Archive for June 7, 2013

Willpower and Gluten

What’s going on when food calls to you?  When you feel like you just can’t resist the pull of pastries at the office, ice cream late at night, chips at a BBQ, a goody from the counter at cakepopsStarbucks, chocolate cake from your favorite restaurant, or french fries when you take your kids to McDees?  Is it that you have a terrible lack of Willpower?  No, because I bet that you display PLENTY of willpower in other areas of your life.  I bet you get to work on time and do your job.  I bet you make sure your kids are clothed, fed, and get their school work or obligations done.  I bet if you know a friend in need, you go the extra mile to help.  I bet if your trash needs to be taken out, or a toilet is clogged, you take care of it.  I bet you always brush your teeth and use soap.  In other words, you have WILLPOWER when you believe your actions matter!

If you can’t resist processed/refined/chemical laden foods, it’s that you probably think that those calories can be burned off/ compensated for later (they can’t).  If you thought you were putting POISON in your mouth, or that your kids were, family eating doritosyou wouldn’t eat it.  If you looked at cake or Doritos and thought, “Wow, that’ll make my blood sugar go thru the roof – there go my arteries!  I’d be dealing with a big crash in a couple hours if I ate that.  And all the damage that gluten and those chemicals would do to my insides – cancer on a plate or cancer in a bag; and another headache.  Plus, I’d be bloated and mad at myself later.  ”

It’s all about your mind and what you really believe.

Here’s some ammunition:  When you eat the foods listed above, NOT ONE GOOD THING HAPPENS.  The initial excitement and happiness wears off after the 30minute/temporary rise of serotonin.   You’ve exposed your body to large amounts of sugar and refined carbs (which break down to SUGAR), INSULIN has to be released in equal/effective amounts, and the Sugar and the Insulin rush around your body wrecking havoc:  the nerves on the backs of your eyes are damaged, the nerves in your extremities are damaged, triglycerides are formed, AGEs(glycated proteins) are formed and deposited in the brain, the skin and elsewhere; the chemicals from these commercial products cause everything from ADD to migraines to cancer, the hydrogenated oils  and insulin horribly and terribly damage  arteries, and to top it all off, there’s a cascade of negative hormones that get released; and in your mind, you feel bad.

Here’s a little info on Gluten:  it’s a protein in several grains that is notoriously hard for ANY of eatenandtrustedus to break down.  If you eat bread or pasta all the time, and think that because you don’t have stomach problems you must not have a problem with gluten, the odds are you’re wrong.  The New England Journal of Medicine has listed 55 diseases that can be caused by eating gluten (these apply to your children too), several have to do with the gut, several don’t:  IBS, cancer, depression, anxiety, migraines, headaches, and all Auto-Immune diseases.  Remember, I said 55 diseases, so that’s just a few examples.

Gluten also triggers Opiate-like effects in the brain that Stimulate Appetite.  Do you want that?? Do you want that to happen to your kids?

Meditate on, read about, learn the effects of crappy carbs, hydrogenated fats, and chemicals.  When you start associating that kind of food with the Health Destroying Effects they cause,  then your Willpower will magically get stronger.

Accept that Calories-In, Calories-Out DOESN’T WORK.  Believe that eating Real Whole Foods comprised of traditional fats, plenty of protein, TONS of vegetables, some fruits, some nuts and seeds, and some dairy, will make you thrive, get you healthy, and allow you to achieve your ideal weight.

It’s all about what you believe.

I’m hosting another workshop on Friday, June 14th, at 1pm, on Cultured and Fermented Foods.  My friend and fellow NTP Gina Phelps, who is a certified Cultured foods expert, and GAPS certified to boot, will be leading it with me.  Let me know if you’re interested.

 

Fermenting/Culturing Workshop, and a Looks Healthy But Isn’t

Thanks so much to everyone who attended my Workshops!

germs5secondI’ve got another one scheduled for Friday, June 14th, 1-3pm, on Fermenting and Culturing Foods.  My friend and fellow Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, Gina Phelps, who is a certified Cultured Food expert and a certified GAPS practitioner, will be leading it.  She’s got the education and experience to put on a great class.  If you’re interested in learning how to make keifer, kombucha, cultured vegetables like sauerkraut and MORE, put it on your calendar to attend.    Why would you want to?  BECAUSE BENEFICIAL BACTERIA ARE IMPERATIVE TO OUR HEALTH!!  Probiotics from Real Whole Foods are more powerful and effective than probiotics from supplements.

