I have nearly always had some flab around my belly. The instructors at the gym recommended that I do more cardio exercises and go on a diet. I was not interested in doing either of those things. I simply enjoyed building my strength by doing regular workouts using weights and doing some stretching exercises at the end of each session. I often thought that the instructors were very annoying with their insistence that I do more cardio.

At 15 years of age I decided to lose weight. I ate very little and quickly lost a lot of weight. I remember the next school holidays when I went swimming. I swam about 20 laps of the pool, and when I got out I was shivering – for about two hours! I suffered flu like symptoms for several weeks afterwards. I decided that I really did not want to live like that and lost interest in being slim.

More recently I purchased the e-book "Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle" by Tom Venuto. I like to find the truth about things and wanted to find out the truth about exercise and nutrition. I began applying what I read in that book and measured my body fat percentage every week. Within a few months I was amazed to see the shape of my abdominal muscles and I liked what I saw when I saw my reflection in the mirror.

At the time I was learning to be a counsellor. I love person centered counselling, the method developed by Carl Rogers. I enjoy seeing clients feeling safe enough to open up and share their thoughts, and to discover more about themselves as I reflect back to them some of the words that I heard them say. People would speak about almost any challenges that they were facing. Except they seemed unwilling to disclose anything about the topic of their weight. I wanted to be able to serve those people too. I decided to put on a significant amount of weight to possibly gain more rapport with them. It did! People began to feel free to talk about their weight. Many of them had significant unresolved emotions surrounding that topic. I am able to be present, to listen to what they say and reflect back some of what I observe. I simply provide the space for them to resolve whatever they want to at their own pace.

Unlike most people I had gained weight by eating plenty of healthy foods. I also exercised and felt healthy. It was just that I had to wear bracers (Americans call them suspenders) because the shape of my body tended to make my trousers fall down. I also had to buy bigger shirts and I could not fit through narrow spaces. Most of my friends and family became very concerned as they believe that it is very unhealthy to be fat. Some of my other friends liked my big belly. I did too. My weight was handy for me to jump on the rubbish in the huge rubbish bin, squashing down the rubbish to fit more  in it. I really was not interested in losing all that weight I had gained.

More recently, I saw an opportunity to move from my old career as an electronic technician into my new career as a counsellor, coach and workshop facilitator. I am again interested in shedding that excess body fat. My belt now fits me again, and after a few weeks I now need to wear it several notches tighter.

I am writing here of many other lies that I have experienced so you can be aware of them and be free to discover what does actually work for you. I am not writing about the truth as I am not a dietician, fitness coach or health practitioner. I only know what is true for me.
I believe that we all need to be aware of all these lies if we are to achieve our health, fitness and body shape goals.

Tom Venuto writes about many of the untruths in his free book and his free course "Big Fat Lies"
He reveals much of the truth for a wide variety of body types and individual requirements in his free e-mails and in his e-book "Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle."
There are also many other authors who write useful information that really does work.

While many of these lies may seem like conspiracies, often they are nothing more than theories and belief systems that have been built up in error by innocent people.

The cardio lie

I have always hated the lie that you need to spend a lot of time doing boring cardio exercise in order to lose weight. I prefer to do several short bursts of intense exercise which is much quicker, gets me the results that I want and is not boring! Three or four short bursts on the rowing machine is the quickest for me. Swimming a sprint lap of the pool, resting for 90 seconds and then doing the next lap – just 10 laps is sufficient, especially with a lap or two of butterfly stroke.

The weight lie

The common belief that you should measure your progress regularly by weighing yourself is a lie. Weight is not always an accurate indication of progress. It can be counterproductive especially if you are in fact losing muscle mass and not shedding much body fat. For me at times my weight has not changed even though my waist measurement has decreased significantly.

The BMI lie

The belief that Body Mass Index is an accurate indicator of fitness and health is a lie. Many strong muscular people have very little body fat yet their BMI is near to 30 which is classified as overweight or obese. Probably a lie!

The food pyramid lie

Many of the guidelines that are provided by government health initiatives in order to reduce obesity still contain information that is based on lies. It is a lie that grains are an essential part of our diet. Some people can eat grains and reduce their body fat. Others tend to gain more fat regardless of their choices of grains – refined or wholemeal. It is probably true that the original food pyramid that was designed as a guide for healthy eating was modified by vested interests who wanted people to purchase more of the grains that they produce.

