The reason to make Sprouted Bread is because when you sprout wheat it changes from a starch to a vegetable-like compound in terms of the way the body digests it. It also neutralizes both the phytates (difficult-to-digest proteins) and the protective casing of the grain.
To sprout wheat you need a sprouter. You also need wheat seeds - which you can get at most health food stores. It takes 1 cup of wheat seeds to produce 1.5 cups of flour.
To create sprouts
Place 2 cups of seed in the sprouter and cover with fresh water. Allow to stand over night.
Drain water. Then (leaving the top screen in place) rinse the seeds and allow to stand damp but not wet over night. Repeat this step until the seeds sprout roots.
To dry sprouts
Remove sprouts from sprouter and spread out on cookie sheet. Place the seeds in your oven set and the lowest possible setting (about 170 degrees). Open the door of the oven every two hours for 30 seconds. Dry for nine hours.
Grind the dried sprouts in a coffee bean grinder until you have created a flour that looks like regular flour.
Using a bread baking machine add the following ingredients. Follow the directions on the bread baking machine - in terms of settings and order in which to put the ingredients.
ENJOY!
Rosemary Bread
Ingredients
* 1 cup water
* 3 tablespoons olive oil
* 1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar
* 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
* 1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
* 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
* 1 tablespoon dried rosemary
* 2 1/2 cups bread flour
* 1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
Directions
1. Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select white bread cycle; press Start.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Affirmation of the Day: It’s Now Okay To See Myself At My Perfect and Ideal Weight
Stories abound about Anorexics looking in the mirror and seeing their skeletal frames as fat. That distorted view isn’t limited to people with clearly defined eating disorders – or perhaps more of us are at the effect of eating disorders than we think.
There is something radically wrong with a society in which the picture of the perfect body is set by anorexic teenagers when two thirds of the population is overweight; a society in which the national pastime, particularly for teenagers, flips between crash diets and junk food; a society in which children as young as four are turning up with Type II Diabetes – which used to be called “Adult Onset Diabetes,” which is a food-related disease. Most of the problem is that the food we are sold as not healthy. Some of the problem is in our vision.
Most of us might say that what you see is what is in the mirror. Nothing could be further from the truth. Not just “beauty” is in the eye of the beholder, everything is in that eye. Sex appeal is in the eye of the eye of the beholder. Acceptance into a group is in the eye of the beholder. Overweight is in the eye of the beholder. Your next raise is in the eye of the beholder.
How To Change Your Mind
How do you change that dynamic so that your life isn’t at the effect of a jaundiced eye (“All is yellow to the jaundiced eye”)? You change your mind about everything, including what you see when you look at yourself, by using affirmations. Affirmations are phrases that you repeat over and over to yourself. Affirmations can be negative (“I look awful!”) or positive (“The more I exercise the better I feel”).
To change your mind about something, create an affirmation, write it on a 3 x 5 card in red ink (red being the color of intention), and carry it with you in your pocket – not your purse where you’ll forget it in a heartbeat. Do not post it on the bathroom mirror because you will quickly reach a point where you don’t see it. Repeat that affirmation frequently through the day. Hook it to a behavior pattern. Every time you take a walk (and short frequent walks – particularly after meals – is recommended, repeat that affirmation. Every time you cross a street, repeat the affirmation. When you brush your teeth, repeat that affirmation. Make it part of your thinking, part of your every day habits and behavior patterns.
It’s Now Okay
In the affirmation that is the title of this piece, we have added the words “it’s now okay.” This is an affirmation addition developed by Suzy Prudden when she discovered that some of the affirmations she was giving to her clients didn’t work, because her clients didn’t believe them. If they said, “I now see myself at my perfect and ideal weight,” their mind might argue with them. “Yeah right!” If they added, “It’s now okay to see myself at my perfect and ideal weight,” most of the time their mind would accept the affirmation and allow them to change their view of themselves. Sometimes Suzy would have to add, “I am now willing for it to be okay to see myself at my perfect and ideal weight.” Ultimately, you have to begin where you are with your subconscious, not where you wish you were which is ultimately where you are working to go.
