In my previous post, I talked most about the importance of a properly combined meal as to how it relates to accelerated weight loss. Today I am going to cover something that is so controversial regarding the calorie counting theory and how that idea is doomed to failure from it’s inception. Anybody that tells you that fruits are high in calories and you shouldn’t eat too much of them has not really gone beyond the traditional way of thinking into a territory of the unlikely embraced principles of detox weight loss programs based on the cleansing power of fruits themselves irrespective of their high energy-giving calories in this high energy diet. What I am going delve into deeply is the demystification of fruit calories to calm people’s fears of rapid weight gain.
Remember I said previously that you can eat as much fruit as you want in the morning on an empty stomach leading up to lunch time? Most people will say to me that fruits are not filling and they will get hungry very fast. My answer to them is continue to eat enough fruits until you are satiated given the satiating power of fruits. Don’t eat to be full. The perfect rule of thumb taken from Fruit Detox guru Harvey Diamond is NEVER OVEREAT FRUIT and NEVER UNDER EAT FRUIT. And believe me, when he says don’t overeat, I know what he means. You will learn how to overcome overeating easily as you follow this program.
I remember once making the mistake of stuffing myself in one sitting of eight fruits consisting of 1 orange, a pear, 2 peaches, a grapefruit, one apple, and two bananas early in the morning. The reason for that is because I didn’t want to face the inconvenience of carrying those fruits with me on the road. The thought of me carrying a bag of fruits was embarrassing in itself. I remembered people asking me were those a week’s worth of groceries. What am I supposed to them? No, there for an entire morning’s consumption which would make me look like a extreme nut case, and not a health nut. Even avid health nuts don’t take fruit consumption to the extreme like I do.
Getting back to what happened as a result of stuffing my face with 8 fruits in one sitting resulting in stomach cramps and frequent trips to the you know what. In a way, I thought that was a faster way of detoxifying your body. But really, I was detoxifying way too fast and if I continued on that path, I would have been incredibly frail. My father the herbalist told me that detoxification has to be taken in steps. And given the cooling nature of fruits, it can extinguish your digestive fire.
I know you are wondering what the heck am I talking about? Digestive fire? Digestive fire is a term in traditional Chinese medicine to describe the temperature of your digestive system and how an excessive Yin condition as opposed to Yang can weaken your immune function. You have probably heard of yin and yang, but you don’t know how it applies to foods. Yang stands for heat, and Yin stands for the coldness. I will give you an example. Meats are considered yang foods given their warm nature. And fruits and vegetables are considered yin foods due to their cold nature.
I know most of you are thinking that fruits are not cold unless you refrigerate them, right? No, not exactly. From a Chinese medicine standpoint, they are categorized as a cold food which is designed to offset the warming nature of foods like meats, toast, baked goods and etc. Our bodies are constantly striving to maintain a balance of Yang and Yin. Have you ever noticed that your eyes are red and you have sore gums occasionally? That is a result of eating way too many warming foods and not enough cold foods like vegetables to offset the internal heat in your system resulting from overconsumption of warm foods. Acne, skin problems, excessively oily skin, dry skin, bad breath symptoms, digestive disorders, headaches, inflammation syndrome, anger, constipation, stomach problems, are symptoms of excessive Yang in your body. And that was the type of condition I had a long time ago as a result of eating way too many fried foods and chow mein and not enough vegetables and fruits which had made me a victim of acne. I was a victim of excessive Yang symptoms. My sister on the other hand is a victim of excessive Yin because she loves to eat salads all day and hardly any warming foods like meats.
Since this post is about the demystification of the calories in fruits, I will talk more about the Yin and Yang in future posts. I am just giving you the tip of the ice burg of more weight loss secrets to be disclosed based on the implementation of the Yin and Yang principle of a proper diet to follow in the upcoming posts.
Getting back to the point of eating fruits in one heavy sitting was an extreme form of detoxification that is so brutal to most people but not to me. But eventually I put a stop to it thanks to my dad, and took on the Fruit till noon approach which is eating as many fruits as you desire but only do so when you feel hungry or thirsty. Since fruits stay in your stomach a half hour, eating a fruit every half hour is not overwhelming compared to the extreme self-torturing example I have given above. And what I noticed that eating green apples, especially Granny Smith ones, is a better natural appetite suppressant than most fruits. Eating fruits is an experimental process. You just to have to find what kind of fruit combinations are right for you.
