Back in 2001 I weighed more than 400 pounds.
I tried every diet I could think of to lose weight.
Every diet I tried ended up the same way.
There would be a whole list of foods I wasnt allowed to eat.
Id follow the diet to the letter.
Id lose a little weight through sheer brute force and willpower.
Then there would come an inevitable point when I couldnt take it anymore and Id have a huge binge.
What changed my journey
Then I had turning point.
On September 11, I narrowly missed being on UAL flight 93.
That experience left me feeling like I was living on borrowed time.
I decided to find out what I could do to get it to want to be thin again.
Over a two-and-half-year period I lost 220 pounds, without dieting.
Ive been the same weight now for over 10 years and I still dont diet.
I eat whatever I want, whenever I want.
These were the keys to my transformation:
1.
I stopped dieting and started nourishing my body.
I made sure I gave myself as much really high-quality nutrients as possible.
Eventually I lost my taste for all junk food as my body learned to prefer high-quality, nutrient-dense foods.
I healed my digestion.
Digestion problems can also cause inflammation and the inflammatory hormones put our bodies into fat storage mode.
I started eating lots of fermented and cultured foods, andtaking probioticsanddigestive enzymesin order to normalize my digestion.
I got a CPAP machine for my sleep apnea.
Sleep apnea is a condition that affects many overweight people.
Sleep apnea is easily treated with a CPAP machine.
From the moment I got the CPAP machine I started having more energy and less junk food cravings.
And the weight started to melt away for good.
I started using mind-body practices to reduce stress.
Just like sleep apnea, stress causes elevated levels of cortisol and inflammatory hormones.
These hormones lead to constant cravings and put your body into chronic fat storage mode.
Many people dont realize how important it is to learn how toreduce stress.
I beganmeditatingand visualizing every morning, which I found to be extremely effective for reducing stress.
I created a much more sustainable life.
My life felt much more sustainable and I felt calmer and more supported.
I worked through some important emotional issues.
Some people feel safer with extra weight on their body.
Its as if the body actually uses weight as a buffer from the world.
I call this emotional obesity.
I detoxified my body.
It turns out the body uses fat cells to store excess toxins.
I started living what I call a detoxifying lifestyle.
