Mitchell J. Rabin, M.A., L.AC.

What’s next? You could say.  Whoever heard of such a thing?  No doubt it’ll be called “The Love Diet”.  Some will immediately wonder just what would be on the menu.  Interesting and inspiring as that wondering may be, that’s not the main point here, disappointing to some; but rather how love, romantic and universal,  and developing the deeper experience of it can assist in weight management and indeed, both common sense and research indicates that it does.   Those for whom weight management is an issue have no doubt tried just about everything—dietary changes, exercise regimens, lifestyle alterations of all sorts, pranayama breathing exercises and hatha yoga, but when was the last time that your health professional or nutritionist recommended more love? That’s exactly what I’m recommending here, several forms of love no less, and why.  If you’re already smiling or laughing, even smirking, it’s already beginning to work.

What Happens in the Experience of Laughter, Joy, Smiling & Love & Their Opposites

What we’re really looking at is the powerful emotion, or if you’d prefer to call it, impassioned experience, or spiritual attitude, of love has, like every other emotion, a neuro-physiological correlate.  As we know from research, laughter and smiling are good medicine (see Norman Cousens, for one), the experience of happiness and overall well-being, a perfect parallel.  The reason is that typical chemicals release during a stressful experience, which, in some degree, we’re most all in more time during the day than any of us would ever like to know or admit, are adrenalin and cortisol.  The release of these into the bloodstream, actually a daily, if not hourly occurrence depending on where we live, the nature of our work, family life, dynamics of our relationships, is, if minimum, close to routine.  Our bodies, as a result, are worn down, if gradually, by these natural, yet chemical toxins.  Excellent at a time of necessity such as a life-threatening event or climactic sporting event say, but as a routine, it is costly.  This is going on, we’ll just say, a fair amount.  It can lead in fact to chronic fatigue, insomnia, migraines and weight problems.  For a taste  more of this, read why your fatigued adrenals need extra support.

Nothing like a little bit of Love, or a lot?

So instead, let’s consider the opposite experience.   This is one thing I don’t think we can overdose on. This is the experience of ease (instead of “dis-ease”), of joy, happiness, pleasure and love.  Well, we see a cascade of correlating chemicals alright, but they’re the ones it appears that the body-mind enjoys and revels in.  They are endorphins and happy hormones, among which is the love-and-cuddle hormone, Oxytocin.  Now we’re talking!  In fact, when we are relaxed, our cells are relaxed.  After all, what are we, besides consciousness, on the physical level, we are a community of cells.  What we are, they are or become.  The work of cellular biologist, Dr. Bruce Lipton, in his seminal work,  The Biology of Belief, we see that relationship, and the work of epigenetics, outlined for us, a domain which shows us how our thoughts, feelings and beliefs are acting upon and influencing our cellular activity, creating health or illness, expansion and fluidity, or contraction and stagnation.

Let’s Make Love, Balance our Hormones & Our Weight!

Where we end up in a practical way here is that the more we love, from our lover to our parents, to our pet or the universal love of all life and humanity, the experience of this opens the flow of our circulation, releases the most fun of chemicals into the bloodstream and rather than toxifying our system, our inner flow is awash with pleasure-inducing bio-electricity and bio-chemistry.  This is turn allows for more efficient metabolic function, which means, among other things, better digestion, elimination, cellular and organic, and the use of food instead of the storage of food.

Eat, Sleep, Drink & Pray Moderately, While Making Love Abundantly

Does it matter what food we eat?  Of course it does, and the article about the 13 Rules of Diet discusses this thoroughly.  Does it matter what our drinking, sleeping and exercise habits are?  You bet it does!  Success  is a confluence of all aspects of lifestyle and daily choices.  And now add loving.  Add cuddling, hugging, affection and yes, love-making.