Why It’s Important
It’s important to see yourself at your ideal and perfect weight because that’s the goal. If your old habit is to see yourself as fat, then your subconscious mind will see fat as your goal. If your mind sees you as Twiggy when you are actually at an ideal weight, and you don’t like the half-starved Twiggy look, your subconscious mind will reject that picture and push you back toward your fat image. If you have a picture of a thinner, fitter you as your ideal and perfect weight, then your subconscious mind will help you achieve that picture and keep you at that picture.
Does that sound like “woo-woo?” It does and it works – don’t forget our minds are fairly primitive. Under any circumstances, I’m a big one for going with what works. The best news about strategically using Affirmations is that they don’t usually work fast. They work gradually and over time which is the best way to deal with weight. At Pounds Off Programs we suggest you lose a pound to a pound and a half a week. We offer lifestyle change – not yo-yo.
There is something radically wrong with a society in which the picture of the perfect body is set by anorexic teenagers when two thirds of the population is overweight; a society in which the national pastime, particularly for teenagers, flips between crash diets and junk food; a society in which children as young as four are turning up with Type II Diabetes – which used to be called “Adult Onset Diabetes,” which is a food-related disease. Most of the problem is that the food we are sold as not healthy. Some of the problem is in our vision.
Most of us might say that what you see is what is in the mirror. Nothing could be further from the truth. Not just “beauty” is in the eye of the beholder, everything is in that eye. Sex appeal is in the eye of the eye of the beholder. Acceptance into a group is in the eye of the beholder. Overweight is in the eye of the beholder. Your next raise is in the eye of the beholder.
How To Change Your Mind
How do you change that dynamic so that your life isn’t at the effect of a jaundiced eye (“All is yellow to the jaundiced eye”)? You change your mind about everything, including what you see when you look at yourself, by using affirmations. Affirmations are phrases that you repeat over and over to yourself. Affirmations can be negative (“I look awful!”) or positive (“The more I exercise the better I feel”).
To change your mind about something, create an affirmation, write it on a 3 x 5 card in red ink (red being the color of intention), and carry it with you in your pocket – not your purse where you’ll forget it in a heartbeat. Do not post it on the bathroom mirror because you will quickly reach a point where you don’t see it. Repeat that affirmation frequently through the day. Hook it to a behavior pattern. Every time you take a walk (and short frequent walks – particularly after meals – is recommended, repeat that affirmation. Every time you cross a street, repeat the affirmation. When you brush your teeth, repeat that affirmation. Make it part of your thinking, part of your every day habits and behavior patterns.
It’s Now Okay
In the affirmation that is the title of this piece, we have added the words “it’s now okay.” This is an affirmation addition developed by Suzy Prudden when she discovered that some of the affirmations she was giving to her clients didn’t work, because her clients didn’t believe them. If they said, “I now see myself at my perfect and ideal weight,” their mind might argue with them. “Yeah right!” If they added, “It’s now okay to see myself at my perfect and ideal weight,” most of the time their mind would accept the affirmation and allow them to change their view of themselves. Sometimes Suzy would have to add, “I am now willing for it to be okay to see myself at my perfect and ideal weight.” Ultimately, you have to begin where you are with your subconscious, not where you wish you were which is ultimately where you are working to go.
Why It’s Important
It’s important to see yourself at your ideal and perfect weight because that’s the goal. If your old habit is to see yourself as fat, then your subconscious mind will see fat as your goal. If your mind sees you as Twiggy when you are actually at an ideal weight, and you don’t like the half-starved Twiggy look, your subconscious mind will reject that picture and push you back toward your fat image. If you have a picture of a thinner, fitter you as your ideal and perfect weight, then your subconscious mind will help you achieve that picture and keep you at that picture.
