Sometimes the colder months can add a bit of padding to our frame - insulation, let's call it. Come spring, however, this extra layer is often unwanted and can be difficult to shift.
What can you do? Here are our top five tips for healthy ways of bringing your weight down:
Cut down the carbs
Carbohydrates, particularly in the form of refined grains and sugary foods, can creep into your diet gradually and may end up forming the bulk of your meals. This can be problematic. While some is ok, a lot is not, as the simple sugars that form these carbohydrates can interfere with energy, metabolism, mood, hormones, digestion, and much more.
Keep it simple and you'll find reducing excess carbs easy - focus on complex carbohydrates (e.g. brown rice and whole grains) and bulking out your meals with fresh fruit and vegetables instead (find some great recipe suggestions on our website).
Stay hydrated
Water should be an important part of your diet - every day!
Sip on filtered water or herbal tea regularly and try to avoid drinking with meals. If you guzzle as you eat, this can hamper your digestion by diluting stomach acid... which will then inhibit absorption... which means your body won't get everything it needs out of a meal... which means you might start craving foods that deliver energy you're missing... which can upset with your blood sugar levels and land you back at square one.
Nurture your nervous system
Stress plays a big role in your dietary habits as well as impacting your metabolism and subsequent weight loss or gain. By nurturing your nervous system, not only will you feel good, you'll put yourself on track for keeping a healthy weight. Allowing yourself downtime, regular exercise, good quality sleep and a healthy diet are all things that will nurture your nervous system. At HealthWise Clinic, we also use wonderful tonic herbs like Withania, Rehmannia and Astragalus - these have a balancing effect and help to keep you level through busy times.
Get into green tea
Drinking green tea will not only increase hydration and give you an antioxidant boost; it can also help you lose weight. Green tea has been associated with increased weight loss (when trying to lose weight) and better maintenance (in healthy weight people). So get your teapot out and start sipping!
Move that body
Get your heart rate up and even go so far as to break a sweat (just a little one) every day. This will get your heart pumping, boost metabolism, increase circulation, improve your mood, build muscle and burn fat. When you have a sedentary lifestyle - i.e. when you don't move very much - you will gradually lose muscle and just as gradually gain fat. This slow but steady shift adds up over time and, what's more, becomes difficult to shift as we age.
Simple things like taking the stairs instead of the lift, walking part of the way home from work, kicking a ball with your kids at the park... all of these can be easily incorporated into an otherwise busy schedule and will be enough to start the therapeutic cascade of movement.
If you want to be rid of your winter layer, come and see us at HealthWise Clinic and we will tailor a program just for you.
