Concentrate on your health rather than your weight.

Change takes time.

Especially in the weight management department.
Losing weight fast may sound exciting but there’s a big catch.
Fast weight loss = range of health risks.

Remember that the most important job you ought to do is to nourish and nurture your body.
The rest will come along.

Stop overeating and stop eating junk.

Slow down and stop thinking junk.

Start to eat well and nourish yourself
…and the change will happen.

Persevere.

Remember- the real change takes time.

Do you want to lose weight?
Do you want to get rid of mood swings?
Are you the person who’s ready for a nap straight after getting up in the morning?
Are you fed up with bloating or heartburn?
The list goes…

If you answer YES to any of the above then you want to read this article!

When I say give up junk I mean all kinds of it.

In the food department of your life junk includes (nonetheless, it’s not limited to):

most of the supermarket shelf content like stir fry sauces in jars, muesli bars, non-organic meats, mayo, ready-to-eat porridge, low fat yoghurt, UHT milk, all sorts of “grab-and-go” and many many more, just go to any supermarket and it will be there on each single shelf waiting for you to pay for it and to poison you in return.

What’s even more sad that this is not only supermarkets who offer you junk products.

There are other sellers pretending to sell “healthy” options to you.

And of course YOU are the one who chooses to buy and use it all.

So how do you reclaim and sustain your health and well-being?

You start to change your eating habits.

It’s simple as that.

You start to:

1. Eat fresh and more green choosing natural produce, organic/biodynamic whenever possible.

2. Avoid/reduce/best- eliminate:
– processed, refined and artificial products (including colours, flavours, additives and preservatives),
– sugar,
– and all other types of sugar, often hidden in products, like glucose, corn syrup, fructose, etc.
– artificial sweeteners (this may get easier if you avoid products from the first group above).

3. Forget about wheat in any kind of shape and eliminate or reduce most of other grains.That means no more bread, buns, cakes, biscuits, pastas etc. made with wheat.

4. If you choose to eat grains remember that more tolerable are for most people non-gluten grains.

I would use millet, buckwheat, amaranth, rice and always sprout them beforehand.

You can also try products like chickpea flour, coconut flour, almond flour to bake naturally gluten and wheat free bread, cakes, pizzas and more.

5. Soak your non-gluten grains, beans, nuts and seeds.

The process of soaking neutralizes harmful anti-nutrients and hard-to-digest proteins and at the same time, activates vital enzymes, minerals and other beneficial nutrients locked inside.

Use the same clean water you use for drinking.

6. Reduce caffeine intake including not only coffee but also black tea and green tea as well (not to mention energy drinks!).

7. Use organic salt.

Celtic Sea salt and Himalayan salt are unrefined and unprocessed salts what means they can be utilized by our body properly.

Salt which is non- organic such as table salt has been harvested mechanically and put through artificial processes to crack its molecular structure what leaves it deprived of all of its essential minerals but full of chemical additives like iodine, dextrose and bleaching agents.

8. Eat slowly and chew well.

It does not only help your stomach to digest and your intestine to absorb nutrients but also prevents improperly digested food from entering your blood and causing a wide range of adverse effects to your health.

And as a bonus you finally get a chance to discover that your food is more flavorsome.

Plus probably you will eat less as it takes time for your brain to send a signal to your stomach that you’re full.

9. Don’t drink while eating.

Drink about 30 minutes before your meal and not earlier than 1 hour after eating.

If you are chewing adequately, you should be able to eat comfortably without liquids.

10. Drink clean water and herbal teas.

NOTHING substitutes for water!

Investing in reverse osmosis home water filter may be a good idea. Otherwise you can fill up bottles at a local service station that sell reverse osmosis filtered water or buy high quality mineral water from the shops (the last option is the most expensive one).

Adding a pinch of Celtic Sea salt or Himalayan salt to water will replace some of the electrolytes lost in the process of purifying water (reverse osmosis filtering).

I use filtered water and high quatlity mineral water that has alkaline pH.

However, remember NOT to drink any alkaline water just before, with, or right after your meal (or even as soon as one hour after eating).

Alkaline water inactivates some enzymes that you need in your stomach while eating to trigger production of digestive acids.

Inactivating those enzymes will result in poor digestion and absorption of nutrients.

Tap water is not a clean water.

Using tap water (water contaminated with chemicals and not only) for making tea or cooking is not a good idea!

Boiling tap water will only concentrate heavy metals in it so remember to use for cooking the same clean water you drink!

11. Avoid excessive consumption of dairy and chose organic or biodynamic and non- homogenised unpasteurized products from cow’s, sheep’s or goat’s milk.

Listen to your body. Some races and cultures tolerate raw milk products and do really well on them while others can’t tolerate them and consuming dairy causes many health problems for them.

12. Go alkaline whenever possible.

Your health and well-being depends on the pH balance of your body.

On the pH scale 0-14 zero means purely acidic and fourteen means purely alkaline.

Human body works best in the slightly alkaline environment (about 7.35 on the pH scale).

The natural tendency of our body to be at balance can be supported by eating certain foods.

Supporting your body’s acid/alkaline chemistry through simple changes in diet can result in weight loss, increased stamina and strength, a stronger immune system and a greater sense of wellbeing.

I believe that it is not a coincidence that the numbers of cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes are rapidly growing.

It seems that they correlate precisely with the rise in consumption of acid forming foods such as sugars, trans fats, fast food, refined food and white breads and a dramatic decrease in our consumption of fresh, life giving foods such as vegetables and essential fatty acids.

Convenience or life-threatening choices?

13. Good fat is good for you!

High quality fat doesn’t make you fat.

