No-Fail Ways to

W I Nat Weight Loss

Angela Minelli, HHC, CNHP

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5 No-Fail Ways to Win at Weight Loss I’m excited to share 5 No-Fail Ways to Win at Weight Loss with you, but first, I’dlike to tell you a little bit about me and my back story.

The topic of weight and its loss is 1 that has been around for years, and by myestimation probably will be forever. I know that my own personal struggle withexcess weight has been a journey over 30 years in the making.

I can remember at the tender age of 12 thinking that I was fat and I had bettergive this whole weight loss kick a whirl else I suffer the consequences. The firstdiet I can recall was homemade. I simply started counting calories and usingmeasuring cups to measure my food. I had a trusted calorie-counting bookby my side and felt invincible.

Funny enough though, my new “diet” only lasted a few days and soon I begansubstituting my pre-planned veggies for pudding. If the calories were thesame, what did it matter I figured. Hence I began a battle of the bulge thatraged on for years.

The self-defeat, disgust and failure I felt every time I lost and not only gainedthe weight back but more was enough to make me want to give up for good.

I know I’m not alone. I know that most people trying to lose weight have asimilar past and continue to go through what I went through. It’s not pretty.It’s not fun. And it definitely doesn’t work. After years of stress and strain onmy body, and a complete unknowing of the secrets to natural weight loss, itbecame harder and harder to reverse the damage I caused trying to get itright all along.

As a kid, I was a full blown sugar addict, bingeing on sugar 1 day and the nextcompletely admonishing it from my life. It continued through high school,along with all the yo yo dieting that kicked in to counteract the weight gainfrom the binges. Soon I developed a whole host of health conditions, all aresult of a diet full of refined sugar and carbs.

But I never made the connection between the excess weight, mood swings, acne,low energy, and brain fog, and the overconsumption of sugar, because I neverknew. These aren’t the things they teach you in diet centers or doctor’s offices.

Since my system was on a constant roller coaster ride, I 1st becamehypoglycemic, which is a condition that causes low blood sugar and ischaracterized by irritability or shakiness when you’re hungry. Your blood sugardrops rapidly, making you nauseous and woozy and unless you get somethingin your system ASAP, you’ll likely pass out.

Your body knows intuitively that sugar is a quick fix and it will make you craveit to keep you out of the danger zone. Sugar gets absorbed very quickly inyour mouth versus having to go all the way through your digestive tract so itraises your blood sugar fast.

Next, insulin resistance set in, which made my fat cells stop responding to insulinand instead store fat in my stomach. As a result, I constantly needed moreand more insulin to stay stabilized which ultimately caused my pancreas towork harder.

After years of sending your system into overdrive, you can imagine how it throws it off and you runthe risk of developing serious disease like diabetes.

I had no idea that all the sugar I was eating was leading to these conditions or moreover causingthe stubborn weight in my midsection. The belly fat prompted me to go on a bunch of fad diets,which just led to more bingeing from the food restriction. I’ll never forget downing an entire boxof Girl Scout cookies 1 night after weeks of being on a low-cal diet, and the succeeding guilt andshame I felt afterward because of it. It was awful.

I hid out in the laundry room of my childhood house where the freezer was and I inhaled them, 1right after the other – straight out of the box - without even sitting down.

Needless to say, by the age of 17, sugar was playing Russian Roulette with my body.

As I went through life, I continued binge eating, punishing myself with extreme exercise, anddenying myself the pleasure of food with low-cal diets. I entered college a closet junk-food junkie,and after, when I became a full-fledged member of corporate America, I gained 50 pounds in 1year due to my overreliance on sugar. Combined with a high stress work environment, I becamea full-on food addict and sugar was my drug of choice.

On a medium-built, 5’4 stature, it was more than noticeable too. But the truth is I was never happyin my job, but I refused to admit it to myself out of a lack of confidence in my ability to sustainmyself on my natural talents, and relied on sugar to fill the void.

It didn’t make me feel too sexy carrying all that extra weight though, that’s for sure.

It wasn’t until much later that I began to clue in to what was lurking beneath the surface and whatI needed to do to drop fat for good. It wasn’t always easy, and it took courage, but it eventuallyafforded me the freedom from food that I longed for my entire life.

Now, thankfully, I have finally discovered the best-kept secrets to natural weight loss and I no longerdeal with the pain and struggle of chronic dieting that I endured for years. I know you’ll find themjust as life-changing as I have.

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The History of Dieting I first want to start out by talking about the history of dieting so that you have a clear idea of whereall this nonsense came from.

