Lose Weight Without Yo-Yo Diets and Grueling Exercise

The Easy Way

 

It has become pretty obvious that rates of obesity are on the rise.  In fact, it is an epidemic, fueling problems such as diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure.  Many people struggle fruitlessly to lose weight so here are a few tips that might shed some light on to why that might be and how to create more success in meeting your weight loss goals.

Does any of this sound familiar?

I still can’t lose the weight and I’m doing everything right.

I don’t want to go out. I don’t want people to see me.

I’m probably never going to look good again.

How big will I get?  This is out of control!

What’s the point in buying new clothes? I always just gain it back.

I don’t feel valuable.

What’s wrong with me?!

 

Table of Contents

Chapter 1            Acids are Stored in Fat Tissue

Chapter 2            The Role of Insulin in Weight Loss

Chapter 3            The Role of Cortisol in Weight Loss

Chapter 4            The Role of Estrogen In Weight Loss 

Chapter 5            The Role of Fat in Weight Loss

Chapter 6            The Role of the Liver in Weight Loss

Chapter 7            The Role of Exercise in Weight Loss

Chapter 8            High Fructose Corn Syrup

Chapter 9            Here are More Hormones That Interfere with Weight Loss

Chapter 10          The Role of theThyroid in Weight Loss

Chapter 11           Overeating Increases the Immune Response

Chapter 12          Grains Can be a Problem for all Types of People

Chapter 13          Just Exactly What is a Free Radical?

Chapter 14           Easy Ways to Detox

Acids are Stored in Fat Tissue

Acids and toxins steal electrons from the atoms that make up your cells. This damages those cells so that they don’t function properly and then disease results.This is also called oxidative stress. Grains, sugars and, especially cola drinks!!, are examples of acid-forming foods. (It takes 10 glasses of 10 pH water to neutralize the acid in one cola drink.)

Alkaline elements neutralize acids because they donate electrons to atoms. Antioxidants, the alkaline elements, counteract free radicals because they are essentially “self-sacrificing soldiers”.As naturopath Dr. Stephen Byrnes explains, they donate an electron to free radicals to “calm” them down and are consumed in the process. .Vegetables and fruits such as lemons and tomatoes are alkaline-forming.  Even though they are normally thought of as acid, they are actually alkaline-forming when they are metabolized by the body.  Making smoothies is such a simple and delicious way of eating tons of veggies!

The body, in its wisdom, wraps toxins in fat because fat is an insulator and this protects the vital organs from damage from those toxins.

When the toxins are eliminated the fat is no longer needed and it is released.  Most diets fail because they don’t take this into account. Fortunately, there are many ways to cleanse, to detoxify, the system.

The Role of Insulin in Weight Loss

Sugar is the number one enemy but not for the reasons you might think. It is also important to keep in mind that starches (potatoes, grains – as in baked goods such as bread) turn to sugar when they are metabolized.

Starch molecules consist of a string of glucose molecules.  These strings of sugar break apart when metabolized and there you go – lots of sugar in the system and inches on the hips.  A pile of mashed potatoes on the plate can have as much sugar as a candy bar!

Since the 1970’s, wheat has contained a new protein called.Gliadin. That stimulates appetite.   You certainly don’t want your appetite stimulated if you are worried about weight gain!

Another problem is that, when the body metabolizes sugar and refined carbs, insulin is released. Insulin signals the body to store fat when our blood sugar levels go up and this clears the excess sugar from the bloodstream. This process immediately leads to a state of low blood sugar and is the main reason people feel so sleepy after a heavy meal. When we are in a state of low blood sugar we feel fatigued and hungry again soon after so we want to eat again to bring the blood sugar level back up.

Surprisingly, eating meat has been found to stimulates insulin release even more than pasta or popcorn.

Also, when we eat food that is low in nutrients such as processed foods, the body sends out hunger signals because it still has not received the nutrition that it needs.

It is fine to have limited amounts of sprouted grain bread, buckwheat, millet, quinoa, sweet potatoes or any fruit and almost unlimited amounts of non-starchy vegetables.  High sugar fruits like dried fruits, bananas and pineapple, etc are best eaten sparingly.

We are sometimes told that the body handles all types of sugar in the same way. What we are usually not told is that while sucrose (table sugar and starches) is metabolized in the muscles and used for energy.  Fructose is metabolized in the liver. There it is turned to fat and stored in the body for future use.

This makes sense when we consider that most fruit ripens in the fall.  Before central heating, people used to need to store extra fat to keep warm in the winter.  This would see them through when food was scarce during that season.

In the tropics where fruit is available all year around people were admired for their abundant size.  It was quite the fashion. The last queen of Hawaii was exceedingly large!

The fiber in fruit provides protection.

