The importance of Colon Cleansing

This video is not for the faint hearted but shows how toxic our colons can become and how this can impact our health. 

Full Body Detox

Intermittent Fasting

How Intermittent Fasting Can Help You Lose Weight

A client came to me about a month ago and was telling me about how she had started intermittent fasting and how fantastic she felt.  She had lost weight and had much more energy and her brain fog had cleared.  I was interested and did some research and started doing it myself using method 1 below.  I have found it so easy to follow and loved the fact that I could still eat what I wanted (within reason) but just had to do it in an 8 hour window.  I have felt much more energetic throughout the day so I thought I would share some information that I found out along the way. If you have Amazon Prime check out the documentary called Fasting but there is loads of information on the internet on this. 

There are many different ways to lose weight.

One that has become popular in recent years is called intermittent fasting.

This is a way of eating that involves regular short term fasts.

Fasting for short periods helps people eat fewer calories, and also helps optimise some hormones related to weight control.

There are several different intermittent fasting methods.

Three popular ones are:

1. The 16/8 Method: Skip breakfast every day and eat during an 8-hour feeding window, such as from 12 noon to 8 pm.
2. Eat-Stop-Eat: Do one or two 24-hour fasts each week, for example by not eating from dinner one day until dinner the next day.
3. The 5:2 Diet: Only eat 500-600 calories on two days of the week, but eat normally the other 5 days.

As long as you don't compensate by eating much more during the non-fasting periods, then these methods will lead to reduced calorie intake and help you lose weight and tummy fat.

How Intermittent Fasting Affects Your Hormones

Body fat is the body's way of storing energy (calories).

When we don't eat anything, the body changes several things to make the stored energy more accessible.

This has to do with changes in nervous system activity, as well as a major change in several crucial hormones.

Here are some of the things that change in your metabolism when you fast:

• Insulin: Insulin increases when we eat. When we fast, insulin decreases dramatically. Lower levels of insulin facilitate fat burning.
• Human growth hormone (HGH): Levels of growth hormone may skyrocket during a fast, increasing as much as 5 times. Growth hormone is a hormone that can aid fat loss and muscle gain. 
• Norepinephrine (noradrenaline): The nervous system sends norepinephrine to the fat cells, making them break down body fat into free fatty acids that can be burned for energy.

Interestingly, despite what the 5-6 meals a day proponents would have you believe, short-term fasting may actually increase fat burning.

Intermittent Fasting Helps You Reduce Calories and Lose Weight

The main reason that intermittent fasting works for weight loss, is that it helps you eat fewer calories.

All of the different protocols involve skipping meals during the fasting periods.  Unless you compensate by eating much more during the eating periods, then you will be taking in fewer calories.

BOTTOM LINE:

Intermittent fasting is a convenient way to restrict calories without consciously trying to eat less. Many studies show that it can help you lose weight and tummy fat.

Intermittent Fasting Makes Healthy Eating Simpler

I personally do the 16/8 method because I find it easy where I only eat during a certain "feeding window" each day.  I don't feel I am denying myself anything, I have just changed when I eat. 

Instead of eating 3+ meals per day, I eat only 2, which makes it a lot easier and simpler to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

The single best "diet" for you is the one you can stick to in the long run. If intermittent fasting makes it easier for you to stick to a healthy diet then this has obvious benefits for long-term health and weight maintenance.

BOTTOM LINE:

One of the main benefits of intermittent fasting is that it makes healthy eating simpler. This may make it easier to stick to a healthy diet in the long run.

How to Succeed With an Intermittent Fasting Protocol

There are several things you need to keep in mind if you want to lose weight with intermittent fasting:

1. Food quality: The foods you eat are still important. Try to eat mostly whole, single ingredient foods.
2. Calories: Calories still count. Try to eat "normally" during the non-fasting periods, not so much that you compensate for the calories you missed by fasting.
3. Consistency: Same as with any other weight loss method, you need to stick with it for an extended period of time if you want it to work.
4. Patience: It can take your body some time to adapt to an intermittent fasting protocol. Try to be consistent with your meal schedule and it will get easier.

It is not just how much water we drink, it's how we drink it that is SO important!

IT IS SO IMPORTANT 

HOW WE DRINK WATER AND NOT JUST HOW MUCH WE DRINK

How many times have you been told to drink water?  You hear about the importance of hydration while at the gym or read yet another article touting the benefits of water.

Many of us increase our water intake for a few weeks but still admit, “I don’t drink enough water.”  Eventually, even our month long sprint of drinking more water ends because we can’t stand going to the loo all the time.

