Weight Success for a Lifetime

Introduction

T

here is certainly no shortage of weight-loss ideas in this country. Every year, new diet and weight-loss books sprout on bookstore shelves like weeds in an untended garden. Some promise a balanced diet; that is, they stress the importance of including generous amounts of vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds, and some animal protein, and tout the benefits of essential fatty acids that are healthful to the body and assist in weight loss. But for the most part, the mainstream press promotes diets that actually increase your risk of gaining weight, or that make it virtually impossible to keep the extra weight off if the diets are followed over the long term. The failure rate of the weight-loss industry to succeed in its purpose is a staggering 92 percent.

That is not good news for the dieter. Even worse, the mainstream press addresses the diverse issues of unwanted weight gain from one of two perspectives: you eat too much—or you don’t exercise enough. The common understanding of weight management is that it is a simple matter of taking in fewer calories than you expend; for most people, however, that simply isn’t true. The management of caloric resources is governed by virtually every organ system of the body, and, to further complicate matters, is influenced by food and environmental allergies, prescription medications, environmental toxins, past sexual, emotional, and/or physical abuse, and many other factors.

Weight management is, therefore, a very complex issue, as you will learn in this book. Laying the blame for weight failure at the feet of diet or exercise alone often leaves the real source of the problem untouched. The diet industry itself is simply making us fatter, less healthy, and terribly bewildered.

YOU KNOW HOW TO DIET—AND YOU’RE STARVING

If you are like most Americans, you’ve been introduced to dietary restriction and self-control. You’ve been trained to calculate calories, fat grams, and carbohydrate grams. You know how to go to sleep hungry and wake up hungry. You can flip through a cookbook and ignore your growling stomach without even twitching an eyelid. You’ve probably memorized an impressive list of weight-loss tips: Don’t eat standing up. Don’t eat in front of the refrigerator. Tape a picture of your ideal figure to the bathroom mirror. Take tiny bites and chew thoroughly. Drink lots of water. Throw away your fat clothes. Brush your teeth after each meal and again when you feel hungry. Eat lots of lettuce.

But if you really want to lose weight and keep it off, if you want to regain your health and vitality and turn the clock back on the aging process, you’re going to have to go beyond simple dietary restriction and fix your body and your relationship with food. You will have to do things differently. Years of dieting, unless based on a diversity of nutrient-dense foods, may have set up metabolic responses that can be difficult to overcome. If you have dieted frequently or over a long period of time, it is likely that your body has shifted into preservation and starvation mode and that your metabolic rate is too low to sustain weight-loss goals. You’re probably slowly starving to death!

The Diet Mentality in Western Culture

The flourishing diet mentality in our culture is not based on good science or clinical nutrition research but on a dogmatic and largely unfounded belief system. Everyone who has an opinion has become a nutrition expert—but opinions are frequently incorrect. As one wag put it, It isn’t that we don’t know enough. The problem is that so much of what we know is wrong.

Things might have gone differently if the diet industry, with its amazing variety of pseudo-foods and malnutrition-based programs, had emerged in a relatively well-nourished society. Unfortunately, the diet industry and the epidemic of excess weight both emerged within a society that was already struggling with diverse manifestations of undernutrition and malnutrition. We in Western culture have been hungry for decades, so we eat huge quantities of pseudo-foods to try to stanch the hunger pangs; but artificial foods cause chronic hunger, no matter how much food is eaten. We just keep getting hungrier—and fatter.

Excess Weight as a Symptom and a Syndrome

Excess weight is not a disease but a symptom, a sign that the body’s own homeostatic (self-balancing) mechanisms have failed. Excess weight indicates that the body is no longer able to appropriate its caloric resources wisely: it has lost part of its innate ability to burn excess calories, to maintain appropriate stores of excess energy and waste other calories, and to use hunger solely to satisfy the body’s nutrient and energetic needs.

Hunger is likewise a symptom, and we’re missing its message. A normal, healthy body will eat when it is hungry, eat just the type and amount of food needed to meet basic requirements, and stop eating when satisfied. As you will see in Lessons I-4 and II-11, hunger is not an enemy to be vanquished; it is an important biological signal that our bodies need to be fed.

Much of our normal hunger response has been overpowered by pseudo-foods that artificially stimulate our desire to eat. Remember the potato-chip commercial that taunted, You can’t eat just one . . . ? Why do we just keep eating potato chips? Or candy, or sugary breakfast cereals? Our insatiable appetites have nothing to do with the number of calories consumed, and everything to do with physiological addiction and hunger. We eat the wrong foods—for all the wrong reasons.

Excess weight is rarely a simple dietary or activity issue; rather, it is a complex issue involving the digestive system, endocrine system, nervous system, and more. It may be a genetic or even a childhood issue. Being overweight is a syndrome, a collection of symptoms or conditions, showing that one or several of these organ systems is not functioning correctly and is asking for adjustments to be made. Adjustments may indeed be necessary in the appetite or in the selection of different foods, but not so much to correct for caloric intake as to meet the underlying metabolic needs of the body.

