Dropping unwanted pounds can be easier than you think,

 

IF you take advantage of these important facts and tips.

Does COUNTING CALORIES work? Does it make sense? Should we count calories?

Although counting calories is not at all the long term answer to anyone who wants to lose weight, the dangerous belly fat, and all the related health challenges that come with the extra weight, it is enlightening to look at the math of weight loss first. So let’s take a quick look, so that you have a general understanding of the calorie principles. Every pound of body fat is worth 3,500 calories. To lose one pound a week, you can either take in 500 calories less each day, or burn 500 calories each day through exercise, or better yet, do a combination of the two. The current research shows that cutting back on our consumption gets results much faster than exercise. Exercising alone, without cutting back on consumption, gets less results and slower results.

Below are some tips to make achieving your desired weight both “do‐able” and “keep‐able.” In general, when we eat a “good for me diet,” and when we are active most every day for at least 20 to 30 minutes, and when our hormones are in balance and when our thyroid is active at a healthy level, our bodies will automatically move toward the perfect weight. So keep in mind that the following suggestions are not to JUST lose weight. These suggestions can help you become healthy, vibrant, resilient, clear-minded, and happy.

Before we begin, let’s take a look at the calories in some not so healthy foods & drinks. Fast-Foods are overall very nutrient barren and very calorically dense. When we eat these foods, we can expect to have increased hunger, as a result of eating high-calorie foods devoid of needed nutrients.

Burger King Cheeseburger – 305 calories

KFC Original Recipe Dinner – 830 calories

Taco Bell Beef Burrito – 466 calories

Chick-Fil-A Chicken Sandwich – 440 calories

Chick-Fil-A Sausage Biscuit – 490 calories

Fast-Food (and most other) Salad Dressings are very HIGH in calories:

Wendy’s Classic Ranch – 200 calories

Burger King’s Ranch – 190 calories

Taco Bell Zesty – 200 calories

McDonald’s Newman’s Own Ranch – 170 calories

Chick-Fil-A Buttermilk Ranch – 160 calories

Alcoholic beverages are high in calories:

Miller Draft Beer – 143

Sam Adams Light – 124

Michelob – 155 5 oz.

Red wine – 106

White wine – 100

Please forget counting calories. It has never worked long term. Simply a general awareness of calories and more importantly, whether a food is nutrient-dense or not is what is most important.

Once you are choosing healthy foods, you can forget counting calories forever! It’s not just the calories in all those “not so healthy foods” that matter. It’s the additives, the imbalance of Omega oils in them, the lack of life in them. Once you are choosing healthy live foods – nutrient-dense foods – your body and your taste buds will crave them. Your fat storage systems will stop storing unnecessarily when you are eating nutrient-dense organic foods! Never diet again! Never go around being hungry again! Yes, all this is possible and predictable for you!

EASY TIPS on becoming healthy and within your perfect weight range.

1. WATER:

Here’s the question: “Do you want to be a grape or a raisin?” Your hydration determines this!

HOW MUCH WATER SHOULD WE DRINK?

The experts agree that we should drink enough water to equal half your body weight in ounces daily. Why?

A. Your body will not metabolize stored fat efficiently without enough water.

B. During weight loss, extra water is needed to flush out the excess waste shed by the metabolized fat.

C. Also, to reduce water retention, you must drink more water.

D. Another benefit of proper hydration is helping your body maintain proper muscle tone and keeping the skin clear, healthy and resilient.

Water is quite possibly the single most important catalyst in losing weight and keeping it off. Although many people take it for granted, water may be the only true ‘magic potion’ for permanent weight loss.

WHEN SHOULD WE DRINK WATER?

There are specifically TWO times that our bodies will benefit the most from drinking water.

A. Start your day with a 12 – 16 oz. glass of water soon after you wake up and empty your bladder. Add a tablespoon or so of fresh lemon juice to REALLY get your organs jazzed. Your organs will love waking up this way every day.

B. When you are hungry, drink water. Guess what! You are likely NOT hungry! We humans have learned to misinterpret our thirst signals for hunger signals. I have seen many people drop many unwanted pounds from JUST doing this one thing! So every time you feel a hunger sensation, drink water! You will likely find that hunger pang totally disappears!

Instead of grabbing that soda, please drink water. This applies to regular sodas and diet sodas. Here’s why: When you substitute a glass of water for a regular soda twice a day, you are reducing your calories by 200 – 250. So there you go! If you are a soda drinker, doing JUST this daily will lead to losing a pound or so every 7 – 10 days.