The advice on water is not working. Let’s have a broader conversation on how to drink water. 

The majority of our body is water. This water is stored both inside and outside cells. Water helps in so many ways I can’t even list them all!

Some examples include: helping to dissolve nutrients, carry waste, regulate body temperature, send messages to the brain, and lubricate our joints

You need water to function and feel good. However, you lose a lot of water every day through breath, sweat (even if you don’t work out), urine, and bowels. Your only choice for perfect health is to replenish your body with the water that it needs.

How do you know you might need more water? Here are tell tale signs:

• Dryness, dry lips, skin, eyes, and hair (even during spring and summer).
• Inflammation, skin rashes and burns, clogged pores leading to acne, red eyes
• Urine colour, the moment  you wake up your pee is dark yellow instead of light yellow (not clear)
• Constipation – sometimes you don’t have a bowel movement that day
• Little to no sweat

It is much better to drink water so that we absorb it rather than end up just going to the toilet lots.  Many people gulp water and within 20 minutes pee a clear liquid out, which means their body did not absorb most of the water. While increasing water does involve taking a few more trips to the loo (people may wee every 3 hours), you will eventually stop weeing out volumes of water immediately after drinking water. It is a process.

An analogy would be if you have an indoor plant and you have forgotten to water it.  You then pour an entire cup over the plant thinking this will help.  All that happens is the water goes right through the plant and then just pours out the bottom.  This is what happens to us if we glug large amounts of water in one go. 

Drink room temperature to warm water instead of ice cold water to remove toxic buildup.

Ice cold water can freeze the enzymes and fluids in your gut preventing your body from properly digesting food. This creates toxic build up. In addition, the blood vessels constrict so the toxic build up gets stuck inside you instead of draining out through your lymph (cleansing) system. Blood vessel constriction also prevents blood from circulating where it needs to be so your organs don’t get nutrients when they need them.

Warm water gently encourages the natural flow of the lymph system and over time, you have less build up. This rule is extremely important for women during menstruation or when wanting to conceive because warm water increases circulation and the energy needed to prepare the reproductive organs.

Drinking warm water helps digestion, cleanses the bladder, removes unwanted gas and smells, and clears colds and coughs.

This does not mean cold water is out the question; it’s just more suitable for certain situations like exhaustion and heat stroke.

If you really prefer ice cold drinks, switch to slightly chilled water before you make the transition to room temperature water.  A few things can be added to water to increase absorption.

These ingredients bind to water molecules to make delivery into the body faster.

• Add a pinch to 1/4 teaspoon of unrefined mineral salt  (not ordinary table salt but Celtic Sea Salt, or Pink Himalayan Salt) to every litre of water. 
• Add a squeeze of lemon to your water.
• Soak chia seeds for a few hours and add them to your water.
• Add ginger slices to your water.

Diet drinks, large amounts of refined sugar (juice /fizzy drinks), or caffeine (coffee /tea) make the body work harder so you’re not getting immediate hydration to your cells. Sugar not used immediately will store as fat. Increasing ANY liquid intake is NOT equal to increasing water intake.

When I first started drinking more water, I’d gulp water just before I went to bed or in the evening if I thought I hadn't quite reached my target, which is about 2 - 21/2 litres a day. I was happy I reached my goal but then I’d have to wake up in the night a couple of times to go to the toilet. It was because I never actually absorbed the water I gulped at night.

Do not go crazy with your hydration goals – eventually, you’ll be in tune with your thirst patterns. 

Eat your water through consuming vegetables and fruits

One of the main reasons for eating both vegetables and fruits is that they are great delivery sources of water along with additional nutrients. The water you “eat” will often integrate into your system better than the water you drink.

Keep the same glass handy for drinking water every day so you have a visual cue to remind you water is available if you need it.

Water & Meal Times

Too much water with meals kills the digestive enzymes that are trying to process your food. Food will go unprocessed and become waste in your system.

Instead, 30 minutes before a meal, drink a glass of water. This hydrates the stomach’s lining to produce the sufficient stomach acid you need to digest difficult foods  (dairy, eggs, nuts, etc).

Don’t drink a whole glass of water right before a meal (e.g. 5 minutes before) or you might dilute your stomach acid. Don’t drink a whole glass of water right after a meal (e.g. 5 minutes after). It makes you susceptible to sluggish digestion and weight gain.

As you form the proper water habits, look for signs of hydration in your body.  

In 1 month, you will see results. Check your hands and lips to see if they are less dry. Look at your face to see if blemishes are starting to clear. Assess the overall shine of your hair and skin.  You might start to notice you feel less tired in the morning and have more energy to sustain you during the day.