Don’t Fall into the Trap of Dieting with “Diet Foods”

diet cycleAre you in a continual battle with your weight? If so, you need a firm and proper game plan. You must be prepared to battle beliefs and habits that formed a long time ago and continue to lead you down “repeat road”. You must be prepared for battle if you want to win the war.

Unfortunately once fat has gained its position on our bodies it’s not likely to let go easily…fat loss is not something that happens just “by chance” and if you are out to win the battle against this villain the better prepared you are the better your results will be. [Read more…]

Treat Yourself to Raw Desserts and Treats and Eliminate the Guilt Forever!

apple pieEating fresh is finally becoming a mainstream diet. More and more people are waking to the fact that their bodies, minds and habits are all part of the same scene that is out-picturing in their lives and that in order to display perfect health and vitality each area needs to be balanced and healthy.

Eating raw is the answer. The more of your diet that begins and ends using raw ingredients the more nutrition you are squeezing into each bite you take.

Switching to eating fresh/raw during our regular meals such as breakfast, lunch or dinner is hard enough and a challenge on its own, but is there a way to eat fresh when we’re in the mood for a sweet snack or when enjoying dessert? [Read more…]

Inflammation the Silent Health Thief

inflammation1Losing weight is never picnic. I mean who do you know that says “I love to diet” ?

We all are aware that having lots of excess body fat is not a good thing for our health…but how many people understand that this fat actually produces a chronic stat of low-grade inflammation, making losing weight harder than ever. Losing weight is easier when inflammation is reduced.

This state of inflammation ends up fighting our natural hormonal responses to hunger and food. This damages our delicate appetite regulation hormones and they no longer work properly. The result of this is intensively strong food cravings which are near impossible to ignore. [Read more…]

Understanding Ghrelin…an Appetite Hormone

ghrelinHormones are the chemical messengers that give instructions to cells, tissues, and organs. When a message needs delivering to a certain body part, hormones are secreted into the bloodstreams where they are transported to the to the specific hormone’s receptors wherever they may be situated.

Researchers have recently discovered a hormone called ghrelin that kicks our appetite into top gear when out tummies are empty. Ghrelin prompts us to eat and it is believed that ghrelin is one of the means used by the body to protect is body fat stores when it senses a food shortage.

When hormones arrive at their destination they ‘fit’ into the receptor just like a key in a lock. A specific chain of events is triggered by the hormone as it does is job and in the case of hunger hormones an empty stomach leads you to feeling hungry and needing to eat. This is one of the roles that ghrelin plays as a messenger that moves directly from the stomach to the brain. [Read more…]

The Importance of Dietary Fats

good fatsMany people believe that cutting dietary fats is the route to go in order to stay lean. However, this is not quite an accurate picture and despite what you’ve been told, fat isn’t always the bad guy when it comes to waistline wars.

Truth is, dietary fats are also extremely important for success. When you go about your day to day activities, you can easily utilize dietary fat as a fuel source and in fact, this is actually preferable because then you will be sparing your glucose stores.

Futhermore, dietary fats have absolutely no influence on blood glucose levels so they’ll help to keep your energy level very stable over time. Combined with a good source of protein and your energy level will stay consistent for hours at a stretch.

[Read more…]

Eating Clean; A New Way of Thinking about Food

reboundfreeweightlossEating clean is a new way of thinking about food that results in treating your body right. It is a simple but back to basics approach to nutrition…consuming food in its most natural state or as close to it as possible. This type approach also shifts your mindset from eating simply to satisfy cravings to eating to nourish.

This new concept is growing quickly in popularity because it is not a fad diet nor is it a gimmick. It is beyond these; it is a lifestyle approach to food and its preparation that leads to health, well-being and a slim, trim, lean body.

A clean diet is a simple diet; one rich in vegetables, fruits, whole grains and proteins. It limits the intake of sugars, preservatives, artificial colors, flavors and unhealthy food preparation as well as avoiding or eliminating heavily processed foods and other “junk” food from your diet. [Read more…]

The Role of Insulin in Fat Storage

insulinThere are numerous hormones in the body that are going to impact how you feel and function on a day to day basis. In order to best be able to see successful weight loss and function, you need to learn how to optimize these hormones so that they are working for you rather than against you.