Diet sodas, by the way, are way worse. Not only do they cause weight gain because of the aspartame, you are also killing some of your brain cells resulting from the excitotoxin, aspartame. (see more in #4 & #5)

WHAT KIND OF WATER?

Tap water?

Reverse Osmosis water?

Alkaline water?

Springwater?

Berkey Filtered water?

Yes, lots of choices and lots of confusion.

First, tap water is the worst choice because of the aging water pipes and added chemicals. Chlorine may be necessary for clean tap water, but is certainly not a benefit to the body. Fluoride added to public water supplies is a byproduct of the aluminum industry and the fertilizer industry. Their marketing ploy to get it into the public municipal water supplies will one day be exposed for the ploy it was and is. Simply, selling fluoride to municipalities is a financial saving grace to those industries because they needed to expose their wastes. Fluoride is an untreated industrial waste product, one that contains trace elements of arsenic and lead. Fluoride has been proven harmful to the brain and may lower IQ in children; it’s also an endocrine-disrupting chemical linked to thyroid disorders and cancer.

Does it really prevent dental caries? Well, to date, there are no long term (over 5 years) studies proving this. What we do know and see is a continued increase in fluorosis (discoloration and mottling of teeth) rates up to about 65% now from the added fluoride. About 95% of the world’s drinking water has no fluoride added. We are way behind here in the U.S.

Reverse Osmosis can be a good choice but only if minerals are added back in and only if an extra filter to filter out fluoride is included. Normal RO systems do not filter out fluoride, so an additional filter is necessary, and not all RO companies offer this so check first.

Alkaline water is sold touting the benefits of alkalizing your body because overall disease does not bode well in an alkaline environment. However, after having tried alkalized water for about 8 months myself, I found that it seriously disrupted my digestion. Our precious acidic digestive juices need to be just that – acidic. So drinking a lot of alkalized water may be a negative on digestion.

One less known but more powerful water filtering system is the Berkey Water Filter. I have come to really appreciate these models. They operate independently of your plumbing and they offer optional fluoride filters, which I highly recommend.

The TOP CHOICE is clean spring water. There are many spring water choices, but please do your research to make sure the spring water is really nature’s spring water. I have found some to be just filtered tap water. Springwater contains mother nature’s oh so important minerals. There are companies that deliver spring water in gallon and larger dispensers, even in glass containers, avoiding the plastics that leach chemicals into the water.

WHEN SHOULD WE NOT DRINK WATER?

There are specifically two times that it is wise to not drinking water:

A. Do not drink water or any other liquid during a meal. WHY? Because we need our precious digestive juices to do their job! If you dilute these important acids, you will not digest properly. Digesting our foods properly is essential to weight loss, weight maintenance, and overall healthiness! We all need the powerful acids in our stomachs to properly break down food. If you drink a big glass of tea or any liquid, including water, during your meal, you will dilute those precious acids and you will not digest properly. So if you must, just SIP a little during your meal and wait at least an hour before drinking any liquids, allowing time for your digestive system to work properly.

B. It’s a good idea to stop drinking liquids/water a couple of hours before heading to bed. You know why. 🙂

ADD WHAT TO WATER?

Unless you are always drinking spring water, containing the important minerals we need, it’s a good idea to consider adding a dash of Himalayan salt to your large glass/container of water to add back in the 72 minerals present in sea salt and/or Himalayan salt.

Also, if you need a little variety, consider adding fresh squeezed citrus fruits (oranges, limes, lemons) into your water.

2. How is your DIGESTION?

To gain the most benefit from the foods you eat and the supplements you take, digestion must be a priority. This alone can make a huge difference in your ability to control your weight over time.

Digestions starts where? In our mouths! Those precious digestive enzymes start pouring out of our salivary glands as we chew. But wait! Some people barely chew their food at all! Not good! The experts agree that we should actually chew each bite thirty times! Yes, you read that correctly – 30 times! Try it! Count out thirty chews with the next few bites you take! Once you realize what that feels like, you may not chew everything 30 times, but it will be easier to chew a lot longer with each bite.

You may benefit from taking digestive enzymes, especially if you are a senior. As we age, most don’t make digestive enzymes as well as we did in our youth. However, I first highly recommend including probiotic-rich fermented foods to support excellent digestion. These fermented foods contain super beneficial good bacteria for you:

Organic please!!!

