by Kim Miller | Aug 8, 2015 | lose your waist wednesdays, Uncategorized
Here’s the thing. If you want to lose pounds, you need to loser proof your mindset. Here are 2 ways to loser proof your mindset and get a grip on what really matters:
1. When you hear your inner voice saying, ” I know I should not eat this.”, you must stop – and switch the thought around. Ask Yourself what should I be eating and what is important in my life. Now, having these thoughts each and every day can play havoc on our limited supply of will power, so this approach has to be combined with the second way to loser proof your mindset.
2. Eat! Eat and Eat! I tell my 30 Day members, ‘this is their time to feel really good.’ We are not looking to see how miserable we can make ourselves as we lose weight, but instead, how happy we can make ourselves. Losing weight in the middle is in big part about eating the right foods. Eating an abundance of the right foods is what satiates us, keeps us from having to exert will power at every turn, makes us happier, and makes us feel and look more alive. Combine these two tips and last week’s tips and you will be miles ahead of others in shedding weight for good. I promise.
More Details…
1. Eat real food. When we eat real food, which contains many nutrients, we are more satisfied, eat less, and lose belly fat. Getting adequate vitamins and minerals helps you burn calories more efficiently, helps regulate appetite, lowers inflammation, boosts detoxification, aids digestion, regulates stress hormones, and helps your cells become more insulin sensitive. Along with lots of green vegetables, include protein in every meal since studies show it keeps you fuller longer so you lose more weight.
2. Manage stress levels. Chronic stress causes your brain to shrink and your belly to grow. Chronically elevated levels of your stress hormone cortisol cause increased blood sugar and cholesterol, depression, dementia, and promotes the accumulation of belly fat that we so commonly see in patients with insulin resistance or diabetes. You crave sugar and carbs and seek comfort food.
3. Address food sensitivities. We often crave the very foods we are allergic to. Getting off them is not easy, but after two to three days without them, you will have renewed energy, relief from cravings and symptoms, and begin to shed belly fat. Gluten and dairy are two big food sensitivities that I eliminate right off with my 30 Days To Lean Groups.
4. Get 7– 8 hours of sleep. Not getting enough sleep drives sugar and carb cravings by affecting your appetite hormones. Poor sleep also adversely impacts fat-regulating hormones like leptin and ghrelin.
I Want You to Know This
Losing weight should not be about how much we can sacrifice but it should be about eating great tasting foods that we look forward to eating and that satisfy us. Eating like a bird isn’t cool anymore.
by Kim Miller | Aug 8, 2015 | lose your waist wednesdays, Uncategorized
Here’s the thing. If you want to lose pounds, you need to first lose the ideas that keep you stuck in an endless cycle of yo-yo dieting. You need to let go of the beliefs and perspectives that sabotage your goal of permanent weight loss and vibrant health.
Thinking the way you’ve always thought and doing things you’ve always done will only lead to more of the same. I’m here to say-
Stop That!
In a cheerful way!
Accepting that things have to be a little different in order to see results is an absolute must. I am here to tell you that if your mindset is open to change, then you can do this. Following even just a few of the tips below wil be a great start in not only decreasing your waistline, but in furthering your health and vitality:
1. Eat real food. When we eat real food, which contains many nutrients, we are more satisfied, eat less, and lose belly fat. Getting adequate vitamins and minerals helps you burn calories more efficiently, helps regulate appetite, lowers inflammation, boosts detoxification, aids digestion, regulates stress hormones, and helps your cells become more insulin sensitive. Along with lots of green vegetables, include protein in every meal since studies show it keeps you fuller longer so you lose more weight.
2. Manage stress levels. Chronic stress causes your brain to shrink and your belly to grow. Chronically elevated levels of your stress hormone cortisol cause increased blood sugar and cholesterol, depression, dementia, and promotes the accumulation of belly fat that we so commonly see in patients with insulin resistance or diabetes. You crave sugar and carbs and seek comfort food.
3. Address food sensitivities. We often crave the very foods we are allergic to. Getting off them is not easy, but after two to three days without them, you will have renewed energy, relief from cravings and symptoms, and begin to shed belly fat. Gluten and dairy are two big food sensitivities that I eliminate right off with my 30 Days To Lean Groups.