Unwanted weight gain is often only one coil in the downward health spiral generated by the consumption of processed, nutrient-poor food. You will learn how the current diet mentality leads to chronic dysregulation of several body systems, and how dysregulation then leads to further weight gain and poor health. For example, hypothyroidism can hinder digestion, slow the metabolic rate, and cause a baffling variety of symptoms. If digestion is impaired, food allergies often develop, leading to myriad symptoms including excess weight. Stress can compound problems of the thyroid gland or pancreas, which may then lead to problems with the female hormone system or with blood sugar levels. As you will see, weight-management issues generally come in clusters, and people usually struggle with more than one. It is not a simple problem!

Seldom can permanent, healthful weight loss occur through dietary changes alone. The other needs of the body—the whole syndrome of excess weight and poor health—must be addressed. And that is why you’re reading this book.

WHY TRY THE WINGS PROGRAM?

Failure to recognize the complexity of weight management is one of the biggest reasons that Americans have not been successful with their weight despite their penchant for diet books and plans, surgery, exercise equipment, pills, potions, and even lotions. They haven’t understood the language of the body. An overweight body will not drop excess pounds until the needs of that body have been met, until the language of the body has been decoded—until the body has been fed.

The Wings Program is not a quick fix or a fad. It is not designed to help you drop a lot of weight at first, only to regain it later. It is a long-term program based on solid science and practical clinical experience. In this training course, you will learn to understand the language of the body. You will learn the diverse reasons why the body becomes overweight, and how to address them. You will learn about your homeostatic regulatory mechanisms and how to accommodate your body’s needs. Some of the information may be new to you; perhaps you have never heard of these correlations with weight disorders. Some of the information you may have heard before, but now you are hearing it in the context of weight management. You will find that Wings is a very comprehensive program—and there’s really nothing like it on the market.

An Overview of the Wings Program

The Wings Program is a curriculum of forty-nine weeks divided into four modules. Each module contains ten to fourteen lessons on thematically grouped topics, as follows.

• Module I, Living Successfully with Food: food issues, diet issues, cravings, binge eating, allergies, family-food preparation, handling special occasions, and so on.

• Module II, Getting the Body Back into Shape: exercise, shift work and other special problems, body cleansing, digestion, constipation, and so on.

• Module III, Hidden Issues of Weight Management: depression, prescription medications, hormonal dysregulation, thyroid dysfunction, brown fat thermogenesis, Syndrome X, and other health conditions and medical issues.

• Module IV, Healing the Heart and the Mind: fear of success, abuse issues, body image, putting the fun back in food, and so on.

I’ll say it often: Weight management is not a simple matter of dietary control; it involves the whole organism, the whole body. So I’ll address the whole body! And that is what distinguishes Wings from every other program on the market today. I want to build your health from your head to your toes, from the inside out! You’ll learn to love the special whole-body focus of this program because for the first time in your life, you will truly satisfy the needs of your body and achieve total body health.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

The Wings Program is a journey toward health and weight management, and this is your guide and textbook. It is designed to be a consumable workbook, with space for taking notes, recording information, and doing written assignments. Don’t think that you will meet your weight-loss goals more quickly if you race through the material. Study the lessons carefully, spending one week on each. Do your assignments and stay on task. Get someone to walk through the material with you and hold you accountable.

Each lesson begins with an introductory question. Take time to ponder it and answer carefully. The questions are designed to introduce the material and make it personally relevant to you. The study guides and assignments that accompany the lessons will help you discover your unique weight-management challenges and develop strategies for meeting and resolving them. So don’t just read about it: do it! (In discussing the emotional and spiritual issues associated with physical health and weight management, I make occasional references to Judeo-Christian religious tradition. If you feel uncomfortable with those, please substitute any alternative wording with which you are comfortable.)

One of my goals is to help you take responsibility for your own good health, so each lesson ends with a Health Tip. Using these tips is an excellent way to learn about natural holistic health care. (For more information, see the Resource Guide, which provides sources for natural healthcare products and lists some of the wonderful books available for your self-education; start building your health library!) Sometimes, of course, you will require the aid of a physician; don’t hesitate to consult your physician if you need medical intervention. Much of the time, however, you can prevent illness by learning how to care for yourself.

Starting with the first lesson, all four modules are coordinated with the healthful eating plan that is integral to the Wings Program. The eating plan, detailed in the Menus and Recipes section of this book, is based on nutrient-dense, whole foods that are (for the most part) available at your local supermarket, health food store, or farm stand. Check out local organic growers, family farms, and community sponsored agriculture (CSA) farms in your area—purchasing their healthful products is a wonderful way to support our neighbors and help heal our Earth. As you follow the Wings Program eating plan, you’ll relearn how to select, cook, eat, and enjoy food.

