UNABLE TO LOSE WEIGHT? MAYBE A TIGER IS ON YOUR TAIL!

Have you been trying and trying and the weight just doesn’t come off. You tell yourself that you’re eating well and you work out often, and it still doesn’t seem to work. This could be because you are sabotaging

yourself with a lifestyle that causes you too much stress that impacts your sleep, as well as food sensitivities that are causing nutrient malabsorption.

When trying to lose weight exercise and diet do matter, but so does regular, consistent, quality sleep as well as managing/ridding yourself of stress to give your adrenals a break. The adrenal glands are responsible for much of the hormones produced in our body, and they are in total control of your “flight or fight” stress response that is triggered by the hormone cortisol. Now if cortisol levels are too high consistently, due to chronic stress, you will have trouble losing weight as you will not be producing enough of the other hormones that will help you burn fat, metabolize food and repair damaged tissue. 

In today’s lifestyles there are constant stresses around us; we have financial stress, relationship stress, electromagnetic stress, work stress, exercise stress, stress from poor food choices, stress from lack of sleep, chemical stress and so on.  It’s no longer about being chased by a tiger, and we get to rest once we get away, now tigers are constantly bombarding us all day every day. Our bodies adaptive processes to stress no matter the type of stress hasn’t changed since the days of being chased for our lives.

Tips to help you overcome stress:

• Food Journal that also tracks your energy levels, mental clarity, sleep patterns
• This journal must include all food and beverages consumed in a day
• Jot down if food made you feel bloated, gassy, rashy, headaches etc., you may have a food sensitivity
• Stress Journal that tracks your major and minor stresses
• Which ones do you have control of, which ones are out of your control
• Which ones can you eliminated from your life
• Which ones do you need to find a better way to manage
• Food choices
• What is your metabolic type or your primal pattern type
• Consult a CHEK Holistic Lifestyle Coach or Metabolic Typing Specialist
• You must eat the food that is right for you, and this will also take constant fine tuning
• A diet that worked for one person doesn’t mean it will work for you
• Eat organic certified and local fresh foods to be sure you are not getting all the chemicals added to commercially farmed foods
• Be sure to control your food portions
• Cut out processed and refined foods, incorporate more veggies and good quality fats and proteins
• Minimize or cute out entirely alcohol and caffeine intake
• Unplug
• Take a weekend off from your computers and phones at least once month and go do something in nature.
• Sleep
• Sleep between the hours of 10pm – 6am are best.
• If this cant apply to you then getting consistent sleep hours will do
• Try your best to get a min of 7-8 hours of sleep a day
• No foods after 8pm
• Wind down time starts 90min before bed  
• Dim the lights, turn off electronics
• Exercise
• Shorter high intensity work outs ( like sprints or interval training)Stay away from endurance sports as it causes a higher cortisol output
• Meditation
• Diaphragmatic breathing and meditating to find ways to calm your body
• Can be done for as little as 5 min to an hour

To lose weight and feel good takes a whole lifestyle change.  It is a process and it will pay dividends. Remember to be patient with yourself and for the time it will take to adapt to your new lifestyle choices.