A08 Weight Management

Chapter Eight weight management that they give way.

Managing weight, when it boils down to the bare basics is about two effective methods. method one, stop the body from building fat up and method to encourage the body to burn fat for energy.

The most effective way to do step one is to stop insulin from spiking upwards. We do that by reducing the sugar and the starches in our food. rice, potatoes, soft breads, sweet foods, cheap carbohydrates, we have got far too used to that sedated feeling after a big meal. We mistake that for being full. That's not actually being full at all. That is a side effect of the insulin switch, which tells your body to slow down and divert all of its blood to your digestion because you have taken on so much rich food.

And the rich food is empty of fats. So you don't really feel full. You just sedated and you feel bloated.

But the good method is moderation. Don't cut sweet foods out altogether. But to find a way to cut down. When you cut down you replace replace the calories from sugar and starch with calories from fats, proteins and fiber startups. This means in reality, eating high quality energy sources like leafy vegetables, fibrous breads, and so on. Properly farmed meats, vegetable fats from nuts, dairy cheeses, live yogurts, and processed vegetable oils, full fat milk and so on.

Insulin will be kept low, and you will feel more genuinely full, not this sedated full and the body gets less of a signal to build fat in the first place.

Step two, as you remember, is fasting.

Not eating for a period long enough to help the body switch to burning fat. It's that simple. Fasting a couple of times a week is recommended by our Prophet, peace be upon him. But we also now see the profound wisdom of why he said himself that the finest kind of fasting was that of Buddha Islam, the prophet David who fasted on alternate days. This is actually the perfect mathematical balance between feeding and fasting.

Like so many things, we see that Allah has granted us a mercy. He knows we enjoy food. So he sent the Prophet as a mercy to us. We don't have to follow that Woods way. The profits twice a week method is more than sufficient to improve our health and lose excess weight perfectly naturally, using the body's own systems, rather than forcing it with pills and exercise and supplements.

Both of these methods are actually far far easier than all the years of wasted effort and expense, buying so called healthy, fat free foods, painfully cutting out enjoyable, wholesome, tasty foods rich in proteins and natural fats. And guess what Islam has always advocated for eating those foods.

The tube is the name of it long before any modern trains came about.

One philosophy we need to remember as part of the tube is moderation.

So those with a sweet tooth need not be alarmed. While secular books on intermittent fasting would forbid you from eating white rice or having the odd chocolate bar. Islam is far more sympathetic to the human condition.

Those foods become perfectly permissible. But you understand the Islamic way. And when you start fasting mindfully, you'll find that your wish to eat those food actually reduces, you will still eat them. And what's more, you will actually enjoy your time eating them rather than being laden with guilt afterwards.

You'll get full and fed up of them. And you won't have to eat as much.

You might ask well, why doesn't it work for me so far, this fasting stuff? You'd be forgiven for thinking that it doesn't resonate with your experience? If fasting is the secret? How come it doesn't seem to work in London?

Some of us lose weight, but many don't. What's going on?

Well, it turns out we aren't paying attention to what Islam says.

Other than the basic rules of don't eat during daylight.

Tell me if you recognize these mistakes,

we needlessly compensate with excessive amounts of food. Also very rich and sugary foods, outside fasting types. We have full spheres, we think of fasting as a difficult time with the aim is to survive a period of weakness and hunger, with danger of collapse if we don't care.

We're uninformed about good food types, other than halal and haram, and that dates are good. We're not really aware of what types of foods Islam considers to be

actually healthy and good for us.

We have an incomplete mindset. We conduct ourselves without much attention to the need to moderate our behaviors and reflect on a more gentle, calm, compassionate approach to things that fasting encourages. Other than switching off the TV, most of us don't know what to actually do, other than pray more. Otherwise, we find ourselves bored and sitting on our phones. Tell me if this isn't true.

We're uninformed about good methods of eating. Few of us know the actual guidance about the order in which to eat our foods, how to sit and behave around food, how quickly or slowly to eat, how to choose what kind of crockery is helpful.

And we've become out of touch with genuine needs. Few of us understand the true nature and feeling of hunger and thirst. Most of us never actually encounter these even Ramadan.

As we've discussed, mostly what we feel is the false hunger. And we'll talk about that in more detail later on. We're also misled by prejudice. We believe at a basic level that fasting is probably harmful, a bit like starvation, and that it puts our bodies at risk. Maybe it damages the kidneys or burns away muscle tissue. This is not only prejudicial, it's actually wrong. And we'll find out why later on as well.