For the last several decades we have ping-ponged from 1 diet to the next in our society, few lastingmore than several years and none succeeding at their ultimate promise: to help people lose weightand keep it off.

And there’s a good reason for this dilemma. Each diet that has come along has really just beena response to the nutritional imbalance created by the previous fad diet.

So the new “best-selling” diet essentially provided relief from the previous diets.

Let’s look at this. As we moved away from working in the fields, and more at desks, we moved to low-calorie diets with the logical thought that consuming less calories would result in lower body weight.

In reality, the body responds to a restriction of calories as a survival situation and stores fat for thelong haul. Therefore, the body learns to burn emergency fuel in the form of sugar.

This is important because as a result of too many low-calorie diets, when the body says “I needfuel now” we crave sugar or a stimulant in some form because it is metabolized so quickly in themouth that we don’t have to wait for it to get all the way down into the digestive tract and outinto our bloodstream.

But because the energy from sugar is intense and short-lived, the net result is that you’ll experience shortbursts of energy highs, followed by energy lows. So dieters become like drug addicts needing the next“hit” of speed or cocaine and they begin to get serious cravings for the very foods not on the diet.

This explains why you inevitably go off low-calorie diets and wind up overeating to make up forthe deprivation of the diet.

Geneen Roth who is the author of some awesome books on our relationships with food says thatfor every diet there is an equal and opposite binge.

So here’s the cycle: you diet, you lose weight, you post-diet overeat, you gain back the weightyou lost and more, you freak out, you choose a new diet and clamp down tighter on your foodchoices, you lose weight, you post-diet overeat, you gain back the weight you lost and more, youfreak out, you choose a new diet…and so on.

But now because your body has been conditioned to burn sugar for energy and store fat for theupcoming starvation, when you’re on this roller coaster you paradoxically put on more weight.

Sound familiar?

So after all that yo-yo dieting, food becomes the enemy, and you enter into a love-haterelationship with it. Food isn’t pleasurable or relaxing or enjoyable, it’s instead stressful, guilt-riddenand a source of anxiety.

To an extreme, some dieters can’t even eat in front of others. They hide like alcoholics, or drug addicts.

Overeaters binge and feel guilty and full of shame.

So in the history of dieting, and after all the fad diets, in the end, the only one this all benefits is thebillion dollar weight loss industry. You’d think we’d all be the thinnest nation in the world with allthese diets but we’re not. We’re actually the fattest nation with 72% of adults overweight and 34%of children. Not good.

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Diet MentalityLet’s talk a little about the mental effects of dieting.

Most people think of healthy food as bland and boring, pond scum, or tree bark. Somewherewe’ve developed the notion that you’ve got to suffer to heal. This is a very limiting concept ofwhat healthy eating can be.

The cycle of going on diets, failing at the diet, then onto a new diet has gotten us to a point wherewe are totaling disconnected from our bodies, and what’s worse – distrustful of them.

People think if they were let loose without any “food rules,” they would go absolutely crazy andeat themselves into oblivion. We tend to view our desires or cravings as out-of-control, demonicurges that must be battled and fought against.

I’m going to suggest a different perspective here: cravings are not the enemy. They are actuallyimportant information that our bodies are giving us to let us know there is an imbalance.

You see, your body is always seeking balance, so it will crave and crave and crave until it gets there.

Now let’s think about the reality of your body for a second. It’s unbelievably intelligent. It performshundreds of thousands of functions every second that you’re not even aware of. And believe itor not, the most definitive nutritional expertise is literally found inside you.

It’s called the enteric nervous system, or the ENS – the gut brain. It contains over 1 million neuronswhich is more than the number of nerve cells in the spinal cord. So we’ve got some seriousintelligence in our guts.

When you teach yourself how to tune into your gut brain, it will actually tell you exactly what itwants. So think about it. Animals in the wild never question what they want to eat. The lion doesn’tleave his den every day wondering if he should eat the caribou or the zebra, and stays away fromthe hippopotamus because it’s too fatty, right? It just knows what to eat.

And so do you.

The problem is that you live in a concrete jungle where it gets very confusing! Advertisements, tv,the latest diet fad all bombard you on a daily basis where it gets very confusing.

But here’s where it gets juicy, because the truth is you know better than any of them what you need.

Your body may cooperate with a diet temporarily, but in the long run, the more you restrict yourself,eventually it’s going to talk to you in the form of cravings. It’s going to start to tell you it needsmore fat, or carbs for energy, or sugar for sweetness.

What you really want to do is start to move away from a “just tell me what to eat” diet mentalityso that you can learn to listen to your body thereby allowing the inherent wisdom of the ENS toinform you what the best choices are about what to eat and the way to eat.

