Real Food First - Eat Yourself Healthy, Well, and Thin
Can using real, whole food work for weight loss? Can it be used to keep our lost weight off for the long-term so we can create more health for ourselves? Here we look at using real food so you can eat yourself healthy, well, and thin.
real Food As a weight
loss tool
We have all heard the usual advice for losing weight: Eat more vegetables, cut out soda, drink more water, lower our sugar and saturated fat intake, and so on, and so on.
While these are great suggestions for getting
us started, they are only isolated changes.
Getting us to, and keeping us at, our ideal weight,
so we can create more health in our lives,
requires more than just a couple of
well-intended dietary
improvements.
It requires a lifestyle change.
This is because you are going to have to keep doing what you did to lose the weight after you’ve lost the weight – if you don’t want to gain it back again.
So, if you don’t want to regain your weight, it’s imperative you choose a way to lose your excess weight that is sustainable – a way you can eat from now on – as a lifestyle and not as a temporary diet.
Why Real Food?
Inherent to the real food first way of thinking is the idea that while some foods have health promoting and disease fighting properties, others do not.
And, some (I’m looking at you highly processed junk!) can even trigger chronic diseases.
This, of course, includes being overweight or obese,
but also includes autoimmune disease.
So, real food first is about choosing quality, as-direct-from-nature-as-possible, real, whole, foods, that are grown chemically free, that are not genetically modified (non-GMO),
that are (ideally) picked locally and when ripe, so you can help your body protect
and heal itself, and help yourself get to, and maintain, a proper weight –
All of which can help you live better.
Real food first is about choosing real, whole foods because they are filled with essential components like nutrients, anti-oxidants, fiber, phytonutrients (nutrients from plants), vitamins, and minerals so we can function and thrive at our very best.
What's Wrong With The Way We Currently Eat?
The Standard American Diet (aptly abbreviated as SAD) is an absolute recipe for disaster. It is calorie rich, nutrient poor, and full of an overabundance of high glycemic, highly processed, pro-inflammatory, and addicting foods that are not only not helpful to our health but are down-right harmful to us.
SAD is the primary cause of obesity and overweight,
and the chronic illnesses these conditions cause (source).
In other words, SAD is making us,
and keeping us, fat and sick.
And, this is because the foods of SAD contain excess:
– Fats
– Sugar
– Salt
– and –
SAD is also full of substances that the FDA has either never tested, or has not tested thoroughly. [1]
And, many of these substances have been banned in other countries
If you have not yet read, “Behavior Begins In The Brain,” you can do so here.
The Standard American diet is also low in real,
whole, nutrient-dense foods.
Nutrient-dense simply means these foods have a high ratio of vitamins,
minerals and phytonutrients (nutrients from plants) to
calories and have positive health effects.
Real Means Lab
and
Label Free
Real food is about choosing real, whole, nutrient-dense foods –
foods that have not been changed from their original state.
It’s about choosing foods that have not been modified or
tampered with in a lab, factory, or manufacturing plant.
And, its about choosing foods that typically don’t
come with labels or bar codes.
Real food first is about choosing the very food we
need so we can function, thrive, and even heal.
It’s about choosing quality:
– Fruits
– Vegetables
– Legumes and beans
– Raw and unsalted nuts and seeds
– Low processed healthy fats
– AND –
Eggs, dairy, meat, poultry, and fish from animals
raised as close to their natural state as possible,
if you wish to keep animal products in your diet.
The bottom-line:
Real, whole foods are higher in quality and generally
contain more nutrients and fiber than processed foods,
so they are more nutritious.
By choosing real, whole foods we are avoiding unnecessary:
– Fats
– Sugar
– Salt
– Additives
– Preservatives
-AND-
– Dyes
These substances are typically found in highly-processed foods and
play a big role in why the Standard American Diet is disastrous to our health.
They bring very little to the table in terms of nutrition,
and can actually cause us problems.
Typically, they are only meant to:
– Add flavor
– Enhance appearance
– Prolong shelf life
with very little regard as to how they might affect our bodies.
On The Flip Side:
The highly processed foods of the Standard American Diet come from food manufacturers or labs and are foods that have been altered with fats (including hydrogenated fats), sugars, salt, additives, preservatives, and dyes during preparation to make them more convenient, shelf-stable, visually appealing, or flavorful.
And, highly processed foods are generally lower in quality than real, whole foods. They include processed snack food, sugar sweetened beverages, refined grains (white bread, white rice), refined sugars from cane, corn, and sugar beet sources, fried foods, high-glycemic foods, and foods high in saturated and trans fats.
They include:
– Fast food
– Candy
– Most packaged goods,
including baked goods
– Sodas
– Diet foods
-and-
– Many canned and boxed foods
It is estimated that more than half the calories in the average
American diet come from highly-processed food.
This is why we are facing an obesity and chronic illness crisis. This
includes the rise in the rates of auto immune disease(s).