Please keep a Food Diary throughout the program, and keep an Exercise Diary as well (forms for these are provided in Appendices 1 and 2). Although you won’t learn why this record keeping is so important until Lesson I-3, start your Food Diary with Lesson I-1, on faith that you’ll understand soon enough.

PEOPLE AND PRODUCTS TO SUPPORT YOU

One of the most significant features of the Wings Program is that it is designed to be personally tailored for the individual. You may be wondering, Why is that necessary, or even beneficial, in weight management? Because the specific needs and issues for each person are different. Some people struggle with eating, some with exercise, others with stress; some have thyroid trouble, hormone imbalances, food allergies, or other medical conditions. Given that, you may then wonder, How can it be possible for one program to meet such an array of individual needs?

By reading this book and doing the assignments in each lesson, you will learn a great deal about how your own body works. I also urge you to take full advantage of the supporting materials that Wings offers. Some people are auditory learners; that is, they learn better by hearing. For this reason, all four modules of the program have been videotaped for optional use along with this workbook. Each videotaped module contains the complete set of lessons (with even more information than is contained in the book), plus a Wings Student Manual.

When you purchase a videotaped module, you automatically receive (at no additional cost) the online Wings Newsletter. This monthly newsletter provides hot-off-the-press research material on health and weight that is too new to have already been included in the program. Each edition also contains a chat from program author and designer Carol Simontacchi (that’s me), new recipes and menus to add to the food plan, and other valuable information. You can also subscribe to the Wings Newsletter without purchasing a videotaped module (see the Resource Guide for contact information).

A key form of support in the course of your program is the personalized nutrition counseling that Wings provides to identify your specific needs and help you with the food plan (visit the Wings website www.flywithwings.com/pnc.html and click on the link MyProConnect for a consultation). To further support your weight-management and health goals, our on-staff clinical nutritionist may also recommend products that are particularly suited to your personal biochemistry—for example, herbal supplements that help against depression and its accompanying eating behaviors; or, natural anti-inflammatories that are effective against pain and allergy but don’t cause weight gain. Other natural products can improve energy, cleanse the body, reduce cravings for sweets, and balance blood sugar. In cases of possible food or environmental allergies or other medical conditions, she will put you in touch with a local holistic physician who can prescribe the appropriate testing.

From many natural products on the market today, I’ve selected professional, quality-guaranteed products that have been formulated specifically to meet the needs of the American malnourished population. Some are only supplied through Wings, but most are available at local health food stores and supermarkets. I suggest that everyone on this program start with the Wings Breakfast Drink and a good companion multivitamin and mineral supplement (see the Resource Guide). As you proceed through the material, I will suggest specific dietary supplements to help assure your weight and health success.

A note about Wings products and alternatives: The Wings Breakfast Drink is a unique blend of rice-based protein, amino acids that aid in physiological functions including detoxification, and additional nutrients that promote the health of the digestive tract. Similarly, Wings Klean Tea and Wings Healing Tea are unique herbal blends formulated for internal cleansing and intestinal healing. If desired, however, you may substitute another rice-based protein powder (manufactured by companies such as Nutribiotics) for the Wings Breakfast Drink; other natural digestive products available at the health food store can also be substituted for the Wings teas.

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM YOUR WINGS PROGRAM

As you begin to understand how very complex weight management is, you will look at yourself with new understanding, with new compassion. You’ll give yourself more grace. You’ll lose your fear of food, and be delighted with new sensual pleasure in your meals. You won’t be hungry again; you’ll feel deeply satisfied. Your eyes will take on a new sparkle; your hair will achieve a new luster; your skin will stop wrinkling and feel soft to the touch. Your energy level will soar, you’ll feel like working and exercising—and best of all, you’ll lose your excess weight!

If you continue on this program through the entire forty-nine weeks, you will develop lifelong good nutritional habits. You will learn how to eat forever—because this is a permanent, forever type of program. After you have successfully completed your Wings Program, you will not ever need to purchase or read another weight-loss book or article.

GETTING STARTED

You will be asked to use the Wings Breakfast Drink (or your chosen alternative) for the first meal of the day from the very beginning of your program (see the Resource Guide for ordering information). Starting with the first lesson, you will also be asked to check the pH of your urine on a regular basis, for which you need strips of pH-testing paper; if you can’t obtain them through your local pharmacy, call the company Thinking of You at 1-800-806-8671 (please make reference to this book when you call). Once you’ve gotten your supplies (and your motivation) together, turn the page to Lesson I-1.

Are you ready to begin this journey? Let’s get started. . . .

MODULE I

Living Successfully with Food

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ou have read diet books. You have followed dieting programs. You speak the language of a seasoned dieter. You know about high-protein, high-carbohydrate, low-calorie, and low-fat regimens. You know how to bust your buns at the gym. Frankly, you are tired of doing it right but feeling like a failure. You need a new approach.