We're uninformed about the health benefits. We simply don't know that there are such principles as the foods, the order in which to eat or any such things. And even if we do we secretly believe that they might just be Islamic traditions or ornaments, which may not have much roots in actual scientific evidence or medical difference,

knows how wrong we have been.

And actually take this wrongness as good news, because it means that most of what we need to change is our knowledge. You don't have to try harder when fasting, or suffer even more with your food, or buy yet more expensive pills and powders or memberships to keep your health no quite the opposite. In fact, life gets a lot simpler, cheaper and easier.

All of the advances in medical technology, either drugs, techniques and devices have so far failed to address the problem of weight management adequately.

Even what we thought was the most effective and invasive method that have stomach banding surgery, which was so promising when it first became common around 20 years ago, is turning out to be seriously troublesome in the long term for at least a third of people who have it.

malnutrition, constant nausea, and other gut related problems. And mental health consequences are becoming a problem that surgeons are having to take notice of

eating less calories, as opposed to outright fasting doesn't seem to work on its own for people. If they're just eating little and often.

Exercising doesn't seem to impact weight, as much as we will lead to think dots and exercise plans can be mentally exhausting to taking up a lot of attention and time.

Anyone can lose weight, if they focus on it without distraction of any kind. But when the diet or program is over, we can't keep up with it. And the weight comes back a few months later, we have no idea what the diet was about. What's worse, the industry blames the user. It's your fault, they say for not being able to stick to the plan, which is so demanding that it takes all of your willpower to keep it up. Psychologically, this is setting you up to fail.

We live in the real world with work, family distractions and unexpected things. We need something that doesn't add to the number of things we have to do. So really, let's think about this another way.

It has not been your fault. And you already know the basics of fasting as a Muslim anyway. You can with a few further refinements use fasting as a long term part

A healthy Islamic lifestyle, like it was meant to be all along. What's more, it becomes consistently easier over time, because the rewards grow. Plus, it's medically evidenced to be an extreme benefit. And finally, perhaps greatest of all, we get to follow the profits ways, and please allow immensely into the bargain.

So is it as easy as that? Well, on paper, it all seems so. But we are Muslims. We don't take things at face value without understanding them. And working through the bugs. We investigate the facts and make adjustments along the way. We set goals for our worldly and our religious purposes. Instant insights, one of my previous books describes goal setting in greater detail.

But the biggest challenges you will face, not the fasting, or the eating part. But in preparing yourself to deal with the consequences of change. This change is a good one, undoubtedly. But all change requires adjustment. You have to adjust to the types and amounts of ingredients you choose to buy.

You'll need to understand and discover who else can or will support you in this change. You need to prepare for the days before and after fasting and deal with the feelings on days that you don't fast.

You'd love to change how and where you eat in accordance with your new practice.

Do you have to change or adjust to how much you can deal with the interruptions or exceptional days, when you just don't feel that into it or when fasting is not possible?

And you need to increase the amount of kindness you show yourself. How much do you accept yourself.

It doesn't help if you diet with the idea that you're somehow undesirable and unattractive. And you reach this target where you're transformed.

You need to think of yourself as worthy, acceptable, and forgivable exactly as you are, and forgive yourself for mistakes, which will inevitably arise.

You'll need to reconsider your emotions around food. You might feel addicted, shameful, guilty about what you eat, or indifferent to it not really caring about the tastes.

And your general levels of stress, mental health and well being will need to be taken into account, they will improve but everything, even if it's positive, requires a bit of adjustment and energy

increases committing to anything at all. Never believe anyone who tells you that the same benefits come the same to everyone. Some people will put minimal effort and see maximum benefit. And other less fortunate folk will see the opposite.

Most of us we'll put the effort in and we must remain happy to know that this is the reasonable best you can do.

You don't give 100% every day that's just impossible. You put in a reasonable amount, taking life as it comes and you aim for good results, but you cannot demand them.

Results are up to allow to design.

There is however one universal truth over and above all of this, that the new way is the way for Muslims to do this. And whatever efforts you make, you will be earning the pleasure and attention of Allah because this change is aligned to both your worldly goals and your religious ones. No other health plan or diet can claim such a thing.

End of Chapter