The cost is $30/person, and will be held at the Marshall Community Center.  Well worth your time – I promise.  Email me if you’re interested.

Have you ever heard of Weight Watchers Smart Ones?  It’s a line of frozen meals, guaranteed weight watchersto taste great and make you skinny:)    Here’s the ingredient list for Smart Ones Smart Beginnings  English Muffin Sandwich Canadian Style Bacon (210 calories, 27 g carbs):

English Muffin: (Water, Enriched Bleached Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Niacin, Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Whole Wheat Flour, Yeast, Degerminated Yellow Corn Flour, Degerminated Yellow Corn Meal, Contains 2% or Less of: Wheat Gluten, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Modified Potato Starch, Soybean Oil, Salt, Vinegar, Fumaric Acid, Calcium Sulfate, Potassium Sorbate, Azodicarbonamide, Soy Lecithin), Egg White Patty (Egg Whites, Cornstarch, Xanthan Gum, Annatto), Canadian Style Turkey Bacon (Turkey Thigh Meat, Water, Salt, Dextrose, Sodium Phosphates, Sodium Erythorbate, Sodium Nitrite), Pasteurized Process American Cheese (Cultured Milk, Water, Cream, Sodium Phosphate, Salt, Lactic Acid, Sorbic Acid, Color Added, Sodium Citrate, Enzymes).

Gross.

The Average American eats 7 frozen meals a month.  I know I’ve sure eaten my share; I loved how I could have the comfort of knowing exactly how many calories and fat grams I was consuming.  Of course, I was constantly hungry, and had pretty bad stomach issues, but I never connected that to my healthy diet of frozen/ processed/ refined, but very low cal/low fat foods.  Too many people don’t.

So what’s wrong with the Chemical Concoction listed above?  To start with, it has 11 sources of carbohydrate, (did you know xanathan gum is a carb?)  all of which are highly refined and will quickly and easily be broken down to glucose molecules that rush the blood stream as a Blood Sugar High.  Big amounts of Insulin will  be released to handle the onslaught.  High Blood Sugar and High Insulin – some of the most potent inducers of Disease, Inflammation, and WEIGHT GAIN around.

There’s wheat gluten – gluten sensitivities affect ALMOST EVERYONE; annetto – which according to the FDA is one of the top 10 food allergens; sodium nitrite – a potent neurotoxin, that means it overstimulates brain cells; Azodicarbonamide -banned in all of Europe bc of it’s asthma effects, so illegal in Singapore it’s a jailing offense, our FDA has given it a GRAS (generally recognized as safe status); sodium erythorbate – some side effects include headache, fatigue, gastritis, and kidney stones.

There’s also soy and  high fructose corn syrup.

Take all these chemicals, sugars, starches, and Omega 6 oils, and how could we ever be fooled into thinking that processed Diet Foods could possibly help us achieve our health and weight goals?  The effects on our Liver (biggest source of Metabolism), our Hormones (hormones RULE our weight – not calories consumed), our Immune System, our Digestive system, our Cardiovascular system (inflammation from all this junk), our Brain/Mood/Neurotransmitter status – all disastrous!

Eating processed, refined foods, Diet or Not, is a 100% guaranteed way to induce Heart Disease, Diabetes, and Cancer.
The alternative?  Real Whole Foods!  Plan (write it down), Shop, Prep (schedule a couple hours into your week), Cook, Pack:  take back your health and get to a healthy weight, by eating real, traditional foods.   Your body NEEDS proteins, fats, vitamins, and minerals to build your organs, your tissues, your hormones, your neurotransmitters, and your brain.  Eat according to the recipe of your body!

germ phobiaOur body also needs to replenish and nourish it’s supply of Beneficial Bacteria as well; did you know that if we’re healthy, we’ll have between 4 and 8 pounds of that stuff in our Colon alone?? Wow!  Great party talk there.  Beneficial bacteria are an integral part of our Immune System, but it’s under constant assault from antibiotics, stress, and poor food choices. Learn the best way to nourish your ” Micro Biome ” in the Fermenting and Culturing Class, Friday, June 14th.

