Healthy Weight Loss
Many of us overeat or avoid exercise for reasons we don’t entirely understand. We make poor choices when we feel hungry, stressed out, sad, ashamed, or upset.
We make unconscious choices when we’re tired, distracted, or numbed out. The excess weight we carry on the outside is sometimes the symptom of a problem on the inside.
The first step may be to turn inward and ask some question and to look closely at what triggers poor eating habits.
Is TV time a never-ending snack binge? Do you really need a hug or a word of encouragement from a friend instead of chocolate cake.
You may need to change a stressful job, destructive relationship, or self-abusive attitude to make your health and well-being a priority. Over the years you may have been given poor advice on how to lose weight or been told that if family members are over weight then it is just genetic and there is nothing you can do.
The truth is that change is possible and for your weight loss efforts to be successful and sustainable your body and mind both need to be on board. There is no “quick fix” but if you stop fixating on clothing size, ideal weight, or appearance and switch that to a healthy lifestyle the “fix” can be achieved.
It is easy to become confused with all the diet trends, exercise gadgets, ads for pills, and medical breakthroughs. Often this leads us to giving up and doing nothing.
The problem is that being overweight can lead to terrible health consequences like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and cancers not to mention the toll it can take on our emotional well-being and moods.
So much of the “diet” information available can help you lose weight in the short-term but leave you with no energy, a slow metabolism, and sugar cravings. There is a light at the end of that tunnel and it is about making healthy choices when it comes to your eating habits and making the lifestyle changes that take you to your weight goal forever.
Eating low glycemic foods or a Paleo diet instead of counting calories can prove that healthy foods not only taste great and give you the nutrition your body needs to feel great but also help you stay active, and stop the “yoyo” diet syndrome.
Exercise should be to build fitness and maximize your metabolism, not to burn calories. Exercising regularly can help you build muscle, which burns fat, gives you energy, confidence, good emotional outlook, self-esteem, and help you through plateaus when you feel things are moving too slowly.
Become a label reader. Avoid chemicals, high fructose corn syrup, etc, anything your body does not recognize and can not eliminate will be wrapped in fat and stored!!!
Some suggestions to get you started:
• Never go grocery shopping when you are hungry
• Plan your meals and your snacks
• If you are hungry eat!
• If you feel like you are starving before a meal eat a little something ten minutes before a meal, even if it’s just a carrot, so that you don’t overeat
• Chew your food to liquid to eat slower, eat less, and help your digestion
• Eat right – seeds, nuts, wild caught fish, pasture fed meats, eggs & butter, avocados, virgin coconut oil, and don’t forget your veggies.