Other than the increased efficiency of the body/cell life that occurs through relaxation and alpha states with a coherent mind/brain from such things as meditation, Chi-Kung, T’ai-Chi Chuan, yoga and experiencing states of love so that Oxytocin is released and all the other happy bio-chemistry, the real basis of success here, when our sense of well-being is buffed with these experiences, all a form by the way, in my world view, of love, our minds are tuned to life as “a happening” itself, as a juicy flow of life-force.  The interest in snacking, sweets, eating in an imbalanced way, virtually vanishes.  So, rather effortlessly, habits are modified.  The interest in further somatic self-expression is turbo-charged.  Dancing, running, jumping, the desire for movement altogether is increased.  Your body yearns to express (literally “to press out”) the good feeling of love and well, share it with the world.  I believe, and have found, that this is our nature.

Well-being is realized through the amount of deep relaxation that occurs when we allow ourselves to experience the depth of love.  Both research and self-observation has indicated that the experience of love, of touch, of cuddling, has shown rather concretely, not insignificant results in weight loss (http://www.cuddleparty.com/articles/weightloss.cfm)

If You Were God, What Would You Do?

If you were in charge of designing humans, wouldn’t you make what was as joyous as loving, and delicious as love-making something extremely healthy?  Well, guess what?  It is!  And not only does our good sense and intuition tell us that, but science does too.  What might seem short in research in this area, which is still abundant, we can infer much from the research of the opposite: the effect of stress on metabolism, organic function, sex drive and weight management.  It’s not pretty.  We can flip to the opposite and the story changes radically: it’s very pretty.

The O-Experience

And to go further, while the crowning consummation of romantic love is love-making, and of that, the O-experience, Orgasmic Bliss (and all the movement to get there), the O-here stands for “OHHHH” as well as for “Oxytocin”.  Without question, the O-Experience is a big and dynamic one, and people may gain a new level of respect for that very wholesome all-embracing, awesome vowel.

Stress Interference & Inference: Building Toward the Weightlessness of Love

Looked at from another angle, one of the great assists in weight gain is stress increase.  Stress in the body tightens not just the muscles but the organs and the ligaments around the organs.  One burst of strong anger can wipe out a morning’s worth of high-quality Vitamin C and even wreak some damage to the liver.  One sudden experience of fear can do same.  During these emotional experiences, the last thing one is feeling is the exuberance and weightlessness of love.  Love relaxes, fear stresses.

What we know about what Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard Medical School referred to some 30 years ago as “the relaxation response” is a state of being in which blood circulation is easy and flowing, chi, as we call it in Mandarin also maintains its smooth flow through the meridians, breathe is gentle, rhythmic and flowing, and so of course, is metabolic function, the respiration, nourishment and excretion of the cells, all trillion or two of them in one human body.

Go with the flow

What happens when all systems so smoothly and naturally flow?  Well, I’ll say that “love happens”, an uprising, if you will, of well-being.  If someone you love is nearby or in your thoughts, Oxytocin levels, known often as ‘the love hormone’, also rises.  Endorphins are released through the brain and nervous system, and an overall sense of ease is ever –present.  It is actually, without exaggeration, a gentle, subtle form of bliss that permeates the nervous system.  When all systems are in this state of flow, all feels in harmony, because it is.  As a result, metabolic processes will often work optimally, unless there is something else to interfere with them.  If metabolic processes are uninterrupted, cellular digestion and excretion occur ‘in the flow’, and optimize burn, energy efficiency.

Expanding Love & Her Definitions

I am expanding the definition of love from our usual notion of romantic love, delicious as that is, to a larger, embracing sense of love, which occurs as a normal function of our nervous system, if not our chosen philosophical or spiritual outlook.  When we say “love heals”, we may want to understand that love is a natural state of mind, of brain, of nervous system.  It goes there naturally, but we interrupt it with our ‘own agenda’, our own business which often create soap operas in the middle of the exquisite experience of being in love with life itself.

The Psychological States of “Holding On” and “Letting Go”

Our stress levels send signals to the body-brain that there’s something to be alarmed about, and had better ‘hold on’ to whatever food you’ve got, because you may be needing it for a while.  This is one of the ways stress leads to weight gain.  Stress is certainly not a friend, until you make it a friend.  And the best way to manage such a relationship is by helping to dissolve such a friend, like the wicked witch of the west melting before your very eyes.

I explained how stress causes tightness, leads to the experiences of anxiety and fear, and biologically, we’re programmed then to “hold on” and this leads to fat accumulation.

