We are continuing our discussion about how meaningful eating can produce a healthy body detox and create weight loss. If you are like most people, you have done that “diet” thing a time or two only to have the weight, disease, and guilt return again. When the mindful eating pattern of the “diet” ceases, so do the benefits. Why do we struggle so much to keep doing the things that we know are beneficial? Meaningful and sustained weight loss requires mental vigilance, short term and long term goals, and accountability. Without these the gravitational force of our society’s bad habits will drag us back to our original state of disease or worse.
The Bad Habits That Keep Us Fat:
1. We eat too fast.
Eating too fast is extremely common and an obvious promoter of weight gain. Think about how many times we eat a meal on the run in an airport, in the car, at work, and even at our own table. Eating too fast does not allow for the satiation hormones to have time to be released resulting in more calories consumed compared to a meal eaten slowly. The speed of which we eat also affects blood glucose levels, cholesterol, and other markers of inflammation. Eating slower may be the easiest good habit to adopt!
2. We hold on to our food baggage.
We all are instinctually driven to gain weight and crave the foods that help us store fat. We all have this instinct to self-preserve and overeating is one way to do that. Our desire to hold onto those foods that help us gain weight and therefore preserve our caloric lifeboat can be very strong. Overcoming this instinct with enough will power and mindfulness to take charge and rid our cabinets, fridge, and freezers of all of the pro-inflammatory and fast weight gaining foods should be a priority for anyone looking for long term weight loss. I have personally seen the resistance to this when we have taught our LivFit classes in the past. However, those that showed the resolve to purge their hiding places of these foods and commit to only storing anti-inflammatory foods were always the most successful in achieving their health goals.
3. We refuse to deal with our stressors.
When we are stressed, a hormone called ghrelin is released from the stomach and pancreas. It quickly reaches the brain where it stimulates the hypothalamus to increase the desire to eat foods that bring us comfort and large amounts of calories. These foods that are often high in sugar, flour, and bad fats, are easily available to us and can easily provide the brain with the fix that it needs to deal with the outside stress. Therefore, ghrelin acts like an antidepressant helping to reduce depression and despair. Unfortunately, this only helps to reinforce the habit of overeating inflammatory foods.
Expecting to live in a completely stress-free environment is not realistic. However, expecting to be able to lose weight and keep that weight off while living in a stressful environment is not realistic either. Pausing the weight loss journey to give yourself the energy and the margin to place yourself in a less stressful environment might be the key step to making your health improvements permanent.
4. We remain resistant to exercise.
Exercise can unravel the binding ropes that stress entangles us with. Instead of turning to the pro-inflammatory foods like a drug to give us a temporary good feeling, why not use exercise? Exercise will deliver an immediate reward or pleasure response as well! It will promote a feeling of well-being, suppress your appetite, work as an antidepressant, decrease stress and anxiety, and can decrease inflammation. There is a level of exertion needed to stimulate these feelings that can vary from person to person. Look at high intensity interval training to be the best form of exercise to reduce fat and produce a sense of calmness when stressed.
5. We don’t sleep
A lack of adequate sleep promotes inflammation, body aches, insulin resistance, increases appetite, reduces fat burning, and promotes depression. How much sleep do you need? That does vary from person to person but a regular sleep pattern of 6-9 hours has been shown to be ideal. Those who get less than 6 hours of sleep are not as likely to want to exercise, eat anti-inflammatory foods, and are more sedentary. Working to improve your sleep patterns is a strong first step in losing weight and keeping it off.
Small steps to better sleep:
- A dark room
- Room temp 63-70 degrees.
- Sleep masks, ear plugs, or sound machines
- Consistent bedtimes and pre-sleep routines
- Light reading of a book before bed, do not use a phone or other electronic devices.
6. We promote unhealthy gut bacteria.
Eating sugar, flour, and refined oils will cause a shift in the gut bacteria population that promotes inflammation and weight gain. What we feed our gut bacteria has a massive effect on body metabolism and body inflammation levels. There are more bacteria cells living in our gut than there are cells in our entire body. Therefore, a small shift to foods high in sugar and flour can drastically shift the overall bacterial balance inside of our gut towards bacteria that are particularly good at promoting weight gain. To avoid feeding these fat promoting bacterial strains, try to reduce sugar and flour while increasing colorful vegetables and fruits. The color is important because the polyphenols that give vegetables their deep hues also inhibit the growth of the unhealthy gut bacteria. Who knew that increasing vegetables in your diet would help you lose weight?
7. We fail to plan.
Our fast paced society and lives frequently prevents us from looking much past our present needs. This can lead us to making desperate choices for meals that fit into the small amount of time that we have available. Unfortunately, most if not all of these meal choices will be of the pro-inflammatory nature as there are few anti-inflammatory meals that don’t require some planning and time to prepare. Meal planning is a helpful place to start your detox plan because you are being intentional with what you are putting back into your body. I would suggest beginning your meal planning by writing down a list of 30 meal ideas. Keep this list on your fridge for reference each week. Then look at your calendar of weekly activities and pencil in the meals that fit your predicted time and energy for that day. Finally, shop ahead of time according to what you need to fulfill your meal plan. When you have a few extra minutes try making an extra meal or two to have ready and prepped for the days to come. Planning for the busy and stressful days ahead of time greatly reduces the likelihood of you slipping back into a bad eating habit.
8. We don’t keep ourselves accountable.
Failure to keep oneself accountable may be the most common reason we backslide back to a life of poor eating habits, weight gain, and disease. To start, keep a diary of what you’re eating, how much you eat, and how you feel afterward. There are many ways that you can do this. There are many great apps for your phone that allow you to track your daily food intake and journal how things are improving. Many patients prefer just to write it down in a journal with a pen. It doesn’t need to be a new obsession, just take notes when you think of it. It will reinforce new conscious choices and help build long-lasting health. An easy test of whether or not your food choice is wise or not is to ask yourself if I want to write it down. If you hesitate to record what you are going to eat, you might just want to wait and see if that craving changes. Self-accountability is the only way to permanently make a new health choice become a habit.
9. We don’t fight inflammation
Inflammation is one thing that can wreck your body’s ability to lose weight. It can also cause disease and even many forms of cancer. A proper diet, low stress lifestyle, and proper sleep patterns greatly reduce levels of systemic inflammation and promote weight loss. However, if you are looking to increase your inflammation fighting capabilities you may find the spice Turmeric/Curcumin and the health fats found in fish or flax oil to be helpful.
Turmeric/Curcumin comes from a plant in the ginger family, is native to Southeast Asia and is grown commercially in that region, primarily in India. Its rhizome (underground stem=Turmeric) and its leaves (Curcumin) are used as a culinary spice and traditional medicine. Fish and flax oils contain Omega-3 oils that have been shown to reduce inflammation for over 20 years. These oils have also been used to help improve cardiovascular health and reduce arthritic pain.
Healthy living is not something that just comes easily. If you know of a friend or family member that has been lean and healthy for years you probably know that they have to work at it. At [Core] it is our mission to partner along the side of you during this work and provide you with any support that we can. It is our goal to see you become healthier than you have ever been!
Daryl C. Rich, D.C., C.S.C.S.
