This coming Sunday, I am leaving for Dr. Fuhrman's 2011 Health Getaway. At least one of my vacations each year is a health getaway of some sort, now usually Dr. Fuhrman's.

There are a few reasons why I getaway this way.

1) I find that once every quarter I need to rejuvenate myself. If I don't, I find myself experiencing personal energy debt which is when you have overspent your vital energy and need to break the pattern of your life and get's lots of sleep, rest, recovery and ultimately rejuvenation so that one becomes renewed. It helps me fully recharge, and renew my outlook and spirit.

2) At least once a year, I enjoy doing this in a combined learning and vacationing environment like Dr. Fuhrman's Health Getaway. It's just the right balance between lectures, exercise, events, and the leisure time I need to to get the benefits I'm really seeking most which is rejuvenation.

One of my primary aims this year is to continue eating when I'm hungry despite the fact that there will be food 3 times per day in amazing abundance. I recently took off a stubborn 20 lbs, just by applying this principle which is only possible when you have a 90% or More Plant Based, Nutrient Rich eating plan.

A little background:

I may be a nutrition education trainer, and lifestyle coach/trainer, but I too have aspects of the lifestyle that I have to work on regularly. In my case, it's eating for the right reasons. When I was first learning Nutrient Rich Healthy Eating, I wanted to try everything. I found it so exciting to experience a new way of eating that I found I was overeating often.

Then when I would face very challenging periods, I would eat incredibly healthy still, but I would eat to cope with stress…not because I was hungry, and so on. You could call this emotional eating.

And to boot, when I am faced with pre-prepared foods in such a healthy environment, historically I would suffer from what I coined as "last supper syndrome". It says, that just because the food is there and I have paid to eat it, that I must eat it. As if there will never be another chance to immerse myself in such healthy eating, or that I'm never going to get the chance to eat again". It is a syndrome and one that I have a fairly good track record in recent times in my life of not falling into. But lord knows, I know I'm still susceptible, like a drunk in a bar, because of all that memory I have despite the fact that I have changed the stories that used to drive me a little crazy, and resolved many of the issues that would give rise to anxiety and stress in my life.

So this year, I am going into what will be an incredible week, knowing that, and very aware of my lifestyle choices so that I come back in optimal healthy and still living at or near my ideal weight. Besides a meal or two, I'm going to leave every meal feeling satisfied but feeling like "I don't even have a stomach". In other words, I will not be overwhelmingly full. If I can feel my stomach, I probably ate too much.

Here are some photo's from last year.

Take a look at the foods and you'll know why this is a challenge for most people, including me!

I'll be posting some video's and pictures throughout the entire experience and I hope to see you there and or next year!

I recently send out a questionnaire to some of my clients and want to share with you a question that I asked them.  The question was HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN STRUGGLING TO LOSE WEIGHT.  (How would you answer this question?)

If you are like the many responses I received you probably have a similar situation ranging from “I AM ALWAYS TRYING TO LOSE THAT EXTRA 10 pounds” to “I have been struggling with overweight MY WHOLE LIFE”.

If I am honest about it, I suffered the same DIS- EASE, obsessively trying to control my weight which never seemed to be right for my body and head…I accomplished major weight losses throughout my life by  deprivation dieting or excessive exercising only to find myself back in the “FAT ZONE” and feeling even more miserable. Firstly because I had broken my promise that I would never be fat and again and secondly because I felt out of control with my food. Deprivation dieting and excessive exercising left me just plain miserable and in an unsustainable position.  I mean how long can you really last on steamed broccoli and grilled chicken before you turn into a starving binge eating carbo-holic? And how many hours can you hang out in the gym before your boss notices you are late for work everyday?

So I made some discoveries and some changes

• I turned my pain into my passion. Reading, writing, learning and experiencing FOOD and what actually works.

• I used my own body as a science project and tried many different ways of eating, discovering that most were unsustainable and the weight gain followed.

• Uncovered my own “issues” (not food related) that were keeping me weighed down and fat.

Regardless of whether I went to WEIGHT PROGRAM meeting (there are many and you know them well) or labeled myself as vegetarian, vegan, raw… it didn’t work for long.  My biggest discovery is that I removed all labels from my eating. I EAT FOR HEALTH (and surprisingly enough NATURAL WEIGHT LOSS is a side effect of that!)

We’ll continue to talk about what exactly eating for health really means and my biggest pet peeve, which is the myth that eating healthy has to be boring and that you would be sacrificing all the good stuff.

So ask yourself :

• Are you happy at your current weight?
• How would you feel if you could lose weight NATURALLY?
• How would you feel if you really loved the food you ate every day?

TO BE CONTINUED: ( we need to talk) What does eating for health really mean, How can you do it sustainably, How can you make simple, quick and easy recipes that will excite your palette, and How can you get out of the diet traps that leave you FAT.

Eating With Friends at DrFuhrman's Health Getaway

First, make sure you are eating nutrient rich foods

Second, make sure you are eating because you are hungry, not for any other primary reason.

Third, stop when you are about 75% full.