You need Wings!

The book you are holding in your hands is not just another diet book. It is a guide, a map, and a path. Where are you going with it? You are beginning a journey through the complex issues that have made it difficult to achieve weight success. This book will teach you about those issues and help you design your own personal solutions on your journey toward health.

Module I covers the first few steps, and it is designed to restore your pleasure in food. No more deprivation! No more unsatisfied hunger! No more cravings! Just delightful food that nourishes the body and the soul.

When you embark on a journey, you don’t always have to race through to the end. You can stop and enjoy the scenery along the way—and that’s how to take your Wings journey. Don't read and read and read to get to the end of each section as soon as you can. Take your time. Enjoy each lesson and do the tasks requested of you. Let the lesson soak in, and make it part of your new life, because if you take the time and do the work, you will establish new habits of health to enjoy for the rest of your life.

Lesson I-1. Welcome to Wings!

There is a great deal of confusion about what really constitutes a healthful diet. Is it low-fat? Is it fat-free? Low-calorie? High-carbohydrate? Vegetarian, or meat-based? You may have come to feel that you need to check with your cardiologist or family doctor before you consult a cookbook for dinner plans. Deciding what to prepare for a meal should not be so complicated! Food was lovingly created to support abundant, vibrant health. Food should be celebrated, not feared.

? TODAY’S QUESTION

Why did you jointhe Wings Program?

The Wings Program is not a temporary fix while you lose 10 or 15 pounds. As described in the introduction to this book, the comprehensive Wings curriculum is designed to teach the concepts of holistic weight management and provide a support network to assist you in making permanent lifestyle changes. You’ll hear those words often throughout the program because I really mean them. Permanent! Lifestyle!

I am interested in promoting total body health. Wings is intended, in fact, to help you maintain and improve your health in every area of your life—to heighten and support your desire to be physically, spiritually, and emotionally healthy. The program emphasizes natural healing to increase well-being and self-worth and to help you take responsibility for your own good health. Weight loss is one of the goals to that end—and weight loss occurs as a natural consequence of the get healthy program. When you think of Wings, think natural, holistic, comprehensive, delicious, and permanent!

THE WINGS CONCEPT OF A HEALTHFUL DIET

The meals on the Wings Program food plan are so delicious that you will not feel deprived. In fact, you will probably feel that a whole new world of culinary delight has been opened up to you! You’ll find that food can be delicious and dietary at the same time. The Wings recipes and meals were designed with the following criteria in mind:

• Recipes are easy to follow and delicious for the entire family.

• Recipes use whole foods, as close as possible to the way they are provided in nature. (Real and unreal foods will be discussed in Lessons I-5 and I-7.)

• Meals contain a balance of essential nutrients, including protein, fats, carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, and minerals. (These nutrients and their balance will be discussed in Lesson I-2.) The beverage, at meals and otherwise, must be pure water, herbal tea, or—as a special treat—juice.

• Meals are supplemented with a high-quality multivitamin-mineral product to help make up for longstanding nutrient deficiencies.

• Meals are low in common allergenic foods such as wheat, corn, and dairy products. (Food allergy and food intolerance will be discussed in Lesson I-10.)

N OTES

For daily multivitamin-mineral supplementation, you may use a high-quality supplement of your choice from a health food store, or ask your Wings nutritionist to recommend a supplement specifically geared to your needs (go to the website www.flywithwings.com/pnc.html and click on MyProConnect). A good companion multivitamin-mineral is a professional supplement called Optimum 6 (see the Resource Guide). This excellent product is rich in nutrients that are known to reduce food cravings and make up for years of malnutrition-based dieting.

It is nearly impossible for most people to prepare a healthful, well-balanced breakfast that does not consist of highly allergenic foods like cereal, milk, and eggs. I advise, instead, that you enjoy the Wings Breakfast Drink each morning (with occasional exceptions, which you’ll encounter from time to time in the food plan). The Breakfast Drink, which has a hypoallergenic rice-protein base combined with nutrients for additional digestive support, can be prepared quickly and simply and in delicious variations (see page 236). The Wings Breakfast Drink works marvelously to balance blood sugar and reduce hunger throughout the day. (The drink does not contain added vitamins and minerals because these can alter the taste, and sweeteners and/or other flavoring agents would need to be added to mask the effect.)

Sound good so far? It is!

For the first eight lessons of your Wings Program, you are to follow the recipes and menus provided for each lesson as closely as possible, starting tomorrow morning. The menus are designed to provide the following benefits:

• Blood sugar balance, so your energy will remain steady throughout the day

• Adequate amounts of protein, fats, and carbohydrates evenly spaced throughout the day

• Hunger satisfaction, so you will not feel deprived

• Sensory pleasure, so you will truly enjoy your food—and not feel guilty eating it

Don’t try to figure it out for yourself until Lesson I-9, when you will have more latitude in designing your own meals. Not that you won’t still need supervision—the human tendency is to start slipping, and you can veer wildly off course within a short period of time. You may need an accountability partner to keep you on track (Lesson I-3). But by Lesson I-9, you will understand the principles of healthful eating more clearly and will be able to design your own meals and menus that are faithful to the concepts contained in this program.