In fruit, this conversion process is somewhat mediated by the fact that the fructose is bound by the fiber in the fruit. This is a good reason to eat the whole fruit and not just the fruit juice.  Also, we probably would not eat 4 or 5 oranges in one sitting but we might drink the juice of 4 or 5 oranges.

This fiber protection is not the case with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) because it has no fiber. Obesity in this country has skyrocketed since the introduction of HFCS into the food supply.

It is important to keep in mind that the glucose generated from sugars and starches, such as bread, pasta and rice, generates high levels of acidic free-radicals when glucose is in the blood.  This is why insulin when it is working properly, works so well to clear the glucose from the blood and deposit it into the cells where it can do its job of creating energy. 

Eating high levels of glucose-generating foods damages insulin response and leaves the glucose in the blood where it creates high levels of toxic oxidative stress. The free radical damage from this, in turn, creates inflammation which is the last thing we want.

Also, it is valuable to know that according to David Wolfe, when you chew crunchy vegetables you release up to four times more serotonin than you would in your normal waking state. Serotonin is the feel-good neurotransmitter in your brain.  This explains why we love crunching away on things so much.  Now we know why all those animals chewing away out in the fields look so peaceful!

You might also like to know that celery and parsley contain apigenin, which has been found to trigger your brain to make more neural stem cells to make more neurons. Neurons transmit information and allow your body to function, enable you to think, etc. More neurons equal better memory. Technically, it’s the loss of synapses between the neurons that causes memory loss. But if you don’t have neurons you can’t have synapses.

The more neurons we have, the more synapses we have, the more our memory improves and the smarter we get.

One hundred grams (over 1/2 cup) of raw parsley has 302,000 mg, 100 grams of celery contains 4.61 mg and iceberg lettuce has a paltry .38 mg of apigenin.

Traditionally, they put that parsley on your plate not just to look pretty, even if they didn’t know the technical reason why.  Next time, you can ask your friend, “Are you going to eat that parsley? Well, send it on over here then.” I like putting a huge handful of parsley, minced fine or blended, in my pesto sauce.

Excuse me while I go grab some celery!  And here you thought it was just rabbit food!

If you tend to eat sugary foods throughout the day, you keep your insulin working overtime trying to clear the sugar from your blood. What does insulin do with the extra sugar you ask? It stores it as fat. The end result of insulin imbalance is that instead of using the excess sugar to feed your muscles or burning it for energy, most of the carbohydrates you consume get stored as fat. If you have insulin resistance, it is virtually impossible to lose fat.

Just in case you think you can’t afford quality food you might want to keep this in mind:

Heavily processed items seem inexpensive but they are made with low-quality raw materials and replace valuable nutrients with fillers.  They have less essential nutrients and don’t fill you up so you find yourself eating more of these highly processed “edible products”.  You actually end up buying and eating  much more to feel satisfied and then it costs you more.

So to save money and shed pounds, buy whole foods in bulk, buy foods that you can find in nature and avoid highly-processed packaged foods.  This will dramatically save money in the long run. And remember, no matter where you buy it, standard fruit, nuts and veggies will always be better for you than organic, GMO-free bread or waffles.  Ever heard of a bread smoothie?  Neither have I.  🙂

A recent study found that apple cider vinegar might work as well as prescription drugs at regulating blood sugar.  Dr. Sara Gottfried recommends starting the day by drinking filtered water with two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar. This will regulate your blood sugar first thing in the morning.  If that feels like too much to start, just add a little bit at first, gradually increasing the amount and at least drink 16 oz of water every morning before you eat or drink anything else. Just ease into it. This acts as a natural body flush. (Personally, I like to add fresh-squeezed lemon juice to my water.)  A recent study also found that consuming two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar before a high carb meal significantly reduces blood glucose levels for those people with insulin resistance.

There’s strong evidence that moderate exercise, such as a brisk walk, a bout of High Intensity Interval Training or a date with a rebounder or Nautilus machines, also triggers the release of “pleasure chemicals” known as endorphins. Working up a good sweat also activates the “feel good” neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin, which reduce the symptoms of depression.  Saunas are particularly excellent at this.

“The more muscle mass you have and the more heat you generate from your muscles on a regular basis, the more efficiently you’ll use insulin and burn carbohydrates and body fat.” –  Christiane Northrup, MD, author of Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom and The Wisdom of Menopause.

Other ways to naturally balance your insulin levels include eating a diet that’s loaded with whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, low-fat or fat-free dairy products and low-glycemic carbs such as fruits, beans, non-starchy veggies.  Also, eliminate added sugars from your diet and consume less red meat and processed foods.

