Exercise for Weight Loss

Exercise is an important part of weight loss. But what kind works best?

There are many to choose from, like interval training, circuit training, resistance exercise, and aerobic exercise. Some say lifting weights is the only way while others claim this is too strenuous. Some say aerobic exercise burns more fat but then others claim it does not help in weight loss. Who do we believe?

My opinion is just do what you feel like doing. But do something. No exercise is the quickest way to get out of shape and unhealthy, that's for sure. Regular exercise lowers blood pressure, burns calories, strengthens your heart muscles, increases your ability to breathe deeper (very healthy), and keeps you limber and youthful.

Personally, I like exercise where I feel like I'm exercising. So-called "dance" aerobics do nothing for me. I feel like I'm expending my energy on learning what to do rather than burning calories or getting healthy. Maybe if I tried salsa dancing...

My exercises of choice have been David Kirsch's Sound Mind, Sound Body dvd. (You can find it on Amazon.) I love the sumo squats he uses and exercises such as push-ups which are simple yet extremely effective. The workout is about 45 minutes, but I set my goal at 10 minutes when I first started. It took a while to get up to the whole 45 minutes but it was worth it. It was very difficult, so I took my time and figured something (10 minutes) was better than no minutes.

My new favorite is Turbo Jam by Beach Body. I was shocked at the price, but then found it on Amazon for a lot cheaper (sorry Beach Body but a girl's gotta do). I got the first dvd which consisted of 5 workouts. Two of them are only 20 minutes long which is great for me. If I am told I must exercise 40 minutes to see results my inner rebel will not do it at all. The 20 minutes workouts are great and it's so fun I didn't mind going to the longer workouts. I actually really enjoy this one!

And, here's my plug, I get a lot quicker results from my exercise these days after I go healthy by cleansing. If you haven't seen it yet, here's my personal story about weight, Hep C and body cleansing

Fat Loss Cleanse

I know I go on about body cleansing or detoxing constantly - but we honestly need a new way of thinking. You know, a new solution for fat loss.

Believe me, I've tried the old standard that is supposed to work; eat right for at least six to twelve weeks, exercise, drink lots of water, stay away from anything delicious including salt.

I've done these programs more than once with little success. And I'm not the person that gave up after a few days. I actually did these types of programs and stayed on them. I had love, support and money to buy what I needed. So what happened?

First of all, I have to say that I didn't come out of these without any benefit at all. I did learn some things about myself.

For example, I was shocked at how addicted to salt I had become over the years. When I first tried a diet that completely cut salt for the first two weeks, I became seriously angry as the days went on. I felt like throwing my food out the window! This couldn't be how we were meant to live, could it?

During this time I shrunk. But after a few weeks felt so out-of-control that I had to stop this program. Not only was I angry, but there seemed to be so much work involved to make food that I didn't even look forward to eating. I purposely stopped that diet out of rebellion.

I also learned that I loved to exercise. I love aerobics, lifting weights, running, rebounding, and kick-boxing. But they didn't do anything to help me lose weight. What kind of freak was I?

So I eventually began to believe I was destined to be a "big girl," as many had called me, which was weird considering I had tiny bones the size of a bird. But, at the same time, I must be a "big girl" because even when I exercised every day and followed my diet religiously with the help of my husband, I still could not lose the excess 35 plus pounds that had crept up on me.

Then I got sick. I had contracted Hepatitis C. The doctors wanted me to get sicker before they put me in the hospital. But I wanted to get well, so I tried the body cleansing and detoxification that friends had told me about.

Much to my surprise, not only did I feel better but I lost weight! What a nice side-effect, I thought. And to sweeten the pot, not only did I lose weight during my body cleanse, but it kept falling off over the next few weeks as I started going into a maintenance or health eating mode.

After I got healthy and more educated I eventually went from student to therapist to health center owner. I worked with hundreds of people, men and women, who had similar experiences. These people came in for various reasons and were surprised when excess weight came off, seemingly unexpectedly! Many of them asked me why. Why did the weight come off during a cleanse, yet never did with so many "diets" or weight loss or fat loss programs in the past? Why now?

I'm not sure for them. It could be that because of health issues they became more serious about the eating regimen. It could be that they were more focused on their health they didn't realize they were doing things, such as changing their diet, that would naturally cause their bodies to lose weight.

But I believe there is more to it, judging from my own experience. I believe that eating in a way that helps the body cleanse is different than dieting. Cutting out all spices, foods, dressings, sauces... and salt... to help you lose weight is not natural. Our bodies seem to prefer a slower, more gradual, more natural change. I mean, we didn't come out of the womb ordering cheeseburgers.

A fat loss cleanse diet should have allowances at first. Body cleansing is a natural process because your body has organs designed to detoxify and cleanse. The cleansing process will start when you alter your present diet.

A fat loss cleanse can help your body move out wastes that actually cause your cravings in the first place. This makes the eating regimen more tolerable as the program goes on.

A fat loss cleanse should incorporate herbs, and other foods that help your body cleanse, detoxify and adjust to getting waste out. Excess waste, as I've said in other posts, may be a storage house for environmental toxins that can do things like disrupt thyroid function. Moving toxins out may help your body balance once again to alleviate symptoms that may have stemmed from a thyroid that is not functioning properly.

The bottom line is that I believe many of us don't have to be destined to be "big." I believe that losing weight is hard, but I don't think it's because we lack willpower. I believe our bodies and minds need more help than a simple change in diet. And I think that help comes in the form of herbs, bodywork and knowledge.

I wrote the SpringClean Intensive to compete with another fat loss book on the market that I think falls short for the price. So I priced mine at about half of theirs but put in a lot more informative and professional information. I believe a body detox is an important missing link in weight loss and fat loss.

