I put on weight over the winter, and I was feeling unhappy about the roll around my waist. I prayed, saying I didn’t want to repeat the low-fat diet that I’d used, years earlier, to lose 40 pounds
I asked God if there was a more balanced way to lose weight, and the next day, while browsing in a bookstore, I found a book called Eat to Live, by Joel Fuhrman, M.D. I was intrigued that Fuhrman is an athlete, a former world-class figure skater, and I bought the book and began the diet. (See www.drfuhrman.com.)
Eat to Live is carefully researched. Fuhrman documents his claims meticulously, with references to solid scientific studies. Yet the basic concept of the diet is extremely simple: hunger ceases when we give the body an ample supply of the nutrients it needs, plus bulk. Thus, eating huge salads, tons of fruit, plus steamed vegetables, and moderate quantities of beans, grains, and nuts is a healthy, easy way to reduce calories without feeling hungry. As I began the diet, I found that Fuhrman’s claims were true. Eating delicious salads and meals of cooked vegetables and beans, plus lots of fruit, I never felt hungry, even as the pounds melted away. On the old, low-fat diet, it had taken me six months to lose 40 pounds, but with Eat to Live, I lost 20 pounds in the first month.
My personal motto being “Everything to excess, nothing in moderation,” I decided that if I cut out all starchy carbs and fats, I could lose weight faster, so I eliminated grains, starchy vegetables, and nuts from my diet – and straightaway, I began to feel awful.
I was running three times a week: 10-12 miles twice during the week and 15 miles on Sunday, and my runs immediately turned into death marches.
After six terrible weeks, I prayed for guidance. But, to be honest, I was cheating, because I was praying with half my mind, while with the other half I was stubbornly determined to continue avoiding starchy carbs and lose weight fast – and I didn’t consider that to be a problem.
Meanwhile, I was running at greatly reduced speeds, with feelings of dizziness, mental exhaustion, and dampened spirits. I tried eating more protein, vitamins, and fruit, and in a final desperate concession, I began eating a few nuts. But nothing worked.
In my experience, God seldom lays out our answers for us on a silver platter, simply because we do Him the great honor of praying. In fact, He’s much more likely to defer the answers until we find the inner humility and openness to receive His guidance and act upon it – and thereby deepen our relationship with Him. Thus, God let me fiddle with my diet until I was finally ready to abandon resistance and open my heart.
The last run was on a lovely trail by San Francisco Bay. At this point, I was so tired that I could barely jog. I felt like a frail old man.
I ran along a levee that extends far out into the Bay, to a remote place where people rarely come. Hundreds of shorebirds were squawking and diving overhead, catching a meal at the mouth of Stevens Creek. I stopped to rest and savor the purity of my surroundings.
On the way out, while shuffling along, old-man fashion, I had felt a surprising amount of joy. I had insisted on losing weight my way, and I had lost the battle, but now I felt free, and very still inside. I was running with a feeling of being wholly in the moment, restfully watching the purple hills across the Bay, the birds chattering on a nearby island, and a pair of geese resting in a weedy outcrop by the trail. I could think of nothing to worry about; I was immersed in a mood of simple – if exhausted – being.
I turned back, still in that peaceful state, sensing that I was very near to finding an answer. I told God that I was serious about wanting to do the right thing – that I would abandon the diet, if necessary. I was fully humbled, reduced to impartiality. What could I lose? My heart was nonattached, quiet, neutralized; my mind was calm, cheerful and receptive.
I thought, “I’m giving my body everything it needs–protein, vitamins, healthy fats, and fiber. The only thing I haven’t tried is starchy carbs.” I’d been eating tons of fruit, but it clearly wasn’t giving my body enough energy. After all, it takes 16 oranges to replenish the calories burned in a single 10-mile run. As this thought entered my mind, it was accompanied by a lightness and clarity and resonance that made me feel intuitively that it was the right answer.
When I got home, I cooked a rice pilaf and mixed it with steamed veggies and beans, then lay on the bed, watching a video and enjoying a meal that seemed prepared in heaven. It was deeply satisfying, and I knew with complete certainty that it was the answer. Within 30 minutes, I was feeling my old self again, the healthy, happy runner I had been six weeks before.
Why must it always be so hard? Perhaps because the lessons we learn through pain are driven deep into our cells. In fact, I learned a lesson that was far more valuable than my body’s need for starchy carbs. I learned something priceless about the process of learning. I learned that it is only my own desires that prevent me from receiving the help that a higher guidance is always eager to give.
I can’t resist sharing a delicious salad dressing that I invented during the first six weeks of the Eat to Live Diet.
Peel two organic Valencia oranges.
Grind two handfuls of organic almonds. Or use raw almond butter (cheap at Trader Joe’s).
Put oranges and almonds in a blender with a little water.
Add a dash of Bragg’s Liquid Aminos (to taste).
Add a dab of stone-ground organic mustard (optional, to taste).
Add the dressing to a salad made from two large heads of finely chopped organic romaine, plus any other ingredients you like: avocado, olives, artichoke hearts, garbanzos, beans, shredded carrot, chopped celery, onions, etc.
Substitute any other nuts for the almonds – try walnuts, tahini, etc. Or use avocado instead of nuts. You can make a second meal with any extra salad by adding it to leftovers from a cooked meal, such as a mixture of beans, rice and steamed greens.
