Whittling Away Your Waist

By Sailaja Reddy

This book examines the role of diet and lifestyle change for weight loss. The introductory chapters describe the basics of healthy weight loss. The following chapters address weight loss tips - the foods to consume, the foods to avoid, detoxification, food fermentation, exercises and sample nutrient-rich recipes that help in your weight loss journey.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sailaja Reddy
• Release date: Jun 2, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310523854

Sailaja Reddy

Dr. Sailaja Reddy, a.k.a., Dr. Saila is a licensed and board certified physician specialized in Internal Medicine, practicing in Boston. She attended lifestyle modification courses at Institute of Lifestyle Medicine, Harvard Medical School. Sailaja lives in Boston with her husband and two sons. During her experience as a physician treating various kinds of patients, she has observed a high degree of correlation between lack of attention towards healthy food & living habits and chronic diseases. With her 20 years of expertise in the medical field, she strongly believes many diseases can be altered, prevented, and at times even conquered with phytochemicals, antioxidants, and other nutrients consumed on a diet of organic vegan living food. Her goal is to illuminate new avenues to a healthier lifestyle. Her recipe creations seek to satisfy not simply the palate, but the mind and spirit as well, to revitalize your body. She is passionate about health, wellness, nutrition, weight loss, fitness and more. Dr. Saila has given several presentations on Lifestyle modification in community gatherings. Sailaja has an innate desire to share this path of discovery with you through her website and books. She published several articles in her website. She is the author of an ebook on weight loss, ‘Whittling away your waist’.

Book preview

Prologue

‘Live the life you want’

A fitter, robust body, clearer head and a happier heart. It may be difficult to imagine – especially if you have gained more than 180 lbs. in the past decade or so. Can this be a motivation for someone who is dreaming to achieve the health goals that once seemed out of reach?

Take a look at Mr. John C, 47 year old male, weight 372 lbs. He blames his weight gain on his occupation, sedentary lifestyle, and also for not paying attention to what he eats. His job requires him to sit and work long hours; as a result he ends up staying indoor many months in a year. He’s stayed away from seeking any medical attention for 25 years. During his first visit he stated I never cared to know how much I weighed, I don’t even have a scale in my home, I’ve never weighed myself in 20 years.

When I offered him a nutrition consultation, he said I have no time to see anyone. I said to myself, someone needs to help him, he probably won’t seek nutrition counseling on his own, I should probably see if there’s something I can do for him today. So, I took some extra time and gave him a brief talk about a healthy diet, effective exercise and made him aware that he was at higher risk of getting diabetes, high blood pressure and other cardiovascular conditions than other individuals. I encouraged him, stating that weight loss of more than 5% can reduce cardiovascular risk factors and diabetes.

He missed his follow up appointments, didn’t return any phone calls from my office. After 9 months, he called me back and said it is time for me to see you, I think I lost 120 pounds, I said What do you mean you think! Did you check your weight? He answered No In my experience, qualitative judgments by many patients about the magnitude of their weight loss are often unreliable, I simply didn’t believe he would lose that much weight, as I didn’t remember him showing any interest when I offered him some advice.

I was shocked to see him next day, as I almost didn't recognize him. He looked much younger, more vibrant and in great spirits. He indeed did lose weight, 109 Lbs to be exact, very close to his guess. He seemed very excited about his achievement. He said My first visit with you was a wake-up call, I wanted to live longer and lead healthier life, I simply followed everything you said, the diet you suggested helped me the most, I have to lose more weight, and I have not been able to exercise much, and will be adding more exercise to my lifestyle.

This and many other patient success stories were my motivation to make my view on weight loss publicly known. By being able to motivate a person who was not even seeking help, I figured I might be able to help motivated people who are actively seeking it.

Chapter 1: Introduction

Obesity has become epidemic in many countries. To lead a healthier and happier life, you need to maintain ideal body weight. Dietary, lifestyle and pharmacologic weight loss interventions may contribute to reducing the cardiovascular risks [1].

The number of people who are obese and overweight is increasing every year. This is mainly because of our food choices, and our sedentary lifestyle is a contributing factor. If you care enough for the result, you will almost always attain it. The tragic consequences in life do not depend on not reaching a goal, but instead depend on not having a goal. Let the rest of the world live to eat, but if you want to be healthy and happy, you want to eat to live.

Mindset is the key. Bring your mind to a sense of ‘I can accomplish anything’ will allow attaining that accomplishment. My weight loss advice like any conventional weight loss advice is, to include smart diet choices, regular exercise with yoga, cardio and strengthening exercises. I do not encourage any rigid routines like weighing the food, measuring exercise, calorie counting. If you focus on the type of food you eat you will achieve the long-lasting result without any problem.

Don’t fall for labels, follow sensible eating and exercise plan that is shown to work. If you do