Freeman Michaels video blog for FAVEDIETS.COM

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If you have read my book or my articles you know that I released over 70 pounds several years ago, and I have maintained my weight ever since. One of the main principles I teach in my program is never to deprive yourself. Much of the “depravation” feelings are irrational, so there must be an internal observer that can help address these feelings when they arise and make choices that honor the feelings. It is important to be strategic and intentional when making food choices, so that the choices remain healthy.

I LOVE burritos and pizza. So, I eat burritos and pizza. But, I eat them strategically. I eat every 2-3 hours (if you want tips on my metabolism boosting techniques click here).

I order a burrito for lunch from a local restaurant that has a fairly healthy version – still delicious. I cut the burrito in half – it helps to do this before the first bite. I put half away for later, and then I slowly eat the other half, enjoying every bite. When I am finished I always think about getting the other half – but I make a deal with myself, if I am still hungry in 20 minutes, I can have the other half (20 minutes is the time it takes for your brain to really register that it is full). I never eat the other half after I have waited 20 minutes. Then, 2-3 hours later, I heat up and enjoy the other half of that delicious burrito.

I also eat pizza once a week. I make my own pizza – I use a pizza dough from Trader Joes, make my own sauce and use a reduced fat mozzarella cheese (also from Trader Joe). I put delicious toppings on the pizza (mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, lean ham and pineapple – whatever I am in the mood for). My wife and I make a big delicious salad with healthy ingredients and a healthy dressing. I eat one or two pieces of pizza along with my salad – carefully switching between the two items. I eat slowly and consciously. If there are leftovers I look forward to having another slice in 2-3 hours (or the next day for lunch – again, with a nice big salad).

Special Report: The secret to boosting metabolism

Boosting your metabolism is the key to burning calories. The foods you eat and the way you eat profoundly influence your metabolism. Food is fuel and your body needs it – so you must learn to eat strategically to maximize the natural biochemical process your body goes through in turning food to energy.
Here are seven RULES for boosting metabolism.

1.You MUST eat. Do not eat less than 1,000 calories or your body will go into what is often referred to as “starvation mode”. In starvation mode your metabolism slows down. There is a built-in survival mechanism, where the body adjusts to the intake of fuel and begins to conserve energy (calories) when food is scarce.

2.Eat early: within 20-30 minutes of waking up in the morning, be sure to fuel your body. This “jump starts” your metabolism sending the message to your body that there is fuel to burn. Also be sure to drink at least one big glass of water in the morning to rehydrate your body and counteract the natural dehydration which occurs during the night.

3.Eat often: consciously fuel your body every 2-3 hours with small effective meals and snacks.

4.Eat effectively: protein and fiber are important fuel for your body. You body must work harder to break down foods that are high in protein and fiber. The added energy required to digest the protein and fiber elevates your metabolism.

5.Avoid empty calories: make your meals and snacks meaningful to your body. Give it the fuel it needs to run most effectively.

6.Reduce carbohydrate intake in the evening hours. Carbs get processed quickly because they are easy for the body to digest. Moderate carbohydrate consumption during the day is fine because your body needs the energy, but in the evening when your body doesn’t need the energy the excess will be stored as fat.

7.Drink plenty of WATER (not diet soda): the biochemical process of your metabolism will run faster if there is sufficient water in your diet.

Knowing how your body works is an important key to Weight Release. Following these simple tips will allow more of the calories you consume to be burned as energy rather than stored as fat in your body.
Do you want to receive other guidelines to Weight Release? Sign up here to receive Freeman’s FREE monthly special reports. Weight Release Special Reports

Freeman Michaels is America’s #1 weight release expert and coach. He is the author of Weight Release: A Liberating Journey. His groundbreaking program uses personal development principles to end the “diet cycle” and help people release weight forever.

I experienced my big breakthrough, when I was obese, by way of a simple question: “is that the story you want to tell?” I was mid-way through telling my story of why I was fat for the seemly millionth time when a college proposed this critical question. My immediate response was, “No”. I went on to say, “I am tired of telling that story”. It was time to tell a different story.

We all make up stories. Some are “tall tales” with very little factual basis. Others are supported with data and evidence. But very few of them are inherently true. They are true for us, sure, but the same circumstances may be interpreted quite differently by someone else.

If you have ever played the game “telephone” with a large group of people, you have seen this reality demonstrated. Whatever information began the chain will inevitably be different by the time it gets to the end of the line. Playing the telephone game, we usually laugh when we hear how different the final interpretation is from the original message. But the truth is that this same scenario played out in real life is no laughing matter. We have all heard distorted truths about an event in which we were involved. We have all felt the anger, confusion and frustration when the story being told is about us. We can often even feel bound and oppressed by the stories we tell about ourselves.

We tell stories to make sense of things. We want to hold on to an interpretation that helps us feel safe or acceptable. And we all seem to feel the need to recruit allies – other people willing to “buy in” to our story. The question is: Is the story that you are telling serving you?

Is the story that you are telling serving you?