* sauerkraut

* buttermilk

* kefir

* pickles (fermented cucumbers)

* kimchi (Korean pickled cabbage)

* miso (Japanese paste from fermented soybeans)

* kombucha

* tempeh (fermented soy)

* unsweetened yogurts

“Fermentation is almost like the beginning of digestion,” states Sheah L. Rarback, MS, RD.1 Because the fermentation essentially predigests the lactose, many people who cannot tolerate dairy can comfortably eat the fermented dairy products. Isn’t that great? In addition, eating healthy high fiber foods, like beans and black-eyed peas, can actually nourish your probiotics. Those foods are called prebiotics. So now you know the difference! Yes, you can supplement with probiotics, and many people do with great benefits. Be sure to take your probiotics on an empty stomach a couple hours away from a meal. I take mine first thing in the am more than two hours prior to food intake. You could also take it a couple hours after your last meal of the day.

Excellent digestion is a must for those wanting to shed pounds. Not metabolizing the nutrients you need will cause your hunger signal to tell you to eat constantly because your body is crying out for needed and necessary nutrients. So please take these tips seriously.

HUGE HUGE BONUS – By working on your digestion, and by consuming the foods that feed your good probiotics, your good gut bacteria, your flora, you are supporting your immune system. Lining your gut are 10 to 12 layers of good bacteria that will digest your food, producing all the vitamins that you need. Each layer is populated by different species of bacteria. The first layer eats, then poops, and this is what the second layer feeds on. Each layer eats what the layer above rejects and the very last layer literally poops the vitamins, minerals and amino acids that our bodies need! Dr. Villoldo says “We are the very bottom rung of the food chain!” 2

I explained all that to share this with you ~ Our immune system is in our gut! Your good bacteria want to protect you all the time! When your internal gut garden is balanced well with good bacteria, it does this job well. Here is an example. If your good gut bacteria is damaged, and only 10 Salmonella bacteria enter, you will have a gastrointestinal infection, including diarrhea and a high fever. Now get this. If your good bacteria are strong and plentiful, it takes more than 100,000,000 of the same Salmonella bacteria to produce a gastrointestinal infection. 3 Think about that! So focusing on digestion and gut bacteria is sooooooo worth it!

3. What’s up with your HORMONE balance and how is your THYROID function?

Please find a respected “integrative” or “functional” MD near you, or work with one long distance so you can address these two areas that not only affect your ability to properly metabolize fats, but can affect most every area of your health, or lack thereof. When it comes to your thyroid function, please know that blood tests rarely indicate low thyroid activity, yet many people, (many women in particular) do have low thyroid regardless of what their blood tests indicate. A good authority on low thyroid is Steven F. Hotze, MD.4 He has articles and books that can help.

4. Eliminate DIET SODAS if you ever want to reach your desired weight.

Here are the four main reasons why diet sodas are so unhealthy and actually make people add unwanted fat:

A. When you consume artificial sweeteners (aspartame, etc.) they travel to your liver and your liver breaks down the aspartame into its toxic parts (phenylalanine, aspartic acid and methanol). This takes a lot of energy from your liver. So now your liver has LESS energy for fat burning and metabolism. This results in FAT STORING….not good. This excess fat can build up inside your liver cells leading to “fatty liver” and then it REALLY makes it VERY difficult to lose weight.

B. Artificial sweeteners cause unstable blood sugar levels. This actually increases your appetite and cravings for sweets/sugar.

C. Artificial sweeteners also cause fluid retention, and they increase cellulite.

D. Aspartame and similar artificial sweeteners are “excitotoxins” and actually excite some of your brain cells and then later those excited brain cells literally DIE. So unless you have a lot of extra brain cells you don’t mind losing, avoid artificial sweeteners please!

One day someone should rename diet drinks to “GET FATTER” drinks. That’s what they do to us. Studies have clearly shown that those who drink diet drinks tend to gain weight and/or have a harder time losing weight.5

5.Avoid Totally: MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE (MSG) and ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS

Both are “excitotoxins” which kill your brain cells; and both are toxins and stress out your liver, causing your FAT STORAGE systems to turn on. MSG is added to food to enhance the taste and to physically make you want more of it. It makes you noticeably hungry. It is in over 80% of the food products processed by man today, hidden under many other names for it including Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein, natural flavorings, etc.

CLUE: Avoid Processed Foods. Period.

Also avoid Artificial Sweeteners, usually in those pink or yellow or blue packets at restaurant tables. Protect your brain and your fat-burning system by learning to enjoy your tea without sweeteners. You CAN choose to use healthy sweeteners, like stevia. However, just the taste of sweetness, from stevia or sugar or anything sweet, can actually cause insulin to spike and release. Studies have shown that if you taste sweetness, you release insulin,6 which can be a serious impediment to losing weight.

