The human body has an amazing capacity to protect itself from illness, disease, and toxic-overload. In fact, fat stores are one way 
that your body protects your internal organs from toxicity. The food that you eat, the water you drink, and the air that you breathe all contain toxins. Without some sort of insulation from the poisons that are all around us, our organs would fail. Fat is (along with water retention), quite literally, what’s keeping you alive.
Consider most of the gums and mints that are on the market today. Calorically, they may not be much to worry about. It is the list of chemicals, usually too small to read, that should be of concern. Every chemical attracts to it either water or fat molecules, depending on whether it is “hydrophobic” or “hydrophilic.” Some attract water and fat. So for every molecule of toxin in the body, you will retain hundreds of extra molecules of fat and water, leading to fatty deposits and edema. This ultimately protects vital organs from being harmed by the toxicity of the chemicals we ingest. That obesity can be attributable to toxicity is a notion that’s new to the medical literature (and quite eye-opening to those who have been paying attention).
This fat and water retention additionally places an undue burden on all of the vital organs it is protecting: the heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys, etc. are greatly compromised by extra fat. Diabetes, heart disease, and cancer are just a few of the great many diseases that can be caused (or exacerbated) by being overweight. In the short term, the fat is good because your body just can’t handle all of the toxins it’s ingested. But in the long term, it’s not doing you any favors.
Have you ever met an obese 90-year-old? Probably not. People living to ripe-old-ages are generally slender, if not downright skinny. I hear from people all the time who say things like, “My grandfather ate eggs and bacon every day of his life, and he lived to be 97!” To that I have a few responses: first, Grandpa was probably not overweight and not likely to have consumed high fructose corn syrup, Aspartame, genetically modified foods, packaged-and-microwaved foods, etc. In other words, while he might have had eggs and bacon, I’m betting that most of his diet was made up of whole foods. Second, if he ate eggs and bacon every day, and lived to a ripe old age, I’d also bet that he was physically active. Third, the eggs and bacon that he ate for most of his life were not loaded with the chemicals, pesticides, and antibiotics that contemporary factory-farmed livestock are filled with. All of this means that Grandpa was healthier than most modern Americans by a substantial margin, and that his body wasn’t dealing with the toxins that every one of us has to contend with in our current environment. Even the wild meat we might eat today is more likely to be toxic than what Grandpa ate!
The good news is that I can tell you how to flush the toxins from your body, and how to keep them out. And here’s the very best news: when you do that, the fat quite literally melts away. I’m not talking about some magic or fad that claims to melt fat. I’m saying that fat can be lost far faster than most people are aware, because calorie consumption and calorie burning aren’t the whole story. Participants at my retreat lose an average of 10 pounds in one week, and continue to lose weight when they return home, without doing excessive exercise. We do daily restorative yoga, which is gentle and regenerative, but not necessarily intensive for calorie burning. They lose fat (not lean tissue) as a result of flushing the toxins from their bodies.
Everyone, myself included, ingests toxins. There’s no way not to. We need to first get them out of our systems and, second, minimize consumption of them in the future. Detoxification is something that’s ongoing for me, and can easily be for you as well. There are many practices, some quite simple, that will help with the detoxification process.
If you truly want to lose weight, have greater energy and increased vitality, it’s not only possible, it’s actually easy. Okay, let me amend that: it takes commitment, but it’s straightforward and manageable. Not only that, you can eat delicious, nutrient-dense food, and you don’t ever have to starve yourself. I also don’t recommend intensive exercise for people who are trying to lose weight, so you needn’t worry that I’d going to send you to the gym 2-hours a day. Below are three easy steps you can take to get started, but if you are truly committed to flushing the toxins, shedding the fat, and being your most beautiful self, I urge you to sign up for my 4-part teleseminar series: A Lighter Heart, Mind, and Body. The series begins October 20, 2011, and all calls are recorded so that you can download and listen to them later. Click here to find out more and sign up!
In the meantime, here are some practices that you can put in place right now to help with the detoxification process:
1) Drink at least three liters of water a day, and more if you’re physically active or substantially overweight. Water helps to flush the liver (the chemical processing plant of the human body), which immediately gets toxins out and helps you slim down. Not only that, water is important for good skin and hair, so it’s important to drink lots of good water (distilled or reverse osmosis, with added minerals, are my recommendations) if you want to look and feel your best.
2) Don’t eat after 5:00pm. Give your body 14 to 16 hours without having to process food or toxins, and your body will reward you by flushing both toxins and fat.
3) Take Juice Plus! Fruits and vegetables are an absolutely essential part of detoxification and weight loss. I’d love it if you also ate many fresh fruits and vegetables each day, but taking Juice Plus will speed up the process, and also deliver critical nutrition that everyone needs.