Why the weight is not dropping...

With so many people making new year's resolutions on weight loss, it is ironic that not so many succeed in doing so. In many cases people are ticking the boxes of dieting, exercising and taking all sorts of supplements to achieve these goals, yet the weight is just not dropping. We are looking closer into the reasons for this and have a look at how we can shift our bodies and minds in order to step into the body we have always wanted.

There are three myths I want to address before we get started:

Weight Matters

When you put yourself on a scale, you will find that your weight fluctuates daily. The reason for this is that your body is a living organism and your body’s water %, muscle mass, fat %, nutritional intake, hormonal levels and glucose storages fluctuates daily. This means that when you are looking at the number on the scale, it is the collective of everything combined at that particular moment. Two people at the weight of 70kg on a Monday morning at 8am,  can look completely different from each other, with one being shredded and toned and the other obese. The weight scale for this reason needs to be thrown out and a composition scale / calculator needs to be introduced. This way you can see if you are at a healthy % of body fat while gaining lean muscle mass. So when we say weight loss, we actually mean, fat % to reduce and lean muscle mass to increase. Ladies, also take note that when you do any sort of measurement, to do it on the same day each month due to our hormonal fluctuations. 

That you need to lose weight to become healthy.

Many people that struggle with their weight at times also struggle with related issues like diabetes or cardiovascular disease. The common advice is that you need to lose weight to become healthy and this is totally wrong. The truth is that the focus needs to be on becoming healthy to lose weight. It is almost impossible to lose weight if you are living a lifestyle that is unhealthy, but it is absolutely possible when you change your lifestyle to a healthier one that you will easily lose the weight when you do. 

That your age contributes to weight gain.

This is such a juicy topic and one that I love to debate. You see that we actually have three different ages. You have a calendar age (that is the amount of times you have been around the sun). You have a biological age, which is not by any means affected by your calendar age. It is affected by the consistency of healthy choices done on a continuous basis. This even means that if you start to live healthy and continue to do so, that you can reverse the signs of aging. We also have a spiritual age and yes this has an effect on our biological age as well, but this is a topic for another day.

I would like to share with you 10 reasons to why you are struggling to drop your weight:

QUALITY OF FOOD: We don’t live in that time where the choice is between the obvious take away or healthy salad anymore. In today’s life you need to be able to know which salad is the healthy one. Understanding where your food comes from, in which conditions it was produced and in which way it got to your plate helps you to understand the quality of your food. Chemical and toxin stress on the body, blocks your body from losing weight.

NUTRIENT DENSITY: We are a society that is 99% malnourished. Your tummy might be full, but not with the nutrient value that it takes for you to live with optimal health. People count calories rather than micronutrients and this causes major stress on the body, which in return does not allow your body to lose weight.

DAILY MOVEMENT & EXERCISE: The modern lifestyle is a sedentary one, which means in comparison to our previous ancestors, we are dormant and docile, rather than active. Our bodies are beautifully designed to be moving all day long. God walked with Adam and Even in the garden. Jesus walked everywhere. God is a God of movement, not sedentary. Personally, I hear God speak to me clearly when I’m out on a run or a walk in nature. Exercise does not have to be extreme all the time, but daily movement is paramount to losing weight. 

WEIGHT TRAINING: In saying that, include 3 - 4 sessions of resistance / weight training for a toned and slim body. Where cardio training burns fat during the exercise period, weight training and resistance training allows for continued fat burning during that day, which assists weight loss in a major way. For those ladies that fear bulking with weight training, I want to put your minds at ease, that our female bodies need to work 10 times harder than men to look bulky due to our hormones, so don’t let that stop you from weight training.

REGULAR FASTING: There are different ways to fast and the two I find most helpful is intermittent fasting and 3-day water fasts. Intermittent fasting helps you to be purposeful with what you eat when you eat and then giving your body significant rest to utilise the nutrition effectively. 3-day water fasting is fabulous for healing the body. Although you will feel like you are losing weight during the 3 days of not eating, the main benefit is that the fast causes your body to rid itself of broken cells, casts off unwanted parasites, regenerates powerful stem cells and detoxifies your body and brain. When your body has gone through such a cleansing period, what follows thereafter is that you are positioned to lose unwanted weight and manage optimal health a lot easier than before.

NOT ENOUGH QUALITY SLEEP: Sleep plays a powerful part in losing weight. It is not just about the amount of hours (which is important), but also the quality of sleep you get during those hours. Studies have shown that when you get good quality sleep for 8 hours, that the hormone that helps with weight loss is released. This means that sleep can actually help you lose weight! It is highly valuable to invest into protocols that assist with achieving quality sleep.

HIGH STRESS LEVELS: We live in an overstressed world. We have become so used to stress, that we think it is normal and at times don’t even realise we are stressed, but our bodies know. Our bodies produce cortisol when we are stressed and when we have such enduring high levels of cortisol, it stops our bodies from losing weight.

HORMONE IMBALANCE: Our bodies respond to internal and external stimuli by hormones. So, what we eat, how we exercise, how we sleep, how we think and how we manage stress plays a role in our hormone levels. Hormones also play a significant role in losing weight. 

ENVIRONMENTAL TOXINS: There are a lot of harmful toxins and metals that we are exposed to on a daily basis. From the water we drink, to the air that we breathe. The food we eat, the cleaning products we use and what we put on our skin. The clothing materials we wear and the pots and pans we cook with. Toxins and metals sit in our bodies and not only feed harmful bacteria and parasites but cause our bodies to be reduced from optimal functioning. Due to not functioning optimally, your body struggles to lose excess weight. 

GUT HEALTH: All of the above mentioned can be summed up in Gut Health. The health of your gut (digestive tract starting from your mouth to your anus) is the pinnacle and center control of all of the above. When you focus on your gut health and improving it to be the best it can possibly be, all of the above mentioned will be optimally positioned for success. To lose weight you therefore only have to focus on and apply principles and protocols to improve your gut, as a by-product of great gut health is a slim healthy body. 

MINISTRY OF WELLNESS is hosting a FREE online talk on Wednesday at 7pm on Gut Health and how to Reboot your Gut Health. Feel free to book your spot here at the link below:

https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/WoILXwuxSrS-yd1hdZTjSQ