Category: Health

Losing Weight

Posted by: Deborah Talalay Posted on: 15/08/2011 , , , ,

What we lose is what we must try to find again

Saying we are losing weight is really sending the wrong message to the brain. Because what we lose is what we must make every effort to find again. Perhaps that’s why so many of us are on the roller coaster of weight loss followed by instant and rapid weight gain.

Slimming becomes much more difficult as you get older. The metabolism slows down, and all the treats, snacks and alcohol just go straight to the waistline and the hips. If you’ve ever played Monopoly

– do not pass go

– do not collect your £200

Just go straight to the hips!

One of the problems of ageing is that the digestive system has taken a battering over the years. The liver may not be functioning properly and you may have low level diabetes, both of which will make it harder to shed weight. If the body has developed intolerance to certain foods, it won’t know how to deal with this and will just store these foods as fat.

Then there’s the Thyroid gland which is often out of balance or which under reacts the older we get. The Thyroid is responsible for a great many of the functions of our bodies, including the regulation of weight. If the Thyroid is sluggish shedding weight becomes very difficult.

Then there’s the mindset which needs to be tackled before even beginning on any sort of diet.

This includes

  • the compulsion to reward ourselves with food
  • the knowledge that an emotional pain can be temporarily eased by eating sweets, pastries, chocolate.
  • and, of course, the knowledge that drinking alcohol will not only ease the pain – but will make us temporarily forget.

There are also the beliefs of scarcity – that there is not enough and that you have to eat while food is available. When I was growing up, we were all told that we must not waste food and must finish off everything on our plates because of the poor starving children in Biafra or in China. Of course, if we didn’t finish our food the poor starving children would not have benefitted, and what we did was to teach ourselves to overeat.  This way of thinking was drummed into us after WW11 because food had been rationed and many foods were not available. So there was a much greater respect for food and the whole process of growing it and making it available to everyone. As someone who grew up with that – I think it is all wrong the way we waste food, especially as in many parts of the world there is not enough to eat.

My rethink on this is: – rather than finish off a large portion of food instead of wasting it, learn to take smaller portions and take more if still hungry. It’s surprising how much less is needed to satisfy the appetite.

There are so many diets available and they won’t all suit you. So when deciding which one to do – pick one with foods you like and which you think you can keep to. If you hate every minute and think of it as torture and deprivation, you will soon break the diet and probably go on a binge to make up for the disappointment.

But it is pointless to start on any diet if you haven’t prepared.

  • Exercise regularly to increase your metabolic rate and to burn off the excess fat. Once a week is not enough!
  • Cut out the foods you are sensitive or intolerant to. They can often block the process of shedding weight.
  • If you think your body doesn’t react well enough – get your liver, thyroid and sugar levels checked.
  • Take a look at some of your beliefs around eating. If your beliefs are making you put the weight right back on, consider seeing a Theta Healer who will help you to remove them and to install beliefs which will serve you better

If you would like to learn more about Theta Healing and how it can help remove beliefs which don’t serve you:-

Call me on: 07979538378

Email me at: debbie.talalay@gmail.com

Or go to my website to find out how Theta Healing and Homeopathy could help you. www.18.135.123.1

Allergies and Sensitivities

Posted by: Deborah Talalay Posted on: 18/07/2011 , , , , , ,

In my last article I talked about the allergies and sensitivities so many of us have, and how we are beginning to see more and more people suffering with reactions to various foods.

Allergy is an overused word. I found a definition of allergy which says:

“Properly defined, allergy is the condition which results from the introduction    into the body of certain substances, usually proteins, which cause a disease complex called allergy”

What most people are suffering with is hypersensitivity.

It used to be that if anyone had an allergy it would be to pollen and they – poor souls – would sneeze and weep and scratch their way through the summer suffering with Hay Fever.

You would almost never hear of people with food allergies and intolerances. People were happy to eat pretty well everything that was put in front of them – with the exception of school dinners. And even though they might prefer one food to another – no-one talked about becoming ill from what they ate.

Of course some of this was because allergy went largely undiagnosed – so people suffered without knowing the cause of their suffering.

But lack of diagnosis does not account for the huge increase of people who respond badly to various foods.  My belief is that over the years our immune systems have become severely compromised.

