Did you know that at least 2/3 of all American adults are now overweight or obese?
In fact, CDC statistics revealed that in the U.S. the number of obese people actually outnumber the amount of merely overweight people. And in 2011, one in three children are now overweight or obese; nearly triple the rate from 1963. Unfortunately, US has predominantly become a nation of obese citizens.
And it seems that anytime someone voices concerns about the high sugar, highly processed, non-food trend in the US that voice is silenced by a greater one speaking lies into our society. There are billions of dollars spent in marketing these non-foods each year. All in the name of freedom of choice. But do people really have a freedom of choice when the hidden ingredients are causing long term and detrimental health problems?
Well, instead of focusing on some things we can’t control, let’s look at some points on the issue we CAN FIX!!
The following 10 guidelines can help you prevent packing on extra pounds, and shed some unwanted ones:
#1: To Lose Weight … Eliminate Fructose from Your Diet
You’ve gone to all the trouble of getting some exercise. But despite sticking to your new plan you discover the pounds are not coming off. You’re frustrated and asking “WHY?”
Did you know the foods you choose to eat are THREE times more important for controlling your weight than your exercise? It’s very easy to sabotage yourself with sugary foods and exercise beverages. Especially beverages containing High Fructose Corn Syrup.
These drinks include “vitamin water”, energy drinks, and similar types of recovery drinks.You need to avoid these drinks and ignore the slick marketing messages that suggest you need them because you workout.
Clean, pure water. If you’re doing a heavy workout you could supplement with a quart of pure clean water that has a quarter teaspoon of himalayan salt and a teaspoon of baking soda in it. This will more than replenish any electrolytes you are likely to lose during moderate exercise.
The answer to optimal athletic performance and recovery is in eating whole, organic foods. So next time you need a quick snack before or after a workout, forget about that energy bar or sports drink and go for these beneficial sources of carbs and protein:
Any vegetable (with the exception of carrots and beets, which are high in sugar), particularly dark, green and leafy varieties like spinach, kale or Swiss chard; Organic free range chicken and eggs; lean, grass-fed red meat; fruits that are low in fructose like apricots, cantaloupe, lemons, limes, passion fruit, plums and raspberries; whey protein; raw nuts and seeds.
# 2 Plan Out Your Meals
It’s said that failing to plan means you’re planning to fail. When it comes to meals designed to promote your health and eliminate unwanted calories, you’re going to have to heed this advice.
The problem is, if you fail to plan your meals you are basically eating according to either your emotions or whatever whim may come over you around mealtime. Both of these can mean added calories, poor nutritional choices and extra pounds.
Some principles to follow in planning ahead are:
- Shopping in advance with specific meals in mind and it means putting your intended meals down on paper and sticking to your meal schedule.
- Do not allow your emotions to dictate your meals, or the marketing of processed foods to sway you.
You’ve probably discovered that both of these things are much harder in practice than they are in theory. There’s a reason for that. Processed food manufacturers are spending a lot of money, billions and billions of dollars each year, to convince you that their food will satisfy you emotionally.
If you’re like me, I want a little more help! So, I like www.cinchwellness.com! For as little as $3 a month, you can have a registered dietitian’s help, meal plans, and much more! Check them out for an added convenience!
#3 Avoid All Sodas, and Especially Diet Soda
Soda, in my opinion, is the one of the primary health threats. You can read more about the dangerous hidden effects diet soda and artificial sweeteners in general have on our bodies in my recent blogs.
Did you know that just one can of Coke contains 10 teaspoons of sugar?! This is 100 percent of your recommended daily intake. Within 20 minutes of drinking that soda, your blood sugar spikes, and your liver responds to the resulting insulin burst by turning massive amounts of sugar into fat. It is a proven fact that sugar increases your insulin levels, which leads not only to weight gain, but also high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes, premature aging and many more negative side effects.
But diet soda is even worse!
Drinking diet soda actually is positively linked to weight gain. It turns out the latest research shows that your brain can tell the difference between real and artificial sugar, and not only are artificial sugars less satisfying to your brain at a cellular level, they also increase your craving for the real thing. So artificial sweeteners, and diet soda in particular, must be avoided if you don’t want to crave sugar.
By the way, craving sugar is one of the surest ways to add extra calories to your diet. So avoid diet soda if you care about keeping your weight in check.
#4 Be Sure to Eat PLENTY of Organic Vegetables
One of the best ways to improve your health is to make sure you’re eating plenty of fresh, minimally processed high quality vegetables, ideally locally-grown and organic, with a majority of them consumed raw. One simple way to boost your vegetable intake is to juice them. Juicing organic vegetables is highly recommended to anyone working to restore or improve their health.
Whether you’re munching them raw or juicing, some vegetables contain more health building nutrients than others. This list details some of the best and worst vegetables for your health:
Asparagus, Escarole, Avocado (actually a fruit), Fennel, Beet greens, Green and red cabbage, Bok Choy, Kale, Broccoli, Kohlrabi, Brussel sprouts, Lettuce (romaine, red leaf, green leaf), Cauliflower, Mustard greens, Celery, Onions, Chicory, Parsley, Chinese cabbage, Peppers (red, green, yellow and hot), Chives, Tomatoes, Collard greens, Turnips, Cucumbers, Spinach, Dandelion greens, Zucchini, Endive.
Use these sparingly due to high carbohydrate levels:
Beets, Jicima, Carrots, Winter Squashes, Eggplant, Most fruits except for limes and lemons.
