Discover the 9 key factors that have been keeping your body from burning fat, and you from achieving the shape and size you desire
If it was as easy as eating healthily and exercising you’d already look and feel the way you want to look and feel, and therefore you wouldn’t be reading this right now.
But it isn’t. There is more to it and you know it.
In fact, there are 9 key factors that have been keeping your body from burning fat, and you from achieving the shape and size you desire.
The sooner you fix these, the sooner the weight will start to fall off you quickly and effortlessly:
1. DIETING
If you have dieted more than once in the past, or if you are a woman for that matter…, then you’ve been messing up with your metabolism; the natural equilibrium of the chemical reactions that happen when we eat and drink, which are in charge of the transport of substances to the cells in our body.
When we diet we reduce our daily food and nutrition intake, which sends signals to the brain that we are in a famine state.
Cutting down calories stimulates the body’s production of the hormone ghrelin, a hunger-stimulating peptide that makes us overeat after the diet is over. Wonder why you end up putting all the weight back on?
It has nothing to do with will power and everything to do with chemistry.
Start treating your body and your brain like you love them, and they will show you they love you back.
2. MALNUTRITION
When we diet we deny the body of the nutrition it needs, so even though we may lose weight we often end up malnourished.
We often develop insulin resistance, which puts our body in a nutritional famine.
This causes huge highs and lows in our blood sugar, which leaves us craving unhealthy foods such as high sugar or high salt foods.
Start nourishing your body and brain with plenty of water, good quality protein, fruit and vegetables of all colors. Take a good quality multivitamin supplement daily.
3. POOR DIGESTION
When we eat overly processed, precooked, or fast foods, our digestive system also enters a nutritional famine, and our body goes into fat storage mode.
This so called foods kill the good bacteria in our digestive system that helps us metabolize food, and instead produce billions of harmful bacteria that feed off yeast and sugar.
This is why we get very strong cravings for sugary and unhealthy foods even when we are not hungry.
This leaves us malnourished, dehydrated, and more sensitive to diseases such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
Start fixing your digestion by cutting off all prepacked precooked and fast foods, and taking a good quality probiotic supplement every day.
4. TOXICITY
Every day our bodies are exposed to toxins like medications, alcohol, cigarettes, pollution, pesticides in food and hormones in drink.
Our bodies are not designed to metabolize those substances.
Because we can’t eliminate those toxins, they get stored in our fat cells.
Fat becomes a buffer between the toxins and our body, preventing the harmful toxins from getting to our vital organs.
Since that fat is now protecting our body, it’s a natural reaction for our body to not want to burn the fat.
It doesn’t matter how much you work out or how hard, if your body is toxic, it will focus on survival, on keeping you alive, rather than on burning fat.
Eliminate as many toxins from your diet as you can. Drink filtered or mineral water only. Spend some time in nature every day to oxygenate. Eat seasonal fresh unprocessed produce, organic when possible. Use natural cleaning and skincare products.
5. HARMFUL MEDICATIONS
Research shows that there are over 50 common medications that cause weight gain, including anti-depressants, insulin, cortisol, steroids, hormone replacement and birth control.
Sometimes the effect is so intense, there can be weight gain of up to 10 pounds a month!
Avoid taking medications unless you absolutely need them, and if you suspect your medicines have been making you gain weight it may be worth it to look for an alternative healthier option.
6. SLEEP APNEA
A disorder, not just obese people suffer from, causes us to unconsciously stop breathing as we sleep, sometimes hundreds of times a night.
It reduces blood oxygen to dangerously low levels, which leaves us chronically exhausted, irritable, and more prone to junk food cravings.
If you suffer from sleep apnea or suspect you do, cleaning up your nutrition will help ease off the symptoms.
7. CHRONIC STRESS
Whether it’s to do with work, relationships, lifestyle, or unconscious stress, our body reacts in the same way: it releases a hormone called cortisol into our bloodstream and our body, which makes us gain weight.
Thousands of years ago this very same mechanism would have kept us alive, but now chronic stress is preventing us from burning fat.
Schedule in some time every day to just relax: gentle yoga, a refreshing walk in nature, a soothing bath… try meditation or listen to a relaxation CD!
8. EMOTIONAL TRAUMA
Strong negative emotions like powerlessness, insecurity, not being able to say no to people… can result in a lot of stress, which in turn releases the fat promoting hormone cortisol into our body.
Emotional traumas can affect the decisions we make in our every day lives at an unconscious level.
Some people “make” themselves overweight as a way to protect themselves from a negative event that happened in the past happening again.
Studies show that people who free themselves from past emotional trauma are 30% likely to die from heart disease.
If you identify with this, you can change things for the better by getting the right therapy.
9. LIMITING BELIEFS
Many people don’t believe they can lose weight because they’ve been on diets or exercise routines before that didn’t work.
But the truth is that diets don’t work and not all exercise is designed to burn fat. So, even if you gave it your best shot, which most people don’t, you were doomed to fail before you even got started.
If you believe you don’t deserve to be slim or that your excess weight is due to genetics, or that it’s just who you are, and that you’ll never be slim… you have to realize that your unconscious mind always wants to prove you right.
We often say things like “I’ll believe it when I see it”. In reality, we must believe in our ability to make things happen before we’ve made them happen.
Our beliefs shape the quality of our thoughts. Our thoughts affect how we feel. Our feelings lead us to action.
Our beliefs shape our reality, so if you don’t believe you can lose weight, you won’t.
NLP can help you get rid of old limiting beliefs and construct new more useful and powerful beliefs that will help you lose weight and achieve your ideal shape and size.
Anna Aparicio is a Confidence & Motivation Coach at www.delite.ie