Many times the story we have constructed about ourselves and others is not serving us. Our interpretation of past events is often defensive and inaccurate. An added challenge is the collective stories we feel obligated to defend. Families, groups and cultures have their own particular history. But “his-story” is just an agreed upon interpretation of past events.

Part of the liberation of my weight release process involves reinterpreting past events from a compassionate perspective and analyzing our interpretation to determine if the stories we are telling are really in our best interest. I find that most of us who struggle with weight carry the burden of stories that are not serving us. The interpretations of our experiences tend to involve a lot of shame, blame and guilt. With compassion we begin to unravel our perceptions and reinterpret our experience. We begin to forgive ourselves for the judgments that we have held against ourselves. As we release the story that we have been telling and learn to honor our experience our lives begin to change. Self-acceptance is the doorway to self-love. When we love ourselves it is much easier to make self-honoring choices around food. Weight release is a natural by-product of self-acceptance and self-love. We release weight when we let go of old stories that lock in our negative perception of ourselves.
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Freeman Michaels is America’s #1 weight release expert and coach. He is the author of Weight Release: A Liberating Journey. His groundbreaking program uses personal development principles to end the “diet cycle” and help people release weight forever.
Do you want to receive the first section of Freeman’s ground breaking new book Weight Release: A Liberating Journey for FREE? Sign up here: Weight Release

I normally don’t promote marketing stuff – I help people release weight. But I am so grateful for this service that I feel compelled to post about it. I am a member of this marketing association and it has made an incredible difference for my business. What these folks teach is so incredibly valuable that I had to put a link up on my blog page. I HIGHLY recommend this service.

How To Help An Obese Person – Compassion, Not Advice
By Freeman Michaels

When I was obese I saw myself in the mirror – I knew what was going on. I didn’t need people reminding me by putting diet books or nutrition articles in front of me – it wasn’t helpful. In fact, it really upset me. I felt fat and helpless – and I didn’t enjoy being constantly reminded of it. My wife was truly brilliant in the way that she approached the issue. Her empathy and compassion were what helped me through my fears and self-doubt to be able to truly address my weight. Now I have written a book, based on my own experience and process of releasing weight, called Weight Release: A Liberating Journey. My work is really helping people. But I am still often asked how a non-overweight person can broach this subject with family and friends who struggle with their weight. My short answer is “I don’t exactly know”. Obviously this is a very trick subject, so each person and situation is quite different. However, here are five things to keep in mind when guiding an overweight person towards material that might help them:

• Be Considerate: Approach the topic gently. Offer the person some indication that you heard, saw or read something about the topic that you found interesting. Consider the persons feelings. If it feels as if the topic is too much for the person to discuss, back off.

• Be Caring: Letting someone know that you care about them and that you are concerned is a wonderful introduction to any discussion about the issue. Be clear about why you are bringing the issue up. Don’t make the person wrong for being overweight – be empathetic and caring.

• Be Strategic: Consider the time and place that you introduce the topic. Find a non-weight related subject that crosses over and influences weight – in my book I use a general personal growth process to address weight related issues, so it would be fairly easy to discuss one of the principles from the book in a different context then weight.

• Be Intuitive: Trust your intuition and let it guide you. If the conversation drifts into another subject, trust that it will resurface again. Hold the intention (or thought) to be supportive and loving – let your inner wisdom guide you.

• Be Forthright: Be real with the person and “show up” for the conversation. Look them in the eye and connect with them.

It is hard to approach this topic with a friend or family member without offending them. This is a very complicated subject. Much of what lies beneath weight issues relates to “self-judgment”, so any attempt to help can be perceived as criticism. However, when someone is really ready for this material they tend to welcome it – if they are not interested or resistant than they will usually dodge the conversation. Always allow people the dignity of their own life journey, including the mistakes and challenges that each of us is bond to face. If you lead with love and compassion you will be offering a gift, even if the other person doesn’t recognize it.

Last week I blogged about intention and I got some interesting feedback – I am going to call the feedback “resistance”.  I realize that intention is a bit of a concept for many people to digest.  So, this week I am writing a little more about the concept.

 In my book, Weight Release: A Liberating Journey, I talk about unconscious projection, matching energy and unconscious agreements.  I refer to the stories we tell.  There seem to be “themes” in our lives – consistent stories or experiences that repeat themselves over and over.   Often these stories or experiences match family patterns – in essence, we play out the same script that our parents played out.  I use the example of a client who kept inviting men into her life who were “disappointments”.  In the book I note that her mother and several of her aunts and female cousins were telling the same story: “men are disappointments”.  In her family many of the women had unconsciously agreed to act out the same script.  We humans match energy we attract people who are willing to play on our terms. 

With intention we are using the same principles of projection, matching energy and agreements – only we are doing this consciously.  With conscious agreements: you are actually making verbal or even written agreements based on shared principles.  In the Service to Self™ process you actually create practices (planned actions) and track your choices to be sure you stay “in alignment” with your intention.  You are consciously projecting onto situations and people the quality of experience you wish to have.  You are directing your energy in a focused way that draws certain experiences to you.

