Early in my career, I worked for a popular national weight management company.Their theory was if we counted calories and learned to make better choices with more exercise, we’d lose weight. After all, most people were surprised to learn at those “seemingly” healthy bran muffins contained a half days worth of calories. Even that vegetable salad with 2 ladles of dressing could pack more fat and calories than a McDonald’s hamburger.
While this calorie balancing approach worked for many, in the short term, there were always some people that it didn’t work for. For these people, we blamed it on…compliance. Willpower.
Oh, I wish for do overs!
Because what I’ve learned since then ( 20 years later) is that trying to conquer weight problems by only addressing calories is like giving someone with pneumonia just cough syrup. It may stop the cough, and help the person feel healthier momentarily, but it won’t cure the infection. In the same way, just balancing calories helps some to lose weight initially, but when you don’t address the hormones too, we so often miss the cause.
Our hormones are influenced by so many factors including exercise, diet, sleep, stress, and even plastics and chemicals in our makeup and body products we use. You see, hormones are the chemical messengers that influence EVERY aspect of our well being, including how you feel, how long you sleep, your libido, your skin appearance, and hunger level and your weight. If you want to lose weight, feel great, have more focus, sleep better, and feel sexier, understanding and balancing your hormones will be the key. And knowing what foods you need to help to balance hormones is the foundation for wellness.
So in the weeks to come…
- I’ll show you how your diet can affect your hormones.
- How to “jump start” your metabolism.
- What nutrients you need to support thyroid health.Yep, since the chance of you having an under-active thyroid are higher after 40.
- What types of diets help those that carry more weight around the middle vs those of us that carry weight in the hips and thighs. One diet does not fits all, and only using the calories equation, eating lean cuisines and diet coke, will not help keep you healthy.
You’ll need to really take a look at the big picture. And once you begin to get healthy, you’ll lose the weight. I promise. Stay tuned….
Heidi
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