The Natural Weight
Loss Diet
Natural Weight Loss Through WellnessBy Louise O'Connor
Naturopath & Wellness Coach
Start changing your life TODAY! My Natural Weight Loss guidelines will help you make the changes you need to be truly healthy. Mastering a Healthy Diet Ensures
Weight Loss SuccessHealth experts agree that our modern food supply simply does not provide the level of nutrition your body craves. Attempting to get good nutrition from the mass produced, dead foods found in supermarkets is ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE. It's time to get real about losing weight...choosing a nutritious, vital diet that is as close to nature as possible is a critical step in your natural weight loss journey. Decide now to avoid all the high calorie, junk food that has become so widely available, but provide zero health benefits. Choose foods that provide life!
Natural Weight Loss Diet- Avoid sugary foods. The worst offenders are soft drinks (soda), cookies, cakes, chocolate, sweets and processed breakfast cereals. To put it simply, sugar makes you fat.
The way your body feels after a healthy meal will become more important to you than the instant pleasure of having something loaded with sugar. - Kicking the soft drink habit is a critical step to achieving lasting weight loss. And shifting to 'diet' soft drinks isn’t enough. Avoiding the refined sugars found in regular soft drinks by turning to diet soft drinks simply trades one metabolic disruptor ingredient for another.
- Avoid foods that contain sugar compounds such as high-fructose corn syrup, sorbitol, fructose, mannitol, maltitol, isomalt & glycerol.
High fructose corn syrup is believed to interfere with messages to the brain that signal satiety, which can lead to over eating. This sugar compound also decreases the effectiveness of insulin, setting you up for problems with blood sugar control. - Avoid artficial flavours, colours, preservatives and chemical sweeteners. It is critical to stop poisoning your body with toxic food ingredients. Artificial sweeteners are loaded in 'diet' foods. Example: aspartame (951) and sucralose.
There is clear-cut evidence that artificial sweeteners do not assist weight loss. In fact, these dangerous chemical sweeteners can actually stimulate your appetite. - Increase the consumption of fruit, vegetables and salad greens. Ideally you should consume 2 serves of fruit and 5 serves of vegetables daily.
- Choose organic fruit & vegetables if possible. Certified organic foods are grown and processed without the use of synthetic chemicals, fertilisers or genetic modification. This will reduce your exposure to toxins that interfere with metabolic function. Your everyday purchasing decisions can also lead to a safer, greener and more equitable world.
- Choose wholegrain foods, containing all parts of the grain. These foods provide energy over time and are naturally high in fibre.
Good examples include: oats, corn, rice, wheat, barley, rye, triticale and millet. Limit processed grain based foods such as: boxed breakfast cereals, white bread and pasta. Choose wholegrain alternatives such as; muesli, porridge, steamed rice, wholegrain pasta and wholegrain breads, including spelt & rye. Note: Fibre is abundant in fruit, vegetables and wholegrains. Fibre contributes to improved blood sugar control and healthy bowel function. - Protein foods such as fresh fish, lean red meat, organic chicken, organic eggs or secondary protein such as whole grains and legumes should be eaten twice a day to stabilise blood sugar levels.
- Fish is an ideal protein source as it does not contain saturated fat. Eat local, fresh fish 2-3 times a week if you are not a vegetarian.
- Increase the essential good fats in your diet. Cold water fish, organic eggs, avocados, extra virgin olive oil, macadamia nut oil and raw nuts & seeds are rich in essential fatty acids.
- Limit the intake of saturated fats that are found in red meat, chicken, deli meats and dairy foods. It is recommended that you eat small amounts of organic dairy foods and lean, organic red meat. Skip chicken and processed meats.
- Are you ready to get the junk out of your body? Stop buying meals from fast food outlets. These foods are packed with calories, salt, sugar and other harmful food compounds.
- Avoid trans fats found in margarine, TV dinners, bakery foods, commercially prepared snack foods and deep fried food. These very unhealthy fats are formed when liquid vegetable oils are partially hydrogenated or ‘hardened’ for use in spreads such as margarine, cooking fats for deep frying and shortening for baking . Some trans fats are formed during high temperature cooking. Trans fats are also found naturally in meat and milk.
- Avoid Salt. Resist sprinkling salt over your food or using salt while preparing meals. Select salt free foods or 'low sodium' foods if possible. Since most salt comes from processed foods it is not hard to avoid a lot of salt in your diet.
- Ensure you eat regularly and choose healthy snacks mid morning and mid afternoon to balance your blood sugar levels throughout the day.
Fruit, nuts, seeds, natural yoghurt, fresh juices or smoothies are healthy snacks.
Natural Weight Loss Diet: Top Seven Lifestyle Tips- Quit smoking. Cigarettes contain toxic chemicals that damage your health. Smoking also increases abdominal weight gain and raises blood sugar levels by stimulating your stress response.
- Avoid alcohol. Alcohol is high in calories and has no nutritional value. Plus it places enormous stress on your liver and other vital organs.
- Cut Caffeine. Caffeine is a nervous system stimulant, so it does have the ability to make you feel more alert and energetic in the short term. But over time this leads to elevated levels of cortisol during the day. Caffeine also tends to make you eat more frequently.
- Manage Stress. Stress initiates the release of cortisol, making it difficult to lose weight.
- Sleep Well. Inadequate sleep promotes disease and premature ageing. It also disrupts your hormone balance making it harder to lose weight. Ideally you should be getting 8 hours of quality restorative sleep a night. If sleep is a problem consider taking a Valerian supplement or low dose Melatonin.
- Stay hydrated by drinking 1.5 – 2 litres of filtered water daily. Avoid chlorine and fluoride contaminants commonly found in urban water supplies.
- Get Moving. Perform light to moderate exercise 3-5 times a week. Regular exercise leads to body fat loss and assists blood sugar control. Physical activity also improves your ability to deal with stress.
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