Natural Health Alternative Blog

I have a few clients who tell me they hate to go clothes shopping – it simply gets them depressed. While they are mostly women, some men complain of this as well.

Upon deeper examination, one learns that it’s hard to tell where the depression starts. Am I depressed because I’ve gained weight and my clothes don’t fit or have I gained weight and my clothes don’t fit because I’m depressed.

As you probably already guessed, it’s a cycle involving both. One can’t just label depression as “one size fits all.” There are many components to depression and different severity levels. Just as diverse are the triggers which can set it off.

For example, there are those who feel “down” all the time, there seems to be no hope of anything better and to make things worse, there is no actual reason they can pinpoint. This is a chemical imbalance in the brain for which one needs to seek the advice of a professional.

For most, though, depression can be associated with actual events such as death of a loved one, stress at work, or the end of a relationship. The symptoms can still be quite serious and a bit of a paradox when describing them – insomnia, extreme tiredness, hopelessness, weight gain, weight loss, lack of an emotional response to stimuli and mood swings.

What’s the toll of prolonged depression? The toll on one’s health can be extreme. For today’s article, let’s focus on weight issues.

Oftentimes, when depressed, we have difficulty sleeping. In order for the body to replenish lost energy and oxygen from sleep, it will rely on whatever it can find. The body will tell the mind that it’s hungry to replace the energy somehow.

Additionally, continual stress can summon the release of cortisol in the brain which, in turn, increases one’s appetite.

Also compounding depression and keeping a healthy lifestyle is the fatigue oftentimes associated. One simply doesn’t have the energy to get out and exercise like he/she used to do.

Hence, weight gain, sometimes rapidly. This is not good for the heart and other major organs. Upon seeing the effect of weight gain on our body image, we can become even more depressed and so the cycle begins. Over time, conditions such as high blood pressure and/or diabetes can occur.

That’s when many will turn to extreme dieting to shed extra pounds. This will often involve some sort of fasting which is in essence starvation dieting. Taken to extremes one can develop certain life-threatening food disorders such as anorexia nervosa (deliberately starving the body) or bulimia (bingin on food then vomiting afterwards).

Even if these extreme disorders don’t occur, the body is not meant to gain and lose weight rapidly. Just as it’s not good to gain weight too quickly, rapid weight loss makes the body think it’s in essence, starving and it takes steps to slow down metabolism to compensate for the shortage in food.

Key ingredients to living a healthier lifestyle when subjected to depression triggers are to try to get plenty of rest, try to continue to eat healthy, get regular exercise and avoid stress when possible. When not possible, breathing and relaxation exercises can show amazing results in achieving a stress/depression-free life.

This is why my all natural programs have seen such amazing results. If weight loss is your concern, I highly encourage you to try my Weight Loss Breeze program. As mentioned before, the results are incredible!

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“I eat like a bird, yet I continue to gain weight!” That’s a comment a friend of mine would always make. I can attest to the fact that she tended to eat very little when we would go out for a meal but I’ll admit that I assumed she went home and ate the entire contents of her refrigerator later.

Of course later when she was diagnosed with a pituitary disorder, I no longer assumed she wasn’t being honest.

When my friend asked her doctor what could have caused this, she was told that in cases like hers, it is thought that a build up of toxins did the damage over time and this in turn, led to her weight gain.

Of course, one does not have to be afflicted with a pituitary disorder to suffer weight gain due to food toxins. Does it seem like a paradox to you that we are living in an age of “low fat,” “no fat,” and “low carb” yet over a third of our population is overweight?

It is a known fact that chickens are fed a chemical hormone in order to cause them to gain weight without eating nearly as much as they would naturally. What do we think happens to this chemical when the chicken is packaged and sold as meat?

Chemicals used as food preservatives while, intended to save the consumer money, also lead to a build up in the body.

The liver, which filters the toxins out of the body before they can do damage to other organs, becomes overloaded. Fat then accumulates in order to protect the body from damage by these toxins.

It’s not just toxin laden food that causes toxins to build up in our bodies. Pesticides, make up and other “beauty” products are also oftentimes riddled with toxins.

Add to that what we do to ourselves – smoking and drinking alcohol to excess promote even further toxic buildup in our bodies.

For my friend, just knowing that there was a reason for her weight gain helped her. She started looking for organic foods when she shopped.

While it’s true that her meats and vegetables didn’t stay fresh as long as the processed foods she was used to but it was a small sacrifice for a bigger reward.

She also tried my Weight Loss Breeze program and loved the results! She, like so many of my clients, found the all natural program to be easy to start and even easier to maintain. If weight loss is your goal, I encourage you to try it as well!

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Awhile back I spent some much needed family time in Perth. There, we ended up watching an Australian version of a show called The Biggest Loser.

Reality shows don’t usually appeal to me, but this one caught my attention. They performed calculations about the competitors’ chronological age versus their body’s age.