One of the areas that I tend to meet with the most resistance is “matching energy”.  I want to address the idea that we transmit energy.  What happens when someone is staring, from across the room, at another person who has their back turned?   They turn around – what is that?  They often say that they “felt the stare”.  What about distance transmissions?  You are thinking about someone across the state or even across the globe and then they call on the telephone.  Why do you keep bumping into the same person at seemingly random places (in a city with millions of people)?

 Can we intentionally change our past – reprogram – reinterpret – reframe?  Do we have the power to create our future based on directed thought or intention?  The Service to Self™ process absolutely works to reinterpret and reframe the past and project out positive intention to guide and direct our future. Again, there is a scientific basis for the process.  There is a concept in Quantum Physics, that consciousness does not operate on the time and space continuum – things such as déjà-vu, where you experience something that is wholly familiar, as if you either dreamt it or had “been there before” is a good example of this phenomenon.  Unfortunately this concept is probably worthy of an entire book, so I won’t go into detail but be assured that we are working with principles that have powerful subliminal and energetic components (you control the choices – just know that the effects can be attributed to a directed causal energy that we call intention).

 I hope this blog post helps clear up some of the confusion from last weeks post.

Intention is a primary component of my Weight Release Program™.   Learning what intention is and how to use it is the key to successfully releasing weight permanently. 

 First off, what is intention?

Intention is a held thought – consciously projected on to circumstances and experiences.  It is a conscious filter that effects interpretation.  Intention also guides and directs choices.

What does intention have to do with releasing weight?

Intention is a guiding principle of the Service to Self™ Process – a general personal growth program I developed that is the foundation of the Weight Release Program™.  Fundamentally, it is your intention to heal and release weight that guides your choices and allows you to make manifest your desire.  Moving into intention will actually evoke much more of what you “DO” want in your life – which naturally and effortlessly directs your experience away from what you “don’t want”.   

 Intention directs experience.  Another way to say this is: our experience conforms to our intention.  So, as we continue to focus our energy using intention we naturally shift our experience.

 Now this is not a sometimes statement – “well, sometimes intention directs experience” – NO – as far as I am concerned this is an absolute fact – once you understand intention and how to use it your experience will profoundly and dramatically change.  In short, you become the director of your own movie – your own life.

 I will return to this question later in the article.

 What is the power of directed focus or attention on the potentiality of a particular outcome?

You have probably heard this principle talked about in terms of “mind over matter”.  You may have heard the term “a self fulfilling prophesy” – though often times this is used to suggest a negative focus and thereby a negative outcome – but it is still the same principle.  Simply that the focus influences the outcome.

 Simply illustrated, if someone says “I’m going to get sick – I just know I am going to get sick.” – what’s going to happen – they’re going to get sick, right?   At least the potentiality of them getting sick is surely higher than someone who says “I’m not going to get sick, I never get sick.”  Now, I know that there are anomalies – the person who doesn’t think that they will get sick but does and the person who always gets sick and is sure that they will get sick but actually doesn’t – BUT the probability of the former expression of reality – where the person who “thinks” that they will get sick actually does get sick (and the opposite for the person who doesn’t) is surely higher – agreed? 

 What is the scientific basis for intention?

In fact, there is empirical evidence that the principle I am speaking about actually plays out in “real life”.  On some level, it’s really just common sense.  However, there is a bit of a technology behind the use of intention and that is what I teach people in the Weight Release Program™.

 Over the past 20 or 30 years the interest in this type of natural law or principle has really picked up momentum.  In fact, today, there is very legitimate science backing up the claims that intention directs experience.

 The scientific term used to explain the principle is called “micro-psychokenisis” – that is the term coined by scientists at Princeton University’s PEAR laboratory – basically this is the science of measuring the effect of thought (the energetic power of the mind) on random events.  Scientists study this principle by simulating random events, similar to a coin toss, where laws of probability and statistics can be applied, then measuring what effect a “held thought” has on the outcome.  The scientists use what they call REGs, which stands for random event generators, where just as in a coin toss the odds are basically “50/50” – half of the time the coin will come up heads and half of the time the coin will come up tails, then they have a person bring a focused awareness to a particular outcome to see if it changes the 50/50 rule.  What the studies (and I mean lots of studies in many different circumstances and under different conditions) have shown is that intention – “the projection of awareness, with purpose and efficacy, toward some object or outcome” (that is the Institute of Noetic Sciences language), profoundly effects the outcome. 

 Intention absolutely increases the probability of a particular intended result occurring.

 So, back to the question, “how does intention fit with weight release?

I want to say a little about the unfocused mind – just think about it – when you are unfocused – bored, distracted, pre-occupied, whatever – what are the chances of you overeating? 

The patterns of behavior that cause weight related issues are unconscious – they are unconscious patterns of behavior.  In order to interrupt these patterns you must become conscious of them – more importantly you must become conscious of what is underneath the habits.  Again, the intention process alone does not constitute the entire Service to Self™ process, but it is the foundation.  The Service to Self™ process is a commitment to consciousness – that is what it is.  Remember, intention is directed focus – consider this in the context of your unhealthy eating – your unhealthy eating is unfocused and unconscious.  When you understand and begin working with intention you are being conscious of the choices you are making – the unintended consequences of being unconscious end – that’s it.