A high-fiber diet can help keep your blood sugar levels stable. Foods made with refined grains, such as white bread, white pasta, and white rice are digested quickly and speed into the bloodstream as the body’s primary source of fuel: blood sugar. This way-too-rapid breakdown triggers a flood of insulin, the hormone that carries the sugar into the cells. Then blood sugar levels drop precipitously, signaling the adrenal glands to release more cortisol. By contrast, beans, brown rice, and whole grain cereals take much longer to digest. So insulin levels rise gradually, blood sugar levels remain steady, and cortisol levels don’t skyrocket.

The Role of Cortisol in Weight Loss

Cortisol is your body’s stress hormone that regulates your body’s response to stressful situations.  Many of us have a surplus amount of cortisol in our bodies as we are so inundated with a constant stream of modern stressors.  We constantly feel the need to be task-switching across a variety of channels.  In today’s hectic, 24/7, crisis-driven world, our cortisol levels are elevated far beyond what we were originally designed to handle.

Stress creates hormonal responses that cause weight gain and insulin resistance. Cortisol is an adrenal hormone that helps you to run faster, hear better, see further and pump fuel into your bloodstream for quick energy.  Great when you are being attacked by a bear.  It’s the amazing hormone that helps us survive in the face of true danger.  But, it also shuts down digestion and slows your metabolism – okay for the short-term when you need all your energy to leap out of the way, but a disaster when stress is chronic.

According to lead cardiovascular researchers at the University Medical Center in the Netherlands, having excess cortisol puts you at increased risk of heart disease.  Elevated cortisol levels cause you to store visceral excess belly fat in the abdominal area around your internal organs.  What’s worse, is that the more abdominal fat you have, the more cortisol you produce in response to stress – which then causes more abdominal fat to be stored. Talk about a vicious cycle!

Dis you know that excess cortisol increases your cravings for sweets and carbs?  This can lead to overeating and constant hunger. And there you go –  you get fat. 

Cortisol actually causes your body to actually break down your muscle tissue for energy, again okay in the short-term, but not all the time.  The less muscle you have, the lower your metabolism will be and the more fat you’ll gain.  This is absolutely the worst thing for weight loss.

Finally, recent studies link high cortisol levels to depression and we all know that when you’re depressed, you eat more.  It can come as a relief to know most stress isn’t real.  A worry, thought, fear or projection into the future of what might go wrong can all become real stressors if we let them.  Trauma can live in your body even after the original stressor is gone. Short-lived or long-lived, we carry them with us but we can learn how to reset our mindset.

Fix your thinking. This is the most powerful long-term way to be happy and reduce stress. We often get into habits of thinking and harbor beliefs and ideas that keep us stressed. We don’t need to believe every stupid thought we have!  There have been times when I have asked myself,  “Where did that come from?  Why on earth am I thinking that?  Good grief!“

You can reset your body’s response to stress.  Here are some tips as to how to break this vicious cortisol cycle.

First, reduce or eliminate your caffeine intake. Gottfried recommends slowly weaning off excessive caffeine or switching from coffee to tea.  Caffeine increases cortisol secretion in people undergoing mental stress and for many of us, that’s just about all the time.

Next, go ahead, add some exercise into your routine. It’s amazing that even walking for just 30 minutes each day will work wonders.

Finally, try this stress reduction exercise. It’s really easy. Simply breathe in through your nose, hold and count to four. Make sure to breathe into your belly -it should expand.  Then, let the air out through your mouth until it’s all gone. Pause for a count of four and breathe in again. Do this eight times and you’ll reset your stress response!

You can also practice mindfulness.  It’s really straightforward.  All you do is slow down, breathe, and pay attention to what you’re doing.   We get distracted so often and rush from one thing to another.  This task-switching can significantly raise stress levels.  We can try paying attention to one task at a time instead and enjoy our experiences.  For example when we eat, instead of shoveling food into our mouths while trying to do three or four other things, we can pay attention to the pleasurable experience of eating such as how it tastes, the colors of the food, how grateful we are to be eating this meal. Studies show that mindful eating can help with weight loss because you’re paying attention to how much you’re eating and you’re doing so while feeling calmer, thus lowering your cortisol levels.    

Other ways you can naturally lower your cortisol levels include meditating and taking magnesium supplements or B vitamins.  Magnesium is especially useful if you are constipated, If not, rub magnesium oil on your skin if you tend towards diarrhea.  Anything that you rub on your skin is absorbed into your bloodstream so it soaks in really well.  By the way, it’s best not to rub anything on your skin that you wouldn’t eat.  Coconut oil is nice to use, for example, and you can scent it with fragrant essential oils.

The Role of Sleep

Researchers at the University of Chicago’s department of medicine compared the hormone levels of 11 men while they got 8 hours of sleep for several nights, then followed by several nights of only 4 hours in bed. During the sleep-deprived stage, the men’s ability to process glucose was impaired as much as a person with type 2 diabetes—indicating that sleep debt could lead to insulin resistance, which as we have seen, encourages obesity.