BTW, I listed a bonus step below.

One of the reasons why I am in the position to be publishing NutrientRich.com is because I have had the privilege of learning from DrFuhrman and others who understand health and lifestyle science.

Over the past 20 years, I have continued to learn more and more, and finally identified the cornerstone of nutrition itself, nutrient rich nutrition.

In addition to reading books and hanging with the pros, I learn from others experience and I do so at live events all the time. Every time, I come back from a live event, my life and style of thinking and living takes a major leap forward.

Even yesterday, after hearing Dr Fuhrman nearly 500 times in my life time, I learned new information about eating that will help me make “Tweaks” in my eating patterns that will last a lifetime.

One of the biggest things I learned yesterday was more about the mind set that enables you to avoid overeating.

Dr Fuhrman made a point about forgetting you have a stomach. What do you mean John Allen? How can I forget I have a stomach??

Well, assuming you are eating nutrient rich foods, when you finish eating, you should not feel your stomach any more than you feel your spleen or your kidneys, as we don’t “feel” either.

That being true, if you feel your stomach after you eat, in a significant way, you have already overeaten.

This was a big wake up call for me, who tends to eat more than I need mostly because I just love trying new nutrient rich foods and meals and yes, I eat emotionally at times. (telling on myself ) many people do.

So yesterday I practiced this “Exercise with Food” as Dr Fuhrman calls it and got up from the table without feeling my I had added another body part around my waist (i.e, without feeling my stomach).

It was not easy at first, given there was a whole buffet of pre -prepared foods that were incredibly healthy. The bottom line, is, I was was already full.

I ate just enough at lunch, so? that I would be hungry from dinner and I must say the pleasure of dinner was so much better!

So there are three basic steps you can take to learn how to eat for health and avoid over eating.

1. First, make sure you are eating nutrient rich
   
2. Second, make sure you are eating because you are hungry, and not for any other “primary” reason.
   
3. Third, stop when you are about 75% full.

Bonus step: Consider how else can you get pleasure and keep yourself occupied other than eating. It’s not a pastime, not unless you want to have to pass allot of time trying to lose weight.

That’s how you avoid overeating, even when it’s healthy, nutrient rich food!

The 2010- Dietary Guidelines

The 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee concludes ” that good health and optimal functioning across the life span are achievable goals but require a lifestyle approach including a total diet that is energy  balanced and nutrient dense (Nutrient Rich).

What I thought was so telling about this year’s dietary guidelines is that, unlike the 2005 Dietary Guidelines, that promoted nutrient density as the “Cornerstone of Nutrition” (further inspiring me to launch NutrientRich.com at that time) was that the 2010 Dietary Guidelines explicitly state to “shift food patterns to a more plant based diet that emphasizes vegetables, cooked/dry beans and peas, fruits, whole grains, nuts and seeds. (a period, then…). “In addition (meaning as a secondary class off food) more seafood an low fat dairy products, in all other animal product in “moderation”.

Of course, to the trained eye, we know that they need to promote animal products since the USDA is comprised of the dairy and beef boards, regardless of whether they are the optimal food choices; but never before have they been so subtly clear about what to eat with language like “plant based” and by mentioning those foods that are nutrient dense (Nutrient Rich) with of course, the right foods first.

I just read the guidelines Executive Summary to a client here at The Lifestyle Coaching Center from where we operate and upload content to NutrientRich.com, and she was so happy to hear that it wasn’t this one lifestyle coach (guy) alone, who was telling her to eat a plant based Nutrient Rich diet. Now she could see that even the government is on board with eating a plant based Nutrient Rich diet.

Why such a meaningful change in the dietary guidelines?

Simply put, they say (and I paraphrase), “Obesity is our single biggest health threat“. They go on to say that ” adopting healthy dietary patterns, population- wide, is a daunting public health challenge because of the powerful influences that currently promote unhealthy consumer choices, behaviors and lifestyles.”

As a lifestyle trainer and coach, I am well aware that this is a daunting challenge, but particularly for people who have not had any lifestyle training on how to live a healthy lifestyle successfully, and or coaching, and don’t have the ongoing support.

But I will tell you this right here:

You can get the training that will help you live a healthy lifestyle successfully, live at or near your ideal weight and achieve even your most ambitious life goals.

One of the core essentials of a successful lifestyle (or what’s becoming known as a PerformanceLifestyle) is a Nutrient  Rich diet. This is not rigid or fixed way of eating, (the specific foods you eat are always unique to you) but it is a quality standard and a diet style essential to your body functioning and performing well throughout your lifestyle span.

Hat’s off to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines, for taking the next step in promoting guidelines that actually promote health. There is still a ways to go, but their message is clear, Eat a Nutrient Rich Diet. That what we are privileged to help you do here in 2010 at NutrientRich.com.

John Allen Mollenhauer, known as John Allen or “JAM”, is the co-author of The Curse of the Capable. He is a leading authority in what’s known as Performance Lifestyle Training and coaching, founder of The Lifestyle Coaching Center and solutions such as NutrientRich® and MyTrainer®