In this new chapter on the quest for happiness, we shall continue to delve deeper into thisimportant item that is of interest to everyone. We will attempt to define concepts such as “happiness” “interior joy” or “wellbeing”, and also to discover how this subject has been dealt with during the course of humanity.

What happened when I asked someone to read this chapter on definitions could serve as a good example of how difficult it is to give a precise meaning to these words.

It involves a patient of mine, Ana Mª V…, a 36 year old psychologist who read this chapter on the quest for happiness. Her comment was “It’s not bad… I agree with what you say, but from my point of view, joy is something momentary whilst happiness is something more lasting”. As happens all too often in our personal and professional lives, her opinion is based on the words used and not on their significance. To avoid this kind of problem and to not give so much importance to words, you could try to invent a more fluid concept, imagining a continuous interior state of well-being that makes you feel good whenever and wherever you are. Therefore a deep interior feeling of continuous wellbeing exists, or might exist. Again I have used the word “well-being”, and each of you can interpret it as you wish, but to me it seems to be the most neutral expression. This is what I would call “interior joy”.

So, apart from this permanent feeling of wellbeing, we can also experience moments of “well-being that are more intense than usual”, which would contrast with the normal state of wellbeing. This condition is characterised by the implication that it cannot last for long because it depends on one or several external factors that are not permanent.

For some people the external factor that generates those famous endorphins released by our brain to make us feel good will be artificial, such as the use of drugs, alcohol or tobacco. For others it could be natural, through sex, music or sports. For me, this feeling of intense, specific well-being is what I would call pleasure, I do not consider it to be happiness. But for most people, happiness still depends on external factors like, for example, the fact of having money, a partner, a house, children, material assets, travelling, or not doing anything, lying on the beach, enjoying the sun, the sky and the birds. When I mentioned joy in the introduction to this article, I was referring to the concept of joy that is used in religious books. These books make reference to joy, not to happiness. The scholars and the prophets who have dwelt upon this subject claim that it is not possible to find happiness on this earth, although you can find interior joy. As you see, different names can be given to it – the concepts can even be confused – by calling joy what others call happiness. The essential thing is to understand that it is possible to attain an interior state of permanent wellbeing that does not depend on the external conditions of life, and that this deep, permanent state is more intense and will fulfil us more, bringing us peace. It would be impossible to achieve this if our state depended on external factors, that we could call stimulants (either physical or emotional). We all have friends or relatives who are full of “joy” and transmit this to others. Always happy, they are extremely positive, they like everyone and almost everything.

Well also know other people who are never happy, there is always something that they are missing, something they need to be able to fully enjoy life. They complain constantly, they criticize the world, life and everyone else. It’s always the world that is to blame if they are not happy, because they do not receive what they think they deserve.

Between these two extremes there are thousands of different cases, like ourselves. Scientists and brain specialists claim it is a question of chemistry and that the solution lies in medication known as “happiness pills”, such as Prozac. Others, like psychoanalysts and psychologists, think it depends on the early years of our lives, and they propose sessions of regression, either with patient being conscious or under hypnosis. Freud would have said it depends on the subconscious and others would say it involves the tendency of the soul.

The fact is that the quest for happiness continues and we all take part in the search, even those who try to hide it behind physical and/or mental hyperactivity. I don’t think there is one answer, but many answers. In any case, anyone who manages to love himself and others, without expecting anything in return and with compassion, comes close to achieving his own personal and permanent happiness.

The quest for happiness, an age-old concept.

Since ancient times, Man has been trying to improve his quality of life. In the beginning, to protect himself and to have a regular food supply. Little by little, once the essentials for his day to day life were more or less guaranteed – i.e. his basic needs – he began to have time to think and redefine his life. From that moment on, the notion of happiness appears. It could almost be said that the search for happiness appears once the fight for survival disappears.

In other words, once the dangers are removed, temporarily or almost permanently, he can start to look for ways in which to improve his living conditions : food, housing, dress, love, play. From this, first the concept, and later the philosophy, automatically emerges.

The division of the world

At any period in time, the world has always been divided into two categories of people: those who have tried to find happiness through material belongings, and those who have remained either partly or completely on the outside of the material world, trying to find a spiritual evolution.

Since the most distant times, and in all civilizations, politicians have co-existed alongside the holy men. The politicians organized the world and daily life. The priests were there to guide us, acting as intermediaries between the visible and the invisible worlds, between the world from where the soul comes and to where it goes.

In certain periods of history, these two worlds have sometimes come close, bringing spiritual and political power together in the same hands. On other occasions they become distant, like at the present time – at least in the Western world – when the spiritual leaders do not enjoy any political privileges other than, very occasionally, acting as mere advisors.