 

 

 

Workshop On Digestion, Blood Sugar, Stress/Cortisol, plus Paleo Particulars

I’m looking forward to meeting new friends and seeing old friends at the workshop today.  Topics will be Digestion, Blood Sugar Regulation, Stress/Cortisol, and some really good questions I’ve received on Paleo/Primal/WestonAPrice particulars.   And yes, this has everything to do with our weight and our health.

Please feel free to drop in if you haven’t registered, it’s a big room with plenty of chairs.

Location:  Marshall Community Center

Address: 4311A Rectortown Rd, Marshall Va 20115

Time:  6 -8pm

Cost: $30/person

 

Change The Way You Think About Food, and A Looks Healthy But Isn’t

If you’re going to lose weight and get healthy, it’s a MIND thing;  you have to think about food as a source of Nutrients that Build your Health, and you have to acknowledge that “food products”  Destroy your Health.   Every bite you put in your mouth is doing one or the other.

diecaloriesdieIf you only think of Food as Calories, you’re doomed to the Diet Ferris Wheel Lifestyle – weight going up and down, health being compromised, and compulsive thoughts about food.

Take this “for instance”:

It’s morning, you scramble up two eggs in butter w a handful of basil or spinach, and/or a smoothie w/whole milk yogurt, cranberries, banana and flax seed.    Here’s a couple things this would give you: usable protein for muscles, serotonin, and dopamine; antioxidants to fight free radicals occurring from stress or chemicals or oxidation;  vitamins and minerals – with all their co-factors that allow them to be used and absorbed; fiber, and healthy fats – that build your brain, your heart, your hormones, and every single cell in your body, plus all the co-factors that allow them to be absorbed and used.  Real Whole Foods come with all the nutrients that allow each of the nutrients to be utilized. In addition, your Satiety Hormones and Signals would be TURNED ON.

This breakfast wouldn’t make you gain weight, as a matter of fact, the protein and fats in these foods would take a while to break down – preventing hunger.  The proteins and fats would be utilized by the brain to make neurotransmitters and myelin sheaths, so the brain would be satisfied and happy.   Fats and proteins would be USED AS BUILDING BLOCKS, not stored.  The lack of any fast absorbing carbohydrates would prevent any blood glucose rise, which means No blood glucose fall – no moodiness, and energy levels would be even. Insulin probably wouldn’t be used to process this meal – YEA!! Who wants  insulin coursing thru their body, damaging arteries and organs and nerves?

Compare that to the effects of a breakfast consisting of 3/4 cup Honey Nut Cheerios, with skim milk, which is exactly what Main Stream Health would say is a healthy breakfast.  Here’s the babyeating cheeriosingredient list on the Cheerios:

  GENERAL MILL HONEYNUT CHEERIOS Whole Grain Oats, Sugar, Oat Bran, Modified Corn Starch, Honey, Brown Sugar Syrup, Salt, Artificial Almond Flavor, Calcium Carbonate, Trisodium Phosphate, Wheat Flour, Vitamin E, Zinc, Iron, Vitamin C, Niacinamide, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B1, Vitamin A Palmitate, Folic Acid, Vitamin B12, Vitamin D)

There are 7 sources of sugars and starches, artificial flavors, and synthetic vitamins and minerals.   Here’s a little info on some of them:  Modified Corn Starch has been chemically altered to make it dissolve quickly (because starch doesn’t dissolve quickly enough already?);  tripotassium phosphate only has a GRAS status(generally recognized as safe), it’s commonly used in pesticides, herbicides, cleaning products, and laxatives; and Natural Almond Flavor is a long chemical ingredient list to create an Almond smell and flavor.  There are 23.3 grams of carbs in 3/4 cups, and almost zero fat and protein, which means these carbs will be broken down very quickly, absorb right thru the intestine wall directly into the blood stream.  This is that Blood Sugar UP that I talk about.  No Satiety factors will be triggered.

Oh, the Skim Milk! Touted for decades as a health food, it’s not even close.  Something this “compromised and processed” doesn’t help with your weight either.

Here’s the scoop on Skim:

Before processing, skim milk has a very unappetizing blueish color, a chalky taste, and watery texture that doesn’t resemble natural milk. So, to whiten, thicken, and make it taste a little skimmilkpowdermore normal, powdered milk solids are mixed into the milk.

