I Need to Gain Some Weight: Part 2 of 3
But some of the uber-thin are actually not digesting food and are quite unhealthy. They might be eating as much junk as the overweight people are, but because of chronic gut issues, they are not absorbing nutrition—not even calories, but certainly not minerals and many vitamins as well.
Last week after a tennis match, both my doubles opponents wanted to ask me questions while my teammates waited in the car. One of them told me about her daughter-in-law, who is in her 20’s, but exhausted, pale, sick, and underweight. She has open, pus-oozing sores all over her head that are stuck to her pillow in the morning. My opponent said to me, “She’s trying to heal with steroids–luckily her father is a doctor.”
I withheld my opinion on most of that, but I did say, “Steroids heal exactly nothing. What they do is suppress some symptoms, only temporarily, while knocking out the immune system.”
If you want to gain weight, eat healthy, exactly like I’m teaching in 12 Steps, with an emphasis on higher-calorie whole foods. Not dead, denatured, refined-oil, If you want to boost protein, do it with vegan protein powder, and high-protein unprocessed plant foods like legumes and nuts rather than animal products like meat, eggs, and cheese.
Boost your good fats, with avocadoes, nuts, seeds, and unprocessed oils like coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil, flax crackers (Ch. 7), etc. Avocadoes might be nature’s most perfect food, so eat 2-3 a day if you want, as guacamole or in sandwiches. Eat lots of young Thai coconut meat–make it into pudding, smoothies, chocolate mousse, ice cream. Make yourself a 4th meal, between breakfast and lunch, or after dinner, that is a high-calorie protein shake with lots of almond butter and raw chocolate and frozen bananas! Make kefir or yogurt (Ch. 8) with whole, organic, preferably unpasteurized goat or dairy milk. Freeze it in ice cube trays and make frozen yogurt with it in your BlendTec. Eat a handful of Brazil nuts every day—great selenium as well as good fats and calories.
Don’t forget to eat a big bowl of GRANOLA for breakfast—I have a baked recipe as well as a live/sprouted recipe (both delicious, but the raw/live one is more time-intensive but the most delicious thing ever). If you make the baked one, add a big spoonful of raw pumpkin or sunflower seeds, soaked overnight.
Britni, do you have the 101 Healthy Lunches book? I love a baked potato (with the skin) with tons of garlic aioli sauce on it, yummy. Plus a big green smoothie, and put some flax oil in his. You can get plenty of calories without resorting to meat, dairy, or processed foods. There are coconut-milk frozen desserts (sweetened with agave) that your husband will love. Or you can make your own (see Ch. 11).
Of course, food isn’t the only issue when it comes to weight loss or gain. It’s the biggest one, but there are two other biggies. About that, tomorrow.
Posted in: 12 Steps To Whole Food, Green Smoothies, Healthy Weight, Tools & Products, Whole Food
