Turbo Metabolism. Pankaj Vij

your body or feeding disease. You have two choices: You can either “try” — that is, make excuses and then fail — or you can succeed no matter what obstacles come your way.

      In the words of Yoda in Star Wars: “Do or do not. . . .There is no try.”

      Facts and Fallacies

       • Fat is just inert excess energy.

       We know now that fat is actually metabolically and normally active tissue that produces insulin resistance, inflammation, and cravings for unhealthy foods.

       • You cannot grow new fat cells as an adult.

       The reality is that you can grow new fat cells (and new muscle cells and brain cells) as an adult. New cell formation is called hyperplasia. Enlargement of existing cells is called hypertrophy.

       • Being hungry all the time makes you fat.

       It’s almost the reverse: Carrying unhealthy belly fat makes you hungry. Belly fat hoards energy (rather than releasing it for burning), leaving you feeling hungry all the time.

      CASE STUDY: MARY

      Mary, a fifty-three-year-old schoolteacher, had a long history of excessive weight gain. She had tried several weight-loss programs with little success. Entering the Turbo Metabolism program was a game changer for her. She began to think about food as energy and information. I emphasized that physical activity and emotional well-being were also very important, and so she incorporated strategies for both aspects in her daily routines.

      In the process Mary dropped twelve pounds and three inches of fat from her waist in two months. She feels that these results are just the beginning, and she continues to feel better every day. By taking better care of herself, Mary has already had a positive impact on her students and colleagues.

      RULES TO LIVE BY

      Time for a reality check: Do you have extra pounds around your belly? Has your doctor advised you to lose weight, but you avoid tests, ignore test results, or prefer to pretend that you are not at risk?

      Embrace a zero-belly strategy with these rules to live by:

      • The battle is won or lost hand to mouth. What and how much you eat matters.

      • Food is not the enemy. Substances disguised as food are the land mines to avoid.

      • You can win this war. Once you recognize the problem, you can begin the fight against metabolic syndrome.

      • The stakes are high. The food you put in your mouth today will determine the quality of the rest of your life.

       CHAPTER TWO

       A Holistic Approach toward the Treatment and Cure for Diabesity

       This life’s five windows of the soul

       Distort the Heavens from pole to pole

       And leads you to believe a lie

       When we see with, not through, the eye.

      — WILLIAM BLAKE

      We are spiritual beings living in human physical form. Although most of us identify with our physical body, our capacity to thrive depends on so much more. The physical body is an amazing arrangement of natural elements, but it is virtually worthless without the vital life force that makes the body’s roughly fifty trillion cells work together to form dynamic, creative, energetic beings, capable of doing so much good.

      Vedanta philosophy (veda means “knowledge”) describes this vital life force as prana, which stays constant even as we progress through different phases of life.¹ The Rig Veda is believed by historians to be the oldest available document in human history, dated from 10,000 to 4000 BCE. Prana, the vital life force, connects the physical body to the mind — to our discerning intellect, knowledge, and wisdom, which help us distinguish the right path from the often-easier wrong one. Prana helps us to consciously make the right choices every moment of every day so that we can reach or remain in a state of balance and bliss with the universe, when we live life in perfect harmony and congruence with our own values and with nature.

      Our foolish misidentification with the physical body is the root cause of overindulgence in sense gratification, through excessive consumption of food, drink, smoking, and drugs. This foolishness also leads to overattachment, which translates to destructive emotions, such as lust, anger, greed, arrogance, and possessiveness.

      When we look beyond the physical body and realize that there is so much more to us than our five physical senses, we can connect with the ever-powerful, all-knowing forces of nature that are continually helping us heal and find balance and bliss. We can then realize that there is actually no “space” between us and the vital forces of nature. We, and everything around us, are made up of the five elements of fire, water, earth, air, and ether (or space).

      If diabesity is a state of energy imbalance due to overconsumption, Turbo Metabolism is a state of harmony between the mind, body, and universe. This state of harmony can only be achieved by understanding and optimizing the free flow of energy throughout all three.

      In ancient Indian philosophical texts, prana or life force is described as energy that should flow freely throughout the body through psychic centers of energy, documented as chakras as early as 800 BCE.

      The Sanskrit word chakra literally translates as “wheel” or “disk.” In yoga, meditation, and Ayurveda, this term refers to wheels of energy (or life force) throughout the body. There are seven main chakras, which are roughly lined up along the spine, starting from the base of the spine through to the crown of the head.² They are roughly aligned with the spine but can be visualized in the front of the body as well. To visualize a chakra in the body, imagine a swirling wheel of energy where matter and consciousness meet. This invisible energy, called prana, is the vital life force that keeps us vibrant, healthy, and alive.

      According to WebMD, Ayurvedic medicine — also known as Ayurveda — is one of the world’s oldest holistic (whole-body) healing systems. It was developed thousands of years ago in India.

      Based on the belief that health and wellness depend on a delicate balance between the mind, body, and spirit, the primary focus of Ayurvedic medicine is to promote good health, rather than fight disease. But treatments may be recommended for specific health problems and are unique to each individual based on their mind-body constitution.

      Yoga and Ayurveda are essentially inseparable sisters. Although yoga makes most people think of poses where people twist themselves like pretzels, its fundamental tenets are an eightfold system of universal morality, personal observances, postures, breath control, mastery over the senses, concentration, devotion, and ultimately, union with the divine. Hence, yoga is much more of a way of living than merely a practice of poses.

      The Chakras: Energy Flow in the Body

      The chakras, these swirling wheels of energy, correspond to massive nerve centers in the body. Each of the seven main chakras contains bundles of nerves and major organs as well as our psychological, emotional, and spiritual states of being. This life energy is always moving: We are living in a dynamic system that