The Natural Weight
Loss Diet

Natural Weight Loss Through Wellness

The Natural Weight Loss Diet will help you make the changes you need to be truly healthy.

Choosing a healthy, vital diet that is as close to nature as possible is a vital step in your natural weight loss journey.

Mastering a Healthy Diet Ensures
Weight Loss Success

Decide now to avoid all the high calorie, mass produced foods that have become so widely available in our supermarkets, but provide very little health benefits.

Retrain yourself to select delicious, highly nutritious foods that provide life!

Natural Weight Loss Diet

• Avoid refined carbohydrate foods such as soft drinks (soda), cookies, cakes, chocolate, sweets and processed breakfast cereals. These sugary foods all have a high glycaemic index (GI) and play havoc with your blood sugar levels. A diet high in sugar is also linked to cancer, heart disease and diabetes

• 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 foods containing high intensity artificial sweeteners. These are commonly found in 'diet' foods. Example: aspartame (951) and sucralose.

  There is no clear-cut evidence that artificial sweeteners assist weight loss. In fact, accumulating data suggests that these chemical sweeteners may actually stimulate the 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.
  
  20 Reasons to Buy Organic Food For Health & A Healthier Planet!

• 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.

• 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: Lifestyle Guidelines

• 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 places 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 sleep a night.

• Stay hydrated by drinking 1.5 – 2 litres of filtered water daily.

• Get Moving. Perform light to moderate exercise 3-5 times a week. Regular exercise leads to body fat loss and assists blood sugar control. Exercise also improves your ability to deal with stress.

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