YOUR ACID/ALKALINE BALANCE

Today’s lesson kicks things off by introducing a topic that will be carried thematically throughout the entire Wings Program: the acid/alkaline balance, or pH, of the body. In today’s assignments, you are asked to work toward achieving your body’s proper pH over the course of this week. As you continue through the program, you will be reminded periodically to recheck the pH of your urine to monitor your body’s acid/alkaline balance. The food plan outlined in the Menus and Recipes section is also geared toward helping you maintain a healthful internal pH.

This discussion borrows heavily from a highly respected, holistically trained medical doctor and well-known lecturer, Russell Jaffe, M.D., Ph.D., C.C.N., author of The Alkaline Way (published by ELISA/ACT Biotechnologies LLC, available through Perque Laboratories; see the Resource Guide).

You probably already know that a pH value of 7.0 is considered neutral, that is, neither acid nor alkaline. The internal environment of the human body is maintained at a pH between 6.5 and 7.5, a narrow range that is critically important for the functions and reactions of cells. This slightly alkaline internal pH does not remain static: its maintenance is a highly dynamic process that is influenced and controlled by many dietary, environmental, and internal conditions on a moment-to-moment basis.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of foods in the American diet are acid producing. This includes all animal proteins, sugar, some nuts (hazelnuts, walnuts, and Brazil nuts), dairy products, fried foods, most grains, many legumes, and many other foods, including all caffeinated and carbonated beverages. Alkaline-producing foods, on the other hand, include most vegetables and fruits, which we simply do not enjoy as frequently as we should. The consequences of a predominantly acid-producing diet may be considerable, not the least of which are unwanted weight gain and the inability to lose weight easily. Foods are not the only contributor to this problem, as stress, medications, and other lifestyle factors can also acidify the body.

How does the body counteract an unhealthful acidity of its internal environment caused by this mostly non-alkaline, acid-producing diet? Minerals can provide a buffering alkalinity to restore the required pH. The best bodily reservoir of minerals is, of course, the bones. When we overconsume high-acid foods like meats, sugar, and grains and under-consume alkalinizing foods like fresh vegetables and fruits, the body pulls minerals out of the bones. As a result, the bones become porous (osteoporotic) over time. The immune system flares up with food and environmental allergies. Fatigue sets in, and we are set on a downward spiral of poor health.

The Alkaline Way

In The Alkaline Way, Dr. Russell Jaffe writes: When an alkaline environment is maintained in the body, metabolic, enzymatic, immunologic, and repair mechanisms function at their best. The acid-forming metabolics of stress and inflammation and of high fat and high protein foods are adequately and effectively neutralized only when sufficient mineral-buffering reserves are present. Mineral buffering reserves are the gift that alkaline-forming foods give to our body. A diet that is predominantly alkaline forming is essential to the maintenance of sustained health.

Excess acids are also excreted by the body during its resting time overnight. The body’s performance of this task is based on its toxic load (that is, amount of toxic materials: environmental pollutants, products of incomplete digestion, and so on), its individual ability to produce cellular energy through its mineral status, and its ability to inactivate and excrete toxins. According to Dr. Jaffe, the pH of the first morning urine is a good indicator of the body’s mineral reserves and its acid/alkaline balance.

Checking Your pH

You can follow these simple steps to determine your pH by testing your first morning urine.

1. Obtain a packet of pH test paper with a test range of 5.5–8.0.

2. Before you retire for the night, tear off a two- to three-inch strip of test paper and set it aside with the packet’s color chart in the bathroom that you’ll use during the night or in the morning.

3. You will test the first urine that you produce after sleeping for at least five hours. If you awaken in the night to urinate after five or more hours of sleep, test that urine by dipping the pH test strip in your urine stream and proceeding to step 4 below. If you sleep through the night and don’t awaken until the morning, test that urine by the same procedure.

4. As the test strip is briefly moistened with urine, it will change color. The strip’s color (ranging from yellow to dark blue) indicates the urine’s acid or alkaline state, as shown by the color chart on the packet of test paper. Compare the test strip to the color chart and jot down the number that corresponds to the color of the test strip. (A pH testing form is provided in Appendix 3.)

5. Any number below the neutral point of 7.0 means that your urine is on the acid side. The lower the number, the more acid it is; for example, a value of 5.0 indicates ten times more acidity than 6.0. Ideally, the pH of your first morning urine should range from 7.0 to 7.5, as the cells of your body work best in this slightly alkaline state.