Relaxing in the face of crisis, for instance, along with relaxing in the face of everything else, allows the body to digest both food and its experience, a point that cannot be emphasized enough.  When we digest both, we’re not holding on to anything, and can flow with the moment, and our metabolic rate is balanced and efficient.

Burning Calories Through Love-Making?  Have You A Better Way?

Of course love can figure in to weight management if you find yourself making love with your partner a lot.  Can you think of a better way to burn calories and increase muscle tone?  If so, please write to me right away and let me know.  To date, it’s certainly the most fun and delightful ways that I’ve known.  A regimen of that has helped me manage weight for some time.

Love of Self, Love of Life: Expanding Outward

But of course, I’m talking about something inclusive of, but also broader than that, and that’s the experience of a quality of life wherein one is simply joyous about being alive, and the love for life flows through one’s cells, and this relaxed, balanced perspective literally allows for an attitude of ‘letting go’.  So not only do you get the physiological, metabolic benefit of “the relaxation response”, but you get an attitude that promotes ease in interactions, ease with oneself, and a mind that is more sponge-like, more in alpha, and absorbing words you may say to yourself, such as “I am attaining my perfect weight, my body is healthy and responds to my every affirmation”, and the like.

The Quantum Leap into Love & Health at the Same Time

Not only does weight management occur naturally, but one’s love-quotient just grew by a quantum leap.  If one is married or in a relationship, the partner can only be enlivened by this kind of ‘exercise’.  And if one is single and looking, it can only make more people look at you! The quality of your life is enhanced , your weight isn’t being managed, or rather, mismanaged by the effect of stress, and all you are doing is increasing your experience and capacity for love.

The result of “The Love Diet” is better health all-round, weight reduction, and my God, the experience of what we all want, more love. Applying the points of this article to your life, will only make it brighter, happier and lighter.

Everywhere you turn with this Love Diet, you win.

By Mitchell J. Rabin, M.A., L.AC.

Copyright 2010 LifeHealthSecrets

1. Eat only real food: how much of what you eat comes from a box? If it’s processed, it’s probably no good for you. Real foods are the foods that you find in the fruit and vegetable aisle of your grocery store. Come in a box? Read the ingredients. If there are too many, or the names of the ingredients are unpronounceable, then don’t buy it. In doubt? Leave it. Fruits, vegetables, complex carbohydrates and lean proteins should be your diet. Don’t waste your money on processed foods that will only bog you down.

2. Eat whole grains: Whole grains are complex carbohydrates, which means they give you energy while keeping your blood sugar levels from spiking, so that you don’t crash and burn. They also provide fiber, and fiber fills you up and cleanses your insides out without adding extra calories. Fiber is your best friend if you’re trying to lose weight. But this doesn’t mean go out and buy a fiber supplement powder. Eating the actual food is the best way to go. Brown rice, quinoa, amaranth, teff, and spelt are all great sources of complex carbs and plenty of fiber, along with most fruits and veggies.

3. Make sure you’re eating enough good fats: in order for our bodies and cells to work properly, we need fats. The mistake so many dieters make is to try and cut out fat from their diets, which leads to junk food cravings – your body is trying to tell you something. In order to stop those cravings for unhealthy fats, you need to provide your body with the healthy kind. Without going into a long technical explanation, here’s what you should be incorporating into your diet: avocado, eggs, cold pressed flaxseed oil mixed into cottage cheese (this tastes so good, though you wouldn’t think so), salmon or other fish, pumpkin seeds, coconut milk, and cold-pressed olive oil over salads. The fats that you should avoid are basically anything that is deep-fried or in a processed food.

4. Cut out wheat, corn and soy: these foods are common allergens and can cause bloating, gas and/or indigestion and inflammation – sapping energy from your body, preventing you from absorbing vital nutrients and causing weight gain. Even if you’re not strictly allergic, these foods may still inflame the walls of your intestines, impede digestion and absorption of nutrients, and weaken your immune system. Food is supposed to give you energy and nourish you, not leave you feeling tired.

