Slim Down For Summer

by | Dec 20, 2019 | Nutrition, Optimal Health, Weight Loss

Many of us yearn to lose those few stubborn extra kilos we carry, particularly to slim down for summer. But, the worst thing we can do to ourselves is to go on a strict diet for weight loss. Starvation diets decrease muscle mass, which slows down the metabolism causing us to lose strength and energy. This is extremely unhealthy and ageing. In my practice, I teach people how to balance their hormonal system with nutrient-dense food in the right balance for their metabolic type. And getting healthy is the key! Getting healthy will supply the body’s systems for recovery, repair and energy. This gives you optimal energy for exercising as well as getting through the rest of your day with energy to burn. Our population continues to become overweight and unhealthy as more people grab for food on the run, food that is processed and void of nutrients. Commonly, people miss breakfast, grab a coffee and muffin mid-morning, and are starving by the afternoon. Then they stuff themselves with a huge dinner and flop into bed, over-full and uncomfortable because the blood has gone to the stomach to digest the big load of food. Not only does this disrupt sleep, it also makes it extremely hard for the digestive system to work effectively to process and utilise the food. And it contributes to weight gain instead of weight loss! This leaves people waking up exhausted in the morning, rather than refreshed and rejuvenated. Sound familiar?

How you can turn things around:

– Eat like a king in the morning, in the right balance for your metabolic type. – Have regular meals throughout the day, tapering towards the end of the day. – If you want to lose body fat it is a good idea to stop eating three hours before retiring to bed. – Eating smaller and more often speeds up the metabolism. It is like putting kindling on a fire…it burns fast, instead of a big log that dies it down. – Lose those extra kilos slowly through a lifestyle you can sustain and enjoy. It is not as simple as calories in versus calories out.

Increase physical workload

Get active! But make sure you choose the appropriate form of exercise to do it with. Poor quality, uneducated exercise puts a huge stress on the body. In the short term it can cause painful backs and joints, inflamed muscles due to joints not tracking properly from muscle imbalance. In the long term, it can damage your structure. Which type of exercise is best? All forms of exercise will burn energy, but some will burn energy more effectively than others. Cardio (bike, walk, and swim, run) is promoted as good for weight loss, but it is actually not the most effective way to burn calories. Low-level, long time exercise like these raise cortisol levels (stress hormones). Too much cortisol in your body can actually decrease muscle mass. However – exercises that use big muscles – such as good quality weight training, sprinting and weighted circuits – burn much more energy than cardio. Why? Because muscle is the most active tissue in the body. Think of putting your foot down in a V8 to driving for miles in a Mini to compare the difference! However, it is important to note that more skill is required for exercises that use big muscles. Therefore always seek guidance on your form and function, and ensure that you are executing the exercises correctly.

Good lifestyle is not rocket science!

So much confusion exists out there on what to eat and how to exercise. But it’s actually quite simple – back to basics works best! – Avoid processed foods. – Avoid the white devils, (white sugar, white flour, processed milk, iodised salt). – Eat good quality protein (beef, lamb, chicken, seafood, eggs, and un-processed dairy) for recovery and repair. – Eat carbohydrates, essential for our energy supply. Choose carbohydrates fromvegetables and fruit. – Fats are extremely important in our diet. – Cholesterol (animal fat) is essential to heal thehormones in our body. Low fat diets will make you sick, tired and create hormonal imbalance long term. – Limit/or cut out alcohol, soft drinks and processed juice.

CHEK Points for Slimming Down

Paul Chek, is an internationally-renowned expert in the fields of corrective and high-performance exercise kinesiology, and recommends the following points to help with weight loss. – Never skip meals. – Eat right for your metabolic type. – Choose organic or the best quality food available to you. – Eat small and often. – Eat like a king in the morning and a pauper at night. – Make sure digestion, detoxification and hormonal systems are all working properly. They are a team. – Avoid foods that you may have intolerance to. – Cycle weighted training with cardio. – Get to bed before I Opm to optimise physical repair. – Drink the right amount of water daily for you. Reference: Holistic Lifestyle coaching, Paul Chek and Belinda Watson

The Posturefit Studio is a hub of experienced, highly specialised practitioners, including C.H.E.K (Corrective High-performance Exercise Kinesiologists) and C.H.E.K Holistic Lifestyle Coaches, Certified ELDOA, and Myofascial stretching, Soma training, functional range conditioning (FRC), kin stretch structural integration, and MyoFascial therapists.

Unlike other training studios that focus on how things look on the outside, we focus on correcting the inner workings of the body first. In doing so, we help you overcome on-going injuries, chronic pain, and low energy and ensure you instead find freedom in your body so you can achieve your full physical and functional potential

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