I’m sorry, I know that’s not good news.

Avoid MSG and artificial sweeteners to protect your liver, so you are less likely to store fat, and less likely to have unnecessary hunger pangs.

6. Make sure you do not have any “FOOD ALLERGIES”

Food allergies can contribute to weight problems in many ways. If you tend to easily retain weight, this may be a signal because your body will try to dilute the concentration of the offending material by storing excess water. Food allergies may diminish the body’s ability to burn fat. Find an integrative doctor who can recommend a food allergy specialist if you suspect that this may apply to you.

7. Avoid “LOW FAT” products. RUN FROM THEM!

Low-fat products are almost always much higher in sugar & calories and are NOT healthier for you. The “Low Fat” myth and resulting marketing ploy has been totally debunked. However, you will still find many low-fat products on the shelves today. You need lots and lots of good healthy fats! This is very key to weight loss and control.

8. Be picky about your ANIMAL PROTEIN.

Believe it or not, our bodies actually do not need protein every single day.7 Protein can and does help with satiety. However, consuming more than you need can speed up the aging process and related health issues, including cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. The recommended daily intake of protein for men is 56 grams and for women, it’s 46 grams.8 To put this into perspective for you, 1 cup of chopped chicken provides 44 grams of protein.

When it comes to animal protein, it’s quality that is the most important, and this includes dairy and eggs. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE choose ORGANIC products, free of chemicals, artificial hormones, and antibiotics. When you consume any animal product whether it’s a top-grade steak or a glass of milk or piece of cheese, you are, in reality, eating whatever the animal was fed. So what was the animal fed? Traditionally raised cows, pigs, chickens, etc. are fed genetically modified grain, which is not at all what the animals would in nature choose to eat. The result is that you are consuming antibiotics, hormones, glyphosate, and many more chemicals. Instead, please choose organic, free-range, grass-fed, antibiotic-free, and hormone-free animal products.

9. If you have CANDIDA ALBICANS…

If you have CANDIDA ALBICANS, which is VERY common on the traditional American diet, this will cause tremendous cravings for sugar and refined carbohydrates, the very things that Candida feeds on. If you suspect you have Candida in your gut, which goes under the category of bad bacteria, consider doing a cleanse as suggested in #10 and get with your holistic practitioner for advice. Know that sugar and carbs (which turn into sugar) feed these hungry critters. So when you eliminate these from your diet, you will be starving them! That’s a good thing! You may experience more hunger and even a headache as you start to detox these, and that is normal. It will pass.

10. Consider doing an internal cleanse and DETOXIFICATION program.

The average healthy colon weighs about 5 pounds. Most people are lugging around 10 – 15 pounds of debris. (It’s documented that Elvis Presley had 60 pounds of toxic waste in his colon when he died.) This excess toxic material in your colon accumulates on the walls of the colon and forms a hard shell. It just gets thicker and thicker. It’s possible to lose many pounds by just getting rid of this build-up and you’ll enjoy a much flatter stomach afterwards too. THE BEST PART is that because our bodies absorb nutrients via the intestines, getting rid of that wall of old debris will improve digestion. Think about this. As long as you have build – up on the walls of your intestines, you cannot be absorbing nutrients properly.

Also, since parasites can be another factor that slows down weight loss or even contribute to weight gain, it’s important to address this. In Europe, it is common for people to do a “spring cleanse” and a “fall cleanse.” In North America, we seem afraid to talk about parasites, but they are VERY common, especially candida!

Health food stores have some very effective cleansing products and programs. Be sure to get with your holistic practitioner for advice on this.

11. What’s to SNACK ON?

Healthy snacks can be vital to staying on track with your weight loss. I have learned to always always take some with me when I am away from home. Let’s face it, when we are in a hurry, when we are out and about, can be some of the most challenging times to stick to a healthy diet. So go shopping in your health food store and stock up on healthy organic snacks, most of which will not be in a box. Examples: apples, pears, bananas, berries, grapes, dried fruits, lots of different types of nuts and seeds, some raw, nut butters (sunflower seed, walnut, almond, etc.), crunchy easy to eat veggies (carrot sticks, celery sticks – and stuff some with your nut butters), flaxseed corn chips, apple bran muffins, etc. etc. Even boiled eggs are a great snack! Always be PREPARED with healthy snacks nearby! Using a lunch box is perfect to fill & take with you! It’s a personal must for me whenever I head out the door.