Does that sound like “woo-woo?” It does and it works – don’t forget our minds are fairly primitive. Under any circumstances, I’m a big one for going with what works. The best news about strategically using Affirmations is that they don’t usually work fast. They work gradually and over time which is the best way to deal with weight. At Pounds Off Programs we suggest you lose a pound to a pound and a half a week. We offer lifestyle change – not yo-yo.
Monday, February 1, 2010
The Trouble With Sugar
The trouble with sugar is not simply that it adds empty calories to your diet and contributes to weight gain and Type II Diabetes. The trouble with sugar is that is REALLY harmful to your bones contributing seriously to osteoporosis – which is a killer of post-menopausal women.
Sugar is processed. In the processing of the sugar the minerals – particularly calcium – that the body would use to digest the sugar are removed. In order to digest the sugar your body has to rob from its own calcium supply – it takes from those places where calcium is plentiful – teeth and bones. Osteoporosis is a result of loss of calcium from the bones. One half of women over 65 run the risk of hip fractures because of osteoporosis.
There are a number of lifestyle activities that contribute to osteoporosis: alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, lack of weight bearing activity, lack of sunshine and vitamin D – are examples.
At the turn of the 19th century, sweeteners, like sugar were kept under lock and key and used only for VERY special purposes. The average American might have ingested a couple of tablespoons of sugar a year. Today, we consume over 150 pounds – that’s POUNDS – of sugar a year. So many things have sugar in them that absolutely don’t need it. Most processed foods have some form of sweetener in them – mostly high fructose corn syrup – which is a real contributor to Diabetes. Even something like vinaigrette salad dressing has 2 grams of sugar in each bottle. You can’t taste the sugar. It doesn’t do anything for the dressing. It’s just there making trouble for the body.
How do you avoid it? Don’t eat any processed food - period. Start by staying away from things you know contain sugar – soft drinks, fruit drinks, candy bars, cakes, pies and cookies. Read labels as if your life depended on it. Avoid things that say sugar, sucrose, lactose, fructose, dextrose and every other kind of -trose on it. Figure out how to cook from scratch. It takes a little doing but the food tastes better and you really can taste the flavor of the ingredients. It also saves money. When you buy processed anything you are paying for the cost of the cooking that you aren’t doing yourself.
Most processed foods are “Food Like Substances” in the words of Michael Pollen. You want to switch to food. You want to eat the way your ancestor’s ate – fresh, alive, whole foods. Your health and your quality of life depend on it.
Sugar is processed. In the processing of the sugar the minerals – particularly calcium – that the body would use to digest the sugar are removed. In order to digest the sugar your body has to rob from its own calcium supply – it takes from those places where calcium is plentiful – teeth and bones. Osteoporosis is a result of loss of calcium from the bones. One half of women over 65 run the risk of hip fractures because of osteoporosis.
There are a number of lifestyle activities that contribute to osteoporosis: alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, lack of weight bearing activity, lack of sunshine and vitamin D – are examples.
At the turn of the 19th century, sweeteners, like sugar were kept under lock and key and used only for VERY special purposes. The average American might have ingested a couple of tablespoons of sugar a year. Today, we consume over 150 pounds – that’s POUNDS – of sugar a year. So many things have sugar in them that absolutely don’t need it. Most processed foods have some form of sweetener in them – mostly high fructose corn syrup – which is a real contributor to Diabetes. Even something like vinaigrette salad dressing has 2 grams of sugar in each bottle. You can’t taste the sugar. It doesn’t do anything for the dressing. It’s just there making trouble for the body.
How do you avoid it? Don’t eat any processed food - period. Start by staying away from things you know contain sugar – soft drinks, fruit drinks, candy bars, cakes, pies and cookies. Read labels as if your life depended on it. Avoid things that say sugar, sucrose, lactose, fructose, dextrose and every other kind of -trose on it. Figure out how to cook from scratch. It takes a little doing but the food tastes better and you really can taste the flavor of the ingredients. It also saves money. When you buy processed anything you are paying for the cost of the cooking that you aren’t doing yourself.
