If You Want to Lose Weight, Stop Doing These 6 Things

by | Jun 25, 2013 | Eating Naturally, Natural Remedies, Natural Weight Loss, Naturopathic Health

Here are 6 things you should STOP doing if you want to get healthy or lose weight.

  1. Stop going to bed late.
    The average adult needs at least 8 hours of sleep per night. You should be able to wake up, without an alarm clock, feeling rested. Every person is a little different, so do some experimenting to find out how many hours your body’s ideal sleep time is. If you aren’t getting enough quality sleep, you will pack on the pounds. Lack of sleep wreaks havoc on your hormones. The hormone changes will increase your appetite and squash your satiety. You will also have increased stress hormones which burn your muscle up for fuel, killing your metabolism.
  2. Stop drinking soda. Even diet soda.
    Soda is bad for you. It is full of sugar and gross additives. It causes crazy blood sugar spikes which can lead to insulin resistance, not to mention a can of soda is completely empty calories. Diet soda is just as bad. Artificial sweeteners are toxic and can lead to changes in your brain chemistry. And believe it or not, your brain reads a diet soda the same as it would a regular soda. When you drink a diet soda your body expects incoming calories, so it releases insulin. When no calories come in, your body freaks out and sends out hunger signals because you have all this insulin and no calories for it to work with. So now you are overeating because of unbalanced hormones and mixed up hunger signals.
  3. Stop skipping breakfast.
    Skipping breakfast, or any meal, will cause your stress hormones to go up. This causes you to burn muscle for fuel which kills your metabolism. Also, because your body can’t count on you for regular meals, it will try to hold on to it’s fat stores as best it can — hampering you weight loss attempts.
  4. Stop eating after dinner.
    Late night calories are not the same as mealtime calories. Eating at night messes up your natural hormone cycles and your natural digestive processes. Just don’t do it. Brush your teeth after dinner and close up the kitchen.
  5. Stop skipping workouts.
    The body you wan’t isn’t just made in the kitchen. You have to sweat a little for it too. Starting out, aim for 30 minutes of activity 3 times a week. Gradually increase from there until you are working out most days of the week. Try a variety of activities.
  6. Stop drinking alcohol.
    Alcohol inhibits fat burning for up to 12 hours after you drink. Yikes.

This post comes to us from our friends at Optimal Body Balance.