The food pricing lie

Many governments subsidise certain farmers, and the crops that are subsidised are usually not the ones that need to be encouraged to increase the health of the population and reduce obesity. Because of the low prices of subsidised foods, manufacturers will tend to use these rather than unsubsidised produce as ingredients in the foods that they manufacture. The prices of processed foods is a lie. It has been manipulated by the government subsidies to the farmers who produce some of the main ingredients.

The food flavour lie

Processed foods are also a lie. Our bodies were designed to make us healthy.
A sweet taste naturally indicates that the food we are eating is ripe and at its nutritional peak. Yet we provide foods that are not at their nutritional best, add sugar and lie to our bodies. Yes they taste delicious but how do we feel after eating those foods? Not only manufacturers of processed foods, but also innocent people including mothers want to make tasty enjoyable foods for their families and friends. They add flavourings, sugar and other ingredients as they follow the recipes for the foods they lovingly prepare. Restaurants also need to be in the race to produce more flavourful foods, otherwise they would simply not survive.

Those flavour rich and often nutritionally poor foods lie to our bodies. We are starving for some essential nutritional elements and in our attempts to fulfil the need for them tend to have too much of the ingredients that cause us to become fat.

The diet lie

Another lie is that if somebody has lost weight by using a particular diet then anybody can lose weight simply by following that diet. Everyone’s body different and unique, and each person's likes, dislikes, habits and what they are committed to all differ. Any diet that does not take these variations into consideration as most likely to be a lie.

The purpose of advertising is to increase the quantity of product sold. There are a lot of products in the market, each with its own claimed benefits. I do not blame the manufacturers or advertisers. They only produce and advertise what consumers buy. As a consumer it is wise to be informed rather than being being distracted by advertisements. Many processed foods have pictures of fit healthy slim people on them. That is a lie as most people find that eating those foods do not cause them to become fit, healthy or slim. Flavoured drinks are advertised as an essential part of a healthy lifestyle, especially sports drinks. That is a lie as for many people they simply contribute to the accumulation of body fat. Other foods claim to give us energy and they contain sugar. Yes we may experience a brief burst of energy however that can be followed by a prolonged energy low. Personally I find crisp crunchy raw vegetables tend to give me far more energy when combined with other nutritious foods, especially when I am involved in activities where I need a lot of energy for a few minutes.

I once watched a video which showed advertisements for various fresh fruits and vegetables. Each one highlighted the beautiful colours, the delicious flavours and the amazing nutritional properties of that particular food. I believe that there were no lies in any of those advertisements, as I now regularly enjoy every one of the benefits that I saw in those advertisements many years ago, especially when I buy those fruits and vegetables from an organic fruit and vegetable store. I also love the benefits of many other delicious fresh natural nutritious foods. Unfortunately there is very little financial incentive for the making and playing of advertisements for delicious fresh nutritional natural foods, so we see only advertisements that tend to convince us to believe the lie that processed foods are a healthy choice and will help us lose weight

A lot of advertising uses emotion to sell products to us. We need to be aware of which emotional connections are actually lies.

The emotional fulfilment that we desire often seems to not be available. Many people work in a job that pays the bills yet does not fulfil them. Often something is missing in our relationships with our friends, our parents, our intimate partner or ourself. When people cross our boundaries, those around us do not even accept our healthy expression of anger and we hold that emotion in. It can be so tempting to believe the emotional messages in the advertisements, or even to just stuff those unresolved emotions down with food.

Also most of us have memories of when we were young and the comfort of receiving some delicious treat was very comforting. So we relieve our emotional discomfort by eating similar foods. We feel a need or those foods because our emotions are usually much stronger signal than our body’s natural feelings of hunger or satiety.

Most people believe the lie that natural healthy food is not as appealing, delicious or as tasty as the less healthy foods that they are accustomed to. Are you telling yourself that lie? Many people are very competitive. Others are seeking love, acknowledgment and approval. and will want you to believe that lie. They want to be acknowledged for preparing the sweetest tastiest dessert, or baking the most delicious cake. While they may truly love you and care about you, they may be lying to you, meeting their needs at a cost to your health. They actually could be more honest and meeting their needs in healthier ways.

Food combining lies

Even the way we combine foods in traditional meals is a lie to most bodies. Meat and potato eaten together causes digestive problems for many people. Hamburgers, meat sandwiches, cold chicken with potato salad and other popular dishes play havoc with my stomach and my digestion. A lot of people believe the lie that stomach pain and indigestion are just an unavoidable part of life. I did. My doctor did too and he prescribed Prilosec after I had endoscopy tests which revealed that I had a stomach ulcer. I read Sherry Brescia’s book "Great Taste No Pain", applied what I read and soon threw away the remaining tablets. The doctor’s prediction that I would probably need to continue taking those tablets for the rest of my life did not come true! By the way many people who apply what Sherry Brescia recommends do shed a significant amount of excess body fat as well as feeling healthier and having more energy.

