Weight Loss - 4 Pillars - The Herbs Place
The Four Pillars of Sound Weight Management
Do you find yourself wondering where fiction ends and fact begins when it comes to shedding unwanted pounds? The truth is, there are no miracles or shortcuts to losing weight. However, one thing is certain: DIETING for permanent weight loss doesn’t work for most people.
Step one in your approach to weight management should be to eliminate the word “diet” from your vocabulary. Instead, focus on adopting the eating habits and lifestyle habits described in this Four Pillars of Sound Weight Management program.
The following information is designed to help you develop a sound approach to nutrition for weight loss.
The Whole Foods Diet
When Dr. Dean Ornish, author of “Eat More, Weigh Less” developed a dietary program for his heart patients that focused on legumes, whole grains, fruits and vegetables, many experienced a happy, unexpected side-effect: extra pounds melted off.
What was it about the Ornish diet that facilitated weight loss? The answer flies in the face of conventional wisdom. The experience of Ornish’s patients, and many others, has proved that more important than the amount of calories we eat are the types of foods we eat.
The fact is, people who struggle with excess weight often consume fewer calories than thinner people. Because in the long run calorie counting may lower the body’s metabolism, focusing on calorie restriction can actually work against weight loss.
We used to believe that the body didn’t distinguish one type of calorie from another – that it used all types of calories in the same way. This belief has been proven false. What we know now is the body has a hard time storing carbohydrates as fat, whereas dietary fats are much harder for the body to use as energy. Complex carbohydrates (whole grains, fruits, vegetables) actually promote thermogenesis, whereas dietary fats slow metabolism. In a nutshell, fats and highly processed foods are more likely to make us fat.
To illustrate this point, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago put 18 sedentary women whose diet was approximately 37 percent fat on a diet that was 20 percent fat. Even though the women consumed more calories on the new diet, they lost four to five pounds each over 20 weeks.
A sensible diet, enhanced by Nature’s Sunshine Super Supplemental Vitamins and Minerals, will provide a sound nutritional foundation to your weight loss program.
General dietary suggestions, patterned after those used by Dr. Ornish and other similar programs, follow:
Eat in moderation:
Nonfat yogurt, cheese, mayonnaise or sour Cream
Low-fat frozen dinners
Egg whites
Avoid meat; if you feel you must have meat eat poultry or fish
Avoid oils, butter & margarine
Drink at least 64 ounces of pure water daily
Eat all you want, until full:
Legumes (beans, lentils, etc.)
Fruits
Whole grains (wheat, barley, corn, brown rice, oats, millet)
Vegetables
Why it Works
Unprocessed foods contain the nutrients and fiber necessary to fill us up. They’re lower in calories than processed foods so you can actually eat a lot more without the weight gain associated with junk foods. For instance: You can eat a pound and a half of vegetables for the caloric equivalent in every ounce of fat. That’s a lot of vegetables!
You can have about 5 ounces of fruit for every ounce of sugar.
A link to successful nutritional dietary balance
IMPROPER DIGESTION – This is the biggest cause of food cravings. If you don’t digest and assimilate your foods, your body won’t get the nutrition provided, so it will continue to send hunger signals to the brain. Food Enzymes Digestive Aid helps to digest and assimilate foods and supplements that you consume so your nutrition goes to the cellular level.
CARBOHYDRATES – If you crave sweets often you are not correctly breaking down the carbohydrates you are consuming. For example, if you only break down 20% of the carbohydrates that you consume you may find yourself eating 5 times the normal amount of carbohydrates to feel satisfied. Also, it is a proven fact that when we are under stress we burn carbohydrates. Consequently, we want to eat a lot of carbohydrates to replace the ones we are burning up. This explains why stress will often cause us to crave junk foods which are mostly carbohydrates. You may also be symbolically looking for “sweet” in your life. Chromium is an excellent mineral to help with sugar cravings. Although chromium picolinate has had some bad publicity with research showing it can cause chromosome damage, the mineral itself is not the problem. It is the “picolinate” which is bonded to the mineral. GTF Chromiumis a trace mineral that plays a role in regulating blood sugar levels. Each “glucose tolerance factor (GTF)” molecule, a hormonelike compound, requires chromium as its central atom. GTF works with insulin to transport glucose from the blood into the cells. When this function is not working properly, the cells resist insulin and do not properly absorb the glucose needed for energy. The liver also needs chromium to manufacture fatty acids, lecithin, cholesterol and lipoproteins. Without chromium, blood fats tend to rise because the liver cannot filter them out. Processing destroys much of the chromium content in foods.
FATS – If you are craving fats you probably aren’t breaking them down enough to satisfy your body’s need for them at a cellular level. This is related to the liver’s ability to secrete bile to break down the fats properly. LIV-J is a good combination of herbs that enhances the liver’s ability to break down the fats properly.