12. WHAT FOODS to eat & what to avoid?

Simply always make the BEST choices possible. I subscribe to the 80-20 rule: Make really great choices 80% of the time, and be forgiving/lenient 20% of the time, like when you are out and have very few good choices.

Avoid: white flour, (breads, etc.) white rice, white potatoes, processed foods, fast foods, junk food, sugar, sweets, soft drinks, artificial sweeteners, processed meats, and table salt.

Eat more: whole fresh organic veggies, legumes, fruits, whole grains, brown rice, cold water fish (salmon), nuts, and seeds in small amounts, and veggie juices. Be aware that fruit juices are sugar water. Sugar in any form causes inflammation and weight gain. Enjoy your fruits in the whole form!

Fast Food Genocide by Joel Fuhrman, M.D. 9 contains paramount wisdom about our food choices. You can guess by the title how serious it is and we all need to know these facts. So to encourage you to SKIP the fast food choices, here are just 3 facts from his book:

1) Eating fast food just once a week increased heart disease risk by 20%.

2) Eating fast food 2 to 3 times a week increased the risk of DYING from coronary artery disease more than 50%.

3) Eating it 4 or more times a week rises that risk to 80%.

And that’s just about heart disease risk being caused by fast food intake. There’s increased depression, blood sugar challenges, and an overall increase in chronic diseases. Also, researchers found that fast food and commercial baked goods were linked to depression, in a dose-dependent manner. The more you eat of these foods, the more likely you’ll be depressed.9

AN OBVIOUS CONCLUSION…

Our bodies need NUTRIENT DENSE foods, never found at a fast-food restaurant. Substituting fast foods into our bodies is asking for BIG trouble.

When opting for animal and dairy products, (poultry, beef, eggs, cheese etc.) please always choose organic, free-range, grass-fed and grass-finished. Otherwise, you are ingesting hormones, antibiotics, and chemicals that are harmful to you. Also, when you are consuming only healthy animal products, you will be giving yourself the proper balance of Omega 3’s. Choosing traditionally raised animals results in a gross imbalance in Omega’s, giving you a huge amount of Omega 6’s which we get far too much of already. This increases INFLAMMATION and all the issues and diseases that are affected by inflammation. Omega 3’s turn down inflammation. Omega 6’s turn it up.

When you are eating out, be logical in your choices. Pay attention first to the amount of vegetables and/or salads you are ordering. Most people are so accustomed to building a meal around a piece of meat, that this takes some deliberate consideration. Consider ordering from the “Sides Options.” When you do order meat, make sure it’s a healthier fat, like fish or chicken breast, or even better, a wild-caught fish. Avoid breads and white potatoes. Whole grain rice, wild rice, and creamed cauliflower (1/4 the calories of mashed potatoes) are better choices. Consider splitting a meal with someone when eating out, or take 1⁄2 home with you for lunch the next day.

When you are at home, plan your meals heavy on the vegetable and salad side. There are great online menu guides for healthy meals low in calories. I like EatingWell.com.10

And remember, slow down and chew your food (30 times). You’ll likely feel full quicker and your food will digest better, allowing you to get more benefit from the nutrients you are consuming!

13. OILS:

The worst is vegetable oil. Cooking with vegetable oils destroys complex nutrients and will deposit loads of bad fats into your tissues. It can drastically affect endothelial function. Follow me here – Endothelial cells line our blood vessels which have to be healthy enough to generate nitric oxide to make arteries dilate properly. Male sexual function depends on this. Of course, much more does too, but hopefully, this will get your attention. Scientists in New Zealand used week old frying oil from a typical restaurant and made a batch of fries. Four hours after the study subjects ate the fries, their endothelial function was tested with blood pressure cuffs. Results were unmistakable. Before the fries, the subjects’ arteries dilated normally opening 7 percent wider. Afterward, there was almost no dilation, barely one percent. After eating food fried in vegetable oil, your blood vessels do not work right. You may feel lethargic. Men may suffer from temporary ED. Dr. Shanahan writes in her book “You could call it “ANTI-VIAGRA.” 11

So here are suggestions for better oils to use, and please trash your vegetable oils asap. When cooking, use coconut oil for cooking at somewhat high temperatures; use grapeseed oil for cooking at the highest temperatures; use extra virgin olive oil for very lightly sautéing and for salad dressings and dips. Avoid all margarine, and anything hydrogenated or partly –hydrogenated oils. BUTTER is healthy for you when it is organic and from free-range grass-fed organic cows. Isn’t that GREAT NEWS!