5. Get rid of all junk food in your house: out of sight, out of mind. This is perhaps the most important tip you will ever get. When you’re hungry, you will reach for the most convenient thing. If there’s no junk in your house, then you’ll be forced to reach for the healthy stuff. Picking up an apple when I’m hungry isn’t my first reaction either. When you’re shopping, have a list and stick to it. Don’t let junk food cross the threshold into your home. Stand firm on this one and weight loss will be thousands of times easier.

6. Eat at home or pack a lunch: After you’ve followed steps 1 through 5, eating at home or packing your own lunch becomes essential for weight loss. If you want to lose weight, the worst thing you can do is go to a restaurant on a regular basis: all those choices, all those desserts, the social eating atmosphere – it’s a dieter’s downfall for sure. If do you have to go on a regular basis, then inform yourself of the choices ahead of time and stick with the healthiest options. But packing a lunch only takes a bit of effort, and if there are no microwaves to heat things up where you work, then consider using a food thermos.

7. Don’t Starve Yourself: don’t stuff yourself till you feel sick, but starving yourself will accomplish nothing either. A healthy diet shouldn’t include going hungry – your body is trying to tell you it needs energy, once you look past its cries for chocolate and candy. Keep healthy snacks and meals on hand to keep you from feeling hungry. Brown rice and beans is a great option for a filling, non-fattening dish. Don’t deny your hunger, just make sure you’re filling up on healthy food. Aim for approximately 70% fullness each time you eat.

8. Get support from family and friends: the last thing you want is your husband digging into a bag of chips while you sit next to him munching on carrot sticks. If your spouse doesn’t want to get on board, then you need to have a serious (friendly) talk. Make sure your spouse knows how much you value his/her support and how important losing weight is to you. He/she needs to keep the junk food somewhere inaccessible to you, and you need to change your habits. Get out for a walk after dinner or read a book instead of watching TV, if that’s where and when the chips come out.

9. Go to sleep earlier: the later you stay up at night, the more potential time there is to snack. Also, for some reason, we have fewer inhibitions and less self-discipline at night, so if we snack, we choose items of less nutritional value. Getting to bed earlier, and keeping busy until bedtime, helps curb snacking. Also, an early bedtime means more sleep (you should be getting at least 8 hours a night in a dark room), which keeps you from feeling tired during your days – which prevents you from reaching for those high-sugar snacks. It also helps you deal with stress during the day because your body has had time to regenerate. And, who knows, if you get up a little earlier, maybe you’ll have time to squeeze in some morning yoga or other exercise before work.

10. Incorporate exercise into your day if possible: can you go for a walk during lunchtime? Can you bicycle to and from work? Even just walking the flight of stairs to the bathroom is a step in the right direction. While cardio exercise doesn’t induce weight loss directly, it does boost your mood, helps protect against many diseases and distracts you from eating.

11. Cleanse and revitalize your cells: cells are the building blocks of your body. Healthy cells functioning at their optimum levels means that your body and metabolism are running smoothly, which means you’ll have more energy to stay on your diet. If your cells aren’t running properly, it’s a lot harder to lose weight. Here’s a good article on cellular health.

12. Build muscle: the more muscle you have, the more fat you will burn – even when you’re not exercising! Numerous studies have been done (like this one http://jap.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/82/1/298) that show that increasing muscle mass will increase your average daily metabolic rate, which helps to burn more calories. You don’t have to bulk up like a bodybuilder, but pick up some free weights and get lifting.

13. Tap into the power of visualization: a friend once told me, the universe can’t give you what you want if you aren’t even clear on it. So clarify what it is that you want. Professional athletes use this technique all the time, as a sort of mental rehearsal for success. Close your eyes and visualize yourself as you would like to be. How will it feel to walk, to move at your ideal weight? How will you feel about yourself for having accomplished your goal? Now, visualize yourself working to achieve your goal. See yourself working hard, eating healthy, practicing the alternate solutions you’ve come up with for when you’re tempted to eat but aren’t hungry.

Weight Loss: Why Diet & Exercise Aren’t Enough

Visualize these things often, maybe just before you go to sleep at night.

Copyright 2010 Living-well.net