I was able to easily lose 10 pound in one month by changing my diet and implementing the Fit for Life diet Principles.
Seeing my success inspired me to learn more so I could help others do the same. So if you want to learn how to lose weight with the fit for life diet principles this post is for you!
I first came across the Fit for Life book from a fellow traveler in Mexico on one of our family holiday camping trips. At the time I was a young teenager carrying around an extra ten pounds that I was happy to lose if I could and knew how too, so I picked up the Fit for Life book and started reading.
From the moment I picked it up, I couldn’t put it down. I remember staying up throughout the night reading the book by candlelight in my tent feeling so excited about the principles of food combining for weight loss.
While I ate a healthy diet, I was not practicing food combining and the other core principles in the Fit for life book, so I was excited to test the weight loss tips. To my surprise, the 10 pounds of excess weight dropped away within a month.
Seeing how easily and effortlessly I lost weight with the new dietary changes motivated me to continue to eat this way. It also sparked a desire to learn about nutrition (which by the way is a never-ending rabbit hole that can be both exciting and confusing at the same time!)
The core Fit for Life Principles are:
• Have 70 % of your diet be uncooked/ raw high-water content fruits and vegetables
• To practice food combining for weight loss by never mixing a protein with starch
• Eat only fruit in the morning until noon to allow for the elimination cycle to finish
• Eat an early dinner so that the body is ready to enter the assimilation cycle by the time you go to bed
• Eat fruit all on its own
• DO NOT OVEREAT – Eat until you are 80% filled
By following these core principles, I was able to easily lose weight but as a result, I also felt more CONFIDENT in my body which is huge for a teenager, or anyone for that matter. So often it’s not about weight loss as much as it is about our confidence and how we feel in our bodies.
When you start to notice how healthy, happy, confident and energized you feel in your body by eating healthy whole foods it becomes easier to make healthy, sustainable eating habits and dietary choices.
The Benefits of raw foods for weight loss
One of the main Fit for Life diet principles for weight loss was to have 70 % of your diet be high water content foods that are uncooked whole raw fruits and vegetables. Eating 70 % of raw foods leaves 30% of the diet available for cooked concentrated foods. The reason behind eating a 70% raw food diet of fruits and vegetables is because fruits and vegetables are the best foods for weight loss as they are 70 percent water, extremely cleansing to the body and are filled with nutrients and natural enzymes that are destroyed during cooking.
Harvey goes on to explain that our bodies are approximately 70 percent water and our world is 70 percent water and that eating whole fruits and vegetables that are filled with both nutrients and water is the perfect food for our bodies. The water found in these foods is crucial for detoxification as the water delivers the nutrients to all cells of the body while also removing toxic waste products.
The water in fruits and vegetables helps to hydrate the body and make you feel full. So often people are mistaking hunger signals for thirst signals and by eating these foods you help to relieve those mistaken thirst signals.
The principles of food combining for weight loss is based on the idea that eating protein with a concentrated starch at the same time such as rice and fish, meat and potatoes will slow down digestion and that the starches found in potatoes, rice, legumes, etc will ferment in the stomach causing the protein to putrefy thus the meal becomes more of a burden to the body.
Vegetables can be eaten with either a starch or a protein but the concentrated starchy foods such as all grains, flours, and legumes should not be mixed with animal protein. If foods are not properly combined digestion will be slower making it more difficult to lose weight.
Fruit should also only ever be eaten on its own as it passes through the stomach in 20-30 minutes providing quick easy to digest energy for the body.
Protein such as chicken or beef takes 3 hours or longer. If fruit is eaten with animal protein the sugars that were meant to be absorbed will instead be fermenting in the stomach with the protein.
While I don’t agree with all the principles behind food combining described in the book, I did initially practice food combining for a couple of years. Now I generally never mix fruit with animal protein and do my best to eat fruit on its own before meals or in the morning.
