Making the Transition to Health

Making the transition to a healthy lifestyle is a significant accomplishment. It typically involves sweeping changes in our daily diet and level of activity. Often we have to overcome seemingly relentless cravings for a variety of food and drink that we know is harmful. We may need to train ourselves to watch less TV, reduce our “couch potato” time and (worst of all) get out of bed early to exercise.
Making the transition involves learning to attend to things we never paid attention to before. I now find myself reading every food product label. I ask waiters for the content of drinks, foods and sauces. I am learning the ill effects of over-processed foods, sugar, hydrogenated oils, etc…I’m changing the way I shop and where I eat out. I’m learning what is essential in my diet, and how my body responds to various amounts of proteins, carbs, fats, supplements, water, sun light, rest, etc…!
When I hear of someone successfully making the transition to healthier ways of being, I tend to become curious about why s/he went through all the effort. I also want to know what the benefits of the transition were.
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Nira Schneider, a local consultant in vegan and raw food nutrition, and discovered an interesting story. Whether or not Nira’s transition mirrors in detail the healthy transition you might need to make, I think you will find it inspiring nonetheless. It’s obvious from what Nira has to say that the rewards of a healthy lifestyle go far beyond simply losing weight.

Healthy Times: Nira, what prompted your desire to change your lifestyle?

Nira: Initially, I just wanted to lose weight and thought that following a vegan diet might help. But suddenly - while I was in the program - I noticed that other symptoms society considers “normal” for a person my age, began to improve dramatically. Symptoms like: fatigue, back pain, muscle cramps, stiffness, pre-menstrual symptoms, dry skin, allergies, and gum disease.

I also started feeling more relaxed. I began to take things “in-stride” that previously gave me a lot of anxiety. The quality of my sleep improved. I had much as much energy as I had when I was twenty years old. I began to feel such a deep desire to live a full and happy life.

Healthy Times: What did you do? What are the primary changes you made?

Nira: I followed a holistic program that includes exercise, meditation, techniques for developing positive thoughts, techniques to control food cravings and “social eating” and techniques for personal development.

My diet consists of whole grains, bean, legumes, nuts, seeds, fruits and vegetables and more. This may seem like not much food to choose from, but there are hundreds and thousands of gourmet recipes we can use. I find it easy to follow and rarely lack food choices no matter where I go.

80% of my diet is raw food and fresh juices. I don’t think this percentage is right for everyone, though. Others do better on less raw food. It varies from person to person. But it is very important for most people to increase raw food intake due to the enzymes that cannot be found in cooked foods.

Healthy Times: Where did you get the strength or discipline to stick with this program?

Nira: I found that the program itself gave me the power I needed to be consistent. I found myself wanting to stick with it because of how much better I felt. The strength to succeed comes as part of the process. This is a very important point for anyone contemplating getting started.

Healthy Times: What are the results of your efforts?

Nira: The results are so dramatic! First of all, all of the symptoms I mentioned either completely went away or reduced dramatically without the need of medication. That is a true miracle to me.
Spiritually, my awareness and sense of connection has increased incredibly. I have begun to ask myself questions such as “What is my purpose? Why am I here? Am I in the place I am supposed to be? Am I living in harmony with nature? Where does everything lead?” Searching for the answers to questions like these has added meaning and purpose to my life.
Three years after adopting this new lifestyle, I found myself, at the age of 51, leaving a job that I had spent many years at (which gave me a decent income) and becoming a student again. I have now achieved my Masters Degree in a topic that I love dearly.
I could never have done this without the new confidence in myself that came from the healthy lifestyle. I feel stronger and more capable than ever.
Today, I consider myself more at peace with my life and occupation, more aware of my true needs, more grounded, sensitive, open and thankful for what I have. And it gives me great joy to introduce people to this new way of life.

Healthy Times: What are your plans for the future?

Nira: I just moved into the Temecula Valley from San Diego. My plans are to continue coaching people who are health conscious and desire to live a higher quality, healthy and happy life.

Take Control Of Your Weight

Many of us are experiencing the cycle of gaining and losing weight. Usually, our tendency is to blame the circumstances. Some of the excuses may be: “this is my body type”, “in my age it's very difficult”, “my schedule is very demanding” etc. However, we all have the ability to understand and to control the fluctuations in gaining and losing weight. With determination, patience and discipline we can control our weight. That will happen when we learn to choose food according to its full nutritional value.
Not all calories are alike. A fat calorie is not the same as calorie from protein or carbohydrate, either in the number of calories or in the way it is metabolized by the body. Fat has over twice as many calories as either protein or carbohydrate. In addition, the body easily converts dietary fat calories into fat. One hundred fat calories can be stored as body fat by expending only 2.5 calories, whereas the body must spend twenty-three calories - almost ten times as much - to convert one hundred calories of dietary protein or carbohydrate into body fat.
Only about 1 percent of dietary protein and carbohydrate end up as body fat, because the body would rather use them up right away than waste energy to store them. So, by keeping fat consumption low, the body would consume fewer calories, and also those calories would be less likely to be converted into body fat.
The body only needs about 4 to 6 percent of calories as fat to synthesize the essential fatty acids. Hence, a diet with 10 percent fat can provide more than enough fat without getting more than the body needs. It is the excessive amounts of fat and cholesterol in the diet that lead to excess weight, heart disease, and other illnesses.
The fat cells grow larger when one keeps overeating. The cells begin forming new fat cells and then the person gains weight. The size of the fat cells may decrease when restricting food intake for a while, but the number does not. That explains why it becomes harder to lose weight each time one goes through a diet cycle (losing weight and regaining it). When a person first loses weight by restricting the amount of food he eats, he loses both muscle and fat tissue. But when he gains weight back, he regains proportionately more fat than he lost.
Because of homeostasis, (the body's tendency for equilibrium) the body tries to maintain its weight even when the person goes on a calorie–restricted diet. As the body starts loosing weight, it tries to compensate on the supply side by increasing the appetite to make the person eat more calories and on the demand side by causing the metabolic rate to drop. When the metabolic rate is lowered, calories are burnt more slowly. Because of this, even when the person stays on a calorie – restricted diet, he may stop losing weight. Eventually, even if the person eats less the weight stays the same. Worse still, since repeated dieting leads to greater and greater lowering of the metabolic rate, when a person gets tired of feeling hungry and goes off the diet, he may gain back even more than he lost- even if he will eat the same amount of food as he did before starting the diet.
Being overweight is primarily due to how much fat the person eats. Most of the fat comes from animals. Foods from animals are very high in fat, cholesterol, and in saturated fat, very low in complex carbohydrate, and very low in fiber.
When the diet includes low fat, high fiber, complex carbohydrate, whole grains and vegetables something new happens. The metabolism stays the same or even increases, so the person burns off calories more quickly. The energy level increases. The person can eat the same amount of food or even more, yet consume fewer calories. In addition to having an increased metabolic rate, the person might feel full before consuming too many calories. This diet is high on fiber, which slows down the absorption of food, so the feeling of fullness stays longer than when eating small portions on a calorie restricted diet. And since these foods are high both in fiber and in complex carbohydrates, the blood sugar level remains more stable, helping to give a greater sense of equanimity and well – being.
Complex carbohydrates are starches in their natural unrefined form, such as potatoes, brown rice, whole wheat bread, vegetables and so on are low in calories, high in fiber, and they are bulky, so the person fills up before eating too much. Also they send a biochemical signal to the brain that the person had enough to eat. When you eat fat on the other hand, it is very easy to consume too many calories before you feel full.