What’s so bad about powdered milk? Well, in the manufacturing process, liquid milk is forced through tiny holes at very high pressure, which causes the cholesterol in the milk to oxidize, and toxic nitrates to form. Oxidized cholesterol contributes to the buildup of plaque in the arteries, while unoxidized cholesterol from unprocessed foods is actually an antioxidant to help fight inflammation in the body. The proteins found in powdered milk are so denatured that they are unrecognizable by the body and contribute to inflammation.

Shockingly, dairy manufacturers are not required by the FDA to label the powdered milk as a separate ingredient, because it’s still technically just “milk” .

What else is wrong with skim?  Vitamins A, D, and K are in the FAT of the milk, when this is processed to become fat-free, these vitamins are destroyed.  SYNTHETIC vitamins A and D are added back in, synthetic is NEVER as good as real.  Vitamin K is NOT added back in, we need K for our bones and our blood.   There are a BUNCH of minerals in milk, but minerals NEED SATURATED FATS TO BE TRANSPORTED AND USED,  so the calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium could go UN-USED here.

Add the 12 grams of milk carbs, along with the 23 grams from the cereal, and you’ve just had a breakfast that’s 35 grams of Simple, Quick Dissolving, Carbohydrate.  The nutrients are all “added/fortified”, and there’s very litte protein and fat.   Your Blood Sugar will zoom up, and very quickly, Crash Down.  Eat this for breakfast and be starving by mid- morning.  Not a good way to start your day.

Let’s go back to my original premise, start looking at your food in terms of nutrients and what it does to you, as opposed to how many calories are in it.  Calories in – Calories out doesn’t work for weight loss! Dieting doesn’t work for weight loss – studies show that 95 – 99% of EVERYONE who goes on a Diet gains the weight back. So toss that old used gauge out!   Eat foods that create and nurture your health, and if you need to lose weight, you will.  Start training your brain to think differently; learn to, and focus on the benefits  and the DELICIOUSNESS of Real Whole Foods.

Weekend Binges, and A Plan

woman eating chocolateGot a sad email lamenting a weekend binge.  This is from someone who felt she was on the right track.  She’d had several days of no bread/no sweets, and then boom, she started eating Friday night, and couldn’t stop until Sunday.  The question was, What To Do Now?

I’m going to answer that, and I’m going to address how to conquer the desire to binge.

To start with, don’t do any thing drastic, like starve for the whole day, or just eat chicken, or submit to hours of exercise, or any other step that could possibly “purge” your body of the unwanted calories or pounds.

If you do, you’ll  be perpetuating the Diet Ferris Wheel:  Diet/starve/restrict your food,   get super hungry, give in and overeat .  Feel terrible about yourself.  Diet/starve/restrict your food,  get super hungry, give in, and overeat.  Feel terrible about yourself.  etc etc etc.

As long as you think of food, and your weight, as ‘calories in – calories out, food is all about the calories ‘, YOU’RE DOOMED TO A LIFETIME OF THE DIET FERRIS WHEEL..  There’s no long-term success with low-cal, low-fat diets, or Any Diet, with a calorie based mentality.

If you want to lose weight and get healthy, if you want to Conquer the Desire to Binge, you HAVE TO CHANGE YOUR THINKING.   Honestly, it’s Not About The Food, It’s About Your Mind.

Please, just for a few minutes consider this statement: “Fat Doesn’t Make You Fat;  Simple, Refined Carbs and  Hydrogenated Oils make you Fat. (they also destroy your health)  Fats are actually HEALTHY, and a MAJOR component of our bodies cells, organs, hormones, and brain matter.  Low fat eating causes our body to run Improperly, our brain to malfunction, and sets us up for CRAVINGS that can’t be ignored. “

If you want to get to your  Cravings Under Control, you have to believe that above statement, and then eat accordingly.

Give up the high-carb breakfast cereals and bagels, the mid-morning Starbucks junk, the comfort w chocolate :winelunchtime sandwich and chips, the lowfat granola bars and yogurts, the pastas for dinner, and the diet desserts.   These foods induce a pattern of High Blood Sugar – Low Blood Sugar, which  stresses the liver (the main source of your metabolism), increases Cortisol production (more belly fat), slows down your Thyroid, and depletes your brain of Serotonin and Dopamine, and all these come together to STIMULATE A HUGE CRAVING FOR MORE CARBS ( ever craved chicken or kale?)   It doesn’t matter if the foods listed above are low/ no/ calorie/fat, and your days calorie count is only 1000.  They’re all huge sources of refined, processed carbs, hydrogenated oils, and chemicals.  (The Standard American Diet Plan can NOT get you thin – but it sure can make you crazy!)