4. Get 7– 8 hours of sleep. Not getting enough sleep drives sugar and carb cravings by affecting your appetite hormones. Poor sleep also adversely impacts fat-regulating hormones like leptin and ghrelin.
If you aim to implement these 4 tips daily, I am confident you will not only begin to see belly fat disappear within 4-5 days, but you will feel so much better.
I Want You to Know This
You do not have to wait 4,5, or 6 weeks to feel really good and leaner around the middle. You must know that a few days of diligence, and getting out of the rough, will open up your eyes to the real possibilities of becoming not just more trim, but more healthy too.
by Kim Miller | Jun 21, 2015 | lose your waist wednesdays, Uncategorized
There are two important things you should know about belly fat:
1. Yes, you can target it.
2. It burns so much quicker than other fat.
I know this sounds like wishful thinking because people in general have so much trouble in reducing their belly fat. But the reason it is so difficult is because there are basically 3 things that people are doing or not doing that sabotage their efforts at losing fat in the middle. In upcoming issues we’ll explore in detail what you should be doing and not doing to lose belly fat. Today, I’ll set the stage for what you need to know and what the science says to reduce your waist size.
My suggestion: read the information I am presenting today and wrap your head around it now. The information is not what you may think, but it is the reason that so many people are losing weight in their mid sections. We’ll go into detail in later issues.
1. Exercise
Slow and steady exercise burns belly fat. The more you do it, the more fat you burn. But you can’t increase your stress in the process. Walking or very light jogging is best. The average person will ignore this advice and keep burning themselves out and then wondering why their food and sugar cravings are through the roof.
In my 30 Day to Lean program members are encouraged to exercise daily. However I tell them to let it feel good. Take daily 30 minute walks or bike rides or go to the gym and do lite exercise not heavy. There’s a reason for this downplay of heavy lifting or intense cardiovascular activity. And the reason is that that when you are in the process of losing weight, heavy and intense exercise will raise the hormone cortisol. Cortisol is actually a stress hormone that locks in belly fat. I tell my clients that are aiming to lose weight to take it easy on yourself. This is no time to be acting like a maniac in the gym. Be low key and focus on light moderate exercise that relieves stress instead of elevating it.
2. Reduce stress
The other thing you must do when you are in the process of losing weight is to reduce stress. This of course goes hand in hand with moderate light exercise which reduces stress but there are other things that one can do to reduce stress during this time period of weight loss.
I tell my members that this is their time to feel good and do things they love to do. Sleep well and never feel guilty for sleeping 8 or 9 hours. Too often we pride ourselves on being so productive that we rarely sleep. This style of thinking I try to discourage because again it raises cortisol which makes our belly store fat. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather sleep 8-9 hours and grow lean rather than sleep a few and grow round.
3. Address insulin resistance
This is the toughest of the three things to do to lose belly fat. And it takes changes to your diet, not just eating less. This is why the Top 3 Diets fail in the long run, because they do not address this point. In my opinion and from what I have witnessed having over 53 people participate in this program is that what you eat and what you do not eat is so vitally important. Food matters and if you could only implement one of these facts, this is the one I would concentrate on.
by Kim Miller | Jun 20, 2015 | lose your waist wednesdays, Uncategorized
As a fair warning to you, today’s news is a little hard hitting regarding weight gain and belly fat. It’s a tough topic, but I think the more you know regarding how belly fat seems to almost suddenly appear as we age, the better you will be prepared to control it. Before you read this, just know that belly fat has much to do with the hormone insulin, and that we have the power to change and to stop weight gain in the mid section.A Shift In Biology
Weight gain, especially in the dreaded midsection often signifies a shift in biology creating hormonal imbalances that complicate taking control of weight gain.
So often people experience a vicious cycle of losing weight then gaining weight. One of the biggest reasons for this is that even our top rated diets of today still focus on calories in as a means to lose weight. When we focus on calories in and expending huge amounts of energy throughout the day, we lose sight of the fact that bringing health to the body especially hormonally is an absolute must in sustaining weight loss.
Insulin – Fat Storage Hormone.
Numerous hormones contribute to belly fat, but none proves more powerful than insulin. Insulin is our fat storage hormone. High levels of insulin tell our bodies to gain weight around the around the middle. Insulin also drives inflammation and oxidative stress, creating a myriad of downstream effects.
