When asked about health goals, most people check the weight loss box as something they want to tackle. In a world where so much is at our fingertips, the chaos can also be expressed through mindless eating, eating on the go, inorganic food, beverage and medication consumption, and a lack of planning for or willingness for self-care. Keeping a “balanced” life seems impossible but keeping off the excess pounds surely doesn’t have to be.
Excess weight can be attributed to metabolic imbalances, mental state, stress, diet and exercise patterns. The body reacts to thoughts, foods and movements or lack thereof. Junk thoughts, similar to junk food, create negative emotions and feelings which all your cells are in tune with and process.
Visualization and meditation are an integral part of shedding excess pounds. What do you want to look like, feel like and think like? A licensed professional counselor can also help enlighten this process and help release negative thinking patterns. Inaction breeds doubt and fear, so go out and get busy.
Factors to Consider To Achieve Weight Loss:
Alcohol. It is so easy to take in excess simple sugars and calories with mixed drinks, beers and alcoholic beverages in general. Drinking provides an easy way to tune out, combat stress temporarily and drive out miseries. Any reset program will gear you towards eliminating toxins and relieving the liver of excess burdens and sugars to support the mind and body towards an easier transformation.
Processed food. Processed foods contain unhealthy trans fats like canola oil, vegetable oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, peanut oil, cottonseed oil and margarine. These rancid fats, in addition to other toxins such as food additives, GMOs, synthetic food dyes and chemicals, all turn on genes to promote weight gain and disease.
Ultimately, processed and fast foods prevent you from optimal health. Processed foods include all those made in a factory and contain more than one ingredient to them! Think cereals, cookies, cakes, candies, chips, soda, boxed dinners and most things contained in boxes, plastics and the like.
Food quality and inflammation. Just like the toxins within most of the packaged items you will find at the markets and stores, toxins live within inorganic foods and products. Go organic when the budget allows and adhere to the clean fifteen and the dirty dozen list if the budget does not allow for a 100% organic lifestyle.
In general, if you eat the skin, it needs to be organic. Produce with thick skins, or skins that you can peel, may be less harmful because you won’t be consuming the outside of the food that has been sprayed with chemicals and pesticides. Just be aware that you have the power to vote with your dollars, daily, and by choosing to support organic practices and organic farmers makes the organic industry more of a need and demand for big business practices to reexamine the way we grow and supply food. There is no action in life that goes without consequences. Start the detox process today and you’ll be thanking yourself later decades down the road.
Exercise. Exercise helps you sweat, push metabolic wastes out of your system, and can help you get out of your own head. Movement allows for that overall good feeling and glow, as all the endorphins produced during movement can help you feel and think better, and potentially assist reaching that meditative space. Keep in mind that a strong body equates to a strong mind.
Breath. Regulating cortisol can never be overlooked. Yoga, deep breathing, visualization or meditation stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system which promotes relaxation, digestion and proper metabolic functions of the body. We need breath and stress relieving practices to counteract the sympathetic nervous system which is turned on with challenges in life that you perceive stressful whether they are mental or physical.
Weight Control and Probiotics. Gut bacteria can determine whether you are overweight or underweight. Studies have now shown that taking probiotics can lead to weight loss. To reverse the effects of antibiotics, antacids and the SAD (Standard American Diet) diet, probiotics are a good supplement to include in your diet.
“A thriving microbiome serves vital immunologic, anti-inflammatory, metabolic and homeostatic functions. It helps us digest food, produce vitamins, educate our immune system, pull nutrients in, push toxins out, protect from disease, fight off harmful microorganisms, and even regulate mood” (Listen to Your Gut and Treat Your Microbiome Like a Temple by Dr. Jonathan Bloch).
At this point, you’ve noticed an integrated trend on weight control and overall health. We cannot identify one area or study of weight loss without looking at the whole and entire you. Be sure to evaluate thoughts, feelings, foods, movements, hormones, metabolism, liver function, thyroid function, brain function and digestion.
In my new book, Down to Earth: Find the Answers You Need to Transform Health, you will be primed to start detoxifying all areas of your life. It is a great jump-start program to help decrease inflammation and start positively impacting your physiology within days. People who have followed this protocol with me have found this effective for weight loss, fertility, acid reflux and other digestive issues, skin issues, improved energy and vitality, better sleep, and improvement in Type 2 Diabetes.
Photo courtesy of Janet Orzechowskijaffee.
Cara Jaffee, CNTP is a functional or holistic nutritionist based in Denver, Colorado. You can learn more about Premier Nutrition Therapy at www.premierNT.com