And, if we continue to do the same things we have always done,
we will continue to get the exact same result.
But...
Moving toward an eating style that includes more real, whole, nutrient-dense foods (primarily plants) and limits, and even eliminates, excess fats, sugars, salt,
refined carbohydrates, and processed foods (what SAD offers),
is key for losing our excess weight – effortlessly – and for keeping our health, enhancing it, and even reclaiming it.
Benefits of Choosing Real Food First
The benefits of choosing real food first include:
- Weight loss is effortless – like a welcomed side effect to eating what is truly healthy.
- Better health (including improving, and even reversing autoimmune disease symptoms and markers) means more energy, slower aging, less aches and pains, more mental clarity, and better mood – to name just a few!
And, when we combine real food with
actionable steps, we:
- Rewire tracks in our brains so choices become automatic. Automatic choices means we get into the habit of choosing better foods easily and without the constant willpower battles. This helps us reach and then sustain our health and weight loss goals.
Summary
- The idea behind choosing real food first is this: While certain foods can trigger chronic diseases, others offer us medicinal and protective qualities.
- Real food is the foundation for optimal health. It’s about choosing real, whole, nutrient-dense food–grown as close-to-nature as possible, without chemicals, not genetically modified (non-GMO), ideally picked locally, and when ripe.
- Consistently choosing real, whole, nutrient-dense foods may help us:
– Release excess pounds naturally
– Avoid chronic diseases, including autoimmune disease(s)
– Heal most bodily systems
- Choosing real food gives us the power of nutrition to positively impact our health.
- Choosing real food first is easily adaptable to any way of eating you are already following – omnivore, flexitarian, vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, etc. You just need to implement a system to insure you are choosing the right foods consistently. It’s the consistency part that leads to sustained weight loss and better health.
IT ALL STARTS WITH KNOWING:
- Losing weight is one of the very best things you can do to improve your overall health, as well as your autoimmune health, since being overweight or obese can cause them in the first place and can contribute to making them harder to treat.
Using the real food approach can help.
It is also helpful
to remember
You have the power to:
- Prevent, improve, and even reverse, obesity, overweight, and the chronic diseases they cause (including autoimmune disease), by making small changes, over time. Creating healthier and sustainable nutritional and lifestyle habits by using real food and actionable steps can help to ensure your success. All you need is a plan so you can remain consistent!
You have the power to:
- Incorporate more and more real, whole, nutrient-dense foods into your eating style, while reducing, and eventually eliminating foods that can trigger disease. Ridding your diet of the foods of the Standard American Diet (foods that contain excess fat, sugar, and salt and that are obesogenic and toxic), is vital for dropping your weight in a surprisingly effortless and healthy way, and then sustaining that loss long-term, so you can better your health and improve your life. This includes bettering your autoimmune health!
Here's What's Notable
Here’s what’s notable:
- Calorie restriction, for a specific time-frame, to get a certain size or weight, does not work for the long-term. I know how sick (literally) and tired I got from losing and gaining and losing and gaining. And, if you’re still here, I’m sure you are also! Isn’t it time to try something that actually works?
- Our bodies release excess pounds naturally when we consistently fuel them with real, whole, nutrient-dense foods. A natural approach means you don’t need to worry if your weight loss approach is messing with your disease itself, or your medications.
- When using real, whole food for weight loss, you are reducing your high, chronic and widespread inflammation. Less inflammation means easier weight loss that lasts, and improvements to our autoimmune disease symptoms.
- And finally, shifting your eating style to one that gives you incredible nutrition and health is about a permanent lifestyle change. It’s about consistently choosing quality food and preparing it in a more nutritious, less harmful way, and then sticking to those choices, long-term, in order to foster the changes you want to see in your weight, your health, and in your life. If a total foodie like me made healthy happen, so can you!
All this sounds good, right? And, perhaps it even resonates with you very, very loudly, but you’re just not sure where to go from here.
You know you can eat healthfully, it’s just that
the consistency part trips you up.
This is a huge gap. But, it’s the consistency part
that is key to your success.
This gap is the exact issue my 90-day Weight Loss and Wellness Program addresses.
In 3 short months, you’ll build your very own
unique-for-you bridge so this gap no longer exists.
If you’re one of the many who thinks having a structured system would be invaluable, my 90-day Weight Loss & Wellness program plan is one such structured system.
It’s a complete real food first program that teaches
you the skills and practices that are necessary
for weight loss and for sustaining that
loss long-term so you can create
more health in your life.
It WORKS BECAUSE:
When you pair real food with healthier habits that become automatic,
you transform your food and lifestyle choices into a simply and easy,
yet structured, system that gets dramatic results
for both your health and our weight.
Truley, once you learn my process,
looking, feeling and functioning better
happens!
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REFERENCES:
Photo: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/.TYYIzF1ZVs8/Vagmwc/5477360268_afa754853b_z