THE ASCORBIC ACID FLUSH

If you find that your urinary pH does not fall within the desirable range of 7.0–7.5, you may wish to try a technique called an ascorbic acid flush. In a nutshell, doing the flush means drinking a solution of ascorbic acid (that is, buffered vitamin C) at fifteen-minute intervals to stimulate the bowels to evacuate completely and eliminate toxins through the digestive system.

Dr. Jaffe believes that doing this flush frequently is one of the best ways to restore proper pH and rebuild health. He recommends using a fully reduced form of ascorbic acid called L-ascorbate, buffered with alkalinizing minerals. For best results, he balances each gram of L-ascorbate with 66 milligrams (mg) of potassium, 16 mg of magnesium, 27 mg of calcium, and 600 micrograms (mcg) of zinc. Each ½ teaspoon of this buffered ascorbate contains 1.5 grams (g) ascorbate, 99 mg potassium, 16 mg magnesium, 40 mg calcium, and 600 mcg zinc. (This mixture, which contains no masking or inert ingredients, is available through Perque Laboratories; see the Resource Guide.) Caution: Do not use DL-ascorbate or D-ascorbate, because these forms of ascorbic acid are not absorbed by humans and may irritate the intestinal tract.

Doing the Flush

Although the flush is easy to do, you may wish to stay home the first time you try it. Start early in the morning on an empty stomach and allow ample time (which varies widely from person to person) to finish the flush that day.

1. According to the bulleted list below, dissolve the appropriate amount of fully reduced mineral-buffered L-ascorbate powder in the appropriate amount of room-temperature water, or, if you prefer, juice that has been diluted with water at a ratio of 1:1. Allow the effervescence to abate and then drink the beverage.

• A healthy person begins with a level ½ teaspoon (1.5 g) of the powder dissolved in 1–2 ounces of water or diluted juice.

• A moderately healthy person begins with 1 teaspoon (3 g) dissolved in 4 or more ounces of water or diluted juice.

• A person in ill health begins with 2 teaspoons (6 g) dissolved in 8 or more ounces of water or diluted juice.

2. Repeat the procedure in step 1 three more times, at fifteen-minute intervals. Meanwhile, review Tips for the Flush. If, after four doses, there is no gurgling or rumbling in your gut, you should double your initial dose and continue every fifteen minutes.

3. Continue the procedure at the proper time intervals until you reach the flush reaction, which is a watery stool or an enema-like evacuation of liquid from the rectum. Note: Do not stop prematurely at the point of loose stool. You want to energize the body to flush out toxins and reduce the risk that they may be reabsorbed back into the body from the colon.

Tips for the Flush

For most people, it takes between 3 and 8 teaspoons of L-ascorbate to complete the full flush reaction. Others may require 15, 20, or more than 50 grams, depending on individual health status and how rapidly the body uses up ascorbate.

• Following each dose, be sure to drink plenty of room-temperature water or diluted juice. Some people report gas or fullness while doing the flush, but that is almost always due to inadequate fluid intake or rushing the process. Cramps are also a consequence of drinking too little water.

• You may pre-prepare a batch of the beverage for convenience. Dissolve 30 g (10 teaspoons) of the powder in 20–30 ounces of room-temperature liquid. Use a dark, capped bottle to avoid exposing the beverage to air or light. Dissolved ascorbate is stable for a day if the bottle is kept cool and tightly sealed.

• Some people report hot stools that seem to burn the anus after several evacuations. If this occurs, you can use a natural salve such as calendula ointment to soothe the area.

• People who have hemorrhoids, irritable bowel syndrome (see the Health Tip on pages 119–120), or inflammatory bowel disease may find that the ascorbate activates their tissues in the healing process. If you have any of these conditions, you may need to increase your ascorbate and bioflavonoid intake slowly over time before attempting the flush.

• You will wish to do the flush on a regular basis, perhaps once per month, to keep your tissues saturated with ascorbic acid and minerals. Between flush days, take a daily dosage of vitamin C that is 75 percent of the amount needed to induce the flush reaction.

Benefits of the Flush

Most people feel better after doing an ascorbic acid flush, with increased energy and a sense of well-being each time they do it. That’s great—a sign that the body is in recovery and is cleansing itself! The benefits of the flush include:

• Decreased digestive transit time (reduces constipation)

• Enhanced detoxification and reduced toxic mineral load

• Improved blood vessel and cardiovascular system integrity

• Improved hormone balance

• Enhanced neurotransmitter and immune system functions

• Enhanced repair function and bone formation

• Enhanced production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) for cellular energy

• Increased iron uptake and release

• Enhanced anticancer surveillance and direct cytolytic (cell-destroying) effects on tumors

• Resistance to scurvy (a vitamin C–deficiency disease)

Read Dr. Jaffe’s book for more information about the ascorbic acid flush. If you would like to consult a healthcare professional about its appropriateness for you, see the Resource Guide to find a holistic physician in your area.

