Real Food,

• Unprocessed, unrefined, Whole
• Pasture raised (AKA Grass Fed Beef) and Wild
• Local, Seasonal and Organic

When it comes to weight loss you can’t go wrong eating real foods. The ingredients aren’t hard to figure out. No harmful additives that take a PhD to pronounce. But, all real food isn’t the same. Pasture raised beef for example is totally different in its nutrition value than grain fed beef. Grass-fed meat contains more antioxidants, omega-3, CLA, TVA, trace minerals, and vitamins than any other food, including conventional meat.

When choosing your meats be sure to choose:

• Grass Fed
• Free range and uncaged
• Wild caught

The introduction of industrial food processing has without a doubt had the most detrimental effect on our health of any other factor in the last few hundred years – and possibly in the entire history of humankind.

Food refining has brought us all four of the food toxins destroying our health: white flour, white sugar and HFCS, industrial seed oils and processed soy products. It has also brought us chemical additives and preservatives, some with known negative effects and others with effects still unknown.

Processed and refined foods are usually the foods that you find in the aisles of your local grocery store. Which include your cookies, Chips, pies, sodas, teas, and etc. If you are serious about losing weight it is imperative that you find a way to eliminate these processed foods from your diet. These foods can not only trip up your weight loss efforts but, they can be harmful to your health. New research is revealing the harm these newfangled processed foods have on us almost every day. A study was recently published demonstrating that emulsifiers used in packaged foods ranging from mayonnaise to bread to ice cream increase intestinal permeability (“leaky gut”) and cause a chain reaction of inflammation and autoimmune disease.

If you must snack, make it a healthy snack. Choose real food snacks like:
​

• Nuts, Seeds, Raisins. (Be careful snacking on nuts because they carry a lot of calories. To lose weight you have to create a caloric deficit).
• Real fruits. (Keep your fruit consumption to a minimum while starting your weight loss journey).

Eat the real fruit and don’t drink just the juice. Juices are load with fructose (sugar), even though it came from the whole fruit, it’s missing the fiber and reacts differently in your system.


12 ounces of >>>>>>>Coca-Cola    Orange Juice
Total carbohydrates           40 g                  39 g
Carbs from sugar                40 g                  33 g
Sugar (teaspoons)               10 tsp                8 tsp
Calories                                145                   165

Find a way to eliminate fruit juices from your diet. Sugar is the enemy to your weight loss efforts.

Eating organic meats and vegetables are a healthy option to not only lose weight, but to live a long and healthy life filled with good energy. When you give your body what it needs, your immune system will take care of you.

We all have an inner dialog... 

A little voice (Ego) that talks to us from morning til night... each and every day... critiquing our appearance, our interactions with others and what's working and NOT working in our lives. 

(It's that inner dialog in your head that, right now, may be saying "What inner voice? I don't have an inner voice." Yes... that one.) 

Depending on what your inner voice tells you on a day-to-day basis, it can be a powerful force that EMPOWERS you to achieve big wins in your personal life, career or business... 

Or, if your inner voice is extremely self-critical, it can seriously BLOCK you from getting where you want to go. 

The interesting thing is, even though your inner voice is inside your own head, it's usually programmed by forces outside of you... 

From messages you absorbed (and are constantly absorbing) from your friends, families, the media and society without even realizing it... 

Messages that often tell you that you need to do more, be more, strive more in order to be accepted. 

But Here's The Thing: 

Instead of letting your inner voice run unconsciously and unchecked, just like an annoying relative that doesn't have anything nice to say to you... 

Try tuning in and getting present to the conversation that it's having with you, in particular around your health, money and success! 

Journaling, even if it's just jotting down a few notes, is a great way to do this. 

What is you inner voice telling you? Is it unrelentingly critical? Or does it give you the same love, support and encouragement that a best friend would? 

If you take the time to tune in and you realize your inner voice is mostly dis-empowering, here's a simple trick to re-programming it to support you in your goals instead of getting in your way... 

Create an affirmation, and use your affirmations any time you realize your inner voice is saying something dis-empowering to you.

If you notice that you have a persistent negative conversation about weight loss for example, a great affirmation to say to yourself out loud to counterbalance this would be: 

I am in perfect health, filled with tremendous energy. 

Here's another great one: 

My body is a temple, I supply it with the most nutritious foods available. 

Whatever affirmation you choose, say it to yourself anytime you realize you're having a negative internal conversation with yourself - and you'll soon begin re-programing your inner dialog to support you in attracting greater abundance, happiness and success! 

 

Note*
Whenever stating an affirmation, make sure it is stated in the present tense.