I believe that the recommendation to drink at least eight glasses of water a day is a lie. While most people are insufficiently hydrated, our need for water varies enormously. Some days I do not drink any water at all. I am probably hydrated from eating plenty of crisp crunchy juicy raw vegetables and salads. Yet in a gym workout of less than an hour I can consume more than 1.5 litres of water. In hot dry weather I do drink plenty of water.

Yet the water in most city, town and municipal water supplies is also a lie. I guess it is the chemicals that are added to reduce the bacteria, to increase the effectiveness of the filtration and the fluoride that tends to make us feel like we have drunk enough water even though we are not sufficiently hydrated. Often there is so much chlorine in it that it kills off some of the bacteria in the gut that are essential for your health and for digesting food.

Lies about other drinks

Another lie is that we can just as effectively quench our thirst with flavoured drinks or teas instead of just plain water. Fruit juices and vegetable juices are also a lie as they are stripped of the necessary pulp which is usually essential for our bodies to assimilate them most effectively. It is so easy to drink too much of them, and the sugars in them are easily converted into fat.

Milk is also a lie.
There is a huge difference between the delicious warm creamy liquid that is milked from a cow and the cold pasteurised homogenised liquid that is in the dairy section in the supermarket. Most people suffer at least some allergic reaction to processed milk. However the milk from the cows on the big crowded factory feedlot farms is not healthy enough to be consumed without being pasteurised. Cows are designed to graze in open pastures, and unless they do that, drinking their raw milk can be a serious health risk. I remember when I was a young child enjoying that delicious taste of fresh milk. I miss the taste of the fresh cream from the top of the fresh milk in the refrigerator, spooned on to my corn flakes. The recommendation that milk is an essential part of a healthy diet is also a lie. The dairy industry is very proficient at lobbying the government to promote its products, and to quash the sale of unpasteurised milk.

Another is the lie that it is essential to restrict your eating and eat diet foods to lose weight. I find that lie is extremely interesting. Many people believe that simply counting calories and reducing their calorie intake below a certain level they will shed their excess fat. It may work for some people however our bodies have some amazing mechanisms that work for our survival. When we reduce our nutritional intake our bodies will compensate by conserving energy, and then any more than the basic minimum nutritional requirements will be stored as fat. By ensuring that your body is well nourished and by increasing the amount of energy you use, your body will tend to use up your reserves of body fat. It is like the difference between a Prius car with its energy saving hybrid energy drive, and a big powerful gas guzzling V8 high performance car. When the Prius is stationary in heavy traffic, you can relax peacefully in the driver’s seat, look at the indicator on the dashboard and smile as you see that it shows that your fuel consumption is zero litres per kilometre. Meanwhile the powerful V8 is using lots of fuel and vibrating with energy. Maybe the idea that we should always strive for energy efficiency is also a lie.

There is a common belief that fat will make you fat. So low fat food has become very popular, especially for people who want to lose weight. Processed foods are now made without fat, however in order to make your body believe the lie that the fat is still in the food, more flavouring and sugar is added. Those added ingredients tend to keep you fat. Many of us keep buying more of those foods as we believe the lie that they will help us to lose weight. The truth is that fat is an an essential part of our nutritional requirements. We will tend to feel hungry until our nutritional requirements are met,

The belief that you should not eat snacks between meals is a lie. Whether to eat snacks depends more on what food you eat as a snack and how well that is matched to your nutritional requirements.

Many people believe the lie that you cannot be fat and healthy at the same time. Just because most people use unhealthy ways to fatten themselves does not necessarily mean that fat is indicative of poor health. By eating plenty of delicious nutritious food, doing sufficient suitable exercise and having a healthy lifestyle, you can be healthy and fat if you want to. However I believe that the fatter you choose to be, the harder it is to remain healthy. The extra fat does put more strain many of the systems of your body..

We cannot understand our body’s needs when we continually subject ourselves and our bodies to all these lies. Is it any wonder that so many people have so much difficulty shedding excess fat?

With our new awareness of what these lies are, the truth will set us free to be able to listen to what our body is telling us, understand and provide it with what it really wants and needs.
We can feel healthy, vital and alive with plenty of energy to do what we want to do.

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