In all the afternoons that followed a sleep-deprived night, the men also had consistently elevated levels of cortisol, which again as we have seen, encourages cells to store more fat.  This is particularly when paired with insulin resistance.  And more than that, levels of thyroid hormone, the metabolism powerhouse, were lowered during sleep deprivation.

Balance Hormones to Ignite Weight Loss

A Functional Medicine doctor who understands how to optimize thyroid balance can customize a nutrient protocol.  Functional Medicine doctors are doctors who receive an additional 3 years of nutritional training and address the underlying causes of disease to create healthy bodies.  Healthy bodies don’t have diseases.

To lose weight, Dr. Sara Gottfried, a Harvard-trained doctor and hormone expert, offers ways to bring your hormones back into balance.

Estrogen

Estrogen and testosterone can cause weight problems because having too much estrogen causes weight gain whether you’re a man or a woman. Did you know ranchers fatten steer before they go to market by implanting them with estrogen pellets?

Too much sugar, refined carbs and alcohol spikes estrogen for both genders.

The National Institute of Health Sciences reveals exposure to environmental estrogens can cause excess estrogen. According to Dr. Mark Hyman, Functional Medicine doctor, environmental toxins in pesticides, called xeno-estrogens, act like estrogen in the body, even at lose doses. Some of these xeno-estrogens are things we ingest. Besides pesticides, there are these hormones in animal products and, in addition, plastics (found in such things as plastic water bottles that leach plastic into the water) also contain xeno-estrogens.  These are all known as “endocrine disruptors.

Also, acrylamides plasticize foods and are estrogenic.

Here is what Dr. Joseph Mercola has to say about acrylamides:

Acrylamide is a cancer-causing and potentially neurotoxic chemical, created when carbohydrate-rich foods are baked, fried, roasted, toasted or grilled at high temperatures. Many foods cooked or processed at temperatures above 250 F/120 C can contain acrylamide.

The highest levels have been detected in starchy plant-based foods, particularly French fries and potato chips. The federal limit for acrylamide in drinking water is about 0.12 micrograms in an eight-ounce glass of water.  However, a six-ounce serving of French fries can contain 60 micrograms of acrylamide –  about 500 times over the allowable limit.

The California-based Environmental Law Foundation (ELF) issued a report in 2005 revealing the risks of eating potato chips.  “All potato chip products tested exceeded the legal limit of acrylamide by a minimum of 39 times, and some as much as 910 times!” “Baked chips, which are often regarded as healthier, can contain more than three times the level of acrylamide as regular chips.” This is according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration data (FDA).

Dehydrated chips and crackers are fine, as the temperature at which they are made, never exceeds 118°. There are lots of recipes on the Internet showing how to make your own, which is a lot cheaper than buying them. 

For those in menopause, it’s important to know that while estrogen levels are lower after menopause, if your progesterone levels are super low, you can still have estrogen dominance. More Tips for Women

Low testosterone due to environmental toxins, alcohol, stress, lack of exercise or diabetes causes men to lose muscle and gain fat.  This leads to sexual dysfunction, low sex drive, mental fogginess, fatigue and bone loss that can lead to osteoporosis.

It’s important to know that cholesterol produces testosterone and other sex hormones. Eating a low-fat diet and taking statin drugs block cholesterol production and can negatively impact sex hormones.

How To Naturally Balance Estrogen For Weight Loss

To lower estrogen levels naturally, Dr. Sara Gottfried states fiber will help remove the estrogen from your body and recommends eating a pound of veggies per day.  This is preferable to using low-nutrient fiber supplements, much more preferable! She recommends that women seeking to lower their estrogen levels naturally aim for 35 to 45 gram of fiber per day and increase their amount slowly so as not to cause stomach upset.  You can also naturally balance estrogen by reducing red meat intake and cutting back on alcohol intake.

Dr. Mark Hyman testifies that his own testosterone went up 500 points when he ate more healthy fats!

The Role of Fat in Weight Loss

The Right Fats Increase the Metabolic Process and Actually Burn Fat

Bad fats, such as hydrogenated oils, processed oils and margarine, get stored as fat. This does not happen with the right kind of fats such as olive oil, avocados, coconut oil and butter. The body uses these oils for energy.

The Importance of Unadulterated Natural Oils in Seeds and Nuts and the Dangers of Fish Oil

Physicians around the world are calling PEO Solution the most important medical breakthrough of the 21st century. It is is the “missing link” to your success in your diet and your life.

There wouldn’t be so much chronic disease in our world if we were eating closer to nature.  

