STOP CRAVING IMMEDIATELY!

I have no idea why you can’t lose weight! How’s that for honest? I don’t know why you are fat, and I don’t know why I am fat. Oh I know some of the same things you know about calories, and exercise and metabolism and stress and eating. I also know about how our body wants to hold on to calories during periods of starvation and a whole lot more. Haven’t we all likely read the same books??

None of those books can tell you why YOU have belly fat and Mary is skinny. After all, she eats whatever she wants to doesn’t she? She doesn’t exercise, and she drinks like a fish. Why am I fat when I hardly eat anything and JoAnne eats whatever the heck she wants to and for her fast weight loss seems easy.

No book I’ve ever read can tell you exactly why YOUR body is the way it is. There are lots of theories, but they don’t fully explain exactly which buttons you need to push to lose weight fast.

Instead of trying to tell you why you are fat, or explain why I think I am fat, I am going to address CRAVINGS AND APPETITE, and then tell you HOW I STOPPED CRAVING FATS, SWEETS AND SALT. These are things we know keep us fat, and I KNOW HOW TO STOP THEM. 

I am going to tell you what worked to help me loose weight. (It is so easy you will be shocked!)

 Calories –

 Eat- Lose Weight

Calories are simply a measurement of energy. Liters and quarts measure volume, meters and miles measure distance, and calories measure energy. (and of course we all know what pounds and kilograms measure.)When you eat something, the number of calories in that food are converted to energy to run your body right now, or are stored in your body to be used to run your body later.

It sounds simple doesn’t it? Just use more energy than you eat, and you will lose weight. In theory that is exactly what you have been told for years, and it holds true. In practice though, there are many complicated body functions, like absorption and elimination, hormones and ancient protective mechanisms that trigger when your body should store calories, and when to use them up. These are the things that determine how easy or difficult it is to lose weight fast.

Isn’t a calorie just a calorie? Shouldn’t you just Not eat, lose weight, and go about your life? Well, let’s talk about calories in whole foods, that is foods that are found in nature, such as an apple picked fresh from a tree or a carrot pulled from the ground, versus calories in processed foods like a donut.

Whenever you eat an apple or a carrot, fresh and unprocessed, your body knows exactly what to do with it. Our bodies evolved eating that kind of thing so we recognize it as food. Real food, plucked from nature, is filled with vitamins and minerals and enzymes they exist in the right proportions. We know what to do with that, and how to efficiently use the energy, and nutrients that are found in that food.

Our bodies don’t recognize all of the chemicals and sugars and artificial fats that make up a donut. Several things happen when you eat a donut, and they are complicated and not fully understood. But the result is an unnatural hormonal and stress reaction from our body that often triggers our fat storage system.

Donuts don’t have a lot of nutrients, and even if they have been fortified with vitamins, they are often in an unnatural form that our body does not recognize. Even if you get all of the energy requirements you need (i.e. You get enough calories to run your body) you can still be starving for vitamins and minerals. Your body will often trigger cravings or signs of hunger because you need more vitamins and minerals.

So part of the answer could be eating real food. No WONDER all those diets with prepackaged meals don’t work! After a while eating a diet of nothing but processed foods will often leave you craving and bingeing. Could you really eat certain foods and lose weight for good?

I am going to tell you exactly what I eat that keeps me satisfied, and full even when other people are snacking on chips and cake so I continue to lose weight.

Abdominal Fat- could it start in the intestines?

Digestion, absorption, calories and nutrients in, wastes out… all of those things require a properly functioning digestive system. From your mouth to… well… the other end.. there is a lot of room for things to go wrong.

Digestion begins in the mouth, with saliva and the action of chewing. It moves to the stomach then into the small and large intestine and then out the other end. This system depends on proper chewing and digestive enzymes.

There’s a lot more to it than that though.

The system requires fluid and fiber. It needs enough muscle movements to keep things moving but not too much. It needs cellular health to decide which nutrients (and chemicals and toxins) to let in and block from entering. It requires the right amounts of good bacteria, and not enough bad bacteria, and an absence of parasites is helpful as well. It also needs oxygen and blood flow and so much more.

A lot of things can go wrong with this system, and many of those things can contribute to your weight gain, or inability to lose weight. If you don’t absorb nutrients, then your body keeps giving you the "I’m starving" signal. If your bowels are sluggish, you could be absorbing a lot more than you need. If you are absorbing the wrong things (too many chemicals) these substances can be keeping your cells fat.

I’ve found a super easy way to keep my digestive system healthy, which helps  diminish the appearance of  belly fat.

E is for Exercise (or Energy?)

Oh the dreaded “E” word! Here is the dilemma I experienced when I first thought about losing weight.

Shelley says

"I’m tired.

Tired isn’t an excuse for people like us. Tired is our reality. Tired is part of the reason we are holding on to all of this weight in the first place. Just the thought of exercise would leave me thinking about how tired I was. If I actually did find enough gumption to get out of my office chair and go for a walk or jump on my rebounder I would be left utterly exhausted.

I was always envious of the people who would go to the gym or out for a run and return exhilerated, when a walk around the block would leave me dead on my feet. Usually I would be so affected by one bout of exercise that I would need a nap the NEXT day!

Do it again?? No way… not 2 days in a row!

Exercise always made me hungry too! I would walk on the treadmill and it would tell me I burnt 185 calories. I would be dripping with sweat, absolutely exhausted, out of breath, and hungry. As soon as I caught my breath, a quick visit to the kitchen, and I would easily consume 4 times the amount of calories I just walked off. If I am hungry all the time, how can I possibly loose weight?

These are mechanisms that your body uses to keep you safe in your fat body. There are ways to combat that we will talk about later, but for now, rest assured that I am NOT going to tell you that you need to run a marathon to start losing weight. In fact, even my first weight loss week AND my second, I still lost 13 pounds without starving or slaving at the gym. More about that later….

I have more ENERGY than I have ever had in my life! I am also more even tempered… not anxious or nervous, and not prone to bouts of anger or depression"

I am going to share with you how you can have an increase in energy NATURALLY with no crashes, no artificial stimulants and no jitters, feel happier and more alive.

How Does Stress Factor In?

BELLY FAT!

Stress is a major contributor to the fat bodies we live in. When you are stressed, your body releases a soup of hormones all designed to protect you from danger. Of these hormones, cortisol is one of the ones we know for sure contributes to abdominal fat. The belly fat accumulates around our internal organs and (like many of our body’s protective mechanisms) ends up causing major problems. Belly fat clogs up our internal organs and has also been linked to elevated blood pressure and heart disease.

The thing about stress is that it is difficult to avoid it, especially in these times. All of us are so darned busy… that causes enough stress, but then throw in some financial worries, and relationship troubles, health concerns, and a big ugly body just makes things seem so much worse.

I feel LESS STRESS and my belly fat is melting away!