Do You Struggle With Hard to Lose Weight? Here's Why??
Eat less – Exercise more?? … REALLY - is that all it takes???
Finding it hard to shift weight?
How many times have you heard this advice thrown around? I know it is a common misconception that to get healthy and lose weight, you need to jump on the treadmill for 60 minutes and consume salad. Well, I have to tell you, this doesn’t always work, and maybe you have already realised it?? Maybe you have been on yo-yo diets, following the latest fad online, upping your workout routine to a daily 60-minute session, which leaves you starving throughout the day, and exhausted by the afternoon because you aren’t consuming enough energy.If this sounds like you then I want you to
STOP
for a moment, gather your thoughts and get some clarity. If what you are doing is not getting you closer to your health goal, then maybe you need to change it up.
The biggest myth about weight and health is:
Consume less calories & expend more energy.
We know now that this is not true, it is about the types of calories you consume, calories from pasta are completely different from calories from avocados, so I encourage you to look at your diet and see where you could be consuming the wrong kind of calories. That’s a start. Next is to look at what else could be causing your stubborn weight & problems reaching your health goals. In this workshop, myself and health coach Brenda Janschek delves into some of the areas I have seen in clinical practice which affect health and weight. These are things you may not be aware of, but once you target these areas you’ll notice your health balancing out and excess weight will shift. This WORKSHOP will be taken offline on November 2nd so hurry if you want to watch it
The Hidden Barriers to Your Weight Loss
Trigger Foods
This is a huge one!! You could be eating what you think is the healthiest diet for you, but unbeknownst to you, these very foods are triggering inflammation, cortisol spikes, and leaky gut. All this will inhibit weight loss and even encourage weight gain, especially around the abdomen. So if you suffer from weight around your tummy which just isn’t shifting, then I encourage you to look at your diet and see what foods could be triggering this.The most common foods you could be sensitive to are: gluten, soy, dairy, and even eggs … yes, eggs! Crazy I know, but this could be the answer to why that paleo diet didn’t help you shift any weight, it’s a common theme I am seeing these days.
How to Check
There are various methods to detect what foods could be your “kryptonite” as Dave Asprey would say. These vary from blood testing for specific antibodies such as IgE and IgG and IgA to pulse checks. You may want to try pulse tests, these checks are to see if your pulse rate increases with the ingestion of particular foods. Some kinesiologists do offer sessions in which they help you uncover food intolerances. Or you could just remove foods and see what happens. If it is as simple as a food intolerance, you’ll find out pretty quickly once you remove the foods, weight should begin to shift and body shape change, starting with less bloating and water retention.
Stress
Stress and fluctuating cortisol levels could be wreaking havoc with your weight loss ambitions. Any kind of stress or fluctuation cortisol affects not only your nervous system, it also floods your body with glucose. This spikes your blood sugar, which contributes to inflammation, and over time possible insulin resistance. Look out for excess fat around your tummy, if you have a family history of insulin resistance, then you need to be careful and ensure you manage your stress levels to balance out your blood sugar levels.
Macronutrients
It’s not good to eat heaps of chicken and miss out on other macros such as fat and carbohydrates. Fat is king and is the best macronutrient to stabilize blood sugar and burn fat.When I talk about fats, I am referring to coconut products, avocado, grass-fed butter, fat on your meat products, and raw olive oil. None of the nasty canola and sunflower oils, yuck! These will just drive your inflammation through the roof.So work on your ratios, and ensure you have 3 meals daily which contain protein, fat, and carbohydrate; about 50% of each meal should be lovely non-starchy vegetables. Terry Whal's has the best advice regarding vegetables, which is 3 cups of sulphur rich vegetables, 3 cups of leafy greens, and 3 cups of brightly coloured vegetables daily.
Hormone Imbalance
This is the one I see most often, which in so many cases goes undetected. Other symptoms, apart from stubborn weight could be PMT, PCOS, heavy and painful periods, miscarriage, acne, hair loss, depression, constipation, and sensitivity to the cold. It’s important to take a holistic approach and see what else could be going on. If it seems like it might be hormone imbalance such as low progesterone, high testosterone, estrogen dominance, or even hypothyroid, then tests should be done to determine the cause. But even before tests, you can do a lot for yourself. Diet and lifestyle changes will help you balance your hormones to assist with your weight loss and overall health.How Can You Reset, Recharge and Gain Control of Your Body?
Check out my FREE Workshop Here
Other things you can do
Change up your exercise routine
Incorporate some YIN activities 3 times per week such as walking, swimming, yoga, tai-chi, or Pilates.
Beat that stress
Start meditating each morning, this helps to balance the nervous system and hormones. You can try an app such as calm or headspace particularly if you are new to it. Just start out doing it for 5 minutes each morning, do this daily and slowly increase the time until you reach 20 minutes.
Balance your hormones through diet
Get a glimpse of what a cleansing hormone balanced diet looks like by signing up to Break Through! To Feeling Fantastic in A Body You Love . This program has three balanced nourishing meal plans to elevate your health and reset your hormones.
Remove inflammatory foods from your diet
You could start with the most obvious, check your symptoms and keep a food diary:GlutenDairySoy
Healthy Swaps –
You could swap out your pasta with zucchini spirals, or quinoa.Use coconut and cashew nut milk instead of regular dairy or soy. If you are a vegetarian, then add other proteins to your diets such as hemp, peas, or rice so that you are getting adequate protein. Instead of high soy or tofu, use tempeh, lentils, buckwheat, or nuts as your protein source.
Boost your sulphur rich veg – 3 cups daily
Broccoli
Onion
Garlic
Brussels
Cabbage
Asparagus
Kale
Here's what Emma had to say about the program