Yes, you want weight loss tips, and I’ve given you that. But there are other aspects of health besides your weight, and the truth is, they go hand in hand and complement each other. Although the following tips are more “wellness” related, they also help with your weight loss. So make sure to incorporate these as well. Like the weight loss tips, you can implement one each week until they are all a part of your lifestyle or go for it all at once.
Tip 1: Remove Environmental Toxins
Toxins are everywhere. Environmental toxins are linked to pretty much every psychiatric and physiological health condition you can think of on one level or another. Pesticides, herbicides, air pollution, food additives and preservatives, perfume, heavy metals, cologne, dryer exhaust, construction of your home and car, computers, cell phones, cell towers, disinfectants, air fresheners, and even household cleaners are all making you sick! Don’t believe me?
A recent study of common household chemical-based cleaners showed that weekly use of home chemical-based cleaning products is as harmful to your lungs as smoking 20 cigarettes a day. Using cleaning products regularly can cause asthma and the damage is cumulative over time. Toxins in your system initiate a fight or flight response in your body. This causes chronic stress, inflammation, oxidative stress, and ultimately diseases like autoimmune diseases and cancer. Think you are safe? Even our clothes have chemical toxins!
Get rid of all chemical cleaners in your home and use natural cleaners or make your own. The ones we recommend are Melaleuca. They work amazingly well and are cheaper than chemical-based store brands. Talk with Coach John from Sensei of Wellness if you are interested in the best natural home cleaners that he found AND they are inexpensive.
Tip 2: Drink Water First Thing and All Day
I am sure you know you should be drinking 6 to 8 cups of water a day at least (that’s 3 – 4 16oz bottles, but use filtered or purified water!). Did you know that you should start every day with a glass of water (not ice)? Adding lemon may have additional benefits? Here’s why you should drink water first thing upon waking up:
- Hydrates cells including skin
- Removes toxins and flushes out your system, especially liver
- Aids in digestion and weight loss
Tip 3: Eat NON-GMO / Organic whenever possible
Even our foods these days are FILLED with pesticides, chemicals, antibiotics, hormones, and a host of other non-food ingredients. Avoid all these things by going non-GMO and/or organic. 95% of all corn and soy in the United States is GMO. Avoid it. As for meats and dairy, always buy 100% grass-fed organic meat and dairy.
As for plant-based foods, each year the Environmental Working Group (EWG) puts out the list of fruits and vegetables called the clean fifteen (foods you don’t have to buy organic) and dirty dozen (foods you should always buy organic). This is a list of the safest and most contaminated fruits and vegetables. Visit their website for the latest list at https://www.ewg.org.
Tip 4: Protect Yourself
Here is a quick list of some ways to protect yourself from the harmful effects of food:
- Eat vinegar with your meals to protect you from some of the carbs.
- Refrigerate starchy vegetables like potatoes and rice overnight. Then reheat them before eating. This creates resistant starch which benefits your microbiome which lowers the glycemic index of food.
- Eat foods with dietary fiber. It also lowers the GI of foods which reduces insulin release.
- Eat your fruit don’t drink them. Eating the fruit has some protections like dietary fiber which slows down your body's absorption of sugar but juicing removes that fiber so the juice goes straight into your body as sugar. Smoothies are a little better than juice, but still not ideal.
- Eat lots of healthy fats like butter with your vegetables, it helps you to absorb the nutrients.
Tip 5: Eat Slow and Chew
Chewing your food helps to digest it. The enzymes in your mouth help to digest carbs and start off the reaction of release insulin and other chemicals/hormones needed to start the digestion process. For protein like animal protein, chewing your food thoroughly breaks it down into smaller more easily digestible chunks helping with digestion. Slowing down your eating also aids in digestion and helps you eat less.
Tip 6: Eat Fermented Foods and take a prebiotic and probiotic supplement
Gut health is extremely important to overall health. Eating fermented foods is another great way to improve gut health and is one of our superfoods. I don’t recommend supplements much, just a few are important unless you are dealing with specific issues. But one of them is probiotics (and prebiotics).
Tip 7: Take a High-Quality Fish Oil Supplement
Again, I don’t recommend taking a lot of supplements. We should get our nutrients from our foods. But most of us are deficient in Omega 3 Fatty Acids (an anti-inflammatory). Especially in today’s world of processed foods where we get too many Omega 6 Fatty Acids (inflammatory). Our ratio should be 1 to 1 or high Omega 3, but most Americans have a 20 to 1 Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio. Eating fish is great, but due to mercury poisoning, fish has issues. Take a supplement and eat only small type fish. I mostly recommend Melaleuca supplements because their patented Oligo technology ensures higher absorption rates and they are scientifically proven to be beneficial to your health. Contact John if you'd like to check out Melaleuca's vitamins or natural cleaning products. Their fish oil is fantastic, however, I prefer this Krill Oil as it is more likely to contain less mercury than most fish oils and has other benefits.
Tip 8: Eat the Rainbow (and a variety of foods)
No, not skittles! Eat a wide variety of foods; especially eat various colors of foods like veggies. Each color means something and gives you a particular nutrient which has a special advantage to your health. Aside from the colors, eating a wide variety of food also helps get all your nutrition as well. Fish has different properties from poultry or red meat and veggies different still. Even dairy, as well as coffee, have healthful properties. So eat a variety of colors and types of food. Strive for at least 5 different colors a day and limit your fruit to 2 servings a day focusing on vegetables instead.
Tip 9: Move
I know, I said don't exercise for weight loss. However, I also said exercise for health. Don't do long strenuous exercises like cardio or long-distance running. It causes health issues like inflammation. Instead, alternate between anaerobic (rigorous exercise like weight lifting, resistance training, faster cycling, sprints) which burns sugar and aerobic exercise (long and slow exercise like walking, yoga) which burns fat. Leave a day in between to rest. Walk daily. We will go into exercise in more detail in a later article.
Tip 10: Destress and Sleep
As I wrote in the article on weight loss tips, you need to keep your cortisol levels low. That means not getting stressed. Do relaxation techniques, yoga, meditation, etc. I will do an article on stress coming up soon. Also get enough sleep, at least 7-8 hours a night. There are many health benefits to both destressing and sleep, and on the other side, damage to your body if you don't.
Copyright (c) 2019 - John Vercelletto and Sensei of Wellness