Naturopathic Weight Loss
Happy Fourth of July!
I hope you all find time to relax and enjoy the upcoming holiday weekend. Did you set a goal to look and feel your best this season? If so, read on to find out how you can achieve and sustain an attractive figure and healthy weight the natural way.
Unlike traditional weight loss strategies, a naturopathic approach doesn’t say that you’re unhealthy, because you’re carrying around extra pounds. You have to be healthy to lose weight, rather than losing weight to be healthy. You’re success will come with a commitment to health.
TRADITIONAL WEIGHT LOSS STRATIGIES can contribute to weight gain. Most all of us have tried these methods to drop a few extra pounds:
– eating low-fat and/or low-carb diet
– limiting protein
– undereating
– fasting
– excessive cardio exercise
These aren’t healthy strategies to live by and if the metabolic process is out of balance, they won’t work.
WHAT YOUR HORMONES SAY ABOUT YOUR WEIGHT AND YOUR HEALTH
Managing your weight the natural way means getting a real look at metabolic damage and treating it.
The hormones that control your metabolism work with the ebb and flow of your circadian rhythm. The word circadian comes from Latin words circa “around” and diem or dies for “day” meaning literally approximately one day.
Your circadian rhythm is linked to the dark-light cycle. It’s a 24-hour cycle that regulates biochemical, physiological, and behavioral processes. The hormones that help you breakdown and redistribute the fats in the food you eat come out at night. While you’re sleeping, they release and work to repair your metabolism.
Disruption of this rhythm can be due to a number of factors:
– stress
– exercise history
– dietary history
– quality/amount of sleep
– exposure to toxins such as alcohol, tobacco, processed food, caffeine, and pharmaceutical drugs
WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU VISIT A NATUROPATH TO MANAGE YOUR WEIGHT
The ND will want to know your health history, perform a physical, test your hormone levels to get a sense of your metabolism’s health, and learn about your emotional relationship to the foods you eat. Then you can create a plan with your doctor that will work for you. Naturopaths respect that achieving weight loss is a mind-body process. Your ND will want to know why you manage your health the way we do.
“Will power” has very little to do with losing weight. It’s all about planning. People don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan. An ND will gauge what’s influencing your problem, find the true cause, and work with you to create a weight loss plan.
HERE ARE A FEW METHODS YOUR ND MIGHT PRESCRIBE
– eating frequently and being mindful of what you eat ( i.e. not eating in front of the TV or computer)
– eating a whole foods diet
– taking nutrient supplements to rebuild the functioning of your metabolism
– botanical meds
– judicious use of bioidentical hormone therapy
– getting lots of sleep
– managing stress (by becoming aware of it and releasing it healthily)
– understand you emotional relationship to food
– recommending a weight training routine
TRUE SUCCESS comes when you’ve identified why it’s been difficult or impossible for you to lose weight and when you start taking steps to change your lifestyle. A naturopathic approach to weight loss treats the problem at its source. An ND will help you work toward a slimmer, trimmer, healthier you by helping you repair your metabolism. That is when you’ll see fat loss and achieve sustainable health.
As always, we look forward to hearing from you on our blog – if you have and additional questions, please feel free to contact us here.