My Struggles With Weight Loss and how I turned it Around
Hey Friends! Many of you may not know something about me.
I struggled with losing weight.
I wanted to share my story with you, how I turned this around and how this journey led me to helping others lose weight as well.
You can read more here :)
After having my second son, despite eating well and exercising, I could NOT lose weight. I was doing everything right. Everything I learned about in my nutrition training and more!
Not only could I not lose weight, but the scale started to creep up every year until I was 20 lbs over my ideal body weight.
At times, I would lose a pound or 2 and then gain it back plus some! Sound familiar?
I was so frustrated, didn't feel good in my own skin and my self esteem was plummeting.
Additionally, I found that I had Hashimoto's Disease after running blood chemistry labs on myself and discovering I had Thyroid Antibodies. Hashimoto's is an Autoimmune Thyroid condition which slows down your metabolism and causes weight gain. So this made sense that I was gaining weight.
Some might think weight gain is expected after having children and with getting older but I did not want to settle, accept this as my destiny and potentially continue to gain more weight. I wanted to get to the root of my weight gain and ultimately improve my health.
This is where the magic happened!
From my education, I knew that Inflammation and Toxicity were at the root of weight gain.
Inflammation + Toxicity = WEIGHT GAIN
The body stores toxins in Fat Cells. So, the more toxins we have been or are currently exposed to, results in a greater number of fat cells, hence weight gain.
You might be thinking that you are not exposed to toxins that you are aware of.
Well, here is the SAD truth. We are ALL bombarded by environmental toxins through our food, air and water, known as Exogenous toxins.
Additionally, our body produces its' own toxins, know as Endogenous toxins. The more inflamed and toxic we are, the more endotoxins our body creates.
Our body has to work very hard to remove/excrete all these toxins and it needs a lot of nutrients to make this system work effectively (i.e. amino acids, b vitamins, sulfur, antioxidants). The more toxins our body has to process, the more nutrients we need, which can cause nutrient depletion/deficiencies. This will result in more inflammation and toxic burden.
We excrete toxins out of our urine, bowels and sweat through our major detox organs (Liver, Kidneys, Lungs, Colon and Skin) but if our body gets overburdened with processing toxins, it will store them in our fat cells.
Not enough fat cells, not a problem. Your body will create more.
And over time....we gain weight.
So you may be thinking, why do some people not have this problem and are skinny people toxic?
Some people are better at removing toxins from their bodies due to other variables (i.e. genetic factors, lifestyle factors).
Toxins also get stored in fatty organs like the brain and liver, so one may have different symptoms other than weight gain (i.e. fatigue and brain fog)
So what do we do about all this?
There are some important steps we can take to reverse this and turn this around.
First thing is:
We NEED to REDUCE exposure to toxins that we get through what we eat, drink, put on our skin and breath in through the air.
No I don't mean you have to live in a bubble ;)
Here are some simple steps to reduce inflammation and toxic load:
Eat organic when possible.
If can't eat organic meat, chose a lean meat (avoid fatty meats) Remember, this is where toxins are stored.
If can't eat organic vegetables, avoid The Dirty Dozen. See list here....https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/dirty_dozen_list.php
Avoid GMO foods. GMO foods are heavily sprayed with pesticides, cause inflammation and are linked with many healthy conditions http://www.foodmatters.com/article/10-most-common-gmo-foods
Avoid Processed Foods
Focus on eating REAL foods like vegetables, fruit, nuts/seeds, healthy fats (avocado, coconut, olive oil), pastured eggs, humanely treated/pastured/organic meats and wild, low mercury fish.
Drink plenty of filtered water daily, which flushes out water soluble toxins. It's ideal to drink 1/2 your body weight in ounces of water daily.
Eat the colors of the rainbow. Eating a variety of vegetables will help support elimination of toxins.
Use natural cleaning and health care products. -Avoid artificial fragrances and perfumes which disrupt hormones, cause weight gain and are linked with many health conditions. Check out this link to find safe products. http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/
Get 8-9 hours of sleep nightly. During sleep, our body is working to detoxify our body, decrease inflammation and balance our hormones. Poor sleep will result in hormonal imbalance and weight gain.
This is a GREAT starting place.
However, if you need additional support in getting starting with weight loss and want to achieve fast, safe and sustainable results, I have developed a unique and highly effective system so you can start feeling and looking your best.
Whether you have 5, 10, 20, 50 or more pounds to lose, this program will work for you!
This Unique System helped me FINALLY achieve my weight loss goals without starvation and calorie restriction with a focus on REAL, WHOLE FOODS.
Call me to learn more or to book your COMPLIMENTARY 30 minute consultation.
516-972-0359
To your health,
Tina x