· Insulin resistance

· Reduced IGF-1 production

· Stress

· Lack of exercise

· Not enough potassium

· Not enough B-complex

· Too much food (or not enough food)

The short version of the solution is as follows:

· Vigilance with the 7 steps (including the potato)

· Increasing potassium levels and decreasing sodium

· Exercise

· Eating less protein and waiting longer between meals

· Stress reduction

· Vigilance about vitamins

Many people might say you also have to work though your emotional issues around being fat before you can lose. I will respectfully disagree. If you lose weight by doing this process, your body will change slowly enough for your emotional self to integrate and process whatever you need to. I believe that what we have ascribed to body image issues is primarily a manifestation of biochemical imbalance. Heal the imbalance and the body image dilemma goes away.

I think a bigger issue is that doing weight loss, real weight loss takes a HUGE commitment. It demands making your relationship to your body the number one priority in your life. And if you have an exciting job, or a demanding family, or a complex life, it is very, very hard to insist on doing what it takes to live this way. The biggest stumbling blocks are lack of exercise and stress. And actually, the only stumbling block is exercise because if you exercise, in the right way, stress will no longer be an issue.

Let’s take a look at the five weight loss refinement steps:

1. Vigilance with the 7 steps

As you get skilled with the steps, it is easy to let things get sloppy around the edge. Late lunch, no journal, no potato. Go back and do the steps. You know the drill.

2. Increasing potassium, reducing sodium

I recommend having at least 4000 milligrams of potassium and no more than 1000 milligrams of sodium each day. When you first look at the idea, it seems daunting. It actually is not as hard as I first thought it would be. Cutting down on the sodium simply means eating a minimum of prepared foods. Read labels for a week to see the sodium content of foods you typically eat.

The simplest way to increase potassium is to drink 3 cans of low-sodium V-8 juice a day. Each can has 650 mg. of potassium. If you have your evening potato, you will add another 900 mg and will be close to 3000 mg with no effort. Adding beans, spinach or winter squash will get you to goal easily. Small changes can have a huge impact.

3. Exercise.

There is no way around it. If you want to lose weight, you absolutely MUST exercise. This is way more complex than just burning calories. I will go into all the details in the explanation below. But the short of it is you need to

* Exercise 30-40 minutes everyday doing something that makes you break a sweat but does not kick in an adrenaline rush.
* Do something that builds muscle tone such as lifting weights, Pilates, yoga or clubs.

4. Eating less

Losing weight requires eating less protein than you have been. Cut it down a little at a time. Do not spook yourself. Add more veggies (which will increase potassium as well) so you are not hungry.

Increase the interval between meals a little at a time. As your exercise increases, the stability of your body sugar will increase as well. You will be able to go 6 hours between meals without experiencing low blood sugar. You can read more about this in the later section.

5. Stress reduction

Stress is the single biggest contributor to weight loss being stuck or for unexplained weight gain. Generally those of you who live under high negative stress situations know that change needs to be made.

But often, as you heal, you get excited about a new job, a promotion, stepping out of a relationship that was not working or trying a new path in your life. These things feel great, so you do not register them as high stress.

Deadlines, multitasking, creativity, external time demands are all major stressors. And, at first blush, you do not want to give them up. Part of you is flourishing with the demands on you. So you will say “yah, yah, Kathleen,” but not really make any change.

Dealing with stress is actually easier than you think. First of all, if you start exercising, it will significantly reduce the stress response in your body in healthy ways. Bodies are designed to MOVE in response to a stressor. Danger meant movement. So by doing #4, you are halfway there already.

The second primary stress reducer is meditation. You simply sit twice a day for 20 minutes and be quiet. You do not need to do anything fancy. When your life is totally out of control, this sounds like a totally unrealistic idea. There simply is not enough time in the day to do it.

The irony is that making time for meditation will actually expand the rest of the time in your day. If you are centered and relaxed, you will be focused and efficient. Rather than struggling to get everything “done,” you will find yourself moving with an unexpected grace and ease.

Trying to have you conceptualize this is sort of like trying to explain to a person new to the program what a sugar-free life feels like. There is a quality to it that is pretty much incomprehensible to a person in the middle of an adrenaline driven lifestyle.

And, most, important, I am not making a pitch for this just to help you feel better. I want you to make the connection between stress and your weight. Stress makes you fat. Stress keeps you fat. If you want to lose weight, you have to reduce stress.

Okay, while you are working on these solutions, the most critical thing will be the level of support you get. That is what we are here for.