- Introducing the ‘natural skinny jab’ – that doesn’t involve a jab at all!
- How to feel fuller without eating more – it’s the ‘no diet diet’ you’ve been waiting for
- Secrets of the world’s super-agers
Last Friday I wrote about the Skinny Jab.
It an injection that makes you feel fuller, more of the time, so that you eat less.
A terrible thing, in my opinion.
You won’t be surprised to hear that, of course!
And I know from the flood of emails I received that many of you feel the same way.
If you missed that email, you can read all about why I’m worried this might be a dangerous new fad here: The Problem with the Skinny Jab
Of course, it’s easy for me to moan.
We can all knock these treatments for obesity from our armchairs (or, comfy ergonomic office chair, in my case).
But what’s the solution?
What are the alternatives?
Well, as usual, there’s a natural route to weight control and good health that comes without the side effects.
However, these things are never a quick, easy fix.
It takes a little time, and effort, for natural methods to pay off.
But with some patience and thought, there’s a way you can replicate a little bit of what the Skinny Jab is trying to do, by naturally encouraging a sense of fullness.
The Japanese have some insight in this area…
Secrets of the world’s super-agers
Okinawa is famous for its longevity. Many of its citizens live to 100 and beyond.
In the years before World War II, Okinawans ate fish at least three times each week, along with plenty of vegetables and one serving of grain per day.
So they enjoyed a natural balance between food types and ate no processed meals.
But there’s more to it than what they ate…
They also practice something called ‘hara hachi bu’. This means that you eat slowly and carefully – and stop when you’re 80% full.
This is something many of us don’t do.
I’ll admit, I’m as bad as anyone with this. I tend to wolf down my food as if I’ve been starved – even though I KNOW it’s unhealthy.
When we eat too quickly, we stuff our stomachs full before our brains get the message and switch off our appetites.
As a result, we eat more than our bodies need.
Because of this, we train the muscles in our stomachs to react more slowly in sending “I’m full” messages to the brain.
Each time we eat past bursting point our stomachs get trained to feel full at that point, and so our tolerance grows (along with our waistlines).
The good news is that it can work the other way round…
Gradually DECREASE the amount you eat and your muscle memory gets retrained.
The way to do this is to eat more slowly and stop before you start to feel full.
Try it and you’ll notice that, although you initially feel hungry when you stop eating, this passes quickly as you become satiated.
In short, you can lose weight this way without actually changing WHAT you eat.
It’s the ‘no diet diet’ you’ve been waiting for!
You can also try this…
The vinegar diet trick
There was a Japanese study published in Bioscience, Biotechnology and Biochemistry in 2009.
It showed that people who took a drink containing vinegar every day for 3 months experienced reductions in weight, body fat and waist circumference – this was compared to a placebo group.
Both groups carried out the same amount of physical activity during the research phase and their diets were the same, too.
This led the researchers to conclude that vinegar was the key influencing factor behind the results.
Vinegar can help switch off hunger pangs between meals by reducing the amount of insulin your body produces after eating and preventing the blood sugar spikes you get after tucking into potatoes, rice, bread and other carbohydrates.
And as I describe in my book, The Honey, Garlic and Vinegar Miracle, you can combine these three ingredients into an appetite suppressant to take every day.
Finally, you can try and eat foods that make you feel more full.
Foods that fill you up
Seek out ingredients that are rich in dietary fibre, rich in protein, and which contain healthy forms of fat.
My first recommendation might surprise you, seeing as potatoes are seen by most low carb dieters as enemy number one…
But boiled potatoes contain ‘resistant starch’, which contains half the calories of regular starch and act in your system like soluble fibre, which makes you feel more full.
You can also eat oatmeal for breakfast, as this is loaded with fibre.
Alternatively, eggs for breakfast will make you feel fuller, longer, without the crash you’d get from toast or sugary cereals.
If you are vegan, avocadoes do a similar job.
Then for a snack, try nuts, which are rich in plant-based protein, fat, and fibre.
At lunch, lentil, pea or bean soup is a good option – or try any broth style soup that doesn’t have cream in it.
When you eat your evening meal, bear in mind that fish is the highest of all protein-rich foods on the ‘satiety index’.
Make sure you bulk it out with dark leafy greens – these will also help that sense of fullness (and they’re super healthy, obviously).
If you try the Japanese method of slow eating and the 80% rule, along with a diet weighted towards ‘high satiety’ ingredients, you can replicate a lot of what the Skinny Jab is doing chemically.
What’s more, you’ll establish a long-term eating plan that will keep you heathier throughout your life.
It’s certainly worth a go!
Yours as ever
The Good Life Letter