Most processed foods are “Food Like Substances” in the words of Michael Pollen. You want to switch to food. You want to eat the way your ancestor’s ate – fresh, alive, whole foods. Your health and your quality of life depend on it.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Why Buy Organic?
Organic food is more expensive than food grown by big Agra, so why should we buy it? Because big Agra’s food is depleted of important minerals, and is filled with pesticides, herbicides and fungicides and even worse is increasingly genetically altered, this puts our children’s ability to have children at risk.
Why should we buy organic? Well, to begin with, plants that are non-organically grown are sprayed with herbicides, fungicides and pesticides, which are as toxic to you as they are to pests. Second of all non-organic product can be genetically modified without mentioning the fact on the label. An example of how that might work is that genetically modified fruits and vegetables might be weed killer resistant – so the “farmer” can inundate this fields with weed killer so he doesn’t have to spend the money weeding, and you get the residual that’s left on the fruits and vegetables after harvesting as well as the changes in the plants themselves. In addition, your kid’s reproductive capacity is jeopardized, a side benefit of genetic engineering consistently found in test animals.
Recently I was given a book called “Country Wisdom and Know-How: Everything You Need To Know To Live Off The Land.” In that book I learned that 95% of healthy soil consists of minerals which are in a constant state of breaking down from the pebbles and rocks in the soil. The minerals feed the plants, the plants feed us. If the minerals are not breaking down the soil becomes sterile. The plants do not take up minerals and minerals are absent from your diet. Most agribusiness product (non-organic) contains few if any minerals. Agribusiness uses petrochemicals to force plants to grow. The result is big product with little nutrition. Indeed diseases like Type II Diabetes have been linked to an absence of minerals in diets…. Or should I say that Thomas Smith, as part of his program for reversing diabetes, had great results adding minerals along with omega 3 and 6 essential fatty acids to his diet. I highly recommend a daily mineral supplement. Many of my clients have found that their energy increases substantially if they use a good trace mineral supplement. I recommend the company New Spirit Naturals for excellent and safe supplements.
Agribusiness is sneaky and you have to read labels.
• 100 percent organic. Products that are completely organic or made of all organic ingredients.
• Organic. Products that are at least 95percent organic.
• Made with organic ingredients. Products that contain at least 70 percent organic ingredients. The organic seal can’t be used on these products.
In terms of weight loss, the body stores toxins like pesticides, herbicides and fungicides in your fat. The more toxins you ingest, the more fat you need to store it in. As you begin to lose weight the toxins are released from the fats into your circulatory system and are then excreted through the kidneys as urine and through your skin as sweat. That is one of the reasons it is important to lose weight slowly and consistently – you want the toxins to be released slowly so that your body can excrete them easily. That is one of the reasons for drinking 8-10 glasses of water a day – so that your kidneys are encouraged to manufacture urine so that you can eliminate toxins rather than allow them to build in your body because your body isn’t hydrated enough.
A word to the wise.
When you go on a diet, be certain to take antioxidants. Antioxidants will bind with the toxins as you lose fat and help your body remove it safely from your system. Antioxidants are very important in our polluted world and will help your overall health. Since vitamin and mineral combinations need to be in balanced amounts, don’t try to construct your own antioxidant combinations, use a trusted source. Trusted sources do not include any antioxidant combinations you find in drug stores and supermarkets.
Why should we buy organic? Well, to begin with, plants that are non-organically grown are sprayed with herbicides, fungicides and pesticides, which are as toxic to you as they are to pests. Second of all non-organic product can be genetically modified without mentioning the fact on the label. An example of how that might work is that genetically modified fruits and vegetables might be weed killer resistant – so the “farmer” can inundate this fields with weed killer so he doesn’t have to spend the money weeding, and you get the residual that’s left on the fruits and vegetables after harvesting as well as the changes in the plants themselves. In addition, your kid’s reproductive capacity is jeopardized, a side benefit of genetic engineering consistently found in test animals.