Want to lose the cravings?  Switch from a mindset of trying to lose your pounds but keep your indulgences,  to looking forward to and loving the foods that build our body and our mind:   meats, eggs, vegetables covered with butter or olive oil, coconut oils and butters, whole dairy products, some fruit, some nuts, and some seeds.

Feed your body the right foods, and HONESTLY, you will tame your appetite!  Why do you think you only crave junk?  There’s a malfunction from the calorie restriction and food choices.   Now it’s time to fix that, and it is fixable.  You can break your bondage to foods.   Don’t be scared of Real Whole Foods, with all it’s fat attached.  Really, what do you have to lose?

Recipe from PaleoOMG for Chicken Avacado Salad – DELICIOUS!!

Ingredients
For the chicken salad
  • 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken
  • 3 tablespoons fat of choice (I used duck fat)
  • 4 stalks of celery, diced
  • 1 avocado, skin removed, cubed
  • 1-2 teaspoons fresh tarragon, minced
  • 1-2 teaspoons fresh thyme, minced
  • 1-2 teaspoons fresh dill, minced
  • juice of ½ a lemon
  • salt and pepper, to taste
For the mayo
  • 2 egg yolks
  • juice of ½ a lemon
  • ½ cup avocado oil
  • pinch of salt and pepper
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Place chicken in a glass baking dish, pour some fat over each chicken breast, and sprinkle with a bit of salt and pepper.
  3. Put in preheated oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. Then place the chicken in the refrigerator to help cool for a refreshing chicken salad.
  4. Now for the mayo. Avocado oil is the best for this mayo. The flavor isn’t very overwhelming so you can taste all the other flavors in this dish. So this is how you make the mayo.
  5. In your food processor, add egg yolks and lemon and puree to combine. Once they are mixed well, turn food processor back on and begin to pour the avocado oil in VERY SLOWLY. I mean super slow. Tablespoon by tablespoon, dripping in there very slow. Did I say slow?
  6. As you mix in the avocado oil very slowly, it will begin to thicken and create a mayo consistency. Be patient. And add more oil as needed to help thicken it even more. Place mayo in a container and into the fridge to keep cool while you finish off the salad.
  7. Dice up the now cooled chicken into ½-1 inch cubes.
  8. To a large bowl, add the cooked and cooled chicken, cubed avocado, fresh herbs, all the mayo, lemon juice, and a bit of salt and pepper. Taste to see if it needs more of anything.
  9. Wrap the chicken salad in some butter lettuce leaves OR just eat it by itself. Whatever you want to do.

 

DIETS and Standard American Diet – Both Cause Poor Health and Weight Gain

dinosaurs:cavemandietI’m on a mission to help people get healthy, and a big part of being healthy is being at a healthy weight for your body.  Food is EVERYTHING when it comes to your health, and your weight.  Unfortunately for so many of us, we’ve been conditioned to view food in just 2 ways:  (1) there’s the BAD food, that tastes so good, and makes us fat, and sick, and moody, but it’s addictive, and it calls to us, or  (2), there’s the DIET foods, like lean meats and steamed veggies and diet products, that don’t taste as good, leave us STARVING, but will make us skinny (not really).

THERE’S ANOTHER OPTION!!  Real Whole Foods.  RWFs taste DELICIOUS, trigger SATIETY hormones in your brain and stomach, and they allow your body to achieve or stay at your optimum weight.

Worried that RWFs will make you fat?  Convinced that pouring Olive Oil on your salad, roasting chicken with the skin on, eating whole fat dairy products, or eating bacon/liver/roast beef, will make you fat?? Because this is what I hear all the time, but it’s Not True.

You’ve fallen victim to years of brainwashing convincing you that you need to eat Low Fat/Low Cal, and exercise a ton, to lose weight and be healthy.  That paradigm is WRONG and if you look around, you’ll see that it’s a completely failed model.  70% of America is overweight, and facts are that Americans ARE consuming less calories and less fat, but their weight is continuing UP, and health is spiraling DOWN.fatfrefrozenyogurt

People are scared that eating RWFs will make them heavier.  That’s Not True.  RWFs, with plenty of Fats, Proteins, and Carbs from vegetables and fruits, will make you healthy – and when you give up the crappy fake foods or high starchy, refined carbs, you will lose weight!

