I had lunch with a friend recently, who like me, has been into the whole losing weight, trying to be healthy thing for years. She had tried everything too but had been in a good place for quite a while. She believed she had found her perfect mix of exercise and eating without too much drama, and she had maintained her 20kg (40lb) weight loss for the longest time.
Until now.
It’s been an eye opening last 6 months for me on the healthy food front and I’ve discovered most health information is wrong!
I’ve found a whole different angle of nutrition in a Ray Peat inspired diet. It’s based on nourishing, healing and nurturing your body. It supports healthy hormones, regulates your blood sugar, encourages repair and rejuvenation and is basically everything you need for a super healthy body, fast metabolism and easy weight loss/maintenance.
Everywhere I read about special teas to help you lose weight, or shakes, or pills or any other fan-dangled thing that is supposed to cut your appetite or help with curbing cravings. I’m just wondering why this is necessary?
Why do you need to stop feeling your cravings?
A 3 Day Juice Cleanse called Schkinny Maninny – sounds like a dance doesn’t it? Or at the very least a fad product in the weight loss world, of which you should steer clear.
However I am pleased to report that Schkinny Maninny is none of those things.
When I first heard of it, I was totally sceptical. These are the thoughts that popped in my head…
Do you know how many calories a day you use just living? That is, your basal metabolic rate?
When researching the post on exercise for weight loss, I came across this piece which showed why the hour a day or three times a week exercise regime that most of us are doing, isn’t doing much for our weight loss goals.
It’s partly to do with what happens for the rest of our 23 hours per day. Also the fact that poor eating choices do far more damage than can be fixed by moderate exercise.
It has to be something like 90 mins of intense exercise daily to have any effect on your weight and many of us can’t keep that up. Or like me, I don’t want to, it’s just not the life I want to lead. Not to mention the fact that it lowers your metabolism.
So let’s check out the daily calorie burn just by living, basal metabolic rate thing…
At a friend’s recommendation, I found this short little paperback on intermittent fasting called The 5:2 Diet Book which is written by Kate Harrison and not the original diet’s author – Dr Michael Mosley.
It’s basically more of a story of her experience with the diet and snippets from others who are on it, taken from their forum where they discuss ideas and experiences with it all. Quite entertaining.
When I first heard about this diet, I was quick to dismiss it without really knowing anything about it – jump to conclusions much? Smack on the hand. I thought I was a bit more open minded about things these days. Sheesh!
I had a fantastic conversation with a friend Pam who has been overweight all of her adult life, tried everything to lose it as well, without success. She has tried everything on her weight loss journey. She loves to exercise, drinks lots of water, is into alternative health and the Law of Attraction, is active, fun loving, gets out lots. But still this is the one thing that has niggled her and her whole family actually, all their lives.
Then she read my book.
I read others articles, blog posts, facebook and instagram posts on weight loss and health because obviously it interests me. It alarms me to read that people are still doing more of the same rubbish that I was up to 20 years ago trying to lose weight.
One particularly horrifying tale was a Fasting Diet Water Detox for 20 days! Really?
The writer was adamant that fasting was beneficial. I’m sure I’ve also read something along those lines too. However this type of extreme fast should be highly controlled – think resting and taking naps. You definitely shouldn’t be trying to live your normal life at the same time or exercising, as it’s pretty dangerous. Situations can happen like passing out when you are trying to drive to work, organs shutting down from lack of nutrients. The worst part was that she wasn’t doing it this for the purported health benefits, it was for weight loss!
This got me thinking about the whole yo-yo diet thing and why it seems like we go on a cycle of ‘on the wagon’ and ‘off the wagon’ and having to ‘start again on Monday’ over and over again.