TODAY’S FIRST ASSIGNMENT

START YOUR NEW FOOD PLAN

Flip to Menus and Recipes in the back of this book, and read through the meal plan for the next seven days. Prepare your shopping list, purchase the ingredients, and start eating on the Wings food plan—now!

TODAY’S SECOND ASSIGNMENT

START YOUR PROGRESS CHART

Weigh yourself, and then take five girth measurements: bust at the largest point, waist at two inches above the navel, hips at the largest point, and right and left thigh circumference at the point where your extended fingertips reach with your arms hanging down at your sides. Record these figures on the Progress Chart provided in Appendix 4a, and calculate your body mass index (BMI) value according to Appendix 4b. There is, intentionally, only enough space on the Progress Chart for you to record this information every four weeks. Resist the urge to reweigh yourself or take your measurements any more frequently than that! (BMI will be discussed later in the program, in Lessons I-12 and IV-4.)

TODAY’S THIRD ASSIGNMENT

ASSESS YOUR INTERNAL pH

Practice testing your urinary pH today. Then, starting tomorrow morning, start testing your first morning urine regularly. If you find your pH is too acidic, there are a number of things you can do to correct it, such as trying an ascorbic acid flush or making dietary changes to increase your alkalinity. Note: Internal pH is seldom too alkaline. An overly alkaline pH over an extended period of time would suggest a metabolic problem that should be addressed by a physician.

If your pH readings commonly fall below 6.5, incorporate the suggestions below into the prescribed daily menus. Remember that alkalinity reflects your body’s mineral reserves; if these are very deficient, you must replenish them before you can restore alkalinity to your internal environment. Be patient. It may take several days, or even weeks, to bring your first morning urine up to the desired pH range of 7.0–7.5, but it’s important, and you can do it. Following the Wings menus should then keep your pH in proper balance.

• Drink the juice of half a lemon or lime (or 1 teaspoon of apple-cider vinegar) in 8 ounces of water several times per day. Although it is commonly believed that citrus products are acidic, they actually produce an alkaline residue.

• Add a serving of lentils, sweet potatoes, or yams to your daily diet until alkalinity has been restored, and then enjoy a serving of one or more of these vegetables several times per week.

• Include one large serving of dark green vegetables per day. (Enjoy romaine or another dark green variety; iceberg lettuce doesn’t count.)

• Enjoy a cup or two of miso soup daily. (Miso is available at health food stores or in supermarkets’ whole-foods sections, and miso soup is easily prepared.)

• Enjoy at least two servings of watermelon or other fruits each day.

LESSON I-1 STUDY GUIDE

1. What are your goals for your Wings Program? Make these written goals as specific as you can, and make them very achievable.

2. What are some benefits you should experience within your first few weeks on the program?

3. Describe the guiding concepts of the Wings food plan. What will you eat this week? What foods will be eliminated and why?

4. Review page 236 in the Menus and Recipes section and design your own delicious Wings Breakfast Drink. Even better, share it with Wings by e-mail: [email protected]. Thanks!

HEALTH TIP

SKIN SUPPORT

Who doesn’t want gorgeous, healthy skin?

• When you think of skin health, think of liver health. The skin is a major organ of detoxification, along with the liver, kidneys, colon, and lungs. If the liver is congested, more toxins will need to be eliminated through the skin, so keep the liver clean.

• Enjoy drinking Wings Klean Tea (see page 82) each day for internal cleansing. You may also try a daily cup of burdock tea or some capsules of burdock root. Burdock makes beautiful skin!

• Clean your face each morning and night with a natural cleanser that retains the moisturizing oils on the surface of the skin and doesn’t disturb its normal pH. Look for skin-care products that nourish the skin: some of my favorites are made by Aubrey, Annemarie Borlind, and Zia.

A DDITIONAL N OTES

Lesson I-2. Achieve Your Wings Balance

At this point, most people who have been faithful to the Wings Program will have already begun to lose weight. Some will lose 5–10 pounds in the first week or ten days; others will lose just 1–2 pounds. This weight loss is typically water weight and a little fat weight. When you reduce the high-carbohydrate foods in your diet, such as bread and pasta, you often lose excess water. If you are one of the lucky ones who drop a significant amount of weight, good for you—but if not, remember that you’re still making good progress.

Rapid weight loss will not usually continue past the two-week mark, however, and your body will settle down into losing fat weight at a slower rate: 1–1½ pounds per week is ideal. Don’t get frustrated with losing weight slowly and steadily or be tempted to quit this program and look for some quick and easy diet plan. Remember that you didn’t gain your weight overnight, so you won’t lose it overnight. Slow, steady weight loss helps ensure your long-term, even permanent success.

? TODAY’S QUESTION

How did you do last week?

Now that you’ve completed the first week of your program, how do you feel? Did you enjoy the new taste sensations in the Wings recipes and menus?