Have you started on your weight loss journey? If not, why? What is it that's keeping you from getting the body and health you desire? If you are stumbling upon this blog for the first time I want to let you know, your weight loss journey begins with you, and it starts in the mind. If you are consciously seeking help then you are ready to start on this weight loss journey but, you will have to prepare yourself for battle because, there is a part of you that don't want you to change, and that part of you will whisper to you internally at every turn you make. 

The part of you that I'm referring to is your ego. You might respond to yourself, I don't have an ego, and that could be your very own ego whispering to you. Your ego (also called the flesh) wants to make you doubt yourself, it also like to encourage you to do the things to satisfy it's desires. We must conquer our egos through truth. What is truth for you? If it's good health you desire then that truth for you is good health and your affirmation or self talk could be "I am in good health." Then you stand on that truth and anything that isn't synonymous with good health give it no thought or change the thought when you realize your thought is not in agreement with good health. "Birds can fly over your head but, they don't have to make a nest in your head," Dr Norman Vincent Peale. 

"Success is mental, not physical, and if you know what you are doing you can work miracles," Napoleon Hill. Everything starts in the mind, and that is why its so important to build mental discipline. Conquer negative emotions through self observance. A Bug Free Mind is the work of Andy Shaw, and I highly recommend it to you. It will help you to get through the road blocks that you have experienced in the past.

Weight loss unfortunately is a huge industry due to the amount of the population that has weight control issues. There has been so many fad diets and incorrect information on weight loss, which has really hurt instead of helped the issue.

The truth is the majority of weight control issues are due to the individual's inability to consciously decide that they are going to achieve weight loss regardless of the situation. They have not truly decided that added sugars are putting a monkey wrench into their efforts. They have not taken it serious, so they go through the motions looking for the pill or fast weight loss program that has never fulfilled the desired results. They have tried starvation diets, that they have lost weight on but, when they start back eating their normal diet, they gain the weight back plus some. Yo-Yo dieting has caused so many people to get to the point that nothing they do works. Why? They have caused their metabolism to drop and 9 times out of 10 have become leptin resistance.

Leptin is a hormone produced by the body's fat cells. Its main role is regulating how many calories we consume through eating and burning (having an impact on your metabolism), as well as how much fat we carry on our bodies (A).  Leptin exerts its effects on the hypothalamus, where the brain's appetite control centers are located. Leptin resistance can occur when too much circulating leptin affects the brain's sensitivity to leptin. The resulting condition leads to a lack of leptin's appetite-regulating effect and is known as leptin resistance. Leptin Resistance is now believed to be the main biological abnormality in human obesity (B).

How to get from Leptin Resistance to Leptin Sensitivity?

Factors that Contribute to Leptin Resistance

As with all hormone issues, Leptin resistance is a complex issue with no singular cause, but there are many factors that can negatively impact Leptin levels including:

·         Fructose consumption – Sodas, juices, sweet teas, sports drinks, etc. (Added sugars and especially in forms like High Fructose Corn Syrup)

·         High stress levels

·         Consuming a lot of simple carbs (Processed foods)

·         Lack of sleep

·         Overeating

·         Consuming grains, lectin and processed starches.

 

Getting back to Leptin Sensitivity

·         Eat real Food.

·         Plan ahead and eat within 30 minutes after getting out of bed. (If you not on a normal sleep cycle explore ways to get on track)

·         Start the day by consuming a large amount of protein and healthy fats. This promotes satiety and gives the body the building blocks to make hormones.

·         Try to space meals at least 4 hours apart and do not eat for at least 4 hours before bed.

·         DO NOT SNACK!!! When you are constantly eating, even small amounts, during the day it keeps your liver working and does not give hormones a break. This includes drinks with calories but herbal teas, water, coffee or tea without cream or sugar are fine.

·         Reduce stress. Try meditation or I recommend trying A Bug Free Mind. It is an excellent program.

·         Do not work out yet, become leptin sensitive first and lose the weight.

·         Do not over eat. This can keep you Leptin Resistance.

·         Eat slowly, give your brain time to catch up. This will keep you from over eating.

·         Once you lose the weight, and start working out, mix weight lifting with high intensity interval training (HIIT).

Summing up

You cannot escape a good diet. Eliminate the bad and cling to the Good. Discipline, discipline, discipline, it starts in the mind, overcome it there first and you overcome it in life.

Note: I lost weight by eliminating sugar and processed foods. I was not on the leptin diet but, after researching it, I can definitely see how it will work for you, and get you back on track. I highly recommend The Venus Factor for women. It is a proven system that has helped a lot of women get back to being leptin sensitive.