Truly, when you start eating 3 meals a day – that AREN’T diet “portions”, but a nice size, and you’ve incorporated the Fat and the Protein that your body demands ( after water, they’re our 2 biggest building blocks), good things happen:

Blood sugar doesn’t rise, and plummet, rise and plummet, so Binge Eating or Starving is Eliminated.

The brain doesn’t send STRONG signals to search for more nutrients  – again, binging and starving is eliminated.

Indigestion problems, like BELLY BLOAT, are eliminated.

Obsessive, Compulsive thoughts about food and eating – DISAPPEAR.  You’re able to walk past the candy bowl, or the donut shop, or pass at the Starbucks counter.

kathy:chocolateSerotonin and Dopamine – neurotransmitters that help us feel NORMAL (bc these are MADE from proteins and fats),  can get to NORMAL levels, and our moods stabilize – which helps prevent binging or OCD thoughts about food.

I could go on and on, but you get the point.  Diets and Crappy Food/Standard American Diet BOTH leave your body starving, hungry, food obsessed, moody, and sick.   Want to get healthy, lose weight if you need to, and quit thinking about food all the time???  Eat Real Whole Food.  I PROMISE you, it works.  Need some help because you’re not sure what to eat or how to do it?? Get in touch with me.  A little guidance goes a long way to permanent changes.  It’s 100% possible, I promise.

Eat Healthy, Lose Weight

cat fudFood for thought:

Traditional fats from healthy animal sources and tropical oils don’t make you fat; they’re actually an enormous source of nutrients from which our body builds cell walls, hormones, and brain tissue.

Too many carbs, enough that raise your blood sugar over “normal”, i.e very much over 100mg/dcl, often get remade into Triglycerides, and stored in the stomach.

“Healthy” whole grains contain very hard to digest proteins, which often don’t get digested, and end up creating tears in the small intestine, i.e. “leaky gut”.

Diet Food Products are pure chemical concoctions that wreck havoc on your liver, which is the MAIN source of “metabolism”, making weight loss almost impossible, and weight gain a given.

High blood sugars are one of the main sources of INFLAMMATION in our body.  Inflammation is the culprit behind almost every disease /health condition.

These aren’t facts you’d hear from many main stream doctors or registered dieticians.  They were educated in schools whose funding comes from Big Food and Big Pharma, and there’s a party line that they often stick too.  Don’t believe me?  The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) represents 74,000 nutrition professionals, and a few of their main sponsors are: Nestle, Coco-Cola, Kraft, Con-Agra, and General Mills.  Who’s interest do you think these companies will make sure are represented when they donate their money?  This explains Standard Nutritional Advice: eat low fat, low calorie, and you’ll lose weight.  NOT.far side vultures

How bout the American Diabetes Association’s advice, to diabetics, that they can eat up to 60% carbs, and that whole grains are good for them?  Blood Sugar Rises From Carbohydrate!    No diabetic following that advice will get better, instead, they’ll deteriorate daily, and spend their days chasing their high blood sugars down with medicine or insulin – both of which do plenty of damage with their lists of side effects.  Who are the ADAs biggest sponsors? Pharmaceutical companies that sell the medicine or insulin:  Abbott, Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, and Pfizer, to name a few.

If you’re interested in the reasons behind Main Stream Health Advice, please read this report by Health Lawyer ( who knew there was such a thing) , Michelle Simon.  Wow.  What an eye opener.

If you’ve been struggling for years to lose weight or get healthy, or your health has deteriorated, know this:  it’s the food you eat.  Our body’s main “ingredients” are Water (60%), protein (16%), fat (15%), minerals, (4%), carbs (2%), and vitamins (2%).    Plan your meals around clean meats, healthy sources of fats and oils, TONS of vegetables, some fruit, some nuts and seeds, some dairy(if you tolerate them).    Get healthy, and if you need to lose weight you will.  Losing weight is a SIDE-EFFECT of eating healthy.

delete cookiesEating Real Whole Foods, cutting down or cutting out the starchy carbohydrate sources (from grains), improves your mood, your digestion, your immune system, your blood pressure, your headaches, your lipid panels, your triglyceride levels, and I could go on and on.  It also REDUCES BELLY BLOAT.  Who doesn’t want that?