Secrets to Jump Starting Your Weight Loss – NutriLiving Articles
Source: Secrets to Jump Starting Your Weight Loss – NutriLiving Articles
- Change your diet gradually. Many people jump right in and totally change their diet to the extreme. They go from the typical American diet, rich in processed foods, to a very restrictive diet. Any time you make sudden change in your diet and lifestyle, you highly increase your risk of failure. Make the change slowly. Instead of taking foods away, try adding healthy foods into your diet. You will begin to crowd out the harmful foods with healthy ones. Start by adding just one vegetable to your daily diet for 1 week. The next week, add another one and then on week 3, add an extra fruit. On week 4, add another vegetable to your daily diet. By week 4, you have increased your vegetable intake by 3 servings per day and fruit intake by 1 serving per day – and without any sacrifice! This really works if you apply it. The aim is to slowly replace processed and refined foods with healthy vegetables, fruits, beans, lentils, nuts and seeds and a small amount of whole grains daily.
- Stop stressing about life and losing the weight. Because we make the process so complicated, we get overly stressed. Chronic stress causes our bodies to release higher amounts of cortisol everyday, which is a fat-building hormone. There is an association between stress and the appetite-increasing hormone ghrelin. If you have stress from work or home, you need to manage it or remove the source. Stress will make it almost impossible to lose weight. In addition, stress kills by increasing the risk of heart disease, cardiovascular disease, hormonal imbalances and gastric diseases.
- Eat enough calories. Many people begin by drastically cutting food intake – calories – too much. If you go below 1200 calories for more than a few days, your body thinks it’s entered a famine and lowers your metabolic rate to conserve energy. You can even gain weight if you cut calories too much. If you stay in a severe calorie reduction (800 calories or less, similar to anorexia), you body shifts to the catabolic effect of starvation and your body will begin to consume muscle and organs for its nutrition needs. The fact is, if you eat a mostly plant-based diet, you would never need to worry about eating too many calories.
- Do not skip meals! You need to eat at least 5 times per day. It keeps blood sugar balanced and energy available. It also keeps the metabolism boosted. A healthy, hearty Blast is an option and can serve your body well.
- Keep a food journal. Studies show that people who keep a food journal for at least 3 months tend to lose weight and keep it off. It keeps you aware of what you’re eating, when and how much. It’s easy to do and there are several online resources with good free food journal systems. Try My Fitness Pal, Fat Secret or My Food Diary.
- Drink plenty of water. Many people will not drink enough water. It takes water to release and burn fat for energy. Water is so important for your health! You need at least 1/2 your body weight in fluid ounces daily. If you sweat a lot, you’ll need even more.
- Exercise. If you are overweight or obese, you can lose weight for a short time by just cutting calories, however that will eventually slow and then stop. You must move more. Exercise does many wonderful things for our body. One benefit is that it speeds up our metabolic rate, causing us to burn more calories throughout the day! It builds muscles, improves balance and immune function and much more. Walking is a great exercise. Increase your speed and time as your fitness and health improves. I am an advocate of exercising multiple times per day. As an example; I would walk for 30 minutes in the morning, 30 minutes in the afternoon and 30 minutes before or after dinner. You can split it up however you wish, just do it! To lose weight, most of your exercise should be a form of cardio exercise, like walking or cycling. You should also do weight-bearing exercise to build more muscle. Muscles burn more fat. For good results, exercise at least 1 hour per day, 5 days per week. Before beginning any exercise program please consult with your doctor for their approval. Walk twice per day to speed up the weight loss!
- Stop weighing everyday! Your weight can change, up or down five or more pounds on any given day. You will set yourself up for disappointment by weighing everyday. Weigh your self every two weeks. Do it first thing in the morning immediately after waking up and after your first pee.
- Stop beating yourself up! No body is perfect. Treats are allowed, even unscheduled ones. If you have a treat, the next time you eat, make a healthy choice. Bashing yourself will make you eat more.
- DO NOT DIET! It is our mindset to use the word diet and when we do, we automatically set our minds to believing that we will change our diet and lifestyle for a period of time and then come back home to that addictive food that got us fat to begin with. Plus, because you have starved your body (both calories and nutrients) in the past, your body senses this and begins to subconsciously increase your desire for fatty and sugary foods. Sure, you can lose 30 pounds, but then you gain 50 back. Dieting will only make you fatter, one diet at a time! Think lifestyle change!
- Sleep is critical! If you are like most Americans you get less than 7 hours of sleep nightly. This can disrupt hormonal balances, reduce immune function and your energy levels, lower mental concentration and much more. When you sleep, your body is busy repairing tissues, making hormones, enzymes, red blood cells, white blood cells, antibodies, cellular antioxidants like Coenzyme -Q10, which is very important for energy production in the cell and heart health, and Glutathione peroxidase and Superoxide Dismutase (SOD), which are your cells most powerful defenders from internal and foreign invaders and other neurotransmitters necessary for good mental and emotional health.
- Nutrition, nutrition, nutrition! When your body is getting loads of nutrients, it begins to clean and detox the body at the cellular level, getting rid of toxic materials you have stored for years. Your body does not like to let go of stored fat unless it can detox adequately, because your body stores many toxins in your fat. When depleted nutrient stores in your body get filled up and topped off by a nutrient-rich diet, the body’s systems begin to come back into harmony with one another. Blood sugar begins to balance, cravings begin to disappear, energy improves, thinking improves, your hair and skin begin to glow and you sleep better. With great nutrition, your body starts regenerating itself, cell by cell, into a new, healthy and vibrant body.
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