Recently I was given a book called “Country Wisdom and Know-How: Everything You Need To Know To Live Off The Land.” In that book I learned that 95% of healthy soil consists of minerals which are in a constant state of breaking down from the pebbles and rocks in the soil. The minerals feed the plants, the plants feed us. If the minerals are not breaking down the soil becomes sterile. The plants do not take up minerals and minerals are absent from your diet. Most agribusiness product (non-organic) contains few if any minerals. Agribusiness uses petrochemicals to force plants to grow. The result is big product with little nutrition. Indeed diseases like Type II Diabetes have been linked to an absence of minerals in diets…. Or should I say that Thomas Smith, as part of his program for reversing diabetes, had great results adding minerals along with omega 3 and 6 essential fatty acids to his diet. I highly recommend a daily mineral supplement. Many of my clients have found that their energy increases substantially if they use a good trace mineral supplement. I recommend the company New Spirit Naturals for excellent and safe supplements.
Agribusiness is sneaky and you have to read labels.
• 100 percent organic. Products that are completely organic or made of all organic ingredients.
• Organic. Products that are at least 95percent organic.
• Made with organic ingredients. Products that contain at least 70 percent organic ingredients. The organic seal can’t be used on these products.
In terms of weight loss, the body stores toxins like pesticides, herbicides and fungicides in your fat. The more toxins you ingest, the more fat you need to store it in. As you begin to lose weight the toxins are released from the fats into your circulatory system and are then excreted through the kidneys as urine and through your skin as sweat. That is one of the reasons it is important to lose weight slowly and consistently – you want the toxins to be released slowly so that your body can excrete them easily. That is one of the reasons for drinking 8-10 glasses of water a day – so that your kidneys are encouraged to manufacture urine so that you can eliminate toxins rather than allow them to build in your body because your body isn’t hydrated enough.
A word to the wise.
When you go on a diet, be certain to take antioxidants. Antioxidants will bind with the toxins as you lose fat and help your body remove it safely from your system. Antioxidants are very important in our polluted world and will help your overall health. Since vitamin and mineral combinations need to be in balanced amounts, don’t try to construct your own antioxidant combinations, use a trusted source. Trusted sources do not include any antioxidant combinations you find in drug stores and supermarkets.
The Benefits Of Drinking Water in Weight Loss
Drinking water is one of the most important things you can do to help you lose weight. It not only protects your body by alkalizing it, but your body uses it better than it uses other drinks and keeps you from getting puffy or swollen.
We were astonished when Ellen (not her real name) walked into our Pounds Off Programs office. We specialized in weight loss and Ellen was thin! Of course, we always say that, “thin is in the eye of the beholder” – anorexics can look at their skeletal bodies and see fat everywhere. Our thought was not to sign Ellen up, we were worried that she would use our program to harm herself, and then she told us what was going on.
Ellen was a runway model, the small amount of weight she carried on her hips was costing her jobs. We asked her to fill out a food log to see what she was eating, we couldn’t imagine what we were going to suggest she change. She ate well, protein and raw or steamed vegetables with olive oil and vinegar or lemon juice for dressing. The only thing we saw that we thought she might change was diet soda.
Starting with her second visit, Ellen began substituting ice water for diet drinks.
“Ellen,” her agent said one day. “You are dropping weight so fast it’s a bit scary, you aren’t doing anything stupid are you?”
“No. The only thing I’ve changed in my diet is I’ve given up diet drinks for water.”
Now, not everyone will experience Ellen’s results. She was eating well and exercising regularly to begin with. However, we have found that water helps relieve bloating and, because it doesn’t bring sweetening chemicals with it, it does not contribute to weight gain. Fat is where toxins from your environment and the food you eat is stored, so if you are regularly drinking chemicalized soft drinks – even those with no calories – your body will create fat for storage.
