Besides your diet and your activity level, there may be some other things keeping you from losing weight or losing it the most efficient way. Weight Loss has become a bit more complicated in our modern day stress and toxin filled society. It is still essential to move daily for circulation and lymph movement and to have a very clean (low processed food) diet) as a foundation to losing weight. I have, over my 27 years in the health field, realized that is this is no longer enough and there are other sub-clinical issues causing a woman to hold on to stubborn weight. If you have been struggling with your weight and are trying to follow a healthy eating plan and exercising, this list is worth looking into.
It Could Involve Your Digestion:
Incomplete breakdown of foods will cause your cells (the end “target” of your nutrients) to miss getting all the nutrients from your foods. This will cause them to feel like they are “starving” just like if you were not eating enough food or were in a state of starvation. You may not notice this digestive weakness and the nutrients you are not breaking down, but it is still affecting your body causing excess hunger/cravings and the body to store extra fat in reaction to this “starvation”. What you will notice is that “bloated” feeling which is never fun.
Solution: Taking a good digestive enzyme to break down foods (carbohydrates, proteins and fats) in the stomach and in the small intestines can work wonders. Enzymes contains the ending “ase” so look for lipase (breaks down fat), protease (breaks down protein) and amalase (breaks down carbohydrates). This type of supplement can vastly improve the breakdown and assimilation of your foods will allow your cells to feel full, will balanced blood sugar for me energy and can cancel out that strong “cravings” message.
It could Involve Your Hormones:
If you are “out of balance” hormonally your body will hold on to more fat and retain more fluid by stimulating fat cells with the wrong message. This can make you gain weight and/or not be able to lose weight as efficiently. Estrogen tends to become “dominant” while the hormone progesterone (which is a natural fat-burner or diuretic) tends to be depleted when it is converted to cortisol when we are under stress because the body runs out of the reserves to make this important stress hormone. When this happens the body is thrown off in its ability to lose weight. In addition, you feel bad emotionally which does not help with sticking to a diet or exercise plan).
Solution: Start by finding out if you have a hormones imbalance based on your weight, mood, sleep and female/monthly problems. At BeBalancedcenters.com, we offer a complimentary online symptoms-based questionnaire which serves as a general way to determine the “severity” of your imbalance. Then if you have many of these symptoms we suggest a simple progesterone cream to aid in the body in fat-burning, releasing of fluid and improved mood/sleep and energy which all help weight loss. If you have ANY PMS or menopausal symptom you are likely low in progesterone. This hormone gets converted to cortisol when you are stressed and will make it almost impossible to lose weight especially if you are over 35 or 40 years old.
It Could Involve Your Liver:
Our liver is one of the most enduring organs in that it can regenerate itself up to 80%. But with the amount of toxins we take in on a daily bases, it usually cannot keep up or do its job as efficiently. When this happens the job of breaking down fat and processing our hormones gets put on the back burner and can vastly impedes our weight loss efforts. We need to remember food absorption goes through the liver as well as all the associated toxins and free radicals.
Solution: A simple herbal and vitamin combination liver support taken for 30 days to jump start liver detoxification can make a big difference. You want to look for ingredients such as dandelion root, milk thistle, burdock root all in a convenient capsule. You may also try an herbal tea blend of these herbs to drink in the AM. My favorite as it can be used as a coffee substitute and is delicious is Dandy Blend, a water soluble power available online or in many health food stores. Another great way to gentle but effectively cleanse the liver is to skip your AM cup of coffee and replace it with hot fresh squeezed lemon water.
Dietary changes, starting with a mini 3-4 day cleanse, can start this process with small modifications such as the removal of toxic things such as alcohol, wheat, dairy, simple sugars and excess caffeine. You will be amazed how you will feel. Also to move your lymphatic system (which helps move out toxins) try the simple, free technique of dry brushing the skin with a natural bristle body brush, for just three minutes per day since toxins escape via the skin, lungs, mouth etc.
It Could Involve Your Emotions: (Built-Up Mental/Emotional Stress):
Besides the obvious stress and pressures of the day that may cause us to “binge eat” etc., deep-seated emotional issues dealing with our past that are either connected to our self esteem or things done to us (teased as a child, abuse, etc.) can cause the body to hold on to more weight as a form of protection for us. When every other tool is being utilized to lose weight, this one needs to be considered. It is also good to do some emotional “house cleaning” with any weight loss plan as there is always some emotions attached to the reason you gained weight to begin with.
Solution: It is helpful to pinpoint these stored up feelings/emotions and “let them go”. Although this type emotional work can be done in meditation/prayer or even visiting a therapist, some form of energy work perhaps in the form of Reiki could really benefit you. This type of calming session with a Reiki master can allow energetic changes to happen immediately without much effort on your part. Energy work also allows you the strength to “let go” and provides an immediate feeling of relief. All our thoughts and emotions are “energy” anyway and these negative vibrations (based on physics principles) can be released or turned back into positive emotions.
There are also “sound-wave” therapy CD’s that will also allow you to deeply relax as the voice-over guides your thoughts to let go of anything weighing your down!
For more information on any of the four topics mentioned here, you can email us at info@bebalancedcenters and if you are local we can set up a free consultation or if you are not local a phone consultation. At my center, BeBalanced, we have literally helped over 5000 women reach their weight loss goal with our patent-pending system/techniques involving cleansing and hormone balancing. Many tell us they had lost hope that they could ever move the scale again!