Eventually you become insulin resistant, which leads your body to generate belly fat and hold on to that spare tire for dear life. Fatigue after meals, sugar cravings, blood sugar swings or hypoglycemia, high triglycerides, low HDL, low sex drive, and problems with blood clotting are also common among people who are overweight.
Simply put, less insulin equals less belly fat, since insulin makes you hungry and stores belly fat. The best thing you can do to prevent diabetes and all its problems is to lose weight.
The Number One Thing You Can Do to Reduce Belly Fat
High insulin levels don’t just exist in a vacuum. They influence other hormones like leptin, your satiety hormone. When insulin blocks leptin, your body thinks it is starving even after a big ribeye steak, baked potato and glass of wine. Ever wonder how you can still be hungry right after a big meal? It is the insulin surge and the leptin resistance.
More than any other food, sugar becomes responsible for hijacking your brain chemistry and your metabolism to create insulin resistance and all its repercussions.
Calorie for calorie, sugar is different from other calories that come from protein, fat, or non-starchy carbs such as greens. Sugar scrambles all your normal appetite controls. So you consume more and more, driving your metabolism to convert it into lethal belly fat. We are all overdosed at an average of twenty-two to thirty teaspoons of sugar4 a day per person in America.
Fructose, the most metabolically damaging sugar, just makes things worse. It goes right to your liver, where it starts manufacturing fat, which triggers more insulin resistance and causes chronically elevated blood insulin levels, driving your body to store everything you eat as – you guessed it – dangerous belly fat.
You also get a fatty liver, which generates more inflammation. Chronic inflammation causes more weight gain and diabesity. Anything that causes inflammation will worsen insulin resistance.
Another problem with fructose is that it doesn’t send informational feedback to the brain, signaling that a load of calories just hit the body. Nor does it reduce ghrelin, the appetite hormone that is usually reduced when you eat real food.
We are programmed to store belly fat in response to sugar so that we can survive the winter when food is scarce. Genes do play a role, but they are a minor contributor to what is taking place today.
Shut Down the Insulin Surges
You will stop belly fat storage and cravings. And this is the number one thing you can do to stop belly fat now. More concise- stop eating sugar!
Belly Fat is Not Your Biggest Challenge
The biggest challenge you’re facing with being overweight is not your waistline or your weight. It’s not your belly. It’s your brain. Changing the way you think about food so you get your mind working with your body, not against it, is critical to weight loss and healing.
If you want to lose pounds, you need to first lose the ideas that keep you stuck in an endless cycle of yo-yo dieting. You need to let go of the beliefs and perspectives that sabotage your goal of permanent weight loss and vibrant health. Thinking the way you’ve always thought and doing things you’ve always done will only lead to more of the same.
by Kim Miller | Jun 20, 2015 | lose your waist wednesdays, Uncategorized
How Fiber Helps You Lose Weight – It Gets a Little Gross
Fiber is a nutrient. An interesting nutrient! On the one hand, our bodies are completely incapable of digesting it—the fiber we do ‘digest’ is actually digested by our gut bacteria. On the other hand, fiber is associated with a huge list of positive benefits, from lowered blood fats to reduced belly fat to decreased incidence of colon cancer.
To better understand the important role fiber plays not only in weight maintenance and weight loss, but in health in general, here’s a quick overview.
Two Types of Fiber:
1. Soluble Fiber, which can dissolve in water
2. Insoluble Fiber, which cannot dissolve in water
Soluble fibers tend to gel, dramatically increasing blood thickness/viscosity. When we consume soluble fiber, it gels in the stomach, making the chyme (the liquidy digested food that passes from the stomach to the small intestine) thicken. If you imagine how much slower honey drains from a bottle compared to water, then you can see how soluble fiber slows down the rate of your stomach emptying!
Insoluble fibers, on the other hand, absorb less water, do not gel, and do not greatly affect how fast food empties from your stomach. In contrast to soluble fiber, insoluble fiber makes food travel faster through your intestines by adding bulk to it—in this way, insoluble fiber is great in helping to prevent constipation. Since insoluble fiber gains so much bulk, it too can make you feel fuller.
In terms of health benefits, soluble fiber is the one which is most frequently cited. A meal high in soluble fiber moves much more slowly through the digestive tract, which increases fullness.
And it is one of the “magical” reasons why my 30 Days To Lean members cite rarely being hungry.