14. Limit your intake of ALCOHOL and CAFFEINE.

Both can disrupt your ability to shed pounds. Just know that. And of course, they are empty calories.

15. What about FASTING and INTERMITTENT FASTING?

This is a biggie. The landmark research on fasting and intermittent fasting is exciting, to say the very least. Fasting is not necessarily a method all need to embrace, but intermittent fasting can be the leverage you need to break through plateaus, and to start loosing or to lose those last 5 pounds and just become healthier. It might even become a way of life for you.

INTERMITTENT FASTING ~ My personal recent experience:

I’m 5’1.5” and have weighed about 115 lbs in the morning for a year or two. About 10 years ago that number was 110 to 112 lbs. I wanted to lose that 3-5 pounds but had a challenging time. I have and do eat a very nutrient-dense organic diet, very low in carbs, and almost no processed sugars, except for an indulgent dessert a few times a year. I believe in the 80/20 rule and actually make my rule more of 90/10. (Be on target with nutritional intake goals 80% of the time, and give yourself a break 20% of the time.) So all that to say, when I started trying to drop at least 3 pounds, getting stricter about carbs and had zero sweets or chips, and only ate nutritionally dense foods, I had NO results….UNTIL I tried the intermittent fasting routine. So I stopped eating and drinking anything after 6 to 6:30 pm at night, except for water and herbal tea. I kept the fast going until about 12:30 pm the next day, sometimes at 1pm. After 2 weeks, I had dropped a solid 3 pounds. I feel like I’m in control now, which is an AWESOME feeling that I know you want too. This may be the ticket for you.

WHAT IS INTERMITTENT FASTING?

Please realize that our bodies are not meant to be continuously fed. “Don’t skip breakfast!” “Snack all day to keep your metabolism up!” – Did these recommendations come from nutrition experts or from food industry marketing? I’ll let you guess.

So intermittent fasting is a powerful system that facilitates both weight loss and reduction of many chronic diseases. Intermittent fasting typically means not eating from 12 to 18 consecutive hours. This means you are eating your meals in a 6 to 8 hour window. One of the many benefits of intermittent fasting is eliminating sugar cravings as your body adapts to burn fat instead of sugar.

I highly recommend that you consider this as one of your weight loss programs. There are many articles and books written on this and one I especially like is Dr. Jason Fung’s The Complete Guide to Fasting.12

You’ll learn that fasting promotes secretion of HGH / human growth hormone, which is exciting to know! It is known to slow down the aging process! I challenge you to look into it!

16. GROCERY SHOPPING Tips:

Never go grocery shopping when you are hungry. Sit in the car first and eat one of those healthy snacks you brought with you! If you don’t have a snack, drink a large glass of water. Remember, so often when we think we are hungry, we are actually thirsty. Make sure you have your list with you and you should spend most of the time in the produce section!

17. MOVEMENT is a must.

Regarding weight loss, exercise helps in at least three distinct ways:

A. It increases insulin sensitivity, so you need less insulin to get sugar out of your bloodstream, allowing insulin levels to drop, which tells your fat cells to slow the conversion of sugar into more fat.

B. It reduces your stress hormone, cortisol. High cortisol levels can pack fat around organs where it produces a lot of pro-inflammatory chemicals, which in turn, tell the body to produce more and more fat.

C. It builds new blood vessels through muscle and adipose tissues, which enables your body to burn fat more readily.13

Consistency in exercise pays HUGE benefits, even when it’s minimal. Just walking 20 – 30 minutes a day will give you so many benefits. Working it up to 45 minutes to an hour a day of briskly walking, or another aerobic type exercise, will increase your metabolism and use up calories. Also, include strength training at least twice a week. When you exercise (briskly walk) for 15 to 20 minutes prior to breakfast, enough to break a good sweat, you raise your metabolism ALL DAY!

Consider purchasing and using a REBOUNDER (a mini-trampoline), which is fantastic for moving your lymphatic system. Our blood system has a pump, right? Your heart! But your lymphatic does not have a pump! It requires movement to move it! Plus a rebounder is great to use inside on rainy days!