This is major.

Learning to listen to your body is essential because the longer you ignore it, the more extreme thebacklash will be. You know how children who want your attention will use increasingly extrememeasures to get it?

Well, it’s the same with your body. If you don’t listen, cravings will get stronger or disease will manifest.

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Another part of moving away from the “just tell me what to eat” diet mentality is responsibility. Atfirst glance, it seems a lot easier to let someone else tell you what’s best for you. But when you sayto someone else “tell me what to eat” you’re not taking the time to find out what you need, whichis really a disservice to you.

Basically, you’re letting someone else drive the bus instead of becoming the expert on you, andin the end you’re not doing yourself any favors.

Another symptom of diet mentality is “good food/bad food” labels.

They sort of equal “good person/bad person.” Do you notice how people talk about food? They’llsay “I was really good today” or “I was sooo bad.”

Labeling food as good or bad is really labeling yourself as good or bad. Usually people with ahistory of dieting use these terms, but no food is inherently good or bad.

Trust me, Snickers bars aren’t sitting around plotting to ruin your life. Labeling foods as “good” or“bad” is really about judging yourself as worthy or unworthy based on how well you can adhereto a label.

Can you see that this is not an accurate way to judge yourself? Weight loss really has nothing todo with being good or bad.

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Overeating/Lack of AwarenessLet me guess. You think that you’re a willpower weakling which is why you can’t lose weight. Wrong!

You don’t have a willpower problem. What you have is an awareness problem. You’re actuallyborn with only 5% willpower. So weight loss is not about willpower.

The gut moves slow. And most of the time, your world is moving really fast. You’ve heard the sayingthat we don’t realize we’re full until 15 minutes after we’ve eaten. That’s because the gut and thebrain require SLOW.

There’s something call the Cephalic Phase Digestion Response, or CPDR, which means “of thehead” and it’s a fancy term for the pleasure of taste, aroma, satisfaction and visual stimulation ofa meal. It’s like your brain is eating too. You’re having a total experience of the food.

It’s estimated that as much as 30-40% of the total digestive response to any meal is due to CPDR!

So if you pound down a meal in a hurry, the brain is going “Wait! I didn’t eat. I want more.” Andyou end up eating far more than your stomach wants, because you’re trying to feed your sensesand your brain.

Another facet of this is eating in a stress response. The stress response means being in “fight orflight” mode. If the stress response if off, your mind recognizes that you’re not running from a bear,the body is in relaxation mode and you’re ready to digest.

But if the stress response is on, blood is shunted away from the digestive system to the limbs to allowthe body to run from the bear. And here’s the really important part – your body doesn’t know thedifference between real and imagined stress.

You can be in traffic and in full “flight or fight” mode, so your body thinks you’re running from thebear when you just want the light to turn green.

Have you ever scarfed down a meal and felt like it was just sitting in your stomach? That’s exactlywhat happens. It just sits there, until the body can get out of the stress mode and go into relaxationmode where it can start the digestion process. For some people, that can be hours after they eat.

Now, we’ve talked about the Cephalic Phase Digestive Response, eating during a stress response,and here’s the 3rd component. The power of beliefs.

There was a fascinating study done in 1983 to test a new chemotherapy treatment. Half the groupwas getting actual chemo and half the group was getting a placebo. The participants didn’tknow who was getting what. It was not unusual that in the group getting actual chemo, 74% ofthe patients lost their hair.

Yet remarkably in the group getting the placebo, 31% of patients lost their hair too. That is howpowerful your beliefs are. They lost their hair because they believed they would. So the sameprinciple applies when it comes to weight loss. What do you think happens when you tell yourself“It’s hard to lose weight” or “I’ll get fat when I eat that brownie?”

Think about it.

So to review. CPDR, the stress response, and the power of beliefs. Eating with awareness is 1 ofthe key components to natural weight loss. When you are actually present when you’re eating,you’ll find you are satisfied with much less.

So much of the time we focus on what to eat. But a huge secret to natural weight loss is that HOWyou eat is just as important, if not more so.

And now,

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So, finally, here are my 5 No-Fail Ways To Win At Weight Loss. These strategies have worked for meand I know will work for you too. They’re not woo woo either, so be sure not to underestimate them.Once you apply them - and turn them into habit - you’ll be amazed at how effectively they work!

No-Fail Way #1 What if you’re in a stress response, say at work and things are pretty hectic, but you need to eat,what do you do? In other words, what is the easiest way to turn off a stress response so that youcan immediately relax your body?

