Managing Weight – Herbs, Honeys & Superfoods

Be happy in your body! If you think you are overweight there are many programmes you can follow. It’s in the eye of the beholder and in the mind.

Essentially, there are two aspects to weight management… diet and exercise. You are not going to achieve significant and lasting weight loss without adequate, aerobic exercise. Brisk walking, swimming is probably best. Spending large amounts of money and time at the gym may not help as much as they promise.
If the body is properly nourished, if you are getting the nutrients you need, you should not crave food. Habit has a lot to do with it.
High carb snacks are just a quick fix leaving you hungry again soon after. A glass of water or an apple can often kill the cravings. All you then to do is find some other activity to take the place of the ritual of eating or snacking during your coffee break.

Why Diets don’t work

Most diets don’t work because they are not sustainable for health or sanity! Some are simply boring or unpalatable, like the Cabbage Soup Diet, whereas others such as the Atkins Diet might achieve good short term results at the dangerous cost of raised cholesterol, high blood pressure and increase in inflammatory conditions. Many of us are constantly experimenting with diet, trying hard to lose weight for a few weeks only to give up through lack of results or lack of willpower. If we do manage to lose a few pounds, they soon creep back on once we return to old habits. In fact yo-yo dieting tends to make us put on more weight than ever as the body thinks there is a famine situation and will tend to store as many calories as possible in case times get really tough.
 
The first thing to bear in mind is that it only physically possible to lose around 1-2lbs of fat per week. Losses of 3lbs or more tend to be of water or lean muscle, surprisingly the first of our body tissues to be burned up for energy when food supplies are short. Losing muscle is not ideal because it is our muscle cells that help to burn calories. The higher the ratio of fat cells:muscle cells the harder it becomes to lose weight.

The best way to lose weight is to balance blood sugar levels. If we eat refined (white) carbohydrates, sugary foods or stimulants such as tea and coffee, our blood glucose levels go up very quickly. As glucose is very damaging to cells, insulin quickly kicks in to remove it, causing sugar levels to crash, leaving us craving coffee and biscuits…and so the cycle continues. The problem with insulin is it stores any excess glucose as fat, often around the middle of the body, which is extremely difficult to shift whilst blood sugar levels remain imbalanced.

With a blood sugar balancing or GI type diet, the idea is to eat wholegrain (brown) carbohydrates which release glucose slowly and steadily so that the body is not faced with sudden sugar rushes. It is also important to increase fruit and especially vegetables, to include protein with every meal including snacks e.g. a piece of fruit with a handful of nuts and seeds, and to eat little and often.
Other reasons weight loss can be difficult include thyroid deficiency which slows down the metabolism, food intolerances due mainly to bloating and fluid retention, and essential fat deficiency from low fat diets also due to a slowed metabolism.

Comitted to weight change

You have to want to change your weight in your head more than anything. Any doubts about it, you will sabotage your effort. Don’t crash diet, beware of fad diets; they tend to work best for the people who make a lot of money out of the book, DVD or TV programme. It is amazing how many of the dietary and health gurus need to lose weight.

Xynergy has a range of products that may help suppress or stimulate appetite and reduce food cravings too. Try some Pollen Granules (they are also an excellent source of sustained energy), or Pukka's Guggul Plus to help manage weight and reduce chloresterol levels, or Gymema Plus - to help support and balance blood sugar levels and reduce sugar cravings.

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