Mind Tricks

• Morning sunlight has been shown to be a mood booster and will set your body’s master clock for maximum all day energy
• Enjoy immunity boost as well as increase of anti-stress hormones simply by singing
• Laugh it up! A four year old laughs around 400 times a day, an adult around 15.
• Close your eyes, and say something kind and reassuring about yourself, remember the compliments you got.
• Don't forget, Deep Breath!

Healthy and Unhealthy Fats

Healthy fats are essential to healthy weight loss. They help decrease inflammation, regulate blood sugar, and improve blood vessel function, thereby increasing nutrient uptake and utilization, reducing cravings, and calibrating metabolism — all important if we want to maintain our weight within a healthy range.

Monounsaturated fats (MUFA’s)

Come from the fruits and oils of olives, avocados, canola, peanuts, almonds and apricots. The best kinds are cold- or pure-pressed because they are derived without heat (again, heat can create trans fats).

These fats are considered to be the healthiest because they lower LDL levels and raise HDL (the “good” cholesterol). See the article about the Mediterranean diet for more about MUFA’s.

Polyunsaturated fats

Are a good source of the essential fatty acids that lower triglycerides and fight inflammation. The best sources are fish, such as salmon, sardines, anchovies, and herring. Good plant sources include flaxseed, canola, soybean, walnuts, and pecans. Essential fatty acids are also found in oil of evening primrose, black current, and borage.

Saturated fat

Comes from animals and dairy products like red meat, poultry, cheese, eggs, cream and butter, and tropical fruits, like palm and coconut oils. It is solid or semi-solid at room temperature.

Trans Fats

Raise LDL cholesterol and lower HDL cholesterol, increasing the risk of heart disease.They are possibly the most hated fats. Look for "hydrogenated" on ingredients list to locate these fats.

Importance of Deep Breathing

Breathing serves as the pump for the lymphatic system, just as the heart serves the circulatory system.

Chronic stress depletes the body of nutrients and destabilizes brain and endocrine chemistry. Depression, muscle tension and pain, insulin sensitivity, GI issues, insomnia, and adrenal fatigue among scores of other conditions are all related to an overworked sympathetic nervous system. What counteracts this mechanism? The parasympathetic nervous system.

Deep breathing is the fastest way to trigger your parasympathetic nervous system, through what some practitioners call the relaxation response.

Cellulite

Cellulite and “saddle bags” along the thighs are partially the result of impaired lymph flow to certain areas, causing immobilized pockets of fat and trapping toxins. Over 90% of women have some form of cellulite resulting from weight gain, a genetic predisposition, or inactivity.

Cellulite begins when numerous fat cells collect in one area (generally the buttocks, thighs and upper arms in women), causing the skin to bulge. The dimpling effect occurs when the connective fibers in the skin pull down in areas where body fat is pushing up. Toxins and lymph fluid accumulate in the pockets of fat.

Improving the circulation of lymph in areas prone to cellulite and reducing toxic burden are two successful ways to diminish cellulite from the inside out.

Creating a Healthy, Lean Body

Creating a healthy, lean body depends on how well each individual woman’s body copes with the demands made on it. This is highly individual: what works for you may not work for your friend, but the important thing is that you understand what works for you.

Parts of your metabolic blueprint are genetically predisposed or formed in utero, while others are highly influenced by your nutrition, emotional state, stress level and lifestyle.

Begin to pay your body some loving attention. The first place to start is your expectations, including your self-image

Risks of BMI (body mass index) over 28:

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• diabetes
• polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS)
• cardiovascular disease,
• infertility
• hypertension,
• arthritis
• insulin resistance
• cardiovascular conditions

Appetite and Metabolism

A well-functioning metabolism has three jobs:

 1) to convert energy from the food we eat into work and heat (on both a cellular and a muscular level)

 2) to eliminate any toxins or unnecessary nutrients in the form of waste

3) to store glucose in the form of glycogen and extra energy as fat for future use.

Hormones and Weight Gain

There is a definitive link between stress, insulin levels, and cravings.

Insulin is a primary hormone that is directly affected by your diet. It determines whether blood sugar gets used right away for immediate energy or stored as fat instead. Any disruption in the insulin-regulating mechanism, such as insulin resistance, has an instant effect on some of the lesser metabolic hormones.

Insulin resistance often accompanies the most common complaints : fatigue and weight gain.
As women approach menopause, they become increasingly intolerant of carbohydrates and find it easier to gain weight, especially around their waists. Afternoon blahs, sugar crashes and carbohydrate cravings may all be early insulin resistance symptoms.

• When you are insulin resistant your body converts every calorie it can into fat — even if you’re dieting. The result is that while you are gaining weight, your cells are actually starving!
• A second basic link lies between stress and body fat. Stress hormones, like cortisol, block weight loss. This is sometimes called the “famine effect”: despite adequate food, the body interprets prolonged stress as a famine.

Signs and Symptoms of Insulin Resistance

• Family history of type 2 diabetes
• Apple-shaped women, or those who tend to gain most of their weight around their abdomen
• Low HDL levels and high triglycerides
• A skin change, which is warty-like darkened patches of skin at the neck and armpits.

Importance of Exercise

Your body stores energy in two ways, as fat and as glycogen.

Glycogen is glucose stored in the muscles. Muscles store about 12 hours’ worth of glycogen as a ready supply. Regular exercise, both aerobic and anaerobic, depletes these stores at a faster rate, forcing the body to dip into fat reserves.

On a calorie-restricted diet, it is not unusual to drop 5–10 pounds right away, but it is primarily glycogen loss and not fat. Once you resume eating regularly, those pounds reappear as quickly as they went away.

Muscle strength depends on good bone health and nutrient absorption, as well as a healthy demand for work.

One nutrient that often gets overlooked in this calculus is oxygen, in the form of air and water.

Insulin Resistance Diet

1. Shop the outside aisles of the supermarket, and  avoid the inner rows of processed food, sugar cereals, high-sodium snacks and soda.

2. A diet that consists primarily of lean meats and dairy; high-fiber grains, vegetables and legumes; leafy greens; and fruit will substantially aid the body’s ability to balance insulin levels.

3. Healthy fats, or those rich in essential fatty acids (EFA’s), are also important in an insulin-resistance diet. EFA’s can be found in avocados, cold-water fish like salmon and tuna, flax seed, and eggs and can also be taken in supplement form.

4. Regular exercise of 30 minutes or more per day, 3–5 times a week is also beneficial for regulating metabolic function and hormonal balance.

 5. Decreasing stress, thereby lessening strain on the adrenal glands will result in better overall health and contribute to keeping the body’s insulin levels in check.

6.  Stopping smoking, moderating alcohol intake, and proper sleeping habits will help to alleviate blood chemistry surges, which in turn will promote a thriving, well-balanced body.

"EPA" Essential Fatty Acids

The difference between regular fat and “essential” fat.

Put simply, our bodies cannot make essential fatty acids (EFA’s) on their own, so they must come from our diets. What’s more, both forms of EFA’s (omega-3 and omega-6) are found in the membranes of every cell in our bodies!
At the molecular level, EFA’s protect and keep our cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, GI and immune systems functioning optimally. They help insulate our nerve cells and produce molecular messengers involved in immunity and the central nervous system.
We can obtain omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids from a range of food sources. Here are some good sources for these special fats. (Many foods have both omega-3’s and 6’s, so you’ll see them on both lists below.) (Can also be taken as a supplement)