Did you know that extreme dieting and excessive exercise can actually cause incredible stress to your body?
Aiming to lose weight doesn’t need to be a gruesome, discouraging process that drains your enthusiasm and resolve.
When done properly, the journey into your healthiest self is a life-giving, energy-producing experience that has the potential to transform your life forever. Here are our 4 secrets to sustainable, healthy weight loss:
(1) Sleep more.
A good night’s rest plays an instrumental role in overall health and well-being throughout your life. While you sleep your body works hard to support healthy brain function, repair & heal blood vessels, regulate insulin (blood sugar) levels, balance hormones, and strengthen your immune system. In children and teens, sleep profoundly supports proper growth and development.
Ongoing sleep deficiency can raise your risk for myriad chronic health issues. It also can affect how well you think, react, work, learn, and get along with others. Our bodies were not made to function on 4-5 hours of sleep per night. If you’re serious about weight loss, you should also be serious about getting 7-9 hours of sleep each night.
(2) Stay hydrated.
Would you say that you drink plenty of water? That you can’t really pinpoint moments when you feel thirsty? That’s the deceiving thing about dehydration. We think that feeling thirsty is our cue, and as a result, 3 of every 4 Americans are living in a constant state of dehydration.
Amid all of the health recommendations available to you today, it’s sobering to be reminded that water is undoubtedly the most important nutrient to get into your diet and the only nutrient whose absence will be lethal within days. Water is to your body what oil is to your car. We literally cannot function without it. If you don’t love the taste of water (or you simply get bored with it), try infusing your water with lime & mint, or cucumber & basil, or strawberries & pineapple.
(3) Eat Whole Foods.
When we’re on diet, we typically think in terms of things we can’t have, right? It’s all about elimination. But what if you thought about dieting in terms of what you should have, making it about inclusion?
Here at the Heaven By Health Wellness Academy, we firmly believe that our bodies can never get enough organic, non-GMO, local fruits and vegetables. And if you’re going to eat meat, make it grass-fed, pasture raised meat to ensure you’re getting the nutrients your body actually needs.
Focus on recipes that use wholesome and healthful ingredients that will nourish your body while also helping it absorb the many nutrients found in whole foods. As a general rule, foods to say “no” to include:
Dairy & gluten
Processed foods
Refined sugar
Alcohol & caffeine
(4) Drink Green Tea.
Did you know that Japan is ranked 2nd in the world for longest lifespan? The reason may have less to do with what they eat and more to do with what they drink: plenty of green tea everyday.
Green tea is rich in polyphenols, a type of powerful antioxidant which fights free radicals in your cells. These compounds boost your metabolism, helping you burn calories from food. Polyphenols also help reduce the kind of inflammation seen in coronary heart disease.
In fact, a study of 40,000 Japanese men and women (spanning over 11 years!) indicated that those who drank 4-5 cups of green tea everyday had the lowest risk of dying from heart disease or stroke. Additional studies, like the one by Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, have shown that the antioxidants in green tea can help reduce the risk of certain types of cancer, including breast, prostate, pancreatic and colon cancer. For best results, brew green tea fresh from loose leaves to avoid the concentration of toxic leads found in pre-packaged teas.
