True Weight Loss
Begins with your Health
By Jennifer Sharpe
www. SharpeChek .com
Body weight can be embarrassing, cumbersome and down right physically exhausting. Beyond the surface, weight gain places pressure on the heart itself, decreasing oxygenated blood, making life activities - let alone exercising - physically limiting. We all know to exercise and to avoid fast foods, but what if we already are doing the obvious and still gaining weight? The body is a complex, biological system, striving for constant survival. When this tightly knitted, scientific marvel starts to fail, we are at a loss of how to bring it back to balance. Usually, the first indication of physical failure is not feeling strong, losing vitality and vigor. Then slowly we start to gain unwanted weight, which changes our physical appearance. How does happen, what do we do, and where do we start?
The body is in tune with the rising and setting of the sun. As the earth rotates so do our biological needs. We change from needing sleep to needing food which coordinates our hormones. During the early morning hours (6am), our bodies naturally secrete cortisol, providing us with energy. As the day goes on, cortisol lowers (3pm) to allow the hormone melatonin to rise, preparing us to sleep. These hormones balance out our repairing (sleep) cycle, and our times of energy (awake). In terms of your health, this hormonal cycle means that when it is night time, dark outside you need to start to wind down for sleep. Staying up late (past 10pm) will not give your body sufficient healing time, regardless if you sleep in (past 6am). A lack of sleep, or the lack of quality sleep, affects your metabolism, the rate your body makes energy from food. Weight gain is a common side affect of being out of tune with this hormonal system.
Your body is looking for nutrients, not calories - not every calorie is the same. Just giving yourself a meal does not mean your body is able to metabolize (break food down into energy). Each of us require a specific ratio between the amount of proteins (i.e. meats), fats (i.e. oils) and carbohydrates (i.e. fruits and veggies) we ingest. These specific macronutrient demands are very unique to you. Just as one meal filled with loads of vegetables and little fat will give someone lasting energy, this same combination could exhaust another. These ratios are based on your physical heritage called metabolic typing. There are basically 3 metabolic types: Protein Types, Carbohydrate Types, and Mixed Types (a balance between protein and carbohydrate). Protein types find consuming dark chicken meat and gravy with butter gives them the energy they crave. Carbohydrate types find that a salad with white chicken meat satisfies them. While the mixed type needs their plates balanced with veggies/protein, and a little added fat like olive oil for salad dressing. Knowing and eating according to your body’s biochemical makeup keeps you fueled. Eating outside of what fuels you simply puts unnecessary weight on.
What if I am eating properly but I am still experiencing health issues and gaining weight? This can be due to food intolerances, an issue very different from food allergies (an immediate action that requires medical care). Food intolerance can be to any food, whether it is regarded as a healthy food or not. Food intolerance can be hard to detect, with symptoms showing up to 11 days after consumption. As you introduce a food into your system, if you do not have the enzymes (a unique protein carrying out specific chemical reactions) to break that food down then, you will be intolerant to that food. Early detection symptoms can include dizziness, feeling tired, blurred vision, headaches and mood swings after consumption. When we unknowingly ignore these early symptoms we can begin having symptoms like exhaustion, inflammation and puffiness of all kinds (just look at someone’s face), irritability/mood swings, headaches, asthma, IBS, acid reflux, and weight gain - the metabolism is disrupted. The usual culprits are gluten, corn, sugar, caffeine, alcohol, fruit juices, dairy and soy. With regular intake of the food you are intolerant to, you will find that you ‘crave’ these very foods, as the body prepares to fight off these daily invasions with the release of antibodies. Over time the liver becomes backed up releasing toxins into circulation compromising our system as a whole, aging you. Those who are overweight most likely have food intolerances.
To detect possible intolerances do a food/mood log. Log everything you drink and eat up to 4 weeks, along with notes about your moods and weight fluctuations. Look for consistencies between your symptoms and what you are consuming, then slowly eliminate possible foods and repeat your food/mood/weight log, watching for any possible correlation. In the past companies that detect food intolerances have been found not be accurate in their findings.
Cravings anyone? We have all been there. Cravings are caused by the brain’s requests for nutrients. The brain requires nutrients in the form of amino acids (proteins) derived from foods. When certain amino acids are low, the brain sends out signals which the body reads as cravings. These are distorted signals which can make us crave anything from junk food to drugs. Depression, irritability, anxiety and fear can all be amino acids deficiencies. When the brain is unable to get amino acids through food, inherited deficiencies, stress, or an improper diet, then supplements are the answer. For sugar cravings try L-glutamine. Keep in mind, cravings for alcohol in any form should be consider sugar cravings. Take 500mg 3-4 times daily, or open up a 250mg capsule and empty the powder under the tongue. For caffeine addictions try taking DLPA 3 times daily- in the morning, mid-midmorning between breakfast and lunch, and the in the afternoon.
When we are out of tune with eating conscientiously, have a lack of daily exercise, and an abundance of stress, we lose vitality. We lose a part of ourselves and we let go what is important - you. Start by eating slower and experience how your food tastes. When you go food shopping, consider if the foods you are choosing are going to give you energy. Or is this meal going to make you tired and sick? Put your time, money and energy into your health. JS
