Weight Loss Game Changer.
3 things you can do to become that “lucky” friend.
“See, Pete eats sugar, and he is fit and has no problems with weight, why should I quit sugar completely?”
A conversation in the gym with a friend of mine, who is trying to lose his belly.
Often people ask me,
“Why am I not losing weight, doing exactly the same thing as my friend? Same diet? Same Exercises? Why?!”
3 major reasons.
ONE.
Your genetics.
There is nothing you can do about the genes you got from your parents. BUT. There is a good part! Your genetics only about 20 % (there is no precise science on that at the moment) are responsible for your health, you metabolism, the way you gain and lose weight, the way you gain and lose muscle mass, your energy levels. The rest is up to you. Through your lifestyle choices, your thinking, your emotions, your environment — you can control the way your genes are expressed. Which ones are on, and which ones are off.
The good part?
You have even more control over your health, the way you experience your physical body. Read on.
TWO.
Your microbiome.
Your gut bugs. That’s, who does most of the work of metabolizing your food, absorbing or not nutrients from your calories, creating vitamins and minerals, creating metabolites, that signal your hormonal system, your immune system, your brain, your whole body, what to do with nutrients you’ve just eaten. They call your microbiome your second brain these days — that’s how powerful the influence of your gut, your colon and intestines, is. Your microbiome “decides”, what cravings you have — for healthy food or unhealthy food, how full you feel and for how long.
The good part?
You are who YOU feed. You are in control of which bugs you feed, the “lean” ones, who make you lose fat easier, curb your cravings, release “feel good” hormones, keep you full and satisfied, or the “fat” ones, who make you crave another doughnut, more sugar in your coffee and another piece of pizza, making you feel you sluggish, never satisfied and satiated mentally, emotionally and physically, always craving more.
The good part?
You can train your microbiome. Read on.
THREE.
Your health, your metabolic health, your health history.
All of it. If you’ve been exercising your whole life, you are going to have a metabolism, that is much more different from someone, who never lifted anything heavier than a smartphone. If you grew up eating local organic food, you gonna have completely different metabolism, compared to someone who grew up at McDonalds. Guess who’s gonna stay leaner, fitter, stronger easier? And will be able to get away with more sugar in their diet and more cheat days? Sad but true, the longer you have your bad habits, the longer you compromise your metabolism, the longer you stay sick, unfit, fat — the more work you’ll have to do with your diet and exercise program to achieve the results you want, compared to someone, who gained a couple of pounds during holidays, living fit and healthy all their life prior.
The good part?
You still can change it. But it will take time. How long? It depends on your history and dedication, your strategy. Read on.
3 things you can do to change the game rules and become that “lucky” friend, who can get away with anything, staying lean like a bean.
To create more favorable conditions helping you to lose weight, get fitter and leaner faster with more energy.
ONE
Improve the quality of your diet.
Think quality over quantity.
Think nutritious FOOD (full of vitamins and minerals, fiber, essential fatty and amino acids) over supplements and worse quality of food.
Think organic, local, fresh, wild, grass-fed, pasture raised, sustainable.
This one is major!
Through diet alone you can influence your genetic expression, what genes influence your life the most, the ones that make you leaner, fitter and stronger or fatter, sicker, barely living. You can influence a lot your microbiome, that will completely transform YOU, once you start taking care of it. All aspects of your health and metabolism, the way you feel are affected by your diet, your mood and energy levels including!
If you are not thinking about your diet, the quality of food you eat — START THINKING!
Or give up on the idea of being lean, fit, strong, healthy and full of energy.
TWO
Manage your stress better, using tools like meditation.
Focus on what you can do in each situation instead of focusing on possible negative outcomes.
Be and live proactive and responsive to life’s events, instead of reacting with behaviors that don’t serve you.
Be more present VS anxious about the future or regretting something in the past.
Stress levels are proven to be correlated with every aspect of your health, your metabolism, the quality of your life, how lean you are, how strong you are physically, how strong your immune system is, correlated with your gene expression, correlated with the health of your microbiome.
It’s all connected! ALL of it!
THREE
Manage the quality of your sleep.
Have no-screen time an hour before bed and right after you wake up.
Do some relaxing before-bed routine, like reading a paper book, listening to nice music, spending time with family, meditating, taking a bath, walking in nature.
Sleep in a completely dark room: best solution is blackout curtains or, at the very least, a really good eye mask. Have NO wifi and blinking devices ON while sleeping.
Sleep is when all systems of your body recover and restore. People die when their sleep is impaired — that’s how important sleep is. So don’t expect to be healthy and fit, to maintain healthy metabolism and weight easy, if you don’t prioritize sleep. And guess what? Insufficient sleep will increase stress and will negatively affect your microbiome and your genes.
It’s all connected!
Now you have a better idea, why we all lose and gain weight differently, why we get fit and strong differently, why we have different energy levels.
The good part?
You can influence all of it to create much better metabolic and health situation by changing the quality of what you do already!
You don’t get healthy and stay healthy.
HEALTH is a DAILY PRACTICE. One bite at a time.
Daily Bite of Health
Eat better. Stress less. Sleep better.
It doesn’t take more time. It takes better choices.
