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Reach Your Optimal Weight

Reach Your Optimal Weight

Are you ready to get off the diet rollercoaster?
Identify what’s blocking your success.

Anyone who has ever had a weight issue knows that to lose, gain or maintain optimal weight can feel like a confusing and hopeless battle. You can do “everything” right and manage to reach your optimal weight for a while only to have it sneak back on the minute you stop being so vigilant.

Several factors contribute to whether your body is in a fat burning or fat storing mode. You may have heard about some of those factors, such as caloric intake verses caloric output. This is the basis for many of the diet programs out there, and it is a correct principle. If the calories you eat are in excess of the calories burned then the body will store the excess as fat. However, what many people do not realize is that there are several other factors contributing to why you may be gaining weight and often it is a complex combination of factors.

Following are some of the most common problems we see on a daily basis that contribute to why people are unable to maintain their optimal weight.

 

1. Improper blood sugar regulation.

Did you know you can eat a low calorie diet and still be storing fat? Every time your blood stream has a higher blood sugar level than is healthy, the excess is 1st first stored in the liver, when liver stores are full than the excess is stored as fat.

So if you are eating a low calorie diet, but happen to have a cheat of something that converts to glucose (blood sugar) quickly, such as sugary foods or alcohol, sending a lot into the blood stream all at once, you will still store the excess as fat. To keep the body from making fat it is essential that a balance of nutrients be eaten in the right amounts to keep your blood sugar levels even. How to do this may sound complex, but is actually quite simple once fully understood.

 

2. Chronic stress

Another component to maintaining blood sugar balance is adrenal health. Your adrenals are responsible for helping your body handle the stress in your life. Poor blood sugar balance raises cortisol levels and contributes to the body being in a state of chronic stress. If you are under or have been under chronic stress then an adrenal imbalance may be hindering your ability to lose weight. Elevated stress hormones will cause you to develop weight gain especially around the waist. Chronic stress that leads to depleted adrenal hormones can make losing or gaining weight next to impossible.

 

3. Unresolved immune challenges

If you know what you “should” eat, but constantly crave sugar and eat comfort foods that are sabotaging your success then you may have an immune challenge causing you to crave those foods. It’s often said that “bugs” make you crave sugar and breads. Although the exact mechanism is not fully understood, it is believed that because the “bugs” use sugar as their source of energy, this contributes to you craving it. If you crave sweets, breads, and pasta, have skin rashes, chronic sinus or other respiratory infections, repeat yeast infections, or digestive gas and bloating you may have an unresolved immune challenge causing you to crave the foods that are making you fat.

 

4. A hidden low functioning thyroid

Most people who struggle with weight have heard that low thyroid function can be a cause, but do you know your blood test can be normal and you can still have an under-functioning thyroid or other thyroid related problem causing excess weight gain? We see this often in our practice. If you are struggling with your weight, your energy is low, your bowels are sluggish and/or your skin is dry, or you are taking the pill or other hormone replacement you may have an undetected low thyroid that is literally making weight loss impossible.

 

5. Undiagnosed estrogen dominance

Did you know that beyond the thyroid there is another common hormonal imbalance that can literally be telling your body to make and store fat? It is known as estrogen dominance. Estrogen is the hormone that helps women’s bodies prepare for pregnancy. In males estrogen helps in maturation of the sperm and maintenance of a healthy libido. In very simple terms estrogen sends messages to the body that promote building and storing. When estrogen is in excess it can cause your body to hold on to excess fat. Because of this, women with higher estrogen levels tend to be curvy and womanly.

Estrogen dominance is a state where the ratio of estrogen to other hormones is off; the balance between estrogen to progesterone is off for women, and the ratio of estrogen to testosterone is off in men. This is important because the effect hormones have on weight not only depends on their levels, but also their relationship to other hormones. A hormone panel can result in normal progesterone or testosterone levels, but you may still be in a state of estrogen dominance because your ratio of estrogen to other hormones is out of balanced.

Estrogen dominance is at epidemic levels in this country due to the high levels of chemicals known as xeno-estrogens that we are exposed to every day. Xeno-estrogens are in everything from our shampoos, and other body products to the plastic water bottles from which we drink. It is important to identify and handle estrogen dominance as soon as possible as it not only contributes to fat production, but even more importantly other serious health problems such as diabetes, infertility and even cancer. Could estrogen dominance be affecting you?

And finally, but often most importantly …

 

6. Emotional self-sabotage

Hidden and stored emotional factors may be sabotaging your ability to maintain weight loss. Have you ever wanted to change a “bad” habit, but no matter how hard you tried you were unable to? You may have a Negative Emotional Charge (NEC) stored from your past that is affecting your ability to maintain healthy choices. Once these complexes are identified and cleared we have watched as hundreds of people experience profound, life-altering, positive transformation and weight optimization.

There are many factors that can contribute to weight maintaining optimal weight: Stress, hormonal imbalances, unresolved immune challenges, and even emotional factors. In most of the cases we see, there are several factors combining together to make the battle to achieve your optimal weight harder than it needs to be. Using a combination of techniques to identify exactly the contributing factors and then employing safe, 100 percent natural methods to resolve them like we do at the Sustainable Health Center, you can get off the weight gain/loss roller coaster once and for all and be at your best.

Article written by Cari Schaefer.