Welcome to the month of October and I hope this Monthly Boost finds you well and looking forward to the season of celebrations!
It can be a time when some of us start thinking about getting into ‘shape’ be it for the favourite black dress or the designer trousers that now seem a little too tight (not a comfortable feeling). Well before you turn to any type of ‘weight loss’ regime…let me allow you in on a few ‘truths’ that seem to have just ‘passed us by’ over the last decade or so.
It was actually a recent client of mine that prompted me to put this e-letter together. She was your average thirty something professional female wanting to lose about 7-10 kgs. Previously she had successfully lost weight using various calorie-restricted DIEts along with some regular aerobic type exercise. Unfortunately, this time she was unable to lose the weight no matter how ‘reduced’ her ‘calorie-intake’ was. She was also now at her heaviest than she had ever been (this is much to the belief that calorie counting works…which is a myth that seems to have seeped into the very subconscious of our society’s core).
Her body shape had also changed since the last ‘starvation DIEt’, she used to gain weight around her hips but this time she had gained weight all over. She looked more like she had been on ‘steroid’ medication! In essence her Metabolic Type had shifted and the ‘low fat calorie restricted DIEt’ no longer suited the needs of her newer ‘rounded figure’. Her excess weight was easily shed once she started her Metabolically Typed programme which was of a mixed type implementing more protein into her daily nutritional lifestyle. She commented how she actually had more energy and felt generally ‘happier’ eating this way. During her calorie restricted ‘era’ she felt ‘deprived and obsessed about food’ and her mind was in constant ‘fear of eating one too many calories!’ What she was not aware of, was that her ‘unhealthy’ way of trying to lose weight may have achieved some short term goals but with long term metabolic imbalances.
Our bodies are these complex amazing beings, we can not expect to get ‘good results’ by feeding our bodies fuel that does not meet the requirement of the body’s Metabolic Type. Let me explain a bit more….
About 6 months ago, a fellow in his mid thirties came to see me regarding losing excess weight around his stomach area. He was an active guy who ate fairly ‘well’ (with the odd alcohol binge at the weekend, I guess his job was pretty ‘boring’). He had tried various exercise regimes with his personal trainer to reduce the ‘bulge’ but to no avail. However, it turned out under the advise of his fiancé (who was a raw food fanatic) he had not only become a vegan but also ate only ‘raw food’. Much to his ‘relief’ (but his fiancée’s despair) he turned out to be a fast oxidizer in other words a protein type metabolically. His cells were not getting the ‘fuel’ that they required from the ‘raw food’ diet at this stage in his life. After we had gone through his Metabolic Type, he mentioned that initially he felt great on the vegan raw food diet but after about 3-4 months he started to feel slightly lethargic and was advised to increase his raw snacks. This is when he started to gain weight and his energy continued to reduce over time. It was only when he started to eat more protein according to his Metabolic Type he realized how ‘weak’ he was feeling on the ‘raw food’ diet but kept ‘going’ by drinking more green teas and eating home made carrot and cashew bars. This man was hardly getting any protein to suit his personal metabolic requirements. He did very well on his Metabolic Typing nutritional implementations that not only did he lose his ‘belly fat’ but had the stamina to start cycling to work again.
If our body’s are so uniquely made as our DNA indicates, then why would a DIEt that is basically a ‘one size fits all’ work for everyone? It just goes against the very nature of our being. Have you ever wondered ‘why someone can eat all they like and not gain weight and another just has to look at food and their body just piles on the fat?’ Gosh the latter can be cruel!
Well before you get yourself on a roller coaster of fad DIEting and creating long term health imbalances, why not start by feeding your body with the fuel that it requires and see what happens?
To your unique Metabolic Individuality!
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