This is partly because our immune systems are being challenged on a daily basis by the chemicals we use to spray our crops. These chemicals are invaluable in ensuring that pests do not destroy the crops – but were never intended to be taken internally.

We are also choosing to eat foods which are harmful to us in such great quantities that they undermine our whole metabolic process.

During the Second World War, processed foods, sugars and fats were rationed, and people were forced to rely on basic but nutritious foods. Health improved in the UK quite dramatically.

Nowadays our food contains:

  • Pesticides
  • Colourings
  • Other E numbers and additives – which are used as preservatives for longer shelf life.
  • Hormones – used to promote growth in the animal
  • Water injected into the meat to produce greater weight

Our food does not contain the vitamins, minerals and trace elements needed for our maintenance

  • because the soil is barren and over farmed
  • because the food has been processed and the nutrients lost (though sometimes the Vits/ Mins are added back in)
  • the nutrients have been killed by overcooking

It is astonishing that in this country of plenty, so many of us should be suffering from nutrient deficiency.

Nutrient deficiency upsets the whole metabolic process, and then it becomes more difficult to convert the complex substances into simple ones for the use of the body, which uses them to build complex tissues. Foods are not broken down properly in the gut and when the body tries to use them, they cannot be absorbed properly and often have a harmful effect.

The body builds up a resistance to these improperly digested foods and so begins intolerance and then allergy.

A huge industry has built up around allergies.

We are now able to buy foods free from

  • Wheat
  • Gluten
  • Dairy
  • Eggs
  • Nuts

The list goes on.

And while this is important and necessary to the people who suffer with allergies it is worrying that there are enough people who suffer from food intolerance to have created this industry.

Food reactions can affect us in so many ways.

We are familiar with the blocked nose, the constantly runny nose, the streaming eyes, blocked sinuses, permanent catarrh and headaches.

Allergies can also affect the skin, producing spots, rashes and raised wheals

The skin can become hard and dry, the heels cracked.

Allergies can affect breathing and provoke asthma attacks.

People are unable to sleep properly and often their energy is affected. They will become sleepy if they eat something which disagrees. Alternatively, you can see children responding to the colourings and additives in food by becoming wild and hyperactive.

The digestive system will usually react with;

Nausea and vomiting, diarrhoea or constipation.

Bloating, wind and heartburn.

Weight gain – or the inability to thrive and to put on weight.

The most under acknowledged reactions caused by allergies are in the mental and emotional spheres.

The inability to concentrate or think coherently

The change in personality – often making people rude and aggressive.

I remember listening to a talk by a lady who had been in charge of an institute for young offenders. She realised that a lot of these kids were having an extreme reaction to the junk food they were eating. She started to change the food served in this institution. At first – these teenagers were furious that they were no longer allowed the food that they usually ate.  But as they gradually calmed down they realised how different they felt. Eventually – they were entrusted to go on

supervised shopping trips to buy additive free food.  They took an active interest in their shopping expeditions and in their own mental and physical health.

Usually, the numbers of offenders who re-offend after release and get locked up again is very high.  But with these children the number was extremely low.

It made me wonder how many of society’s ills could be attributed to reaction to what we eat.

Take Care of Your Immune System

Posted by: Deborah Talalay Posted on: 04/07/2011 , , ,

Modern medicine has eradicated many of the diseases which used to be commonplace,

Anti-biotics and other miracle drugs will usually see off infections and illnesses which would have killed large numbers of people before the discovery of these medicines.

The availability and storage of food has made an enormous difference not only to our life expectancy but also to our height and size. Have you noticed when looking at portraits of the nobility through the centuries how much taller they are than the working classes. The abundance of food, its quality and the ability to store it so that it retains its nutrients and does not deteriorate makes a real difference to your ability to grow.

Clean water and sanitation also play their part.

The graphs show that 6000 deaths per 1 million children from scarlet fever, diphtheria, whooping cough and measles around 1850 had declined to 800 by 1940 – a 90% decline.

It was not until 1950 that the introduction of anti biotics and the compulsory immunisation against diphtheria was introduced. This was followed by immunisations against other diseases and by 1965 deaths from these diseases were reduced to just a handful.

