The reason I am writing this post is that I have had many people contact me about losing weight and getting healthy for their New Year’s resolution. It is that time after all.
But, I have also had some people close to me tell me they have diabetes and other health issues that could significant impact their health and shorten their lives. All of these people have completely preventable diseases and would not be there if their diet and lifestyle was in better shape.
It is that time of year again and it seems to be when most people tend to throw out the healthy habits and adopt some not so healthy ones. Many convince themselves that it is “OK” because it is just for a little while, but the truth is that this altered state of perception often leads into weeks and possibly months of overindulgence and bad eating habits. Then New Year’s Eve comes and people go on the roller coaster guilt trip of needing to be healthy to bring in the New Year.
While it may be OK to eat a few unhealthy things for the day of Christmas, having it every day over the festive season could turn into a nasty habit that could have long term implications on one’s health. Add in some alcohol everyday and all those bad carbs and the weight (namely fat) can pile on very quickly indeed. This could be especially true if excess fat is stored and the exercise stops and next thing you know that you have a years worth of fat to try and get rid of. Worse still, some people are eating like this every day and not exercising and putting on more inflammatory fat and not realising they are a ticking time bomb. These people then have a lifetime of fat to get rid of and that is not going to be an overnight fix by any means.
So many people always try to convince themselves that a little bit of this, or that, won’t hurt. That is absolute rubbish. Yes, a little bit of this and that won’t hurt if you have reached your optimum weight, got rid of all the bad fat around your body, and reached your health goals. Sure. But if you are already overweight, have excess tummy fat etc, yes, that little bit just set you back big time. Excess fat= inflammation.
Excess fat is also estrogenic and part of the reason obesity also unbalances hormones, causes inflammation in all the cells, decreases fertility, but also puts you at increased risk of many of the cancers we get as humans. We will talk about that in later posts.
Before you start making excuses and trying to plead your fat loss case, you might want to stop for a second and actually listen to some cold hard facts and from a qualified healthcare professional, not your next door neighbour pushing the next multi-level marketed shake diet scam. You need to put down your degrees in Dr Google and tell Dr Google to stick his fat loss advice misinformation where the sun doesn’t shine.
Excess fat and a sedentary lifestyle is going to cut your life short and also lessen your quality of life and increase your risks for other diseases that could cut your life even shorter. It is time to cut the BS (Bullshit) and tell it how it is.
On a daily basis I hear every excuse to why someone hasn’t been able to lose weight, or get their life back on track etc. I have heard it all. Even many of my fertility patients just don’t get that their current fat status is hindering their chances of healthy eggs, health sperm, and healthy embryos and having a healthy baby.
I have heard every excuse from “I go to the gym 2 hours per day and still can’t lose weight”, “But my diet is great and I still can’t lose weight”, “I’ve tried everything and seen everyone and still can’t lose weight” and so many other excuses.
Each time I hear the excuses start, the BS meter starts to go off and I feel the need to call people on their story they are living in. Sure, I get it is hard. Sure, I get the excuses. Sure I get it and understand the story being told to me. But seriously, nobody is going to do this for you.
People just need to take ownership and just admit that they are 100% responsible for their own body and now just need to take on the advice and just do it. You cannot keep blaming someone or something and keep shifting the focus off the one things holding you back, which is your self.
If someone is eating correctly (I mean eating a proper diet, not the one you have been conditioned to believe is healthy by clever marketing for big corporation), then you will burn fat and lose weight. You can’t out train a bad diet and you can’t lose fat if you are getting bad advice.
You won’t lose fat if you aren’t being honest with yourself and having chocolate, treats, biscuits, and drinking alcohol and all the other bad carbs along the way. One biscuit here and one piece of chocolate there, adds up to a crap load of sugar and fat storage in a week. Let’s not forget how alcohol is full of sugar and bad carbs and stores fat too.
Nine times out of ten it isn’t the diet that isn’t working for someone, it is the person not working and not doing things properly. Once that is sorted and proper adjustments made, plus moving the body at the same time, people will always lose that fat. They do when I am helping them.
The other big issue I see is people’s perceptions of what a good healthy diet consists of, or what they have been conditioned to believe is healthy. While this may not necessarily be their fault, once they have been told and don’t do anything about it, then there isn’t anyone to blame but self.
We also have the big issues in this country, and other parts of the world, with all of the unqualified wannabe health coaches (and bloody Dr Google) out there pushing the latest fad and not knowing what the hell they are doing and pushing it onto the unsuspecting masses who lap up the latest quick fix craze. We have also had years of indoctrination by cereal and bad food companies getting us to believe their sales pitch lies to boost their profits and keep us all sick.
Let me tell you one thing. There is no quick fix when it comes to fat loss. There is no magic pill, or magic shake, or magic supplement that is going to melt fat away overnight. People need to get that through their brains and start to be real about their expectations versus the reality of weight/fat loss.
It is called eating well, exercising and changing lifestyles, reconditioning the thought processes and learning to live life and love it at the same time. No shake, or quick fix fad, is ever going to replace a healthy diet and healthy lifestyle.
Those shake diets and quick fix fads only last a short time and while you are doing this and then once you stop, you rebound back to where you are. Don’t get me started on how those shakes etc are full of fillers, full of sugars and lack beneficial real nutrients and live enzymes. They aren’t real foods and they will never be real foods and we shouldn’t need to use them. OMG don’t get me started on what many people think are real foods.
One of the biggest issues with people not being able to lose fat is that their gut flora, or what we now call the Microbiome, is just not balanced and healthy and full of healthy bacteria. You can take multiple supplements and shakes and do copious amounts of exercise, but if your gut flora and Microbiome isn’t balanced and right, then nothing is going to work. If the Microbiome is balanced and healthy, then the rest of the body, the immune system and the mind will be healthy too.
Recolonising the Microbiome and balancing the gut flora is something I always start with when people are wanting to get healthy, and or lose fat. It is an absolute must to be able to reduce inflammation, get the digestion working properly, restoring the immune system, restoring optimum brain function, restore fertility and getting the body burning fat properly. Without getting the gut function working properly, nothing else will function properly either
You are all probably wondering why I use the word fat loss, instead of weight loss. That is because weight loss is not the goal to a healthy body. Fat loss is the goal. It is very easy to make someone lose weight, but the problem with most weight loss systems is that they make you lose muscle and body mass, not burn fat. So people lose the weight on the scales and the fat is left behind and then they rebound. It also leaves you a lighter person full of bad fat and full of inflammation that is still causing you to be unhealthy and have an increased risk of disease. You just become a fat skinny person and that isn’t good either.
We need to redefine the model of thinking around weight loss and start to re-educate people that we need fat loss to help the body become healthy. We also need to have a healthy Microbiome and healthy digestive system to achieve optimum health too. So no matter what your disease state is, your health goal is, or what you need to achieve to get your body back into optimum shape, gut health and a healthy Microbiome should be first and foremost.
Whether you want to lose fat, or recover from a disease state, or have a baby, fat loss and a healthy Microbiome are the integral key that you need to use to unlock your health and New Years goal. If you want to do fat loss properly, then book into a properly trained healthcare professional like myself, or a nutritionist and get your life and health back on track this New Year.
I know sometimes this may sound a little harsh, but it is from a place of caring and a place of wanting to give people the facts. We all need a wakeup call every now and then and sometimes there is no other way to do it but say it how it is. It is time to call people on their BS misinformation and excuses and let’s get the facts out there about what it takes to be healthy and what it takes to lose fat properly too.
Take care and here’s to good health this year
Andrew Orr
-Women’s & Men’s Health Advocate
-No Stone Left Unturned