Why Can't I Lose Weight - Part 2

I'm going to explain my previous post, "Why Can't I Lose Weight?" a little more in depth.

My answer before was environmental toxins. I know it sounds crazy so I'm going to explain why I believe this is true - at least in part.

First of all, let's get the genes thing out of the way. While genes do determine some aspects about us, they are not absolute. Many genes lie dormant and your lifestyles determines which are active and which are not. We do have a little control there.

So what role do environmental toxins play? A lot. First there are the health issues. Many of the pesticides and industrial toxins around us and in our bodies interfere with our natural hormone balance. One of the problems arising from this is an under active or inhibited thyroid.

When your thyroid is not functioning properly, you may get symptoms of hypothyroidism. This leads to unexplained weight gain, hair loss, and fatigue. It also makes it a lot harder to lose weight.

Environmental toxins get stored in adipose tissue. This seems to be because your body has no way to process these foreign man-made toxins. Since they are not from nature and evolution takes centuries to happen, your body simply has no gene coded to tell it what to do with the toxin. To protect you, your body stores many of the toxins in fat where it will cause lesser harm.

Your body will attempt to filter or neutralize environmental toxins through your liver. Since there are so many of them (around 80,000 known to be in use in our environment) our bodies get over-burdened with these. This may lower your liver's ability to function, which is a problem since another function of your body is to metabolize fat. If your liver has to make a choice of toxins or fat, your body will probably choose dealing with toxins as a matter of survival. You can live with fat and besides, your body may need it as storage for the excess toxins it cannot process.

Some of the environmental toxins are resistant to metabolic breakdown. In other words, your body just cannot process them. Many of these are getting stored in your adipose tissue, or fat. One study on obesity indicates that weight loss may become detrimental to health as the toxins leave adipose tissue and circulate.

I like to bring these issues to people's awareness. Obesity is epidemic and losing weight is not an easy task by any means. Cravings seem to dominate and dieting doesn't seem to be working.

I did various diets for years starting in college. I know I gained a lot of weight eating pizza and drinking beer in college, but when I stopped this lifestyle, why didn't the weight come off, not matter how well I ate? This gets frustrating so eating more junk food not only doesn't seem to matter, but becomes comforting.

It was only when I started cleansing my body that the weight started coming off. After my first body cleanse, not only did I drop 25 pounds but it stayed off. And it kept leaving as my body started balancing. For the first time in my life, my body responded to exercise. Things weren't so frustrating or hopeless any longer.

It is my goal to teach people about holistic health and the power of their bodies. I know we are all stronger than we may think. Cravings and plateauing are not our fault, there is an outside force that many are unaware of. This affects our ability to lose weight and in many cases affects our health in other adverse ways.

I wrote these following books to teach others what I have learned. The first is about The SpringClean Cleanse which is about Whole Body Cleansing and the next is The SpringClean Intensive, the intensive Weight Loss Detox and Fat Loss Cleanse.

Cleansing Foods to Help You Lose

Whether it is weight or fat you want to lose, cleansing foods can help you do it. But first let's get something straight...

The wrong foods will harm you, cause you to gain weight, gain fat and get sick. I'm not saying that you have to be a nut about it, but when you do eat "fun foods," do so only on special occasions. If you eat junk food and processed foods every day then no amount of cleansing foods, weight loss or fat loss programs will help.

The easiest way to make a change is to replace the wrong foods with the right ones. This way, not only do you fill in a munchie gap, but you will feed your body important nutrients.

The right cleansing foods are easy for your body to digest. In case you didn't know, good digestion leads to a stronger metabolism. Simple, whole, unprocessed foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains (rice, quinoa, couscous, etc.), nuts, beans, legumes and unprocessed animal meats in right size portions.

Fruits and vegetables make the top of the list of cleansing foods because they aid in digestion and provide natural fiber. For example, if you eat fruits alone in the morning, your body's natural cleansing process kicks in since this is your normal time to "clear out waste."

Eat a fresh green salad before the rest of your lunch. This will help stimulate digestive enzymes and get your body ready to digest the heavier food soon to come.

The more fruits and vegetables you eat in their whole, raw form, the less you will need to eat junk foods. Also, the more you eat, the more you stimulate your digestion.

Some people have weaker digestion. If this fits your description, eat smaller portions of fruits and veggies at first. Don't mix too many in one dish or with other foods and keep fruits separate from all other foods. Let your body adjust slowly as nature intended.

Grains are considered a cleansing food because they also contain various fibers to sweep your digestive tract. But don't eat too large a portion at one meal and watch your portions throughout the day.

A lot of get addicted to breads very easily. This is because most are not whole grains, in spite of the claims the packaging may make. They may contain some grain along with high fructose corn syrup and bleached, white flour to make it more appealing, since many of us grew up on soft, white bread. Watch out for this trick.

Meat may or may not be considered a cleansing food. This is because on one hand, if you eat organic, unprocessed meat you benefit from healthy fats (such as conjugated linoleic acid, an Omega 3) and this type of protein seems to help your liver detoxify. This is important one of your liver's jobs is to burn fat. But over-eating meat will have an adverse effect on your health.

A raw food diet is excellent since all of your meals will use cleansing foods. This type of diet takes practice to ensure you get complete nutrition, so you have to do your homework. In addition, it may require re-learning skills in the kitchen. A good raw food cookbook can help with that.

I just put together a new page on how cleansing can help you lose weight at my other website. There's a great video on there called "Invisible Killers" that was featured on the news. It's only a couple minutes so go take a look and check out my new books. You'll find all this at Body Detox