From ShapeFit.com about adding muscle: Studies have estimated that for each pound of muscle that you add to your body, you burn an additional 35 to 50 calories per day. So, an extra 10 pounds of muscle will burn approximately 350 to 500 calories a day, or an extra pound of fat every 7 to 10 days, without making any other changes. In another study, researchers found that regular weight training boosts basal metabolic rate by about 15%. This is because muscle is ‘metabolically active’ and burns more calories than other body tissue even when you’re not moving.14

When you are traveling, be sure to choose a hotel with a workout room so that you can get on the treadmill for 30-45 minutes while you watch the morning news on TV, or whatever you choose. Or if they have a pool, take a swim! Or if they have neither, put on your tennis shoes and start briskly walking up and down the hallways, up and down stairways, or outside around the hotel. Soon you’ll have this down as a habit and you’ll really miss it when you cannot walk (or swim) 30 to 45 minutes a day. The good news is that lower intensity workouts actually burn a higher percentage of calories from fat than high-intensity workouts! So enjoy shedding those fat calories just walking briskly every day!

18. SLEEP

What’s sleep got to do with weight? Surprisingly, a lot. Poor sleep is a major risk factor for weight gain and obesity. Repeatedly, poor sleep has been linked to a higher body mass index and weight gain.

A major review found that short sleep duration increased the likelihood of obesity by 89% in children and 55% in adults.15 Another study following about 60,000 non-obese nurses for 16 years found that nurses who slept five or fewer hours per night were 15% more likely to be obese than those who slept at least seven hours a night.16 WOW!

Did you know that a short night’s sleep can increase your appetite? Sleep impacts two important hunger hormones, ghrelin and leptin. Ghrelin signals hunger. Leptin suppresses hunger and signals fullness. Lack of adequate sleep makes the body produce more ghrelin and less leptin, making you hungry and increasing your appetite!

There’s more! What if succumbing to those cravings was caused not by your lack of discipline so much, but more by a lack of adequate sleep? Lack of enough sleep will dull activity in the frontal lobe of the brain, which is in charge of decision-making and self-control.17 Plus, more research has found that lack of sleep can increase your desire for foods that are high in calories, carbs and fat! 18

Yes! I personally have witnessed this in my own sleep patterns. In fact, recently, I had a night of only about four hours of sleep. Usually, during the week, I have my tea in the morning and nothing else until around noon. (I’m doing that intermittent fasting routine.) That morning I was starving. I ate right after my tea. With a good night’s sleep, I don’t even think about food until close to noon.

Sleep matters a lot in weight control.

19. SIMPLE SUGGESTED MEALS & ROUTINES.

I subscribe to and recommend that you consider adopting, the 80-20 Rule to your food consumption. Make great choices 80% of the time, and be lenient 20% of the time, especially when you are out and about with fewer good choices.

Morning Routine:

So let’s look at an ideal morning routine.

Wake up.

Urinate.

Drink a large glass of filtered or spring water with fresh lemon juice to really wake up your organs nicely and to help your body alkalize.

Walk or exercise, raising your metabolism for the ENTIRE day!

Eat Breakfast IF you are not intermittent fasting.

Personally, I have been intermittent fasting 5 or 6 days a week, completely skipping breakfast. It’s the easiest way for me to keep the extra pounds off easily.

BREAKFAST SUGGESTIONS – one of the following or something similar:
    • Smoothie: Crushed ice, frozen berries (blueberries, or blackberries, or cherries), water (or coconut or almond milk), 2 TBSP organic apple cider vinegar, scoop of greens powder, 1-2 TBSP healthy oil (Udo’s, Flax Oil, or Hemp Oil), TBSP fresh ground flaxseed, scoop of plant-based or whey-based (not soy) Protein Powder. My favorite is Metabolic Maintenance Detox Vanilla or Chocolate.

      IMPORTANT: You may use my practitioner discount 10% off voucher (Aucoin10) to order this and more – at our STORE).

      Then add a handful of raw green veggies (kale, spinach, tops of carrots, tops of beets, parsley, cilantro, etc. – whatever you like & whatever you have on hand), stevia or Monks Fruit to sweeten to taste. I’ve found that fresh MINT is delicious in smoothies, and it also seems to sweeten it.

Other additions to consider and to try:

Avocado meat AND the seed (full of protein and antioxidants – just crack it first so it will blend)

Raw egg (optional)

Raw carrot, celery, 1/2 cucumber or other veggies in season

More Greens (dandelion, bok choy, collard greens, etc.)

I often make a triple batch and store the extra in glass mason jars and freeze one, refrigerate one, and drink one!

The more RAW VEGGIES we consume daily, the healthier we will be because these are VERY NUTRIENT DENSE and LOW LOW CALORIE.