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Editorial: Dr. Pier Albrecht, Dr. Pierre Albrecht, Dr. Pierjean Albrecht,

Dr. Pier Jean Albrecht, Dr. Pierre F. Albrecht, Dr. Pierre Frank Albrecht,

Dr. P. Frank Albrecht, Dr. Pierjean Frank Albrecht, Marbella Clinic

As in previous editions, TRANSFORM magazine brings it readers the latest “in” diets, including an objective criticism of them. Today we present the one based on the book “Timing makes you Thin” by G. Clous, also known as “the 3 hour diet”.

The new diet called the “3 hour diet” or in other words “Timing makes you Thin”, by George Clous, assures us that it is not what we eat that makes us slim, but how often we eat. It promises a weight loss of 2 pounds a week without giving up your favourite food.

It’s true that in spite of the number of diet books, diet pills and TV programmes, there are more and more people with problems of excess weight. George Clous is emphatic in saying that diets do not work….he is not the first nor the last person to say so….and he adds that eliminating and going without your favourite food is not the solution.

At the beginning you lose weight, then there is a stage when the weight loss stabilizes, and afterwards all the weight is regained within a year, and this is what happens in 90% of the cases. According to him, the secret for losing weight and not regaining it is not to let more than 3 hours pass between each meal. Following this pattern, you should lose 2 pounds per week.

Why would it be necessary to eat every 3 hours?

The first answer would be because this cancels out the survival mechanism that protects us against hunger. Clous assures us that if we let more than 3 hours pass between two meals, this survival mechanism, known as the Starvation Protection Mechanism or SP M, is activated, making the body accumulate fat and burn muscle to conserve body fat, and thus help us to survive in the event of a food shortage. At the same time as this process takes place, the metabolism is also reduced, which is a problem in itself when you are trying to lose weight, and this is when the SP M comes into action and the body uses the muscles rather than fat to obtain energy.

This is not advisable because muscle controls the basic metabolism, i.e. how many calories are being burned when you sit or sleep. In a state of repose, each pound of muscle burns approximately 50 calories. Which means that if you lose 5 pounds of muscle, your metabolism will burn 250 calories less each day.

This diet raises the level of basic metabolism.

If the calories are better distributed throughout the course of the day, the supply of energy to the body is more regular. This enables the cells to obtain sugar more quickly from the blood and to make it available immediately for converting to energy. If the meals are more spaced and you take in more calories in each meal, the body cannot burn them, therefore it stores them as fat. The result is that you gain weight, even if your calorie intake is the same for the whole day.

This diet improves the energy level.

If you sometimes you ask yourself why you feel so tired at the end of the day, it is because you have been too long without food. The sugar level is reduced and you notice that you can no longer think clearly, and you feel like sleeping a siesta. If you eat every three hours, the sugar level of the blood remains stable and therefore provides a flow of amino acids (and sugar) to supply the muscles and the brain tissue. This also enables your energy and moods to be more regulated, because you are receiving a continuous energy supply throughout the day.

This kind of diet naturally curbs the appetite.

If you provide your body with food every three hours, you are maintaining a stable sugar level, which automatically shrinks your appetite. Research has shown that people who eat more frequently do not feel hungry, nor feel the need to eat.

Eating every 3 hours reduces your cholesterol level

Eating every 3 hours helps to regulate your cholesterol level. A report published in the British Medical Journal indicates that the cholesterol level of people who eat 6 or more times a day is around 5% lower than people who eat less frequently.

eatin every 3 hours reduces your cortisol level.

A high level of the cortisol hormone is associated with abdominal fat. Research has demonstrated that people who eat smaller meals and more often, as compared to those who eat three large meals a day with the same number of calories, could reduce their cortisol level by 17% in two weeks

should I eat?

Meal-times are calculated from when you wake up in the morning. – Rule 1. Have breakfast within one hour of waking up, to get the metabolism going. – Rule 2. Eat every three hours. – Rule 3. Have your last meal at least 3 hours before going to bed so the food is digested before

The key is to eat 5 times a day plus, if you wish, a small, 50-calorie snack, at 3 hour intervals. For example, breakfast at seven, a snack at ten, lunch at one, tea at four and finally dinner at seven. This would be the perfect distribution of eating times.

What should I eat?

In this diet you eat 3 meals, 2 snacks and one good meal per day. The author, George Clous, recommends several diets, or you can follow the one you like best, providing that you have an intake of around 1,450 calories per day, this being the ideal amount for shedding 2 pounds of fat per week.

