Stop Dieting Backwards – Prepare Your Body and Brain for Weight Loss with #ThePrime #Giveaway

This is a sponsored conversation in partnership with Harmony Books. My opinion is all my own and it is truthful.

What exactly is dieting backwards? This is a question I began asking myself as soon as this new book arrived here.

These early days of 2016 I’ve been reading a lot of the content coming out of a huge consumer electronics show. Many posts are focused on uncovering the next big thing – while also reflecting on what has been the most disruptive technology of the past year, even the past decade. I like that phrase a lot actually ‘disruptive technology.’ It’s got me thinking about that phrase disruptive and the book that I just read, The Prime: Prepare and Repair Your Body for Spontaneous Weight Loss by Dr. Kulreet Chaudhary.

Stop Dieting Backwards

The Prime is a disruptive diet, weight loss and health book that will turn what you know about diet and weight loss on its head. It encourages people to stop dieting backwards or doing food and nutrition without considering the brain and the gut.

Disruptive things, books, thoughts and people can be a good thing if they improve your life, or change your thinking and your habits for the better.THE PRIME: Prepare and Repair Your Body for Spontaneous Weight Loss By Kulreet Chaudhary, MD, Integrative Neurologist, with Eve Adamson is in stores now. It was released on In January 5^th.

A disruptive diet book

The Prime is the most disruptive diet and weight loss book you will read this year. It is thought provoking and challenges everything we know about Western concepts of medicine, nutrition, food and weight loss. The Prime will stick with you and has potential to change your life dramatically.

If you have ever struggled with weight loss, you need to read this book because you have most likely been doing things backwards. If you have brain fog throughout the day and joke to yourself and your friends – hehe senior moment – or just a little ADD, you need to read The Prime. If you have digestive issues of any sort then this is a book for you to take to heart as well. There are so many parts that resonated with me. But here’s the gist of it. Your brain and gut are inextricably linked. The Prime author’s premise is one that is upheld in Ayurvedic practice that all ailments originate with the digestive tract. Gut feeds the brain and when the gut is off, or blocked or not functioning properly that can lead to other ailments and diseases. You’ve likely heard of the concept of leaky gut. Well this is leaky brain. Leaky brain, which originates with the gut, makes you less able to choose the food you need. Leaky brain will see you choosing the fast foods, the foods filled with preservatives and high fructose, glucose, sugary snacks that further impair the body and the brain. First you detoxify and fix the cravings from the ground up. Tackle the gut and the brain and weight loss will follow.

I had the chance to interview the author recently.

The following is the Q and A from our conversation. 

TMM Question 1: What motivated you to write The Prime?

DR. Chaudhary: Answers: I’ve worked with patients for a decade in order to reverse neurological disorders and other chronic diseases. One consistent but unexpected result from my program was weight loss. After studying why this phenomenon was occurring so effortlessly in my patients, I realized people had a total misunderstanding of the issue surrounding weight gain and that instead of really appreciating the underlying biochemistry associated with it, they saw it as a simple calories in verses calories out problem. This lack of awareness of the true biology of weight loss not only made it extremely difficult to lose weight, but it also missed the most important red flag associated with weight gain—there is an underlying toxic inflammatory process present that is also causing the early stages of disease.

TMM Question 2: You refer often to biochemistry as something that prevents people from making healthy food choices. I’m still not 100 % clear on what biochemistry means…can you clarify that term for readers too?

Dr. Chaudhary Answers: When most people think of weight loss they tend to think of willpower. They think you have to have the motivation to change what you eat and go to the gym. When you think about it in terms of willpower it seems like just a simple mental task and people make the assumption that they must be lazy or unmotivated and that is why they can’t lose weight. But the reality is that there is a lot more going on than just simply a willpower issue. When I talk about biochemistry, I’m talking about what is actually happening in the brain and the gut that determines what you eat, how much energy you have, and how susceptible you are to food addictions. When we think of other addictions, like alcohol or cocaine, most people understand that there is an underlying biochemical imbalance. Certainly when we think about conditions like diabetes or multiple sclerosis, people think of underlying biological issue.       What I’m showing people in this book is that weight gain as it is now occurring in our modern world is also a biochemical problem and mirrors the same toxic inflammatory process that occurs in other conditions. It’s not a willpower issue—there are biochemical changes that have occurred in the body and the brain that need to be reversed, not only to lose weight but also to reverse other damage that is simultaneously occurring in the body and brain.

TMM Question 3: You noted at the start of The Prime that you were nervous when you returned to your practice with some Ayurvedic training that patients would not respond to that well. Instead they seemed to really welcome the integrated approach you brought combining Ayurvedic medicine and western medicine…do you see that as a trend in medicine in future? Do you think there will be a time when we are all more open-minded towards the concept of medicine and what the body needs to be well?

Dr. Chaudhary Answers: Yes, absolutely. This is becoming much more than just a trend because of the amount of scientific research that supports these more natural approaches. Many physicians and scientists that are aware of the mountain of research supporting lifestyle medicine (which is really what Ayurvedic medicine and other ancient systems represent) are troubled with how archaic our current medical approach to disease is. So this is no longer a trend but a paradigm shift within the medical community led primarily by emerging research that is starting to impact the information being taught to medical students. The challenge with medicine is that the educational process is so long that we don’t see the impact of these changes immediately because what is happening in medical school today will really be experienced by patients in 10 years. But when you have a behind-the-scenes view of the process like I do you get to look into the crystal bowl, so to speak, into the future of medicine. What I have found is that it’s not really the general public that needs to be more open minded—they tend to be much more embracing of integrative medicine simply because it works on reducing their suffering—but rather the physicians who tend to hold onto the way they were taught before we had this new research. This is all changing as we speak and I’m very grateful to be a part of this change.

