What to remove from your meals
Weight Loss from a Physical, Relational & Emotional Lens
Weight loss or healthy weight management can be complicated and a uniquely individual process for each person.
Eating a diet that is packed with nutrients will help your body transform.
Every bite you take is an opportunity to heal or hurt.
Take a moment to listen before you eat and afterwards.
What kind of foods does your body need today?
Begin incorporating some suggestions below one at a time as you learn.
There will be times you will stray from this when going to a party, eating out, or going on vacation, but this is the plan we go back to over and over again to reclaim our health.
1. Remove all processed fats and oils – margarine, canola, soybean oil, safflower, sunflower, palm oil, hydrogenated oils, bottled salad dressings and sauces.
These create more inflammation and pain in your body and add empty calories with no health benefit.
2. Alcohol – blocks glucose production and can cause a severe drop in blood sugar. Alcohol causes toxic byproducts to be formed in the liver which causes fat to accumulate in the liver and damage it’s function.
This promotes insulin resistance which is the reason for weight gain. Removing dietary toxins helps the liver heal and restores health.
3. Remove added sugars and artificial sweeteners – they stimulate insulin and cause your liver to make fat.
4. For added weight loss – consider removing flour products from your diet (crackers, cereal, pasta, breads). Or limit to 1 small serving per day of only 100% whole grain food.
Other suggestions for Weight Loss:
Start every day with 16-24 (2-3 cups) oz water first thing in the morning before anything else is consumed. Warm the water up a bit to be gentler on the digestive system. 15 minutes after this have 2 cups of green tea and then have breakfast when you are hungry.
Eat 3 meals a day and try to lengthen the time between meals to 3-4 hours. Use good judgement about your energy needs when in high exercise or activity. Work up to this slowly if you are used to eating more frequently. Be sure you are eating enough protein and fiber with meals to sustain blood glucose longer.
Learn to rely on other ways to calm yourself, energize yourself, focus, or distract. Using food for these reasons are habits to change.
Limit snacking. Avoid grazing, sucking on candy, chewing gum, sipping sweet beverages. These activities stimulate insulin production and prevent you from burning off fat.
Get rid of the plastic! Plastics contain chemicals that act like estrogen, a hormone that promotes fat storage. To get these chemicals out of your body, eliminate the plastic water bottles (use glass or stainless steel), plastic bags, plastic wrap, foods in plastic, lunch containers (don’t ever microwave your food in plastic), storage containers for liquid foods.
Environmental Working Group Health publishes consumer guides on a variety of topics for healthy living: Water; cosmetics, pesticides in produce, meat, household cleaners, seafood, cell phone use, GMOs, endocrine disruptors, children’s cereals, bug repellants. Go through each of these to learn how to make better buying decisions for your health and your family.
Checklist:
[] Clean out your pantry; Remove key trigger foods from diet to begin a 30-day food exploration: remove processed oils, commercial salad dressings, packaged snacks, bars, flour products, alcohol, candy, soda, flavored coffee beverages and such, dairy, chocolate, and other trigger foods.
[] Extend non-food periods between meals. Limit or avoid gum, candy, sweetened beverages, snacks. Drink plenty of water, unsweetened tea or herbal tea, sparkling water, lemon water. Limit coffee to 1 cup. Eliminate it if you have strong cravings for sweets.
[] Go through your bathroom, laundry and kitchen and identify and eliminate sources of obesogenic toxins. Visit the EWG website to learn more about what to look for in your home.
[] Increase green foods and vegetable intake 3x day – green tea, green powder, green juice, green vegetables