But never less than this number of calories so that the body does not compensate by lowering the basic metabolism level. The diet must be balanced, providing the right amount of carbohydrates, proteins and fats needed to maintain normal levels of sugar and insulin in the blood.

The 3 hour diet could be planned for breakfast, lunch and dinner as follows : According to the author, half of the plate should contain vegetable (fruit is recommended for breakfast), the other half of the plate is divided into two equal parts, one for carbohydrates and the other for protein. You can also add a spoonful of oil to help regulate the appetite. If you are still hungry afterwards, you can add another half plate of vegetable.

My opinion :

This diet, like the Atkins or The Zone diet, is planned around what people eat. You could say it is like advising someone on the type and quantity of petrol they should use for their car without taking into account what type of car it is. Obviously you would not use the same quantity or the same category of petrol for a diesel engine, a normal engine or a Formula One engine.

The diet is not everything….for this reason there is so much failure in this field. The diet should be adapted to each individual, not just in the amount of calories, but also the type of food, and taking into account not only the everyday life-style, but also any momentary changes in life-style. each person’s metabolism is different, and a doctor should not recommend the Atkins diet, The zone, the south beach or the 3 hour diet with the guarantee of personalizing it for each patient. Generally speaking i am not in favour of diets that oblige people to organize their life around food. quite the contrary, i think food, and therefore diet, should be adapted to our life-style. i am sure that eating every three hours could be effective for some people, but on a practical level it is not very realistic, and another kind of diet could be equally as effective. Like any plastic surgeon, every day i see patients who, after having tried as many as 10 different diets and even more “miracle” products to try and lose weight, with only temporary success, in the end decide to undergo a liposuction, which is usually the best solution.

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Editorial: Dr. Pier Albrecht, Dr. Pierre Albrecht, Dr. Pierjean Albrecht,

Dr. Pier Jean Albrecht, Dr. Pierre F. Albrecht, Dr. Pierre Frank Albrecht,

Dr. P. Frank Albrecht, Dr. Pierjean Frank Albrecht, Marbella Clinic

Masculine aesthetic attributes

Visible abdominal muscles are one of the aethetic attributes usually associated with

men. How beautiful to see the body of an athlete or a male model with a “six pack”

or a “chocolate bar”. But more than beautiful, in the mind of a woman this is related to

the willpower that a man needs to not let the fat accumulate around his tummy. The

will to look after himself, both through physical exercise and through diet.

It’s a shame that in recent years, women also want to develop their abdominal muscles.

More and more women come to my surgery with the idea of eliminating their

abdominal fat, even if there is very little, so that the muscles can be seen. They even

ask for a liposcultpure. It is difficult to convince them that it is natural for a woman’s

body to have more fat than a man’s, and that the softer curves of a woman are related

to femininity and maternity, and to tenderness.

I think that this strong desire of those women is taken from the example set by their

instructor at the gym where they are sculpting their bodies. I have also received some

of the instructors in my surgery. They have fantastic bodies, to the point of perfection,

but I’m not sure that it is still the body of a woman. Their faces are all very much

affected by the lack of fat, which causes the skin to become very flaccid and lined.

Usually they like to be well tanned, which makes their appearance even worse

Health benefits for everybody

Whatever your eating habits, if you are overweight due to an excess food intake, you

cannot maintain the benefits of a diet if you do not reduce your stomach size. In reality,

the stomach has a tendency to relax over the years because people eat more and

take less exercise, especially in this area. It is essential to take up doing abdominal

muscles exercises again every day, as soon as you get up and on an empty stomach,

in order to gradually reduce the tendency of the stomach to expand. You can begin at

your own pace, even doing ten a day, without forcing or stressing yourself. By doing

this every day, you will progress, inevitably, and you could end up doing a thousand

a day by the end of a year, if you wish.

The exercises should be short and repetitive, moving the bent legs towards the body.

If you can, it is also advisable to make oblique movements, trying to touch the right

knee with the left elbow, and viceversa. With this simple exercise, the abdomen will

generally end up diminishing in size and this will enable you to eat less, giving you an

earlier sensation of being full, but also with the effect of stimulating the passage of

food through the intestine, which helps against constipation.

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Editorial: Dr. Pier Albrecht, Dr. Pierre Albrecht, Dr. Pierjean Albrecht,

Dr. Pier Jean Albrecht, Dr. Pierre F. Albrecht, Dr. Pierre Frank Albrecht,

Dr. P. Frank Albrecht, Dr. Pierjean Frank Albrecht, Marbella Clinic