There is a really simple thing we can do that makes a phenomenal difference.  How many raw nuts and seeds do you eat every day?  (Told you it was simple!) They are called PEO’s, Parent Essential Oils.

The biggest obstacle, aside from pollution, standing in the way of excellent health has been discovered to be the lack of unadulterated natural oils and the over-use of fish oil. Many of us who use fish oil are getting as much as 600 times more than we need. 

PEO’s transport oxygen to your cells. Refined processed fats and oils, including fish oil, do not.  Ever feel like you’re just not getting enough oxygen? No wonder this makes such a difference!.

Prof. Brian S. Peskin, BSEE-MIT, Founder of Life-Systems Engineering Science, is  the world’s foremost authority and international lecturer on physiologic plant-based oils and the highly acclaimed author of the landmark book, The Hidden Story of Cancer. A graduate of the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Peskin received an appointment as adjunct professor at Texas Southern University in the Department of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (1998-1999). Physicians around the world rely on his insights and conclusions. Prof. Peskin is the “Physician’s Resource for PEO based Solutions.”

He says we are human Ferraris but most of us run like we are human jalopies.

He says fish oils are more hazardous than trans fats. The Omega 3’s in fish keep the blood of fish from freezing in cold water.  However, delicate Omega 3s at once become rancid at 98°F in our bodies.and start oxidizing immediately. Oxidation is like rusting from the inside out. We see an example of this when we slice an apple and see it turn brown.

When something is oxidized that means it’s already been burned up, so to speak. Rapid oxidation is called burning. When something is gradually oxidizing over time it’s called rusting or rotting such as the rusting of iron and the rotting of wood.

The body can’t make enough antioxidants to keep up with the damage and, to make matters worse, the antioxidants are diverted from other places where they are really needed to neutralize all of the other toxins we are exposed to.  

The rancid oils are then shuttled inside of the cells and since the fat is only supposed to be in the cell walls, the damaged oxidized fats now inside the cells, where they are never supposed to be, lead to cancer, diabetes, heart disease and other diseases.

It takes 17 pounds of fish to make one capsule of fish oil. Left-over fish scraps are used for this and since fish oil is heated to as much as 300°F, it is already rancid when you get it.  Eating fish is alright because it’s not highly processed.

PEOs to the Rescue

Why You Should Eat More Fat to Lose Weight

Fat is Stored ONLY When You Eat Carbohydrates

As the Journal of American Medical Association, 2000, pages 283, 221-228 makes clear:  Elevated insulin generated from eating carbohydrates causes blood clotting, which blocks arteries. Fatty acids from eating fat cannot be converted into carbohydrates. Carbohydrates, on the other hand, can be converted into triglycerides. This results in excess body fat.  The dietary carbohydrate is stored away as triglyceride in adipose tissue (body fat).

Your entire bloodstream automatically contains only 1 little teaspoon of sugar throughout the day when not eating,  If your body allowed more than this in your system, the toxic by-products would kill you, as they do in uncontrolled diabetics. High blood sugar levels also encourage rampant yeast infections in women.

If you are wondering why you feel “down” periodically through the day, know that relative hypoglycemia (high blood sugar followed by sugar crash) results in brain & nerve cells being deprived of the glucose that has been ‘drained’ out of the bloodstream by the insulin, for storage and use in other tissues.

By the way, there are no Omega 3’s in your skin. When there is a lack of adulterated omega 6 fatty acids, omega 3s get shoved into the skin instead.  This can result in skin cancer.

Age Spots

Age Spots are an accumulation of lipofuscin, which is produced by the damage caused by oxidized, highly-refined fish oils and the other damaged refined oils.  Acidic toxins such as these, can also react with the sun and create these “age spots.”  It has been found that they are also accumulating throughout the body, regardless of sun exposure, in places such as in the neurons, liver and heart, lipofuscin in the eyes is also related to macular degeneration.

Keep in mind that indigenous people around the wold eating unadulterated food, work in the sun into their 90’s and beyond and they don’t have these problems.

According to Prof. Peskin, it takes 4 1/2 month to clear the damage from fish oil from the body. One way that you can see the results of this is when those “age spots” disappear and the ridges and valleys in your fingernails smooth out. I’m going to be using my tiny portable sauna to speed up this process. I’ll let you know how it goes!

There is an excellent interview with him here

Sometimes people’s entrenched beliefs are hard to change but the documentation does exist.  Some people don’t bother to look and may think an hour-long interview is too long. However, he explains it very clearly and the benefits are wonderful.  None of this would be necessary if we ate closer to nature . as our ancestors did..  All he is describing is the how and why of the benefits of eating closer to nature and how and why the epidemic rates of sickness we are experiencing in our modern world are soaring since we do not.