The very first thing we suggest to our clients is to start drinking water – eight-to-ten eight ounce glasses a day, and to give up drinking soda. Soda – diet or sugar filled – brings with it all kinds of problems which we’ll go into in another blog. Water is the best drink you can give to your body as long as it doesn’t come in plastic containers…. Yet another article.
Carry your water in glass containers. Never drink bottled water from plastic that you have frozen in the freezer. Never drink bottled water that has been left heating in the car in plastic containers. Breast feed, don’t feed your infants from plastic baby bottles.
We were astonished when Ellen (not her real name) walked into our Pounds Off Programs office. We specialized in weight loss and Ellen was thin! Of course, we always say that, “thin is in the eye of the beholder” – anorexics can look at their skeletal bodies and see fat everywhere. Our thought was not to sign Ellen up, we were worried that she would use our program to harm herself, and then she told us what was going on.
Ellen was a runway model, the small amount of weight she carried on her hips was costing her jobs. We asked her to fill out a food log to see what she was eating, we couldn’t imagine what we were going to suggest she change. She ate well, protein and raw or steamed vegetables with olive oil and vinegar or lemon juice for dressing. The only thing we saw that we thought she might change was diet soda.
Starting with her second visit, Ellen began substituting ice water for diet drinks.
“Ellen,” her agent said one day. “You are dropping weight so fast it’s a bit scary, you aren’t doing anything stupid are you?”
“No. The only thing I’ve changed in my diet is I’ve given up diet drinks for water.”
Now, not everyone will experience Ellen’s results. She was eating well and exercising regularly to begin with. However, we have found that water helps relieve bloating and, because it doesn’t bring sweetening chemicals with it, it does not contribute to weight gain. Fat is where toxins from your environment and the food you eat is stored, so if you are regularly drinking chemicalized soft drinks – even those with no calories – your body will create fat for storage.
The very first thing we suggest to our clients is to start drinking water – eight-to-ten eight ounce glasses a day, and to give up drinking soda. Soda – diet or sugar filled – brings with it all kinds of problems which we’ll go into in another blog. Water is the best drink you can give to your body as long as it doesn’t come in plastic containers…. Yet another article.
Carry your water in glass containers. Never drink bottled water from plastic that you have frozen in the freezer. Never drink bottled water that has been left heating in the car in plastic containers. Breast feed, don’t feed your infants from plastic baby bottles.
What is Creative Visualization Relaxation (CVR)?
Creative Visualization Relaxation (CVR) is a process that helps you relax. When you relax, your subconscious mind accepts suggestions that change your behavior patterns and habits. In this way, you can change your lifestyle so that you lose weight.
Creative Visualization Relaxation, also known as guided visualization or meditation, is a process that simply helps you relax. When you relax, your subconscious mind becomes receptive to suggestions that enable you to change your habits and behavior patterns. Habits like the feeling that a meal is incomplete if it doesn’t end with dessert. If you don’t want to eat sweets at the end of a meal (frankly a dessert makes me feel ill) then you tell your subconscious mind that it now feels completely satisfied at the end of the main course and you finish your meal then because you are satisfied.
All our behaviors are linked to habits. Sitting in front of the TV is a habit. If you turn on the TV when you walk into the room, it’s a habit. If you light up a cigarette at the end of a meal, it’s a habit. If you turn on the lights in a dark room when you enter, it’s a habit. If you snack when you come home from school, you may be hungry, and it’s still a habit. Drinking coffee in the morning is a habit. Picking up a Candy Bar at the checkout counter is a habit – and don’t for a moment think the Supermarkets don’t know that.
