The Illusion of Weight

We are all our greatest enemies, we perceive who we think we are and react accordingly. I look into a mirror and see at least 20 extra pounds that are not there. I struggle with diet, exercise and menopause and still see those extra pounds. We are the frustrated ones, trying to lose fat and not succeeding.

I think I have a few options to help out our attitudes and perceptions of ourselves, remember it is even HARDER to lose weight when frustrated or depressed. Chemicals are released that prohibit the use of fat already stored in our bodies, no matter how much we exercise… so the answer to it is to adjust our way of looking at ourselves.

First go to a beach or swimming area near you and really LOOK at other people there. If you are really honest you will see there are all kinds of body types and weights. If we were to join those people in our swimming suits we would fit right in and not draw the attention that we ourselves think we would. Our bodies are just as good as any of those people.

Respect our bodies, no matter who is reading this, they do a lot for us, they make us mobile, do our chores that mentally we tell them to do. Without our bodies there is virtually nothing we could do other then be mentally aware that life still exists. So let’s give our bodies a great big hug for being there and doing as well as it can no matter what we do to them.

And we do a lot, we stuff our bodies with foods that are hard to digest, due to fats, chemicals, heavy proteins, alcohol, etc. Then while our bodies are trying to absorb these things we put it thru physical exertion, heat, lack of water and no respect.

Following this line of thought the second thing is to start drinking more water. This helps our bodies to process the foods, chemicals, alcohol etc that we put inside. One basic formula for how much water we should be drinking is to divide your body weight by 2 then convert that number to ounces… so a 120 lb person would need to drink 60 ounces of water a day. Now for every caffeinated or alcoholic drink you consume you add one equal glass of water to your intake, if it is hot and you are out in the sun, add another glass to your total.

Cutting down on the sugar intake helps as well, 1 tsp of sugar drops your immune systems working capability by 25%!! Each additional teaspoon adds dramatically to that decline. However honey has been shown to be neutral due to its inherent “natural” origins. As for synthetic sugars, studies are now coming out that show them to be determental to our health, even causing diseases in some instances.

No matter which diet plan you like, if you put more food into your body then it has need for you will gain weight. A good way to prevent this is too eat equal portions of carbs to proteins (Enter the Zone Diet by Dr. Barry Sears) and as soon as you reach a comfort level, PUSH that plate away! If it isn’t a fat or protein then it is a carb! This includes salad dressings, bread coatings, even the soda you drink with your meal. If you don’t like throwing food out then put it in your refrigerator for later. Your body will tell you if you need food, with the exception of sugar. Sugar is ADDICTIVE so when you consume sugar it tricks your body into thinking you are hungry. It is actually a reaction your body goes thru as it tries to process the concentrated sugar.

If you are in the range of menopause then you have an extra obstacle to get around. As our hormones drop away (except for Estrogen) the imbalance makes it almost impossible to get rid of the fat around the waist. Thank goodness for our modern age, we now know that Natural Progesterone, made from wild Mexican yams will help balance out those hormones giving an added boost to losing fat. You can find Natural Progesterone at Health Food outlets you can find in your telephone book.
BEFORE taking ANY hormone replacements though every woman should get her levels checked as we are all individuals with our own health needs. Luckily we can access places on the web now that do the testing, processing results and consulting us on what we need. Please look below for those weblinks to hormone saliva testing.

Last but not least is POSTURE. Try this test yourself, stand in front of your mirror the way you usually stand. Now pull your shoulders back, think “I am a Princess today” straighten your knees and hold your chin up level. Even without pulling your stomach in you will see how much thinner you look and all you are doing is standing as if you were in control. And why not? We are in control of our bodies, are we not?! Granted sometimes health issues come by which make us wonder but overall we decide how to stand, approach others, if we love our bodies or not.

Now pull that stomach in, and think about this: our muscles work for us if we do a few things for them. Strengthening the stomach muscles, make us look thinner, relieves the small back muscles so our backs don’t hurt so much and makes us taller. There are various FUN ways to do this, kayaking, dancing (check out belly dancing), swimming, even bicycling to name several.

So go out there, love yourself, have some fun.

http://www.natureswoman.com/hormonetesting.asp Proper Hormone Testing
http://www.janethull.com/hormone-testing/index.php Hormone Testing
http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Sands/3390/chi.html Tai Chi
http://www.abc-of-yoga.com/ Yoga
http://www.chiroweb.com/ Chiropractors

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