Did you experience any side effects of following this natural diet, or go through withdrawal as you eliminated some of your favorite food toys? Perhaps you had symptoms like headache, low energy, irritability, or depressed mood. Don’t worry about it; within two or three days, the symptoms will disappear and you will feel wonderful.

Review your Food Diary. Did you fill it out each day and were you totally honest with yourself about what you ate and drank? What areas of your program need tightening up?

Was it difficult to fit these new meals and cooking instructions into your busy schedule? If so, don’t be discouraged, because you can design techniques to help incorporate healthful meal planning into your lifestyle. Brainstorm with others about how to make the eating plan work for you.

BALANCED NUTRITION AT ITS BEST

Studying the eating habits of cultures around the world shows that pre-Westernized daily diets consisted of natural foods that provided a balance of protein, carbohydrates, fats, fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Although the portions and quantities of these nutrients differed greatly among pre-Western and older Western civilizations, the dietary theme throughout each culture was the consumption of natural foods. They ate real food. The typical outcome was good health and good weight: obesity (and the health conditions that occur simultaneously with weight problems) was virtually nonexistent.

If we wish to enjoy that same level of health, it’s important for us to eat in that same way. The conventional Western food pyramid recommends a diet that is extremely heavy in grains and light in oils—but that isn’t the way nature designed our food choices. So forget the food pyramid, unless you wish to be shaped like the food pyramid! What should our diet look like?

N OTES

Proteins

Protein is an essential part of the diet. It yields some energy but functions primarily as a structural nutrient by providing amino acids, which are the building blocks of all proteins. Our bodies use dietary and endogenous amino acids (those stored or synthesized within the body) to construct muscles, blood vessels, skin, hormones, neurotransmitters, enzymes, and thousands of other tissues and compounds.

Protein must therefore be eaten daily, in amounts spread evenly throughout the day. Men require about 55–75 grams (g) of protein per day and women require about 45–65 g per day. If you are struggling with stress, facing illness, physically working very hard, exercising strenuously, pregnant or breastfeeding, or experiencing other unusual circumstances, you may require extra protein.

Protein is found in animal tissue like beef, fish, chicken, eggs, lamb, and so on, and is also found in nuts and seeds, legumes, tofu, and other vegetables. Animal sources typically provide about 9 g of protein per ounce, whereas the amount of protein in vegetable sources varies greatly. Most vegetable proteins do not provide all of the essential amino acids, that is, those amino acids that cannot be synthesized by the body and must be obtained from food. Many vegetarian sources of protein are also low in sulfur-bearing amino acids like L-cysteine and L-methionine, which are used by the liver in detoxification. (Vegetarianism is discussed in Lesson I-8.)

Carbohydrates

As energy sources for the body and brain, carbohydrates are critically important in the healthful diet. Carbohydrates are converted into blood sugar that is used to maintain cellular energy and to fuel the brain. When the blood sugar level drops too low as a result of dietary inadequacy or metabolic problems, the brain’s fuel needs are not met. In response, the adrenal gland produces the hormone cortisol to help pull stored sugars out of the liver for immediate blood sugar elevation. Over time, the body’s stress response dysregulates blood sugar and causes other metabolic problems.

Best-selling books have popularized low-carbohydrate diets over the past few years, but even though such diets induce rapid weight loss and little hunger, they are not good for the body or brain, especially when used over a long period of time (Lesson I-8).

Like proteins, carbohydrates must also be eaten daily, in moderate amounts spread throughout the day. The best sources of carbohydrates are vegetables and small amounts of fruit. We should eat seven or eight servings of vegetables per day, particularly non-starchy vegetables like the brightly colored varieties. I recommend limiting daily fruit intake to one serving of raw fresh fruit (but see the Wings Meal Plan, pages 24–25).

Although grains are rich in carbohydrates, I do not recommend using grains as a primary food source, with the exception of brown rice, minimal amounts of white rice, ancient grains like millet or quinoa, and tiny amounts of corn (if allergy is not a problem). You will find that grains appear only sparingly in the Wings recipes. Lesson I-10 discusses why eating grains can be so problematic for individuals who are seeking to improve their health and manage their weight.

Fats

Why did nature provide so much fat in natural foods? Fat is incredibly important in the diet because it contributes to the structure and functionality of every cell in the human body. Fat is wrapped around each nerve cell, protecting its insulating myelin sheath from damage and increasing the electrical potential of the nerve’s transmission. Fats are a prime energy source for muscle tissue; fats are used to synthesize female and male hormones; fats keep the skin soft and pliable (wrinkle-resistant); and so on.

Dietary fat also helps keep the metabolism of the body hot or burning more calories. So when people embark on a low-fat diet, their metabolic rate quickly drops, making it more difficult to lose weight and keep it off (Lesson I-8).

Fats needn’t be, and should not be, severely restricted, as long as they are natural fats found in vegetables, nuts and seeds, and animal protein. Natural fats should be abundantly enjoyed on a daily basis. Rancid or