Given that intense health research was involved in this program, I could not help but stay tuned in. They literally calculated the “body age” of people and it was rather scary. One man was 32 years old when he joined the show, but his body was 56 years old. Given his health issues, he would very possibly die within a few years.

After spending three months of dieting and working out, his body was 39 years old. He added 17 years to his life! Another woman was 27 years old - real age, but at the end of the three months, her body age was 22 years old.

Working out and dieting cannot be denied as part of a healthy lifestyle. A question or term though that arises often in conjunction with weight loss is metabolism. What in the world does this concept really mean and how does it relate to Weight Loss?

At the core, metabolism is actually a combination of chemical reactions necessary to maintain life. It is further categorized into catabolism which breaks down matter for energy harvesting and anabolism which creates proteins and nucleic acids from energy.

While there is much more involved in metabolism (including a lot of lengthy scientific words and concepts) – what most of us really want to understand is how it relates to weight loss and weight gain.

One aspect of metabolism as it applies to weight is TEF or “thermic effect” or “thermic effect of food” as well as “specific dynamic action” or SDA. In simple terms, TEF can describe the measurement of energy required to process food. SDA presents the concept in terms of caloric percentage. For instance, a common but variable example would be that 10% of the caloric intake is used in processing food.

This of course is why certain foods are much more appealing if one is trying to lose weight. The ten percent mentioned above is just an overall estimate. Certain foods like fats digest quite easily. So, very few calories from those foods are used up during digestion. Proteins on the other hand are much more difficult to process.

Some foods are even claimed to result in negative net calories in that they contain fewer calories than required to digest such as celery.

Aerobic activity can also play a part in the thermal effect though at the rate of less than 8 calories per hour. This does not mean that exercise does not affect weight; only that it plays less of a roll in the calculation of energy in food digestion.

Energy is the key component as part of metabolism when it comes to weight. The more calories you are burning, the more energy is needed. So, as it turns out we have little ability to change our metabolism directly. We are however, able to impact the energy we use.

Again exercise does not greatly affect the calories burned in food digestion, but it does burn calories directly due to the need for energy. This is due in large part to the increase in oxygen obtained when exercising.

Increase your oxygen supply, increase your energy. Increase your energy and burn more calories. Combining that with nutritious foods and the result will be a healthy weight.

My Weight Loss Breeze Program is a phenomenal way to increase your oxygen and energy level to shed pounds. It’s not a work out program. You won’t even break a sweat when doing my exercises. They are designed for one purpose and one purpose only: to increase the oxygen and energy level in the body and therefore increase metabolism.

While proper nutrition is recommended, my program actually does not require any special diet and the exercises are easy to do.

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“Do these pants make me look fat?” Most men with a woman in their lives have heard this dangerous question before. For those who haven’t, the answer is always, “NO.” Even your response has to be given carefully – answer too quickly and you aren’t paying attention. If the answer is given too late – and she thinks you DO think those pants make her look fat.

Body image (how we see our outward selves), is everything. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard people say the most horrible things to themselves while looking in the mirror. Criticisms we should never give to a total stranger, let alone someone we apparently love.

Almost everyone has experienced some sort of dissatisfaction with their appearance. This becomes evident during puberty when our bodies are changing right before our eyes. Body image is not innate, it’s learned.

Problems start to occur when our body image is distorted. This is where one sees oneself as fat when he or she is not or thin when actually overweight. This can lead to low self esteem and even depression.

Sometimes people obsess about their appearances. They constantly have to check their appearance in the mirror and oftentimes see flaws that aren’t even there. This is called Body Dysmorphic Disorder, or BDD.

BDD is an anxiety disorder which manifests itself as an obsession with one’s appearance. It involves persistent thoughts that one’s hair is too thin, nose is too big, thighs are too fat, etc. Disorders which hatch from BDD include anorexia (starving oneself to lose weight), bulimia (vomiting after eating) and even obesity (how ironic).

This is seen more in women (especially teen girls) but men can suffer from it as well. They tend not to share their feelings about their bodies for fear of seeming effeminate to their peers.

How do you know if you have a distorted body image? Ask yourself a few questions: Do I avoid the gym for fear of being seen in exercise clothes?
Do I avoid family or high school reunions because of the way I look? Do I criticize myself every time I look in the mirror?

Body image isn’t static – it can and does change. There are things you can do to change yours if it is negative.

Start simply – when looking at yourself in the mirror, only tell yourself things that you would tell your best friend, “Yes those are pimples but they are barely noticeable.” “Yes, you could lose some weight but you are a beautiful wonderful person I enjoy spending time with.”

Lie to myself? If your body image is negative or distorted, it may seem like that especially at first, but keep at it. Talk to someone about your feelings – someone who’s opinion you trust and respect and who has a positive self image his or herself.

If weight loss is your issue, get a friend to join you at the gym. Having someone who’s expecting you to show up is key. Having someone to “hang” with at the gym will also help you to feel less insecure and will allow you to focus on your workout.

If you need help getting started, I highly recommend my all natural Weight Loss Breeze program. It’s simple to do and results are seen immediately!

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