Simple. Relax and BREATHE. With your feet planted firmly on the floor, and your back straight upagainst the chair, inhale all the way down to the pit of your stomach, then release it. Do it at least3 times, preferably 10.

It’s so important to remember that every time you feel stressed, you create stress chemistry in yourbody which takes your body out of digestive mode, and eating too fast is stressful to your body too.So in order to fully assimilate the nutrients from your food, you need to slow down, relax, and breathe.

Bonus technique! After you breathe and you begin eating your meal, in the first couple of minutesof your meal, put your utensils down at least 3 times. This will slow you down even more.

No-Fail Way #2Chew your food. I mean, really chew.

Chewing has a ridiculous amount of benefits. It helps your awareness, and it helps you breathe whileyou eat, and the oxygen from breathing helps you digest better plus stokes your metabolic fire.

1 added benefit is that chewing vegetables and whole grains increases their natural sweetness soyour food tastes sweeter, and who doesn’t love sweet?

If you have digestive issues, which most people do whether they realize it or not, pay close attentionto this 1 because the simple act of chewing greatly improves your digestion. Ideally, chew eachbite 30 times.

To make it easy, just think 3/3/30 – 3 deep breaths, utensils down 3 times, chew 30 times.

No-Fail Ways to

W I Nat Weight Loss

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No-Fail Way #3 Find work you love to do and do it! Now, this 1 is my personal favorite ☺

So many people can’t stand their jobs, yet day after day they keep punching the same time clockjust to get a paycheck. Essentially, they value money over their bodies and you can guaranteethe stress from it all is inhibiting any chance they have to lose weight.

Having money is essential, and I get that, but what would it take for you to find work you love anddo it instead of working a job that makes you miserable? Your job doesn’t pay you, the Universedoes, so whatever job you’re working now is the 1 you’re choosing to be paid through. You canchoose resource to pay you.

The best way to determine what line of work would satisfy you is to think about it this way: whatcould you do all day that you would love to do, and you’d never get sick of?

If you’re not sure, ask to be shown what it would be and hold that vibration until you get the intuitivehit that you know you’ve been answered with certainty.

From there, make a plan. Stock pile money until you have enough to leave, or start putting outresumes in search of that perfect career. If you dream of becoming your own independententrepreneur someday who sets their own schedule, gives themselves a raise whenever they want,and works from home, then GO FOR IT! Trust me – the Universe will support you with whatever youchoose for yourself.

You just have to ask.

No-Fail Way #4 Dump toxic relationships. Listen, I know no one wants to be lonely but as far as I’m concernedthere’s no lonelier lot in life than to be stuck in an unhappy relationship. Personally, I’d rather besingle if that’s my only option.

It’s not your job to fix anyone, so stop trying. Your partner, or anyone else for that matter, isn’t afixer-upper project and probably isn’t going to change any time soon, especially if you’re naggingthem about their faults all the time.

I don’t know why certain women latch on to emotionally unstable or unavailable men, but basedon experience, it’s typically rooted in their childhood and their relationship with their primarymale caretaker.

Whatever the reason, if you don’t get the attention you deserve, or your partner doesn’t think you’rethe greatest thing since sliced bread - all day every day - it’s time to go. Just pick up a copy of,“He’s Just Not That Into You,” and you’ll be cured in no time.

Remember! This doesn’t just apply to your significant other, it applies to all relationships. Friendscount too, and so do family members…

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No-Fail Way #5 Supplement with Vitamin P, or pleasure. We are programmed at a primitive level to seek pleasureand avoid pain, so when you deny yourself the pleasure of food, eventually you’ll give in.

Our bodies are designed to eat. It’s a natural human function! So ya gotta feed yourself foodsthat taste good to you.

I’m not suggesting that you make a meal of M&M’s every day, however I do recommend eatingfoods that you enjoy. Sweet, for example, is 1 of your taste buds, so if you think you can foreverforgo sweet foods, think again.

If you don’t believe me, try it! I guarantee that ultimately you’ll crave something sweet, which is asign that your body is out of balance and needs sweet to satisfy it. What you choose to eat thoughis what makes the difference.

There is an organic alternative to anything conventional, and plenty of low glycemic sweetalternatives on the market, and I don’t mean Splenda.

For more on how to Crack the Code on Sugar Cravings, visithttp://www.wellnesswithangela.com/stopsugarcravings/programs/crack-the-code.

Bonus No-Fail Way #6!I love spoiling my clients, so I decided to throw in an unadvertised 6th bonus!

So here it is. Exercise 15 minutes a day. That’s it. That’s all you gotta do.