Fat it’s essential for your body to function properly including building cells and producing key hormones.

Good sources of quality fat include:

Extra virgin olive oil
Extra virgin coconut oil/butter
Butter (raw, from organic grass fed cow’s milk)
Ghee (clarified butter)
Organic, grass-fed animal fats (lard, tallow)
Fish oil (be careful of its source)
Seeds (especially flax seeds)
Nuts (raw, organic, activated)
Avocados

Every human body works on similar mechanisms but we are NOT the same and each body has its own ways.

Factors such as environment, our genetic inheritance, our lifestyle may play a big part in whether or not certain foods are suitable for a person to include in their diet.

And remember – nothing in human body is either black or white.
There are all sorts of shades of gray which simply means our body doesn’t like extremes.

Extreme means out of balance and this is NOT what human body likes.

Remember this and stay on the right track of moderation –

you can easily turn from Healthy to Unhealthy Healthy (which I will cover in a seperate article) and ruin your health by taking healthy living into extremes.

What you can do is to understand how your own body works and support it while it’s serving you best it can or you can run a war against your body…

Choice is ALWAYS yours.
Just remember that there will be no winners in that war…

You want to be the winner in your life, don’t you?

I bet you do!
Then START to change.
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.
One step at the time.
You are a winner already, all you must do is to stay on your path.

If you have trouble with weight management then you may like to read the below article.
Make sure you also read about the weight loss basics here.

This article is meant for you
if you’re ready to start a happy (not necessarily easy) journey to a better life.
This comes through building (re-building) stronger connection with your body.

What you feed your body with matters. No doubt about that.
The stuff you consume impacts not only your weight and physical health.
It also largely influences your mental and emotional well-being.

Healthy body sustains healthy mind and vice versa.

The path to a healthy body leads through balanced diet and movement, both done mindfully and hopefully to your enjoyment.

Is balanced diet and exercise the only key to successful weight management?

Let’s take a closer look.

You know that you need to eat well and exercise so you do it as if there was no tomorrow. You have your work life, family life and other affairs to attend to and at the end of the day you feel tired but still wired.
You are stressed.
Stress is any force that puts pressure on your mind or your body and may also include positive events like a birth of your child.

Modern stress factors seem to be present in every aspect of your life.

If you don’t know how to cope with modern stress you are likely to lose the perspective and become very tired yet restless and you can’t even sleep well.
Persistent, prolonged stress is quite serious condition.

Persistent stress causes your adrenal glands to constantly produce stress hormones- adrenaline and cortisol.
If you are feeling tired but wired it probably means that your stress hormones levels had already travelled too high.
Way beyond the point your body can utilize cortisol to balance your energy levels, body weight, emotions, your thoughts and pretty much all the physiological processes in your body.

What actually happens in your body during a stress response?

During a stress response adrenaline kicks in first. Its release into the bloodstream causes reactions such as an increase in your heart rate, blood flow to your muscles and sugar metabolism.

When adrenaline levels start to drop cortisol jumps in and continues to elevate blood sugar levels so that your body has the energy to handle a stress situation.

As a response to elevated blood sugar levels your pancreas releases the insulin to break down the sugar in your bloodstream.

If your adrenal glands remain in the state of heightened alert and continue to produce adrenaline and cortisol the whole process repeats over and over again.

Your immune system becomes suppressed and the chronic inflammation runs in your body.
Your whole system gets well out of balance and after some time you may notice plenty of side effects including fat build-up around your stomach which comes coupled with fat build-up in your blood vessels.

The stress response system was designed for a human to cope with actual threat such as fighting the tiger to survive.
It was not meant to fight the tiger (or rather run away from it) 24/7.
Living 24/7 in a state of heightened stress equals continuously elevated blood sugar.
In simple words it’s too much sugar for the body to consume so it stores this energy excess as fat.

Quite often the fat build-up around waist in people who exercise is a clear sign that they overdo exercise.

If you have a trouble with weight management you need to keep in mind that excessively exercising equals exposing yourself to another form of stress overload.

Let’s look at an example.

Jess was eating pretty healthy and exercised like a madman. The fatty belly she wanted to get rid of persisted to stay around her waist. Jess was suffering from an adrenal fatigue and actually that belly was the smallest of her trouble…

Jess needed to slow down. Neither Jess wanted to slow down nor she knew how to. However, she really wanted to lose that belly. Jess is goal orientated and determined person. We made an agreement. I agreed to coach her only if she cuts back her exercise until advised.
Jess’ program didn’t start with fat loss plan. Her program started with breathwork.
Jess learned to become aware of her breath again and use range of breathing techniques to restore balance in her body.

Jess says “This slowing down thing was the greatest challenge in my life! Everything in me wanted to get up and run while I had to just sit down and pay attention to my breath!! Did I like it? Not at all! At first at least. Yeah, it took a while to bring results. But the funny thing is it worked! This stuff really worked!! And I finally lost that fatty belly without running so much” Jess laughs.

What is the recipe to recover from stress overload and learn how to manage stress in life?

Step out of your own everyday-everyweek-everyyear Matrix.
Learn how to rest and have at least a little bit of a quiet time.
Learn how to be present in whatever you are doing at the time and stop chasing the future. Future will come anyway.

What you must do is to stop running for a while to regain clarity on where are you running so fast.
What do you really want and what your goals actually are? Have they changed while you were chasing them?

There is plethora of practices that can assist you managing stress.
Yoga, meditation, Tai Chi, Qigong or just simple stretching combined with breathing (which also can be taken to a meditative state), I even use swimming meditation.
Anything that works for you to lower the stress level and restore physical nd mental health is good as long as it leads you to the inner stillness.