By Heather Morgan
If you are one of the millions who vowed (yet again) to lose weight and become more fit this year, you might want to consider these not-so-common health tips to help you reach your goal.
The truth is, focusing on weight loss strategies such as counting calories, cutting fat, and spending hours on the treadmill isn’t the most effective way to obtain true, lasting, optimal body composition. In fact, the best way to lose weight and keep it off is not to focus on losing weight at all. Yes, that’s right. They best way to lose weight is to focus on the reasons why you GAINED weight to begin with, and addressing those issues. I call this reverse engineering your health.
By reverse engineering your weight gain, you will develop a much better understanding of how your body works, what it needs, and how to address it in your daily living. By focusing on what causes health imbalances in your body you will prevent your weight from yo-yo-ing, and your body will naturally lose the weight and keep it off.
In fact, while you may know that poor lifestyle habits, genetics, and environmental factors all play a role in why you gain weight, it may surprise you to learn that your excess fat is likely the result of an out of balance gut microbiota, out of whack hormones, and a nervous system that is in overdrive and improperly signaling. When body systems get out of balance, eventually your body lets you know by “talking” to you — through headaches, skin rashes, stomach aches, weight gain, and much more.
With that in mind, here are my healthy weight management tips for 2016:
1) Reboot your gut. You may be surprised to know that the digestive system, consisting of the Upper GI (stomach), and the lower GI (small and large intestines), is the gateway for many health problems, including autoimmune diseases, immune dysregulation, weight loss resistance, diseases of the central nervous system such as Parkinson’s, MS, depression, anxiety, food intolerances, and much more. So, decrease processed foods in your diet and increase whole foods, especially fermented whole foods to yield good bacteria needed to keep the gut healthy. Avoid antibiotics as they destroy good bacteria along with the bad. Decrease stress which affects digestion, and supplement with L-Glutamine and probiotics daily.
2) Fix your fats. While bad quality fats can contribute to weight gain, most people do not get enough healthy fat in their diet. If you want to lose weight, consider learning about the Ketogenic diet for weight loss. Increase your intake of Omegas and MCT (Medium Chain Triglycerides), which are basically healthy fats that burn like fuel in the body and stimulate metabolism. Supplement with a high quality Triglyceride form fish oils and get lots of lean, clean, pastured protein meats that also provide a good amount of healthy fat. High-quality olive oil is good, too, and grass fed pastured butter or ghee are good options. Replace canola oil, fake butters or other processed oils, such as vegetable oil, with these healthy fats instead.
3) Shake up your diet. Studies show that replacing one meal per day with a nutrition shake promotes balanced health and weight loss. I am a fan of nutrition shakes because they are a great way to address many of the health imbalances that contribute to weight gain such as inflammation, gut issues, vitamin deficiency, hormone imbalances, toxicity, and much more.
4) Change up the carbs. Hormones can be seriously affected by the amount and source of carbs you ingest. Reduce the amount of “simple” carbs you are consuming, such as breads, pastas, white potatoes, and rice, and replace with higher fiber, slower burning carbs that are more forgiving on the blood sugar. Always balance carbs with healthy protein and fat and keep the ratio of carbohydrate to protein and fat less than 40 percent every time you eat something.
5) Ditch the GMOs. Your gut and nervous system will thank you. More and more studies are coming out about the negative affect, including weight gain, of GMOs. Look for labels that say Non-GMO on food you buy and shop and eat locally where non-GMO options are provided.
6) Burst and lift for hormonal happiness. The science shows that lifting heavy weights helps improve fat-burning. Burst training with maximum output and periods of rest in between, or tabatas, as it is sometimes called, helps maximize your body’s fat burning abilities and boosts hormones that keep you young and metabolizing efficiently.
Heather can be reached at facebook.com/bodytalksonoma
My best advice is for you to head over to bodybuilding main webpage and browse through their sample nutritional articles and free meal plans. Everything you need to know can be found on their site. If you would like me to suggest a diet program, the 3 week diet is a good one. It will teach you what foods to buy and eat. You will be put you in a caloric deficit to lose weight. You can learn more about it here, reviewyu.com/3-week-diet-program-lose-20-pounds-21-days. I actually lost 30 pounds with this program in 2-3 months; you keep recycling through the program after 3 weeks until you reach your goal. You should lose 15-30 pounds with this program easily. I would also suggest you buy food high in fiber, they take longer to digest and will keep you feeling full. Just wanted to share with you, what has worked for me. I hope this was helpful.