There’s only 1 caveat. Don’t do any exercise that inflicts pain or punishment on your body! If youhave weight to lose, chances are you already deal with some degree of self-hatred, so let’s notadd any on top of it.

In fact, when you workout and it’s not exercise you enjoy, you’re adding more stress to your systemwhich will cancel out any benefit you gain from exercising altogether.

I suggest exercise that is in alignment with who you are, your core being, and for many womenthat means belly dancing! Belly dancing is incredibly healthy to your digestive system because itnourishes the organs in your belly and helps move food through your digestive system.

It’s based on movements that come natural to the female form and is considered a non-impactform of exercise too. Plus it improves posture, tones muscle, and aids in weight loss!

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So there you have them. My 5 No-Fail Ways To Win At Weight Loss. The bottom line is losing weight doesn’t have to be as complicated as the diet centers make it outto be, but then again I’m not trying to sell you pre-packaged crap food and get you addicted toit so you keep coming back for more.

What weight loss does require is educating yourself on the root causes of weight gain and takingaction to reverse them.

If you want more of my best-kept secrets to natural weight loss, I’d love to chat with you. Just sendan e mail to angela@wellnesswithangela.com and we’ll set up a Natural Weight Release DiscoverySession, complimentary of course! Good riddance to calorie counting and the dreaded"dread"mill forever (yuck).

If you’re ready to get so in tune with your body that weight loss becomes effortless, then Iguarantee you’re gonna love this session!

Angela Minelli, HHC, CNHP(440) 734-8940

wellnesswithangela.com

© 2011 Angela Minelli All rights reserved.Unauthorized duplicationis a violation of applicable law.

”The weight loss doesn’t stop!”

“I love cooking, but was getting takeout at leasta few times a week. Cooking fills a creativeniche in my life, but I wasn’t doing it enough,and was spending quite a bit of money onrestaurant food. I was depressed, had lowenergy and felt no motivation for anything.

After working with Angela, I lost 13 pounds, lostmy cravings and my energy skyrocketed! Plus,I’m back to cooking for myself and making myown meals every day.

I feel much better overall and I’ve been able tocome off my thyroid and blood pressuremedications too!

The best part is the weight loss doesn’t stop. I’vesince lost a total of 40 lbs and can’t wait to losemore! I have complete confidence that I knowwhat I’m doing to make it happen. Angelataught me skills I’ll use for the rest of my life.

I feel much more hopeful and optimistic aboutmy health and my life and I love working withAngela! She is inspirational, supportive andoffers great suggestions & insights!”

Linda NelsonAurora, IL

“I felt my pants get looser even asI started to really enjoy food!”

The day before I started working with Angela, Ifound myself sneaking a plate full of cupcakesout of the break room at work. I inhaled them atmy desk and then felt compelled to chase themwith a bag of vending machine chocolates.

Sugar was my security blanket, and I wasreluctant to give it up, but deep down I knew itwas destroying my health. Angela provided mewith a wealth of information that helped mepinpoint exactly why I was so out of controlaround sugar and gave me a personalized planthat allowed me to feel way more in control ofmyself without neglecting my sweet taste buds.

To my surprise, giving up sugar did not mean Ihad to give up sweet things forever! I felt mypants get looser even as I started to really enjoyfood, and I always felt supported andencouraged in our sessions.

Angela really knows her stuff, and I wouldrecommend her to anyone who is ready to takeresponsibility for his or her own health.

Berit PrestonNYC

Testimonials “I feel like a new person!”

“I was a health mess when I found Angela. I had horrible digestive issues, anitchy rash on my legsand arms and no energy at all. I was always in some sort of pain and discomfort and was soembarrassed that I didn’t even want my husband to see!

I went to many doctors and each one advised me there was nothing wrong with me. I internalizedthese feelings which began to affect me emotionally, but Angela was able to target the rootcauses of my symptoms and immediately starting working with me on issues that were obvious toher that the doctors missed.

In a few short months I am now feeling like a new person. The rash and digestive issues havedisappeared, I got rid of toxins in my body and I lost 15 pounds! Angela is quite special as she isalso concerned with emotions and how they affect health. She has not only been a nutrition saviorbut also a confidante and friend.

My husband and I both have benefited from this experience. I learned valuable lessons that I useeach and every day. I have my energy back and know that I have a knowledgeable expert thatI can turn to with my nutrition questions. Working with Angela is something I absolutely recommend.Thank you Angela!”

Kathy Vervan-BuglinLebanon, NJ

Angela Minelli, HHC, CNHP • (440) 734-8940 • wellnesswithangela.com