For the  scientific documentation go here

To visit his website or get his book go here

The Role of the Liver in Weight Loss

The two main functions of the liver play a role in weight loss. The liver breaks down fats and filters harmful substances such as the chemicals in processed foods, artificial sweeteners, processed soy, high fructose corn syrup and microwavable meals. Filtering too many of these substances uses up too much of the liver’s time and energy until there is little left for fat burning.

Calories

It is not how many calories we eat, but rather the quality of the food we eat that contributes most to weight loss. When we starve ourselves the body protects us by holding on to the fat because it thinks we are starving, as of course, we are.

The Role of Exercise in Weight Loss

Our muscle is a powerful calorie burner, using 40 – 120 calories per day per pound of muscle. Fat on the other hand, is lazy and only burns 1 – 3 calories per day per pound. The more muscle we have, the more calories we burn. And there is no need to starve ourselves!

It may come as a relief to know that long sessions of grueling exercise are not necessary!  It turns out that too much exercise (overtraining) generates added free radicals.  High-Intensity Interval Training, (HIIT), use of a rebounder mini trampoline, dancing, Tai Chi, Chi Gong, Yoga -especially Bikram Yoga for strength building, are excellent and usually are more fun.

When a muscle is exercised, micro-tears in the muscle fiber prompt the body to rebuild the muscle even stronger. It takes four days for muscles to rebuild themselves each time so it’s best to only exercise each muscle group once every four days. This can make your workout very easy since you can work out your chest, arms and neck one day, the core abdominal area the next and your hips and legs the third day and then take a day off.Or you can go for it and do all of your weight training on one day, every four days. Go for a nice brisk 30-minute walk or a bike ride or dance every day for some cardio and be sure to stretch a lot to give your muscles in a nice squeeze and keep them flexible

 Here is one that requires no learning curve so you can start right away,

It is an amazingly simple exercise routine that anyone can do when they are just starting out or recovering from an injury.

Quiet and Quick SEATED CARDIO HIIT | High Heart Rate Workout with a CHAIR

Surprisingly enough, it still gets your heart rate up, which will burn calories and help you with weight loss. And, it really increases flexibility! The exercises are only 30 seconds long with 10-second rest intervals and you can adapt them to your own situation. It’s a great chair exercise.  People who thought it wasn’t going to do anything for them we’re quite surprised!

High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is great for building strength and conditioning.  Just remember to start at lower intensities before going all out so you don’t risk injuries.

When you do yoga, you can push yourself too far at first, resulting in strained muscles, rotator cuff tears, torn cartilage in the knees and lower-back injuries. Gently ease into more advanced positions over time.  The benefits are fantastic.

With circuit training, it’s important to understand that pain is an indicator that you need to slow down and relax the joints. Beginners will benefit from slower, more focused training to remain injury-free.

Always remember to do a few warm-up stretches before and a nice, not-to-quick, cool-down after the workout and keep the body hydrated before, during and after.

Don’t overdo each workout. You don’t want to stress yourself out and create the stress hormone, cortisol, causing weight GAIN! This is the other reason, besides creating oxidative stress, that long grueling workouts defeat the purpose!

High Fructose Corn Syrup

Obesity in this country has skyrocketed since the introduction of HFCS into the food supply.

Weight gain further results because when we consume HFCS, the hunger hormones, ghrelin and leptin aren’t activated. This results in overeating since hunger is not suppressed by those hormones when they are activated like they are supposed to be.

Ghrelin is a potent stimulator of growth hormone, and growth hormone has a profound effect on fat burning and building lean muscle. It is often considered an anti-aging hormone.

Leptin is the hormone our fat cells secrete after a meal to tell our hypothalamus to turn off our appetites. You can affect leptin levels profoundly by delaying eating and spacing your meals 5 – 6 hours apart.   When we eat all day, we keep our insulin and leptin levels elevated all day.  Remember, insulin puts the body into fat storing mode, which is the exact opposite of what you want.

“Additionally, cancer cells love HFCS. They gobble it up, reproduce and take over the body in ways that table sugar-fed cancer cells can’t match – even though plain ol’ sugar feeds cancer cells, too.” reports Jordan S. Rubin, founder and CEO of Garden of Life, NY Times bestselling author and natural hearth expert.

It pays to read the labels!  All sugars are not created equal.

Here are More Hormones That Interfere with Weight Loss

Ghrelin is called the “Hunger Hormone” because the more you have in your system, the hungrier you are.  Ghrelin works directly on the hunger center of your brain by activating the brain’s reward response to highly-addictive sweet, fatty foods. This increases your food intake at night, the worst possible time, and ultimately makes you gain more weight.  If you can’t seem to stay away from the fridge after dinner and find yourself fighting cravings, it’s probably due to elevated ghrelin levels.