In our Pounds Off Programs we identify the most common habits that keep people overweight and create processes to change those habits so that you can download and listen to these processes at home or in class. Sometimes the habits change as soon as you become aware of them, sometimes they change over time. Sometimes the suggestions take hold and you never return to a habit. Sometimes you find yourself slipping into the habit again so you need to listen to the habit-breaking process a few more times to get back on track.
CVR makes changing habits fun and easy no matter what behaviors you’re trying to change. Listening to your processes is one of the most important parts of the Pounds Off Programs. Your accountability coach will often ask if you are listening to your processes. The important questions that you should ask yourself if you find that you have a thousand “reasons” for not listening is – what are you making more important than your weight loss? What is more valuable to you than losing weight? Where is the pay off for staying fat?
“You can have what you want or your reasons for not having it,” says Suzy Prudden.
Creative Visualization Relaxation, also known as guided visualization or meditation, is a process that simply helps you relax. When you relax, your subconscious mind becomes receptive to suggestions that enable you to change your habits and behavior patterns. Habits like the feeling that a meal is incomplete if it doesn’t end with dessert. If you don’t want to eat sweets at the end of a meal (frankly a dessert makes me feel ill) then you tell your subconscious mind that it now feels completely satisfied at the end of the main course and you finish your meal then because you are satisfied.
All our behaviors are linked to habits. Sitting in front of the TV is a habit. If you turn on the TV when you walk into the room, it’s a habit. If you light up a cigarette at the end of a meal, it’s a habit. If you turn on the lights in a dark room when you enter, it’s a habit. If you snack when you come home from school, you may be hungry, and it’s still a habit. Drinking coffee in the morning is a habit. Picking up a Candy Bar at the checkout counter is a habit – and don’t for a moment think the Supermarkets don’t know that.
In our Pounds Off Programs we identify the most common habits that keep people overweight and create processes to change those habits so that you can download and listen to these processes at home or in class. Sometimes the habits change as soon as you become aware of them, sometimes they change over time. Sometimes the suggestions take hold and you never return to a habit. Sometimes you find yourself slipping into the habit again so you need to listen to the habit-breaking process a few more times to get back on track.
CVR makes changing habits fun and easy no matter what behaviors you’re trying to change. Listening to your processes is one of the most important parts of the Pounds Off Programs. Your accountability coach will often ask if you are listening to your processes. The important questions that you should ask yourself if you find that you have a thousand “reasons” for not listening is – what are you making more important than your weight loss? What is more valuable to you than losing weight? Where is the pay off for staying fat?
“You can have what you want or your reasons for not having it,” says Suzy Prudden.
Monday, January 25, 2010
How Our Pounds Off Programs Teleseminars Came About
The Pounds Off Teleseminar Programs grew out of a need for an easily accessible, realistically priced weight loss support group that incorporated nutritional information and guided visualization. It’s a win-win that can serve the weight loss needs of everyone in the world.
In the years between 1998 and 2008 Suzy Prudden built the largest Creative Visualization Relaxation (CVR) Center specializing in Weight Loss in Los Angeles. In 2001 her sister, Joan Meijer, former President of the National Emergency Care Advisory Counsel and co-author of four of Suzy Prudden’s books including "Suzy Prudden's Itty Bitty Weight Loss Book" joined her in managing the business. The program was high end, expensive and it worked. We enjoyed a success of over 60%. To put that in perspective, most weight loss and diet programs (including diet pills) are 2% successful, Weight Watchers is 10% and stomach stapling is 30%.
During those years Joan was vaguely troubled by the exclusivity of our program in the face of how big a problem obesity was becoming. The problem was that CVR wasn’t covered by insurance. Suzy and Joan often talked about finding a way to broaden the availability of what we knew, but the solution was elusive and we were busy. Over those ten years our business spread to three centers, we had ten employees and we didn’t have time to think about the percent of people who called us who didn’t come in because the price was prohibitive or who didn’t bother to call us because they assumed the price would be prohibitive.