The first hormone you must know about is insulin. Insulin is released from the pancreas whenever you consume carbohydrate rich foods. Its primary job is to enter the blood stream taking up all the excess glucose that’s present and moving it into the tissue cells unless it is utilized immediately as a fuel source. [Read more…]

Stress Can Cause Weight Gain

rebound weight lossInsulin and leptin are two important hormones that you must pay attention to if you are to free yourself from the “weight rebound” cycle.

Cortisol is the other hormone that you need to make yourself very aware of as it plays a key role in your progress that you will notice.

Corisol is the stress hormone and is associated with the “fight or flight” response which basically causes a large amount of glucose/energy to be pumped into the blood stream in case you need it for survival.

All this energy was, for very obvious reasons very important back in ancient time when humans encountered wild animals and would need to run very fast and far towards safety; a very a stressful situation at best.

For the most part in modern society we just don’t encounter those types of situations anymore and we’re much more likely to be sitting at a desk when stress comes knocking. You simply don’t need the same dose of energy to make it through.

This means that this large amount of sugar sits in the blood temporarily before it’s taken up by a flood of insulin that comes to the rescue.

But guess what? Where do you think that insulin is going to hide this excess sugar? In your body fat stores...those will be the primary targets.

The more cortisol you have in your body, the more chances you have of gaining excess body fat. Not your goal for sure. And, to make matters even worse, the place you are most likely to gain body fat when cortisol is at work is the belly fat region.

If getting a lean midsection is part of your plan, the number one thing you need to be doing is to make sure that you are controlling your stress levels so that cortisol does not enter the picture nearly as often.

Many people react to stress and the production of cortisol by eating more foods that are higher in carbohydrates. This will definitely lead to weight gain.

Many things will impact the release of cortisol but stress (emotional, mental or physical), lack of sleep and a very low calorie diet are the big ones that I am aware of. Another reason to gain control over this hormone is that it will make you feel generally run-down, weak and tired. You must work to eliminate it as much as possible from the picture.

With our modern lifestyles, many of us face chronic stress as a way of life…which means we have elevated levels of cortisol. When the levels of cortisol are high the body thinks it needs extra fuel and unfortunately that storage happens around the middle…in the abdomen, often referred to as the “spare tire”.

With the proper diet set-up, you can easily control all three of the hormones (leptin, insulin and cortisol) that play a role in weight loss so that they don’t become a problem that they otherwise would. Setting yourself back significantly in your results is not going to help how you feel as you go about that diet plan in the first place.

Do you struggle to keep weight off after you’ve worked so hard to take it off? It does not have to be that way…you just need to be educated. Learn what it really takes to win the weight loss battle once and for all…

“Rebound Free Weight Loss” your ticket to the body you’ve always dreamed of.

Mitochondria the Power Station of the Cell

mitochondria the little beanInside each cell is a structure known as mitochondria which means “little bean”. It is appropriately named because that is exactly what they look like, tiny bean shaped energy factories inside every one of the body’s cells converting the food we eat into energy. When the food we consume is combined with oxygen this fuel mixture is used to run every system and process in our body.

Since fat is part of the food that they convert, our mitochondria need tip-top “fitness” working fast and efficiently if we are going to burn off excess body fat A single cell may have anywhere from 200-2000 or more mitochondria.

The hardest working cells such as those in the heart, liver or muscles contain the greatest number. Without these little powerhouses doing their job, you would not be able to breathe much less walk out your front door.

Simply put they are responsible for keeping you alive…a pretty important job! [Read more…]

Evil Trans Fats

french friesEvidence of the close link between the quality of the food we eat and our personal health and disease is becoming clearer. Preventing disease is not just about eating less or even losing weight. It is about making better choices in our food selections.

Our diets need to be cleaner. They should include proteins, grass fed meats, free range poultry and eggs, ocean fish, vegetables, fruits and whole grains. We should avoid sugars, unhealthy fats, preservatives, artificial colors, flavors, chemicals and unhealthy food preparation. Any heavily processed food or “junk” foods should also be eliminated from our diet. [Read more…]