New research has shown that even low levels of sleep deprivation increase your ghrelin levels and lead to more body-fat storage.  Most adults need between six to eight hours of sleep. So get some sleep.  And realize that the wrong thing to do if you want to lose weight is to jack yourself up in the morning with caffeine or energy drinks.  Give yourself the gift of restful, uninterrupted sleep starting tonight.  It’s a great way to lower your ghrelin levels, help you feel more satisfied and bolster your weight loss regimen.

Adiponectin

Adiponectin is your body’s “Fat Burning Torch”, literally the hormone that tells your body to burn fat for fuel.  The more of this super hormone you have circulating in your bloodstream, the more fat you burn – the less you have, the less you burn and the higher the incidence of obesity. In fact, according to Dr. Leo Galland, Director of The Foundation for Integrated Medicine, “A lack of adequate adiponectin is emerging as a significant factor in people’s inability to melt flab and stay slim.”

The frustrating thing about adiponectin is that the more fat you have, the lower your levels—which is why losing fat is so darn difficult at the beginning. You need a kick start, so here are two ways to naturally boost your adiponectin levels and stoke your fat burning fire…

Increase your magnesium intake, either by rubbing magnesium oil on your skin or by consuming seeds like pumpkin seeds and green, leafy vegetables like spinach and kale.  Raw cacao contains a significant amount of magnesium for all you chocolate lovers out there.  Just sweeten it with stevia instead of sugar.

You can also do “intermittent fasting,” which has been shown to significantly increase adiponectin levels. This works by fasting one day and then eating big the next. Or you can fast for a 16-hour interval and only eat during an 8 hour period, during the day – much easier!

Leptin

Leptin is produced by the body’s fat cells. Its primary function is to tell a part of our brain, the hypothalamus,  that we’re satiated or full.

Our modern diet is loaded with fructose, which is found in many processed foods – everything from pasta sauce to salad dressings, even soft drinks.  When too much of it floods your body, it gets stored as fat. This leads to an excess of leptin. Now at first glance, this might seem like a good idea but what happens is, when one has too much leptin, it’s possible to become leptin resistant.  This means your body no longer can tell if you’re full or not and you keep on eating and gaining weight.

When you are leptin resistant, your leptin levels are lower and you don’t feel as satisfied after you eat.  Getting enough sleep is a huge component in balancing your leptin levels. Harvard studies show that sleep deprivation reduces leptin levels and actually increases your body’s desire for fatty or carbohydrate-rich foods.  Each and every night you should make sleep a priority if you suspect a leptin imbalance is to blame for your weight gain.  Test it out for yourself over a period of time and see if it helps.  We should all be catching more zzz’s anyway for their myriad of health benefits.  We can let weight loss be the kick in the pants we need to start getting more sleep!

Other ways to balance leptin levels include taking an Omega 3 supplement and/or eating more Omega 3 rich foods such as fish, grass-fed meats, and chia seeds.  If you eat fish, remember that the bigger the fish the more small fish it ate and the more mercury it will contain as a result as it bioaccumulates.  Eat tiny fish. Tuna is a huge fish.

Also, you can decrease your fructose intake by eating little to no added sugar. 

Exercising regularly helps.

Two More Hormones

Since protein stimulates the production of the appetite-regulating hormones, cholecystokinin and glucagon, eat a very small handful of nuts before you sit down to dine.  Beginning with a protein “appetizer” 10 minutes before each meal signals your body not to overeat.

Consider your hormones may be to blame if you’ve been struggling to lose weight but can’t figure out what you’re doing wrong.  You can use the above information to try different techniques to bring suspected problem hormones back into balance and you can ask your doctor to test your hormones, as well.  It’s your body.  You should know everything you can, to not only lose weight but feel healthy, happy and whole.

The Role of theThyroid in Weight Loss

Stress and environmental toxins impact your thyroid.

Major culprits that interfere with thyroid function include pesticides and heavy metals. Nutrient deficiencies can also slow things down. For example, over-exposure to fluoride and chlorine create iodine deficiencies. Also, to run optimally, your thyroid needs specific nutrients including selenium, zinc, iodine and omega 3 fats.

Seaweed and wild-caught, low-mercury fish have omega 3 fats and additional iodine, the mineral your thyroid hormones are made from. Pumpkin seeds are excellent zinc sources and Brazil nuts provide selenium and iodine.  Also, a common cause of hypothyroidism is gluten intolerance.

The Role of Water in Weight Loss

Lack of Water Causes Fat Storage – How That Works

We have from 8 to 10 gallons of water in our bodies weighing around 75 pounds.  75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated, meaning that they don’t get the recommended amount of 2 liters (8, 8-ounce glasses) of water a day.