In 2008, when the recession hit, high end weight loss became a luxury. Suzy closed her weight loss centers and started in a different direction developing a new modality called hypno-coaching. Just when we weren’t paying attention to the problem of weight loss, Joan began to experience a new idea taking shape. In a matter of weeks her Pounds Off Programs emerged as a Business-in-a-box (or in this case, a binder).
As it turned out Suzy and Joan were teaching a coaching class at the time. “What would you think about weight loss classes that use the material that you’re learning here and in my CVR classes?” we asked one afternoon. The response was amazing. It felt as if we had opened the door to a possibility no one had ever considered before and that the members of the class were relieved to have the structure of that little binder to lean on while they built their practices.
My students began using the program and the success stories began to come in. The student’s clients lost 30, 40, 50 pounds, experienced no cravings and enjoyed lifestyle changes in exactly the same way as my high end clients had lost weight but at much lower cost.
“My clients don’t want to come to class,” a Practitioner reported - understandable in an area as far flung as Los Angeles. “Why not do the classes on the phone?” Joan suggested. And so the Pounds Off Programs Teleseminars was born. The Teleseminars solved the problem of how to service people in areas not yet covered by Practitioners. Another plus was the fact that we could record the teleseminars, post them on the web and people all around the would could listen at their convenience. It was a win-win for everyone.
Thus began our quest to reach every corner of the world with a revolutionary weight loss program which has a proven track record of success at a reasonable cost.
In the years between 1998 and 2008 Suzy Prudden built the largest Creative Visualization Relaxation (CVR) Center specializing in Weight Loss in Los Angeles. In 2001 her sister, Joan Meijer, former President of the National Emergency Care Advisory Counsel and co-author of four of Suzy Prudden’s books including "Suzy Prudden's Itty Bitty Weight Loss Book" joined her in managing the business. The program was high end, expensive and it worked. We enjoyed a success of over 60%. To put that in perspective, most weight loss and diet programs (including diet pills) are 2% successful, Weight Watchers is 10% and stomach stapling is 30%.
During those years Joan was vaguely troubled by the exclusivity of our program in the face of how big a problem obesity was becoming. The problem was that CVR wasn’t covered by insurance. Suzy and Joan often talked about finding a way to broaden the availability of what we knew, but the solution was elusive and we were busy. Over those ten years our business spread to three centers, we had ten employees and we didn’t have time to think about the percent of people who called us who didn’t come in because the price was prohibitive or who didn’t bother to call us because they assumed the price would be prohibitive.
In 2008, when the recession hit, high end weight loss became a luxury. Suzy closed her weight loss centers and started in a different direction developing a new modality called hypno-coaching. Just when we weren’t paying attention to the problem of weight loss, Joan began to experience a new idea taking shape. In a matter of weeks her Pounds Off Programs emerged as a Business-in-a-box (or in this case, a binder).
As it turned out Suzy and Joan were teaching a coaching class at the time. “What would you think about weight loss classes that use the material that you’re learning here and in my CVR classes?” we asked one afternoon. The response was amazing. It felt as if we had opened the door to a possibility no one had ever considered before and that the members of the class were relieved to have the structure of that little binder to lean on while they built their practices.
My students began using the program and the success stories began to come in. The student’s clients lost 30, 40, 50 pounds, experienced no cravings and enjoyed lifestyle changes in exactly the same way as my high end clients had lost weight but at much lower cost.
“My clients don’t want to come to class,” a Practitioner reported - understandable in an area as far flung as Los Angeles. “Why not do the classes on the phone?” Joan suggested. And so the Pounds Off Programs Teleseminars was born. The Teleseminars solved the problem of how to service people in areas not yet covered by Practitioners. Another plus was the fact that we could record the teleseminars, post them on the web and people all around the would could listen at their convenience. It was a win-win for everyone.
Thus began our quest to reach every corner of the world with a revolutionary weight loss program which has a proven track record of success at a reasonable cost.
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