But the achievement of reducing deaths by 90% for these potentially deadly diseases mostly rests with the clean water and sanitation programs which were established before mass immunisation.

So – the question I ask myself is – why with the benefit of all these medicines, with a better diet, with clean water and excellent sanitation – why do we have a population with so many chronic illnesses and who are so dependent on taking large quantities of medicine on a daily basis?

What are we doing to ourselves to cause this level of unwellness?

Maybe I’m wrong – but I believe that the number of people with asthma and eczema – the children going to school with a puffer in their pocket – has risen dramatically.

We’re used to hearing people say they’re allergic to this and that.

Why are there so many people with Hay Fever? And why – given that we have central heating and can keep warm – do we have so many children running around with constant colds and perpetually dripping noses?

40 years ago my cousin, who was taken to specialist after specialist to find out what was wrong with her was finally diagnosed with autism. She had to be taken to the USA to receive this diagnosis because no one in the UK had ever heard of it. Nowadays, autism and its lesser brother Asperger’s Syndrome is common place.

In the old days, the diseases either killed you or you survived.

Sometimes you survived with the consequences of the disease – perhaps a shortened limb – if you’d had polio or a pockmarked skin from smallpox.

But though we may live longer than our grandfathers and great grandfathers, and though we may survive the illnesses which used to kill or maim us, we seem to have lost the robustness and the strength and stamina of previous generations.

The system which has deteriorated is the Immune System.

Our immune systems are subjected to a constant barrage of stressors.

The air that we breathe carries pollutants from road traffic. If we live under a flight path there will be pollutants from the airplanes and a higher incidence of asthma.

The water we drink is cleaned but carries the hormones excreted by women on HRT and the pill.

Water also has chlorine and fluoride added to it – and despite their positive effects there is a large downside to constantly taking in these chemicals. So if we wish to avoid chlorine and fluoride we purify our water. But most of the water filters extract the minerals from the water so you end up with a deficiency in minerals. This in itself is responsible for a decline in the immune system resulting eventually in disease.

Our food, which is plentiful in this country, is grown in soil depleted of its mineral content. The 5 fruit or veg a day regime which is meant to keep us healthy is sadly outdated – again resulting in vitamin and mineral deficiency. Our crops are heavily sprayed with pesticides which our bodies are not designed to deal with – another big stressor to the immune system. Organically grown food is a better alternative – especially for the root vegetables as the roots store the pesticides.

This is a very big subject and this is not the place to do an in depth article.

But here are some of the things you can do to strengthen your immune system.

  • Take a good quality supplement. I take a brand which has all the vitamins and minerals including the trace minerals. The body uses what it needs and excretes the surplus. Find a good brand which is easily absorbed by the body. Some brands are not as good as others, so go to an independent health food store where they stock the better brands and they will be able to advise you. Make sure this supplement contains enough Zinc. You should be getting 15mgs a day including what is in your food – 20mgs per day if you are pregnant or nursing.
  • Ensure you are having enough Essential Fatty Acids. These are the Omega 3’s and 6’s. You need both together to metabolise properly. The 6’s can become depleted if just taking the 3’s.  You can buy the EFA’s in oil and capsule form. If taking capsules – ensure you are getting enough.
  • Drink good quality water. Make sure you get enough of it – around 2 litres per day. If you are thirsty it means that you are already de-hydrated. Some of your water may come in the form of watery vegetables – e.g. cucumbers. But even if you are not thirsty – just get into the habit of drinking water. It is the carrier for getting the nutrients and oxygen around the body. Without enough water – you become physically and mentally sluggish
  • Don’t eat too much. See how much more energy you have if you haven’t overloaded.
  • Try to keep junk food to a minimum. You will be surprised how much better you’ll feel.
  • Exercise. We as a nation have become physically lazy. We don’t even have to get up to change the channel on the TV. It’s no wonder we do not have the strength and stamina of previous generations. Exercise is needed to massage the organs so they can function well and helps the flow of blood through the system. It is needed to keep the metabolism working well. It also helps the body to produce its own anti depressants.

If you give your body what it needs to maintain itself it will reward you with a stronger immune system and with better health.