When we don’t drink enough water we gain weight because without enough water our bodies become too acidic, going into preservation – fat storing – mode.  Unfortunately, many people are so poorly attuned to their body’s thirst signals that they are interpreted as hunger pangs.  When this happens, we eat too much and if we don’t get enough water the body holds on to what it has and becomes bloated.  

Why this happens is that the body uses water to neutralize acids and to dilute excess acid.  An acidic body pulls water into the tissue to try to neutralize the acids there.  As noted earlier, the body also wraps acidic toxins in fat to protect the body’s internal organs, especially in the abdomen.  Fewer toxins, fewer fats.

Beer Belly Be Gone!

Water washes acids and toxins out of the body when it, itself, is not acidic. 

Acidic fluids like coffee, tea, soft drinks and alcohol cannot do this.  Reverse osmosis water is also acidic.  (This can be corrected by adding pH drops to it and to distilled water.  Baking soda can also be used but it is important to buy it at a health food store because commercial brands use aluminum as an anti-caking agent- not what you want!  This kind of defeats the purpose!)

It is important that the water be pure.  After all, you wouldn’t wash your face with orange juice and expect it to be clean.  The more pure the water is, the more it can absorb acids and toxins to create a lean body.

A drop of just over 2% of the level of water in the body is enough to cause fat storage.  This is normal for an average hour of exercise so be sure to drink a lot at those times and when using a sauna.

Lack of water is also the number one cause of fatigue.  Without it you will feel tired and weak.  You won’t have enough energy.  This is when sugar cravings cause you to reach for more snacks which just makes the problem worse.  Also, the resulting impatience, irritability, depression, lack of concentration and/or short term memory problems will have you reaching for a pick-me-up or a comfort food.  Keep that tank filled up to prevent this reaction!  You will be surprised to find that it works better to perk you up.

German researchers have found that drinking water increases metabolism and the rate you burn calories, another bonus.

Many people think that if they drink water before a meal that they won’t feel as hungry, that they will feel more filled up and while this is true I think you can see that there is much more to it than that.

It is also important to know that the water should be drunk between meals, rather than with food, since you don’t want to dilute your digestive juices.  When your food is not digested well the body will crave more food to get the nutrients it needs.

Most people live in a chronic star of dehydration for most of their lives. Most serious diseases are linked to this condition including morbid obesity and diabetes.

Drink up!

Body Builders and Athletes

Body Builders – Here is something I bet you didn’t know.  Acids act like a  meat tenderizer and when it builds up in your tissue it makes your muscles flabby and weak.  A 3% drop in the water content of the body causes a 10% drop in muscle strength and endurance and an 8% drop in speed.

Overeating Increases the Immune Response

This increased immune response causes the body to generate excessive, hazardous inflammation, which may lead to a number of chronic diseases.

“We believe that there is a connection between metabolism, inflammation, heart attack and stroke,  With this new knowledge, we can better understand why too much food can cause such serious diseases as heart attack, stroke, cancer and chronic intestinal inflammation.”

This is according to  Bente Halvorsen, the Research Institute for Internal Medicine, University of Oslo, Norway, Pål Aukrust, the research group’s leader and researcher Arne Yndestad, August 25, 2014. as reported in Science Daily.

The nutritional quality of food is critical so as to not upset the immune defense system and increase the risk of disease.  Then it will be able to heal injuries and ward off infections.

Overeating increases the immune response too much and generates excessive inflammation.  Here is one of the way in which that works:

Overeating can cause stress to the mitochondria, which are the energy powerhouses in our cells that convert the fatty acids in the food.

When we overeat, these free fatty acids accumulate in the cells and stress the mitochondria. The stress in the cells causes damage to the mechanism that should eliminate the damaged mitochondria. So not only are we damaging them, which affects our energy levels, we are not eliminating the wreckage. 

Instead, when damaged mitochondria accumulate, the immune response is activated. This immune response is exactly what causes the inflammation.  Inflammation is the number one risk factor that overweight people face.  

When people eat whole foods with a lot of fiber. they can still eat a lot of delicious food and be completely satisfied and happy.  These foods make people feel full so they don’t tend to overeat, particularly since they are getting the higher levels of nutrients the body craves.  This also diminishes the cravings for junk food that people experience when they are not getting enough good nutrition

Grains Can be a Problem for all Types of People

A new protein, gliadin, came about after a hybridization form of wheat was produced in the 1960s and ’70s.   Gliadin proteins stimulate appetite and are considered opiates.  They bind onto the opiate receptors in the brain.  If you are worried about weight gain you certainly don’t want your appetite stimulated.

Here is something about grains that interferes with healthy bacteria:

There is a way to remove this stuff so read on.

Consuming grains can also increase the chances of developing diabetes. 

The consumption of wheat and other grains is believed by many health experts to be responsible for a significant amount of illness, obesity, and suffering in people today.