Healthy Weight Loss

[Lauraann]

How can I kick start my weight loss in a big way that is actually safe?  I am so tired of feeling exhuasted, fat, and sluggish.  I want to feel 26 again, because you know, I am actually 26!  Any advice?

[Jennifer Steinbachs]

chickweed!  According to susun weed, chickweed can help with fat loss.  

http://www.byregion.net/cgibin/users/articles_viewer.pl?action=show...

 

Nourish your adrenals with nettles.

 

What are you eating?  Do you need to modify your diet?

 

[Pat Robinson]

Weight gain can be due to microbial imbalances in the gut.  Also from storing pesticides in our fatty tissue.  What foods make you feel energized, or draggy?

I agree about the chickweed and nettles!  I believe just start one easy, most nourishing new thing, like the nettles, which can give you energy, vitamins and minerals.

Kombucha is another wonderful addition, if you don't have any mercury (silver amalgam) fillings in your teeth.  The beneficial microbials are wonderful and it has liver detox benefits.  I love GT Dave's Kombucha.  But, it is easy to make your own. (I assume you are not pregnant or nursing?)

Pat

[Lauraann]

I know that microbial imbalances are definitely a HUGE issue for me.  I just added a higher potency 8 billion, refrgierated probiotic to my before bedtime routine and I make bone broth often, drink lots of water, and drink cultured coconut milk smoothies as often as I can.  I haven't added Kombucha though because although I don't have mercury fillings-mine are white composite-I am still nursing my little lady.  

 

I am trying to keep more careful track of how foods make me feel because I think there is absolutely work to be done on my diet.  Dairy is the worst for making me feel sluggish and HUGELY bloated, like my stomach looks like twice its normal size when I eat dairy, but it doesn't effect me until 2-3 days later so sometimes i wonder if I am eating something with the dairy that I can't handle that I am not picking up on.  Outside of that I have to be careful with coffee, red meat, sugar, potatoes, and grains.  Getting a handle on these things is very difficult particularly with the dairy and grains.  I really miss yogurt and hard cheese for snacking on with fruit throughout the day.  And I have a really hard time not being grossed out by "buttery spreads" and keep slipping back into using ghee and pasture butter.  The ghee doesn't seem to bother me though.

 

Salads, fruits, seafood of all kinds outside of lobster and crab, veggies, and green tea sweetened with local honey, all seem to make me feel energized.  I can eat rice, oats, and some beans-pinto beans or lentils are the best, kidney give me a really hard time in digestion.

 

I am very intrigued by the nettles it sounds pretty beneficial overall.  Does it interact with anything like the green tea that I have been drinking?

 

I just read through the link on Nettles and think it sounds absolutely perfect!  How wonderful that there is something that will support my nursing relationship and nourish ME so well!  I think I will definitely be getting some of that ASAP.  Is it better to using boiling or non boiling water as the link has both options?

[Amelia Bentrup]

While I usually agree with the start slow and make one change at a time philosophy, I will admit that I tend to be an "all or nothing' type of person.  When it comes to weight loss, I like making drastic changes, so I can "see/feel" results faster  (I'm impatient!).

 

Anyway, I've had good results with kick-starting weight loss by sorta following Joey Furhman (sp?).  He wrote Eat to Live. I definitely don't agree with everything he writes (he is basically against all meat/dairy/eggs and doesn't really address probiotics/cultured/fermented foods.) while I think grass-fed beef, raw dairy and free-range eggs are really healthy and fermented foods are important.  But, anyway, one thing he does say is to eat 1 lb of raw greens a day and 1 lb of cooked greens a day.  I find that when I really try to get that much, it does start to kick-start weight loss and I feel better.  I also try to combine that with decreasing foods like sugars/too many grains/too many starches, etc.   I usually do the raw green for lunch (a HUGE salad) and the cooked greens with dinner.  Plus, when you eat all those veggies, you don't have as much room for other things. lol

 

Also, I find combining a lot of the tips from this page help. http://www.my-home-remedies.com/home-remedies-for-weight-loss.html  I know when I am trying to lose weight, I tend to not eat as much fat as I should.  I think the coconut oil is especially beneficial, since it provides a feeling of satiety.  The easiest way for me to take coconut oil is to melt it into hot tea. 

