In this day and age, weight loss is something that many people struggle with. We see commercials and billboards advertising the hundreds of “guaranteed” weight loss approaches. We hear about the latest shakes and bars that claim to melt the extra weight away. It seems like every week there is a new diet that a friend of a friend swears by.
The reality is weight loss is not as great a mystery as the media would make it seem. It’s quite simple really. The fact of the matter is that in order to lose weight, you must burn more calories that you take in. For many of us that is easier said than done. With our hectic lifestyles and the demand on us daily, it can be hard to know how much you take in verses what you are burning. While it is always more convenient to stop at a drive through at lunch or grab something with your morning coffee, often times these “convenient” meals carry more calories, sodium and fat than one person would really need in one sitting.
The word diet gets throws around a lot. The meaning of the word has gotten lost somewhere in the societal need to lose the maximum amount of weight in the most minimal amount of time. A diet is not meant to be a quick fix to losing weight. Often times the miracle diets that we hear of are short term, not sustainable, not realistic and can even be dangerous to our overall health. For the purpose of this program, we will refrain from using the word “diet” and instead, replace it with “lifestyle change”.
A proper lifestyle change is one that does not focus on weight loss per say, but on an overall healthy eating plan that we can maintain for a lifetime. The core of any good change to your lifestyle will always begin with education and information. To gain long term benefits, learning the fundamentals about nutrients, calories, and how the body utilizes what we feed will be the starting point.
Once you have a clear understanding of how the body breaks down core nutrients to fuel itself, then we will go further into detail to understand exactly which foods offer which vital nutrient, and why our bodies depend on those nutrients for health.
Many Canadians have a love/hate relationship with sugar. We crave it, knowing that its probably not the best choice for a healthy lifestyle. But do we truly understand how the body perceives and utilizes sugar? Do non-diabetics truly grasp the complexities of what sugar triggers inside of our bodies? And do any of us know where sneaky sugar lurks and hides in our local supermarket?
Portions are another way to control weight and overall health. The reality is that the portions that we are used to seeing in some restaurants are much too large and pack more calories than most of us will burn in a day. Being aware of what you eat is only half the battle. We also need to be aware of how we eat. In this program, you will learn to calculate the proper amounts of “fuel” that your body requires. You may be surprised to learn that it is actually much less than many of us have been consuming.
Weight loss is 75% what we eat, and 25% how active we are. If we are following a healthy diet and watching our portions we may start to see significant changes a lot sooner than we realize.
The less obvious changes become noticeable between 3-8 weeks depending on the clients age, sex and medical history. Probably the most common change to be noticed initially is a boost in energy and mood. Some have also been said to have gained some mental “clarity” after starting to revamp their lifestyle and how they view food in general.
The goal is not only weight loss, but also to create fundamental changes to your eating patterns, from once craving the non-healthy foods that offer little to no fuel for your body, to now being in full control of what you eat, how you eat it and when you eat in. The way your brain sees food will begin to change from viewing food as a reward and as a way to indulge, cope, gain comfort in eating or associating saddening or celebratory moments in life with food, to seeing food for what it really is – fuel for your body.
Weight loss is a positive consequence of a healthy body.
By fueling your body with the nutrition it requires you are helping your body to heal. Healing should always remain the objective in a weight loss journey. Healing they body while healing the mind.