I find I can maintain a healthy weight and good digestion even when mixing proteins and starches but if your digestion is compromised and you’re struggling to lose weight you may want to practice food combining as it was a core principle in which I initially implemented and practiced.
The Fit for Life Principle of no dairy
Harvey argues that cow’s milk is designed by nature to be drunk by cows and human milk is designed for babies. Most humans lack the enzymes lactase to break down the milk sugar lactose found in cow’s milk and the casein levels found in cow’s milk is considerably higher than in human milk. It is the lactose and casein that many people develop food sensitivities to which then contributes to inflammation a harder time losing weight. Dairy is also very mucus forming and congesting to the body instead of cleansing.
Eating fruit for weight loss
When I look back on the Fit for life diet principles that I practiced I think only eating fruit in the am to give my body easy to digest energy and nutrients without overloading my digestive system was a key component to my weight loss results.
Harvey describes 3 cycles within the body that are always taking place, but each cycle is higher at different times of the day with each cycle lasting 8 hours.
These cycles and times are:
• Digestion from 12 pm to 8 pm
• Assimilation from 8 pm to 4 am
• Elimination from 4 am to 12 pm
By only eating easy to digest fruit in the morning you are allowing your body to focus on detoxification and finish the elimination cycle which is crucial for weight loss.
The liver is the primary organ responsible for detoxifying toxins in the body. The liver is also a primary organ involved in digestion with the job of having to produce bile for the digestion of fats.
Eating fruit in the morning until noon which is cleansing and very low in fat allows the liver and body can focus on elimination without being slowed by the added burden of digestion that is a very energy-demanding that takes energy away from detoxification and elimination.
(You can learn more about the benefits of fruit and a low-fat plant-based diet for weight loss and insulin resistance here)
So often a fatty liver that is overloaded with stored fat is underlying an inability to lose weight and the best foods to cleanse the liver are fruits and vegetables. While healthy fats are great for feeling satiated and long-lasting energy, they don’t clean
se the liver with all the antioxidants, phytonutrients and micronutrients that are found in deeply pigmented fruits and vegetables.
Finish eating your last meal of the day early enough so that by the time you go to bed your meal has left your stomach and is ready to be absorbed by the body in the assimilation phase.
The purpose of eating your last meal of the day early is to allow time for the digestion of that meal to take place so that by the time 8 pm rolls around the body is ready to enter into the assimilation cycle. If a late dinner is eaten the assimilation cycle is delayed and is forced back into the digestion cycle.
Eating an earlier dinner allows for a longer period of fasting throughout the night. Practicing extended periods of intermittent fasting is one of the quickest and effective ways to lose weight.
Eat fruit all on its own
Fruits are one of the easiest foods for the body to digest and pass through the stomach in 20-40 minutes depending on the type of fruit eaten. Fruit can be up to 90 percent water and is great for hydrating the body along with providing micro-nutrients and antioxidants to cleanse the liver.
When fruits are eaten with other foods such as legumes and animal protein the fruit is forced to stay in the stomach longer. The naturally high sugar content in fructose will cause excess fermentation of grains and legumes and putrefaction of animal proteins therefore fruit is best eaten on its own.
DO NOT OVEREAT – Eat until you are 80 percent full
Learning to listen to your body and when you are full is crucial for weight loss and optimal digestion. The body is meant to be nourished with nutrient-dense whole foods but overeating on any food puts an extra burden on the digestive system along with extra calories that are not needed. Eating until you are 80 percent full and not overeating is a powerful weight loss tip.
DO NOT OVEREAT
By practicing these simple yet powerful weight loss tips the ten pounds of excess weight I carried dropped away healthily. Whether someone has 100 pounds to lose or 5 pounds to lose it can be just as challenging to lose weight without a strategy that works.
While I maintain my results to this day 15 years later by eating a balanced nutrient-dense whole food diet I look back to the first time I lost weight by using the Fit for Life principles with the knowledge I have today and can see how these principles were so effective for losing weight.
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