That and squeezing fresh lemon into water seems to help. The acidity from the lemon is very beneficial, and it helps me drink more water, I think.

 

The other thing is to support your thyroid.  Kelp or fucoxanthin (edible seaweed) does seem to help me lose weight as well.

[Jennifer Steinbachs]

thyroid activity is KEY.  cellular metabolism is also KEY.

 

overlook the awful colors on this blog.  the information is quite sound i'm finding - though i am far from being a groupie as many of the commenters seem to be.   http://180degreehealth.blogspot.com/2011/06/how-fast-should-you-los...

 

[Lauraann]

So it looks like I will be using the HCG diet afterall...seeing as I am pregnant!  So I won't be taking chickweed for fat loss, I feel really good with the Nettle Leaf though.  I am wondering if I should be concerned  about taking in too much of any particular vitamins while taking it.  I have been lazy and having being drinking Traditional Medicinals Nettle Leaf Tea every morning but I will be starting prenatals soon too.  Should I be concerned?

 

So my weigh loss plan has sort of shifted to my healthy weight management plan.  All junk and allergens have to go.  Lots of water, lots of whole foods-especially green ones, and lots of safe exercise to help me feel strong.  

 

Oh, my stomach has been a mess the last week or so, what are the best probiotics or cultured items to use while pregnant?  I have steel cut oats every morning for breakfast plus lots of fresh produce to help with fiber as well and I try to have a cultured coconut milk smoothie everyday as well but things sure are moving slowly around here.

[Amelia Bentrup]

Awesome news!  Big Congratulations to you!!  Here's to a healthy pregnancy and baby!

 

When you say your stomach is a mess...do you mean nausea and morning sickness?  Or just other a mess?  I think the best cultured items while pregnant (when dealing with morning sickness) are the ones you can stomach! lol  l really like yogurt and kefir, so I would stick with those.

 

Do you soak the oats?  Soaking can make a big difference in digestibility with oats.

 

As far as nettle goes, here is some information on nettle and safety.http://www.my-home-remedies.com/stinging-nettle-plant.html 

If you have a good midwife, you might want to just check with them!

 

When I was pregnant, I took Mg in the form of Natural Calm.  It helped with constipation and later on it seemed to prevent those midnight leg cramps I got with my other pregnancies but not as much with my last (when I took the Natural Calm).

 

Congratulations again!!  How exciting!

[Lauraann]

I have been doing pretty well with morning sickness so far, my stomach is just so gassy and bloated all the time.  This is the stuff I was trying to address prior to becoming pregnant-by surprise I might add ; P   

 

I am cutting out wheat, corn, sugar, dairy, and junk/fast food.  These are the things that I suspect have caused me to have what the GI doc so quickly labeled IBS before she sent me away years ago.  I also know that getting rid of these things will help me to control my candida issues which love to fly off the handle during pregnancy and the early postpartum days.

 

Thank you for the link on the nettle too.  So far everything that I have read seems to rank the nettle leaf tea right up there with red raspberry leaf  tea for pregnancy.  I have only been drinking a few cups a week and I feel really good when I do and I have made sure not to mix any other herbs with it.  I just know that it is pretty nutrient dense so when I was thinking of which prenatals I will take I started wondering if I would end up with doses of any of the vitamins that are too high.  But I think if I stick with whole food prenatals that the levels of the vitamins are much more reasonable so I probably wouldn't have to worry too much.

 

Thank you for the congrats!  I will have to keep Mg in mind later because I get wicked cramps in my hips as pregnancy progresses.