Another great benefit of soluble fiber is that it makes it challenging for the carbohydrates consumed in your meal to make their way to the lining of your small intestine. As opposed to a thin, liquidy chyme, carbohydrates (specifically glucose, the simple sugar we digest most carbohydrates into) have trouble moving through the thick chyme of a soluble fiber-laden meal.
Ultimately, this means that less carbohydrates are absorbed, and the ones that are absorbed are absorbed over a much greater period of time as opposed to the rapid absorption simple carbs have. The benefits of this slower rate of absorption are two-fold: you have much more prolonged energy, due to the “trickle release” of glucose into your blood, and blood sugar never spikes which means there is no insulin spike and associated “sugar crash”.
In addition to slowing down carbohydrate absorption, soluble fiber can also ‘bind’ fats and cholesterol. Instead of just making it difficult for fat or cholesterol to ‘swim’ to the intestinal membrane, soluble fiber literally locks some of the fat and cholesterol away, completely preventing them from being absorbed.
When we combine the decreased absorption of carbohydrates and the binding of fat in a meal with a high soluble fiber content, what happens is that “total fecal excretion” of calories increases—we poop out more of the calories than we normally would. This sounds gross, but do not say I did not warn you!
Here’s the thing – we get to eat more food because the soluble fiber prevents us from absorbing all of it! Now how nice is that? By now you should be figuring out why the 30 Days to Lean members are losing so much weight and so quickly. Do you get why I am always saying, “When you eat- EAT.” Let me add one more insight, but promise me, promise me, promise me, you will put it into action! When you are aiming to lose weight do not eat like a bird. You gotta eat. So treat it like a job and eat – but enjoy it! This bird dieting from boxes and paper has got to go! I am on a mission. And I want you to join.
Here’s Your Job This Week
– Aim to increase your fiber 10% this week. No more or you will be sorry – if you get my drift. Goal 30-35 grams daily.
– Exercise 30 minutes moderately daily.
– Sleep like a baby. No crying though!
by Kim Miller | Jun 20, 2015 | lose your waist wednesdays, Uncategorized
When trying to lose weight here’s one more piece of information you need to know:
Do Not Do This When Trying To Lose Weight
A myth which has been ingrained in our beliefs is that blood sugar is inherently unstable, and we need a constant stream of calories to ensure it never dips or spikes. These little 100 calorie snack packs that I see people buying at the grocery stores are killing them. It’s all in an effort to stabilize their blood sugars thinking that this will cause them to lose weight. This strategy not only does them a disservice in the weight loss department but can place them at increased risk for insulin resistance leading to pre-diabetes and diabetes!
Insulin – The Fat Storage Hormone
Insulin is the fat storage hormone as you know, but glucagon is the “take from storage” hormone. The problem is that insulin responds rapidly to the increase in blood sugar that eating causes, allowing us to store excess energy readily, but glucagon has a much slower response which only happens after we have gone through that fuel, a process which can take up to four hours!
If you attempt to control blood sugar by eating often, the only metabolic change you are likely to make is that your body will be releasing more insulin and less glucagon. By actively suppressing glucagon secretion, your body is less likely to take energy back out of storage, and weight loss will be slow.
Healthy Meal Intervals
When you allow healthy intervals between your meals, your body gets the chance to use its own natural blood sugar stabilizer, the hormone glucagon. The result is your body spends more time in “take from storage mode” and you lose weight more readily!
For those of you on the 30 Days to Lean program, you know how important it is that “when you eat – you eat, and when you do not eat – you do not eat. At first you think I am a crazy woman suggesting eating only 3 times a day and no snacking.
I get it! At first it seems a little crazy as so many people are used to eating more than 3 times a day. After a while though, my members settle into this lifestyle, losing weight more rapidly than on any other lifestyle plan. The best part is that as the weight comes off, settling into really enjoying eating becomes a big bonus. I can’t tell anyone this though. They just have to experience it. But when they do, they realize immediately that all those years they thought they loved to eat, they really had no idea what truly loving to eat meant!
It’s the craziest thing, but what happens is they enjoy food more for three main reasons: One, they are actually hungry when they sit down to eat. Two, there is no guilt. They can sit down and enjoy breakfast, lunch, and dinner with no apologies. Three, they are eating real wholesome food. They are eating like we a designed to eat!