#5 Make Sure You Do Peak 8 Exercises Once or Twice a Week
Your body has three types of muscle fiber: Slow twitch, fast twitch and super fast twitch fibers. A major problem with conventional exercise is its inability to engage the fast and super fast twitch muscle fibers. Conventional exercise merely engages your body’s slow twitch muscle fibers, which is your preferred mode of muscle engagement. To produce dramatic results when it comes to exercise you simply have to engage your fast and super fast muscle fibers.
We love the program you can learn about called B•U•R•S•TCore™. It stands for “Body’s Ultimate Response Shock Training.” The B•U•R•S•TCore™ System provides you with the opportunity to GET MORE out of your workout, in LESS time! B•U•R•S•TCore™ is not a program you begin with an end-date in mind. Rather, it is designed to be ongoing, in order that you are equipped for a lifestyle of fitness and overall health.
BURST Training is bursts of high-intensity exercise done in short intervals of time, followed by periods of rest. Intense does not mean impossible. That is the beauty of burst training! When they say “go 90-100% of your max effort,” everybody’s max effort looks different. We are all at various degrees of physical fitness and health. Regardless, your body will respond to the “shocks” that you give it with huge benefits. If your level of intensity does not look like someone else’s, that’s ok! You’re body doesn’t care about what someone else is doing! It cares about what you are doing!
They offer a monthly membership where you get the training videos, nutritional guides, inspiration and help to get in great shape!
Check it out! You’ll love it!
#6 Avoid Drinking Fruit Juice
Fruit juice is probably the most requested drink by children of all ages, not because it quenches thirst, but because it tastes good. And fruit juice, it turns out, is not one of the best things you can put into your body, especially for children.
Drinking fruit juice is only slightly different from drinking soda. Both deliver a massive dose of sugar to your body unbound by any of the slow-releasing mechanisms provided by nature.
So when you think of fruit juice, you should think of soda. You should certainly by now be aware of the dangers of high fructose corn syrup, but please understand that simple fruit sugar extracted from fruit has virtually identical side effects and negative effects on your biochemistry. This means fruit juice will cause a major spike in your insulin levels.
This is important because elevated insulin levels are one of the primary drivers for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and weight gain.
#7 Eating Outside of Your Home
There’s a reason your favorite restaurant food often tastes better than your home cooked meals: many times it’s loaded with extra calories in the form of sugars, hydrogenated fats and artificial flavor enhancers like MSG.
And since most restaurants purchase the bulk of their food in advance, and frequently rely on frozen, pre-cut and pre-cooked foods, the chances are high that your restaurant meal is simply processed food, nutritionally far inferior to anything fresh and organic you can make at home. And unless your favorite restaurant is advertising its free-range meats and organic vegetables, chances are also high that you’re consuming feedlot animals and conventionally grown vegetables that have been drenched in antibiotics and pesticides respectively.
Neither are good for maintaining optimal health. I’m not suggesting you never eat outside of your own home; I understand the pleasure and social importance of eating out occasionally. My suggestion is merely to keep eating out to a minimum, and try to frequent restaurants committed to buying organic and serving minimally processed meals.
If you’re trying to lose inches, avoid eating out for a time.
#8 Avoid Excessive Alcohol Consumption
Alcohol is converted by your body into simple sugar, and it turns out the metabolic pathway converting alcohol into its simple sugar components is the same pathway your body uses to convert high fructose corn syrup into its component parts.
If you watch Robert Lustig’s video “Sugar:The Bitter Truth” in its entirety you will understand exactly what happens when you put both alcohol and High Fructose Corn Syrup into your body.
In a nutshell, you are basically ingesting fat. Both of these are converted by your liver into fat.
But again, alcohol equals body fat (unless you are in the minority and have a super-production of alcohol dehydrogenases (ADH), the enzymes that break down alcohol in your body. Most likely you are not in this minority).
#9 Avoid Consuming Fast- or Processed Foods
Avoid fast food if you value your health. It is loaded with sodium, sugar and feedlot animals who have been subjected to the absolute minimums in the areas of feeding and care. Nothing about fast food will keep you from losing weight.
In the coming days, I will be posting some articles on Fast Food. Keep and eye out for those!
#10 Avoid Condiments and Idle Snacks
According to www.fitsugar.com these are examples of sources of hidden calories you probably never even considered:
One pat of butter on your toast: 36 calories.- One cubic inch of feta cheese on your salad: 45 calories.
- One tablespoon ketchup with your fries: 15 calories.
- One tablespoon of grated Parmesan on your pasta: 22 calories.
- One teaspoon or one cube of sugar in your coffee: 9 calories.
- One tablespoon of sour cream on your baked potato: 26 calories.
- One tablespoon mayonnaise on your sandwich: 100 calories.
- One handful of M&Ms (10 pieces) off your co-worker’s desk: 34 calories.
- One teaspoon each of oil and vinegar on your sandwich: 39 calories.
Cutting all of these things out would save you about 330 calories a day. That translates to a loss of about 1 pound every 10 days, or about 36 pounds a year.
A little planning and self discipline can help you lose those pounds that you are trying to shed. As you lose pounds, think of your health. The above steps are not “fads” .. they are a lifestyle change to keep the pounds off for good. I don’t know many people who are successful long term with quick diets. You must nourish yourself and change your perspective of what you consume.
I’m here to help! Contact me, comment on this post, follow me on Facebook or Twitter. I am here to help you reach your health and weightloss goals!
sources: Mercola.com, Burstclub.com, Shaklee, FitSugar.com, CinchWellness.com
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