Hey there health seeker,
For years, as a holistic health practitioner, I steered away from promoting any weight loss topics on my blog or my workshops. For one, I didn’t want to sound gimmicky, and secondly, there are so many weight loss programs on the market.
My number one goal with my clients has always been to improve their health by figuring out the root cause of their imbalances. This allows me to suggest therapeutic foods and lifestyle choices that have a powerful effect on increasing their well being. And guess what? The side effect of improving your digestion and hormonal health, is of course weight loss, increased energy and feeling happy!
I have never asked a client to weigh themselves, nor do I provide calorie content of my recipes and meal plans. Why? Because it’s not sustainable, fun, or motivating. I do, however, ask them to write down how they feel and what their energy levels are like before and after working with me. Because, in the end, that’s what we all want!We want to feel good, look good and have high energy levels, right?!
By making subtle adjustments, some healthy substitutions and feeling motivated, you will make changes that will impact your life forever!
Here is the truth: If you want to lose weight, feel amazing and burst with energy ~ DON’T GO ON A DIET!
8 reasons why dieting to lose weight doesn’t work:
1. They Create Negative Emotions
How does your mind and body react when you hear the word diet? We immediately associate dieting with negative words like restriction, frustrating, and stressful. Just think about the psychological impact this has on you. When something is forceful and negative, how do you respond? Now think about the freedom of being able to make peace with your plate, eat when you’re hungry, find true pleasure in delicious whole foods, and finally stop the cycle counting calories and yo-yo dieting. What feeling does that evoke? Moreover, the deprivation of restrictive diets may lead to a diet-overeat or diet-binge cycle. And since your body doesn’t want you to starve, it responds to overly-restrictive diets by slowing your metabolism which of course makes it harder to lose weight.
2. They Slow Down Your Metabolism
The word diet, by definition, means “the customary food and drink of a culture, a person, or an animal.” Diets designed for medical reasons, like gluten-free for celiac disease, are necessary and serve a purpose. A diet for weight loss is a temporary and highly restrictive program of eating in order to lose weight.As weight loss programs, diets just don’t work! Yes, you can lose weight immediately, but about 95% of people who lose weight by dieting will regain it in 1-5 years. What’s more, each time you regain the weight it slows down your metabolism, making it that much harder to lose the excess weight that was regained.
3. They Don’t Teach You How to Eat Healthy
Fad diets don’t teach you anything about healthy eating. How to improve your digestion, what a healthy plate looks like and how to choose the right foods for you. When you’re finished with the program, you often end up regaining the weight back because you still haven’t figured out the root cause of your weight gain in the first place!
4. Diets are Not Sustainable for Long Term
Restrictive diets are not sustainable for long periods of time. When you cut a whole food group out of your diet, such as carbohydrates, your body will eventually become deficient in all the nutrients and benefits provided by that macro-nutrient. When your body is deficient in a nutrient, the imbalance can lead to further health concerns. For example, if you are on a low fat diet, you are missing the essential building blocks of a healthy neurological function and you can end up feeling depressed. A healthy eating plan, however, includes all the macro and micro nutrients your body needs to thrive.
5. They Develop Unhealthy Relationships with Food
When you become obsessive about numbers, counting calories, measuring your waistline, and weighing yourself on the scale, you develop a really unhealthy relationship with food. Serial dieting can lead to serious eating disorders. The truth is, numbers don’t equal health. You can have a really low calorie beverage with unhealthy ingredients that will leave your blood sugar levels fluctuating and send your cravings for sugar through the roof. The scale is also a liar. Firstly, many factors are involved in how much you weigh, like water weight, hormones, and body composition (muscle weighs more than body fat). Skinny does not always indicate health either! Part of a healthy eating plan is developing a healthy relationship with your body and food.
6. No One Diet Will Work for Everyone
We are all bio-chemically different. There is no one diet in this world that will work for everybody. An individual assessment based on your personal history, body type and age will give you insight into which foods work best for you.
7. Dieting Does Not Solve the Underlying Health Concerns
There are so many factors to consider; what’s the root cause of the imbalance? Is it a stressful living or working environment, childhood trauma, nutritional deficiencies, hormonal imbalance, digestion, poor sleeping habits, overly toxic internal environment? When we start to look at the big picture and dig deep, that’s where we find answers. Finding a balance that works for you is the key to healthy sustainable weight loss.
8. They Suck the Fun Out of Eating
When was the last time you ever heard anyone say “I really enjoy being on this diet, it’s so much fun to count calories!”. Never. Because it sucks. Truly healthy eating means that you are eating mindfully, full of gratitude, and enjoying every last morsel of your meal. It means falling in love with food for all the right reasons and being able to find freedom and balance.
For all of the above reasons, I decided to develop a program that will teach you effective and sustainable ways to manage your weight, make peace with emotional eating and finally allow you enjoy eating again!
Here is a glimpse of one of the favourites from the Non-Diet Weight Loss Nutrition Class ~ Full of flavour and beautiful healing nutrients!
Spinach and Wild Salmon Soup with Coconut Milk
This soup is very filling but light at the same time. It is packed with iron, vitamin A, protein and essential omega 3 fatty acids to help boost metabolism and combat cravings. I love the creamy consistency you get from coconut milk, without the digestion disrupting dairy!
- 2 wild salmon filet (about 5-6 oz each)
- ¼ tsp dried dill
- 1 tsp coconut oil
- 1 red onion
- ½ tsp sea salt + ¼ tsp
- 1 bigger sweet potato or 2 small ones
- 2 big handfuls spinach
- 1 can coconut milk
- 4 cups vegetable stock
- ¼ lemon + 2 lemon peels
- ½ tsp fresh ginger, grated
- bay leaf
- 1 lemon grass stalk
- 1 tsp dried cilantro
- ½ tsp coriander
- 3 Tbsp red curry paste (or to taste) or 1 Tbsp curry powder
How to make:
Preheat oven to 375°F.
Squeeze ¼ lemon juice onto salmon filet and sprinkle with ¼ tsp salt, dried dill and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Wrap salmon into an unbleached parchment paper, and put onto a baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, slice onion into long strips. Heat a large soup pot to medium heat and add coconut oil. Saute onion for 4-5 minutes, then add minced garlic and curry paste or powder and stir for 30 seconds. (If you plan to share this soup with your kids, you may want to add the curry after taking out their portions from the pot, then mixing it in before you serve yourself).
Add vegetable stock, lemon peel, fresh ginger, bay leaf, lemon grass, dried cilantro and coriander.
Cut sweet potato into cubes and add to soup. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes. When salmon is done baking, put into soup and simmer for another 10 minutes.
Roughly chop spinach and add to soup along with coconut milk . Heat through and then remove from heat. Add fresh cilantro and serve hot!
Makes 4 main dish servings.
Are you sick of fad diets, calorie counting and not having enough energy to get through your day without a caffeine or sugar kick?
Find your groove, make peace with your plate and learn to love food again! Join us for an inspirational program and feel lighter and more energized, for life! Get on the list for the next round of Non-Diet Weight Loss:
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