Are you following diet plan after diet plan or you’re “eating right” and exercising, but still aren’t seeing the results you want or maybe you just can’t seem to lose that belly pooch?
Or really no matter what you’re doing, the scales keep rising, you want to tone up, but can’t seem to lose body fat?
The answer may as simple as the common things you do over the course of an average day—those habits we think may be the exact thing we should be doing to lose weight, but may be in fact sabotaging all your weight loss efforts.
Of the hundreds of women I’ve coached one on one and in weight loss groups, these are the top five commonalities they each share that resulted in a weight loss plateau, or even worse, caused them to gain weight all while they were putting their best foot forward in actually trying to lose it.
You’re consuming too much sugar. Even if you’re trying to ‘eat right’ or ‘watch what you eat’, too often we forget to pay attention to detail. For example, we may spend way too much focus on counting calories or portion sizes but don’t take into consideration where those calories come from or how those nutrients are broken down in our body, mainly sugar
Taking in too much sugar in the form of fruit juices/drinks, fruit (yes, fruit), fruit-filled yogurt, and granola or protein bars can quickly sabotage even our best weight loss efforts.
Here’s why: While sugar is needed for the body to have energy (this energy not only comes from obvious sugars, but also starches, even sugar from fruit), sugar is still sugar. When we eat sugar, it causes a rise in our blood sugar, causes insulin to be released and insulin causes fat storage.
A good rule of thumb is to always pair your fruit with a protein and fiber, and secondly, no fruit after four….or avoid fruit after 4 pm. Any sugars not used for energy will be stored as fat. #notgood
You’re doing too much cardio. You’ve become a gym rat, and running on that treadmill would impress the best of them, but unfortunately, too much cardio will not only cause you not to lose weight, it can increase your stress hormones and cause you to gain weight.
Muscle fuels metabolism and by doing too much cardio only (especially when you’re not eating enough to feed those muscles), without any weight/resistant training along with it, you are burning and whittling away your muscle which >>> fuels metabolism, therefore your metabolism will slow, you’re muscles will weaken and you’ll gain fat.
You’re under too much stress with too little sleep. Preaching to the choir totally on this one! But while sleep, much less extra sleep seems to be a rare treat these days, it is something to take quite seriously. Sleep + stress can quickly become a dangerous combination causing a domino effect of too much stress hormone in the body, high blood sugar, high blood pressure, slow metabolism and even weight gain.
Setting your bedroom up for a good night’s sleep is essential to not just losing weight, but also staying healthy. Sleep is your body’s recovery and repair time and when we deprive our body that repair process, we’ll not only see the results of aging quicker but also suffer physiologically as well.
You’re not eating enough. This is a common thread that runs through most of my weight loss clients. Too often the standard American way of dieting is to cut back or watch our portion control. But in reality, this is far from the truth. Anytime we cut back too much or follow calorie restrictive diets, our body will hold on to whatever energy and fuel supply it can in order to preserve itself. I liken it to ‘storing up for the winter’ because in a sense, that’s exactly what the body thinks you’re doing–holding out on it. And with that, it’s going to slow your metabolism and hold on to any extra body fat in can to use for energy.
Your digestive system is not working properly. Don’t lose me just yet! But having a healthy and active digestive system is critical to not only your health but also your weight loss. You’ve probably heard the saying that 70% of your immune system lies in your gut right? And guess what? It’s true!
Your colon is not a solid pipe – it’s semi permeable, meaning that what flows in also flows out. Ok that’s a nasty visual, but it’s still the case. When we have too much junk in the trunk, think about that visual and what could be flowing out….literally releasing toxic waste in to your system. No wonder we are sick with immune disorder and inflammation! Our body is fighting our own toxins simply because our digestive system isn’t working daily like it should be. Eweee.
Nutrition is also affected when there’s not enough eh, hem activity going on in the colon. If there’s too much blockage and gunk built up, even your best ditch efforts at taking in good, fresh nutrients can be hindered because the nutrients can’t be absorbed through the gunk.
Do any of those resonate with you? Could you be unintentionally guilty of falling trap to these weight loss busters?
Finally a permanent solution to achieve your weight loss results.
Through my own struggle with poor health and floundering with my own ups and downs with what to eat, I have found the solution to losing weight, losing body fat, losing inches and keeping it off….all while still feeling good and not feeling deprived. I’m determined to feel good (instead of worse) as I get older. We are not destined to poor health or a life of inactivity and obesity just because we’re aging. Aging is inevitable, but the rate and speed at which we age is solely up to us and in our control.
Our health is not a right, but a choice.