TMM Question 4: I’m intending to do this and proceed through the stages but there are a few things in here that I haven’t even heard of. Triphala, haritaki, fennel seeds, cumin seeds? I’d love to get started but am curious where do I find these items?

Dr. Chaudhary Answers: Even though so many of these items may seem new or exotic, they are actually very readily available. Everything is available online. The brand of triphala that I have used for years, Digest Tone, is available on Amazon and is even available at many of the Kroger’s supermarket stores. Fennel and cumin seeds are often used in cooking and can be found in many supermarkets in the spice or bulk section. If you can’t find it there, again, you can always find it on online, like on Amazon. Haritaki is an ingredient in triphala so you don’t have to buy any additional amounts—you get everything you need in triphala. We have also created a shopping cart on my website where you can by all of herbs mentioned in The Prime in one convenient place www.drkulreetchaudhary.com because I didn’t want people to have to search all over the place for reliable products in order to complete The Prime.

TMM Question 5:  Can any of these items above interfere with medications someone might be on already for existing digestive or other ailments?

Dr. Chaudhary Answers: None of the herbs interfere with digestive medications because they are enhancing the body’s natural digestive abilities. Many people do notice that they don’t have to take as much of digestive medications such those used to treat heartburn because their heartburn naturally improves. For people with hyperthyroidism, I recommend working with your doctor when taking the ashwaganda and Brahmi and the same goes for patients on blood pressure medication when taking the guggul. The main issue with these recommendations and existing medications is that people often times don’t need as much medication once the toxic inflammation is reduced so it’s important to have labs and blood pressure reevaluated once you’ve completed the program because you may not need as much medication once you’ve completed The Prime and if you’re taking more medications than you need, it can cause symptoms as well.

TMM Question 6: Talk to me about why a bigger lunch/ smaller dinner pattern makes sense when I am more inclined to skip that meal a lot of days?

Dr. Chaudhary Answers: In U.S. culture, it is traditional to eat the largest meal in the evening, but this is much harder on your digestion than eating the bulk of your calories during the middle of the day, when you most require energy. This is an ancient Ayurvedic concept, but it is practiced in many other cultures as well (such as in Europe). There is some research to back this up, too, such as one study that showed that eating out of sync with your circadian rhythm, which uses more energy during the day and less energy at night, can lead to insulin resistance, obesity, and type 2 diabetes. Another study showed that eating a larger breakfast and lunch and skipping or having a small dinner resulted in more weight loss and better blood sugar control than eating six small meals during the day.

On Ayurveda

In Ayurveda, your agni (digestive fire) is linked to the cycles of the sun. When the sun is the strongest (at noon), that is also when your agni is the strongest in your body. Eating more at lunchtime is simply more efficient—you absorb more nutrients and create fewer toxins when your body is running at full steam. Dinnertime is when your body begins to prepare for detoxification, which predominantly occurs during the night when your body is at rest. (This is also why most people have a bowel movement in the morning—the body is expelling the waste it was processing while you slept.) If you have a large dinner, not only does it tend to disrupt sleep, but it also makes detoxification less effective because your body has to expend extra energy breaking down the food you consumed at dinner.

TMM Question 7: You mention some other curious things to me – like if you digestion is weak you are cold all the time. Why is that?

Dr. Chaudhary Answers: In Ayurveda, your digestion, also called agni or digestive fire, is associated with heat. In order for appropriate transformation of food to occur, you have to have good digestive fire or heat in your body. In western medicine, we have a similar concept when we discuss metabolism, which is a slightly more general term than the Ayurvedic concept of agni. Metabolism is also related to this idea of being able to generate energy in the body and one form of energy is thermal energy, which is associated with heat production. Being able to generate this form of heat energy is critical for digestion to work properly. When you lose this ability to create the proper amount of heat for digestion, it is often times accompanied with an inability to create thermal energy (heat energy) in other parts of your body as well, hence feeling cold all the time.

[tweetthis]What if you are doing weight loss all wrong? #ThePrime[/tweetthis]

TMM Question 8: This is a really interesting book. I enjoyed reading it and plan to keep it as a reference while I work through the process. Thank you for sharing The Prime with my readers too. What’s next for you?

Dr. Chaudhary Answers: Thank you so much for your interest in the book! It’s been a joy to share with others. I am launching The Prime Club this spring for those individuals who want an even richer experience and more support as they go through this program. I want to be as available as possible to people who really want to dive into this program and get the deepest transformation possible. So I am launching The Prime Club which will couple group coaching sessions from master coaches who have completed the program under my supervision with more detailed content from me as well as live Q&A sessions with me. This program has the potential to change lives in a very meaningful way and I wanted to create a fun, supportive environment where people can take full advantage of everything The Prime has to offer. To learn more, you can go to theprimeclub.com, which will be up shortly. I am also continuing my work as Chief Medical Officer of New Practices, a medical company that is creating a new model for healthcare based on teaching patients the principles of health and personal transformation in an environment of compassion, empowering them to live in a way that promotes maximum healing and vitality. As Chief Medical Officer, I also oversee ongoing medical research to combat chronic diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, obesity, coronary heart disease, addictions, and more. It’s one of the most exciting professional times of my career.

[tweetthis]Enter now for a chance to win a copy of #ThePrime #giveaways[/tweetthis]

Many thanks to Dr. Chaudhary for taking the time to answer my questions.

I have one copy of The Prime to giveaway to one US reader only. Follow the instructions to win. Good luck!

Visit drkulreetchaudhary.com for more info. 

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