I have recently
begun hearing many people speak about trying the Atkins Diet. That people would
want to use his method in 2010 always shocks me. Right from the start Dr. Atkins advises us
to eat a cheeseburger when hungry. He
also suggests that "[eating] rich foods...can be the [path] to weight loss." He promises we will see "amazing results in
14 days." His book has sold over six million copies. Now this number would seem
to suggest that everyone and her grandmother is on this plan, and that makes me
feel as if I am missing out on something. However, I tend to be wary when a
diet plan promises that I can eat whatever I want and that losing weight will
be very easy for the first time in my life. I get suspicious when I hear that
my weight will basically drop off without much effort. And, unfortunately, my
doubts are not unfounded, because, alas, not much of what he claims is actually
true. As you might know, Dr. Atkins' diet is based on the process
of ketosis. He actually says that "[ketosis]
is an indicator used at the Atkins
Center as a marker for
whether a person is staying on the diet....The Atkins diet is a lifelong
nutritional philosophy...The important thing is that you are in ketosis." So, by restricting your
caloric intake, you enter the state of ketosis. Yeah! Well, um, ketosis occurs when there is an problem with metabolizing fat. The same
thing occurs in diabetes and starvation. You see, in ketosis, the body begins to metabolize muscle tissue instead of fat. Atkins actually touts the weight loss advantages of this! Some say that if it brings about weight loss, then what's
the problem? The problem lies in what he
doesn't bother to tell you: the consequences of long-term ketosis are muscle breakdown,
nausea, dehydration, headaches, irritability, bad breath,
kidney problems, and increased risk of heart disease. He also doesn't bother to tell you that a
potential consequence of extended ketosis for diabetics is death, and for pregnant
women, fetal abnormality or death. The American Institute for Cancer Research cautioned
consumers considering trying the Atkins plan.
The Atkins diet can lead to the kind of rapid weight
fluctuations that adversely affect the heart. Moreover, the breakdown of fatty acids that occurs during ketosis may
also increase the risk of heart disease. One of the basic tents of Atkins' diet is that sugar causes cancer. Such misleading pronouncements are
essentially scare tactics, meant to direct the dieter towards foods on the
Atkins plan. Finally, nothing about this
plan encourages the dieter to learn some very basic weight management
strategies like portion control and serving sizes, let alone develop the skills
necessary for a lifetime of balanced nutrition.
This is a diet that consists largely of pork rinds and
sausage, not to mention bacon, pork, steak, seafood, eggs, butter, cream, and
artificial sweeteners. I hope I'm not
turning you guys on mentioning all of these foods, because even though the
Atkins diet will help you lose weight, for a moment, it is absolutely the best
diet you could imagine for promoting long-term obesity, heart disease, and some
forms of cancer. This type of diet will
ruin your health, and I honestly cannot believe that his books are still on the shelves. Furthermore, I am
astonished that so many people still find their way back to this way of eating.
! Let's move on to the next diet book that gets a lot of
attention. In Eat Right for Your Type, Peter J. D'Adamo suggests that there are
four different ideal diets: one for each blood type. If you follow the diet that is "right for
your blood type," you can lose weight, cure ear infections, fight off cancer,
heal yourself from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and much, much, more. He says that by "eating right for your type,"
you will be eating like your prehistoric ancestors. Now this sounds good, and it's a very interesting read...but Dr. Stephen Bailey, a nutritional anthropologist at the Tufts University Health
and Nutrition Center, says that D'Adamo has his blood
typing all wrong.
It's a fallacy even to speak of 'original' type O's or
'original' type A's because blood types did not originate with humans. They came on the biologic scene long before
humans did. Furthermore, there is no
anthropologic evidence whatsoever that all prehistoric people with a particular
blood type ate the same diet.
Simply put, D'Adamo says that if you are of blood type A,
then you should follow a mostly vegetarian diet and to eat plenty of snails. If
you are of type O then you should eat a mostly red meat diet. Type Bs, should eat plenty of dairy products,
in addition to plenty of rabbit, lamb, and mutton. And the ABs, should avoid corn, peppers,
olives, sunflowers seeds, sesame seeds, and lima beans, but should eat jam,
jellies, rabbit and turkey. Many people have lost weight
on his diet; again, all diets actually do work for short-term weight loss. However, the reason people lose weight isn't
actually because of the specific diet, but because they are all low in
calories, sometimes as low as 1,000 calories in a given day. Let me finish by quoting the Department at the Harvard
School of Public Health.
Eating Right For Your Type is not only one of the most
preposterous books on the market, but also one of the most frightening. It contains just enough scientific sounding
nonsense, carefully woven into a complex theory, to actually seem convincing to
the uninitiated...D'Adamo has pieced together the outrageous hypothesis that
blood type determines which foods an individual should or should not eat...This
outrageous theory is nothing short of sheer nonsense. Were there any truth in it, it's reasonable
to hypothesize that the human race would have died out centuries ago.
I couldn't have said it better myself! Some of the information in this weeks Did You Know? came from The
Food Revolution, by John Robbins.
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My favorite things to eat!
Watercress Vichyssoise serves 6 to 8, can be served hot or cold
Today's e-zine was really theme based, so I thought I would
add a few thoughts to help you see how my plan differs from the others. I hope that you will begin to purchase foods
of a better quality. I want you to opt for foods that are naturally lower in
bad fats and higher in good fats. Then choose foods that are high in fiber and
loaded with healthier choice proteins. Don't do this because you are on a
"diet"; do it because these foods taste great, and they are going to help your
body and mind come into a place of balance and peace. Before you know it, you
will see that simple day-to-day choices of healthier foods and smaller portions
will bring you to that place you had only imagined. Never again will you need
to hope and pray that the latest "diet" will deliver on its false claims. When all is said and done, good food and moderate portions will get you where you
want to be and bring you into the state of
balance that will enable you to maintain your healthy body and weight
forever. Enjoy. What you will need: 1 cup coarsely
chopped onion 4 leeks,
thoroughly washed � cup olive
oil 1 clove garlic,
crushed 4 cups potatoes,
peeled and sliced � tsp. sea salt 4 cups water 1 bunch watercress,
chopped coarsely 1 � cups (organic
low fat) milk A few snipped scallions or chives What to do: Coarsely chop onions to measure 1 cup. Slice washed leeks lengthwise, thinly. Pour the olive oil into a pot. Add garlic, onions and leeks. Saut� over low heat until very tender. Add potatoes, peeled and sliced, salt and 2 � cups of
water. Cover and simmer until potatoes
are almost done. Remove thickest stems from a bunch watercress, chop
coarsely, reserving a few sprigs. Set
aside. Add milk and 1 � cups of water to soup and bring to a
boil. Add watercress and cook one minute
longer. Puree in food processor or
blender. Serve hot or cold, garnished with reserved cress sprigs and
snipped scallions or chives.
Bon Appetite!!
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If you can say Yes! I am ready to get started! this is the link to the blog page that will explain how to go about doing it. You don't have to read it all in one sitting! Please take your time, absorb my words, and when you fully understand where I intend to take you, read on. The journey we will take together might be a long one, but it promises to be unforgettable. The first step is committing to yourself. From there, you will begin the work of finally identifying why you are where you are, and how you got there. The moment you can honestly own your personal truth, you will have reached your goal. The rest is simply a matter of time. Enjoy the ride! |
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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P.O. Box 1292
Stratford, CT 06615 USA
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sentence with it: Weight loss expert Berta Prevosti publishes the free weekly e-zine Just Lose It with Berta,
to support, inspire and educate women to reach their weight loss goals. 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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