    • Eggs – omelets (without pancake batter added) with your favorite veggies; turkey sausage, no potatoes or bread
    • Eggs- Huevos Rancheros; no potatoes or bread or corn
    • Large Granny Smith Apple, sliced and with 1-2 TBSP nut butter (almond butter, sun butter, etc.) on each slice
    • Steel-cut oatmeal after your 2nd week, with real butter and Stevia or Monk Fruit if you need to sweeten it.
LUNCH & DINNER SUGGESTIONS – one of the following or something similar. Be creative. Just stick to organic and real food, emphasis on plant-based.
    • Mixed greens salad with grilled chicken or salmon or other healthy fish.

      Add as many fresh veggies as you like (cucumber, red pepper, etc.)

      Dressing – Squeezed fresh lemon juice and / or vinegar & olive oil and / or vinaigrette. A healthy store-bought dressing is Bragg’s Ginger or other flavors.

    • Small helping of rotisserie chicken or turkey sandwich meat on a salad, creamed cauliflower, 1-2 helpings of sautéed or lightly steamed veggies (spinach, kale, beans, peas, broccoli, collards, etc.)
    • Grilled or broiled fish or chicken, baked sweet potato or a baked root veggie medley with sweet potato, squash, carrots, rutabagas, turnips, radishes, beets, shallots, onions, garlic, etc. – covered in olive oil and seasoned. Shake veggies & olive oil & seasonings together in a plastic bag, pour onto a baking dish & bake. Yummy.

See Roasted Veggie Recipe HERE.

You can cut up a lot of these veggies, season & cover in olive oil, and bake some and refrigerate or freeze some for another meal later!

SNACK SUGGESTIONS – carry some with you every time you leave your house:
    • Healthy nuts and seeds. Peanuts are not healthy because they all contain mold. Consider raw almonds, walnuts, cashews, Brazil nuts, etc.
    • Granny Smith Apples – very low in sugars compared to other fruits and apples.
    • Healthy greens bars – but this needs to be only occasional – a few times a week at most
DESSERT SUGGESTIONS – once or twice a week at most:
BEVERAGE SUGGESTIONS
    • 1/2 your body weight in ounces of filtered or spring water daily. None of the following suggestions replace this amount of pure water daily.
    • Perrier or Pellegrino sparkling water occasionally.
    • Green Tea offers many wonderful benefits, including providing an antioxidant that has been shown to increase thermogenesis, the process that helps convert calories into heat rather than store them as fat.
    • Cola replacement – If you are stuck on colas or other sodas, try ZEVIA sodas, which use stevia as the sweetener.

Overall, please consume organic, real foods. Remember the 80-20 rule. Stick to doing the very best you can, planning ahead, preparing ahead. None of us are perfect. Give yourself a break 10 to 20% of the time and feel good about it, not guilty.

Predictions:

When you eat foods made by men in white coats, you can plan on later seeing lots of men and women in white coats. 🙂

When you eat foods that are clean and close to nature, you will enjoy vibrant health!

When you follow the weight loss tips here, you will move easily toward your weight goals and feel better than ever before!

 

Endnotes

1. https://www.everydayhealth.com/digestive-health/how-fermented-foods-aid-digestion.aspx

2. Dr. Alberto Villoldo, Grow a New Body (New York: Hay House, Inc., 2019), 38, 39

3. Kathrin Endt et al., “The Microbiota Mediates Pathogen Clearance from the Gut Lumen after Non-Typical Salmonella Diarrhea,” PLOS Pathogens 6, no. 9 (September 9, 2010) https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1001097

4. http://drhotze.com

5. https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/04/08/diet-soda-weight-gain-cancer.aspx

6. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/17510492

7. Dr. Alberto Villoldo, Grow a New Body (New York: Hay House, Inc., 2019), 61

8. https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2016/12/19/excess-protein-danger.aspx

9. Joel Fuhrman, M.D., Fastfood Genocide (New York: Harper Collins, 2017) 18, 46

10. https://www.eatingwell.com

11. Catherine Shanahan, M.D., Deep Nutrition – Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food (New York: Flatiron Books 2017) 143, 144

12. Jason Fung, MD, The Complete Guide to Fasting (Las Vegas: Victory Belt Publishing, 2016)

13. Catherine Shanahan, M.D., Deep Nutrition – Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food (New York: Flatiron Books 2017) 290

14. ShapeFit.com

15. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2398753/

16. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16914506

17. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16880772

18. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20357041