DAIRY – A craving for dairy usually indicates a lack of minerals. Taking a Calcium-Magnesium supplement often lessens the craving for dairy products. It is a proven fact that we need hydrochloric acid to break down the minerals to utilize them. If you do not get benefit from the minerals, consider your digestion.
SALTY – Salt cravings can be related to not having enough energy or not tasting foods properly. Consider adding natural energy with a formula like Energ-V . A zinc deficiency can cause lack of taste and smell and body/foot odor. Supplementation can eliminate those problems so you won’t use salt just to taste your food.
Pillar #2: Exercise And one, and two and three and four! Raise your arms, then touch the floor!
If just thinking about exercise wears you out, you’re not alone. Studies show that millions of Americans – most, in fact – don’t get regular exercise.
We all know exercise is vital to weight loss. In fact, it’s been recognized that one reason obesity is a problem in America is because of the sedentary lifestyles many of us lead. For some of us, about the only exercise we get is walking to the car between home and work. Studies show that we actually consume fewer calories than we did 10 years ago; we’re simply becoming more sedentary, making the weight harder to keep off.
Keys to Success
The key to a successful exercise routine is to do something that fits in naturally with your lifestyle. Walking can be as effective a weight-control measure as more strenuous exercise if you do it regularly. The key is consistency.
A common tendency is for people to become over-enthusiastic in the early stages of a weight-loss program. The desire to lose weight quickly is so strong that a person might exercise for an hour twice a day for the first two or three days, only to give up on the fourth.
This approach to exercise is like the hare of the famed “Tortoise and the Hare” fable. By trying to win the weight-loss race all at once, many wear out before they reach their goal. The tortoise approach is much more sound. “Slow and steady wins the race,” so the moral goes.
In order for weight loss to be permanent, activity needs to become a way of life. There are probably activities that you enjoy doing, that are also exercise. You just don’t think of them as exercise, because you enjoy them! For instance, playing ball with one of your kids or grandkids, dancing, skiing, and hiking are all pleasure activities that also give you valuable exercise. Walking the dog is another.
Train your mind to imagine yourself as active, rather than sedentary. Realize that if you feel too tired to exercise, it may be because you’re not active enough. The fatigue common in modern society is often the result of physical inactivity and mental stress, rather than overactivity. Regular exercise will actually make you feel more energetic.
Exercise has another benefit: reduced mental stress and clarity of mind. And less stress could mean less likelihood of stress- related binging.
Recommendations
Walk every day for at least 20 minutes for the first week or two, then try to add five minutes per week until you’re walking an hour a day. If an hour is impossible, commit to 30 minutes four times weekly.
If you simply forgo 30 minutes of television four times a week and walk instead, you’ll lose about nine pounds in a year. That’s with no dietary changes!
Allow yourself time for relaxation, but don’t fall into the trap of watching hours of television every day. Get up and vacuum the house, clean out that closet, play a game with the kids, take a walk, go to a park and do anything but SIT!
Pillar #3: Supplementation
When you cut back on food intake in the effort to lose weight, it’s often hard to get all the nutrients your body needs for optimal health and well-being. That’s why dietary supplements can be invaluable in a weight loss program. In addition to providing important nutrients, some supplements can even help the body use energy more effectively.
Nature’s Sunshine has a wide variety of weight-management support products to assist you in reaching your goal. We invite you to consider the following supplements as part of your balanced weight-management regimen.
A key to losing weight is to use more energy through activity than you consume through food. When you increase the rate at which your body uses food energy, weight loss can be accomplished more easily.
Thermogenesis is the process of raising body temperature to speed up metabolism, which increases the burning of calories. Thermogenesis occurs naturally during periods of activity, such as exercise, and is encouraged with foods high in fiber and complex carbohydrates.
You can herbally enhance thermogenesis in the body with formulas designed to create a thermogenic effect upon the system.
Best-Selling Weight Loss Products
SF is a formula that is packed with herbs to address the many physiological facets of weight loss. SF is known as Skinny Formula. It has been used on its own for weight loss or combined with another program.
Garcinia Combination is a complete combination of herbs that includes Garcinia Cambogia, chickweed, l-Carnitine and chromium.Making this a safe non – ephedra combination to use.
7-Keto. I started taking it as recommended – just 1 a day. I still exercise, but it is much harder since the weather is colder and school activities take away my available time. I am lucky to run twice a week. The good news is that I have almost finished my second bottle of 7-Keto and I have lost 12 pounds. I have not changed my (horrible) eating habits, although there are many times that I am not hungry, and I try not to eat “just because.” I am thrilled with the results! Pants that were almost “too little” now need a belt to hold them up! This has been the easiest weight loss I have ever experienced.” Valerie A.