I know of a lady friend of mine who eats fruit salads every morning ever since I told her of the weight loss benefits of the Fruit Till Noon approach. That is a great way to get your daily assortment of fruits in one morning. Now she has her kids adopting that approach. She would prepare her kids a bowl of fruit salad before she sends them off to school. She told me that instead of having her kids drink milk in the morning, they do it in the afternoon so they could benefit from the fruit nutrition that they really need in the morning. Nothing makes me happier and prouder than seeing friends of mine adopting this principle of correct fruit consumption and taking it a step further by instilling those values in their children.
Regardless of how many fruits you eat in the morning, you shouldn’t be worried about counting calories. All weight loss experts and personal trainers will tell you what they learned in class. Energy in equals energy out. I know that theory just stinks like rotten eggs. And I will prove it to you.
I used to be a Certified Personal Fitness Trainer at 24 Hour fitness back in 1997-2000, and I have taken the courses and I discovered what was taught in nutrition class conflicts with the principles of detoxification. At that time when I was a personal trainer, colon cleansing or any topic of detoxification was incredibly foreign. No one knew about it or at least talked about it. Did you see Klee Irwin on TV infomercials at that time talking about the graphic nature of a healthy bowel movement? This was back in 1997.
At that time, people were focused on weight loss through cutting calories, increasing protein intake, and increasing the frequency and intensity of your workouts. What personal trainers fail to address is that everyone’s body is different. And they cannot explain how a person like me who can eat like a pig and never gain a single pound, compared to an overweight person who barely eats and continues to struggle with weight loss. Everyone’s metabolism is different based on either the nature of their body chemistry or the gradual intensity of their workout routines. Now you are probably wondering how can an overweight person eat fruit all morning without gaining weight since fruits are quote-end-quote “HIGH IN CALORIES”.
To put it in a nut shell, fruits, like I have said before, do not require digestion. One Granny Smith Apple contains about 80 calories. A peach contains about pretty much the same. Every calorie counting book you read shows variations in the numbers. The point being is that an average fruit is about close to a 100 calories. Bananas maybe a little more. But the point I want to reiterate again is fruits are easier to digest than an Egg McMuffin with hash browns. In other words, I rather eat 8 fruits in one morning which combine to a total of about almost 800 calories instead eating a fatty meal of bacon and hash browns consisting about the same amount of calories which will stay and rot in your stomach for about 8 hours leaving you feeling sluggish and groggy. And you already know that sluggishness leads to weight gain.
I am not a scientist or statistician and I find quantifying the energy value of food in terms of calories is ridiculous in itself when it comes to applying it to your weight loss programs.
I know what the diabetics are going to say. I cannot eat fruits. My answer to them is yes you can. Just stay away from the bananas, and focus on fruits that are low in the glycemic index like Granny Smith apples. Fruit detoxification principles do not discriminate against overweight people or anyone who claims they are allergic to fruit. Fruit consumption is a habit you should develop gradually and it will take a lot of getting used to. I make it a part of my daily morning routine. As I am typing this post, I just finished my fourth Granny Smith Apple at 10:25 Pacific Time to be exact.
Fruits are designed to heal your body if you consume them correctly. The diseases that most people are afflicted with today are result of poor food choices. Too much processed foods. Cookies, Cakes, breads, meats, hot dogs, potato chips, and you name it. The body can only get to a certain point where it cannot handle the toxic overload of what I call junk food. Now do you see why people complain about headaches and other ailments especially weight gain?
Now do yourself a favor, and throw away all those latest updated calorie counting books that come out every frickin’ year. Or at least rip out the calorie counting section for the fruits. Enjoy proper food consumption without having to stress out any more because you forgot to put your calorie-counting calculator in your purse or pocket.
In the next post, I will talk more in greater detail of the principles of proper food combining as it relates to detox weight loss programs.
Billy Loi
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