Can Ancient Wisdom Help You Lose Weight?

By Kathleen Boucher

The weight loss industry is a billion dollar business. People want to look and feel slim, fit and young. They crave seemingly instantaneous results. Again and again, many dieters experience a roller coaster trend of losing weight, gaining it all back, plus a few extra pounds. In frustration, they search for the next best diet.

Is there a simpler solution?

Have you ever heard of Maimonides? He is known also by his name Moses ben Maimon (1135-1204). He wrote prolifically on theology, law, philosophy, medicine, astronomy and mathematics.

"If you follow the ways we have set forth, I will guarantee that you will not get sick throughout your life... Your body will be in perfect shape and remain healthy all your life."-Maimonide

This is rather a bold statement. Is there any truth to it?

Here is a short overview of what is written in The 5 Skinny Habits�.

1. Listen to your body: An experiment with 3 year-olds showed that they stopped eating when they were full. A 5-year-old group kept eating even after they felted satiated. The premise is that as children we learn to "clean" our plates.

2. There are two primary principles:
• Don't over eat
• Exercise at the right pace

3. Changing your habits all at once results in illness-Maimonides

4. The book recommends making one habit change per week. For example on week one you eat a light meal. It can either be fruit, vegetables or two eggs and 1 slice of bread. You can have different kinds of fruit and combine them. If you decide to have vegetables for your light meal you may choose to make soup or salad.

5. Week two you make one meal a protein and veggie meal while maintaining a light meal, in week one.

6. Week three you add a protein + veggie + a carbohydrate at one meal. If you are still hungry then you have a second helping of veggies. You continue what you have done in the first two weeks.

7. Week four is when you add exercise. The goal is ten minutes of exercise at least three times a week. If you already have an exercise program then you continue with what you are doing. For those of us who don't exercise then ten minutes three times a week is a good starting point.

8. Week five is substitution method. I will leave it up to you to decide if you want to look into this further.

Bibliography:

1. The 5 Skinny Habits, How Ancient Wisdom Can Help You Lose Weight and Change Your Life FOREVER by David Zulberg, � 2014 by Skinny Habits, LLC, ISBN-13::978-1-62336-372-7 hardcover

Kathleen Boucher, Certified lifestyle coach, Certified neuro-coach, Certified Stress & Wellness Consultant, http://www.kbouchercoaching.com, Life is busy. We all want to be the best we can be, healthy, fit and energized! Great information should be shared. Enjoy!