Talk about health

Now that spring is well and truly here, it’s a time when advertisers try to cash in on the latest diet plan. Regular readers will know that I have a jaundiced view of fad diets mainly because they don’t work in the long run. Yes, you’ll lose some pounds. But when the initial enthusiasm wears thin long before your body does, the weight will come creeping back.

Losing weight only really becomes sustainable if you work on changing your lifestyle. More exercise, smaller portions, more fresh fruit and vegetables, less processed and fast food … it’s a bit like a broken record. You’ve heard it all before, but it’s true.

However, as some of us have found out, following this plan doesn’t always produce the weight loss you hoped for. You’ve followed the advice to the letter, and still your weight remains anchored well above your target level. What’s going on?

Before you give up in disgust and go back to your old ways, here’s one possibility as to why your excess pounds are reluctant to leave you. It’s your attitude and state of mind!

How you think and feel has a lot to do with how your food is digested. What you put in your mouth is only part of the problem. The next part is to do with the efficiency of your digestion.

Ideally, you’ll chew slowly to break up the mouthful and mix it with the first digestive enzyme in saliva. Then there will be enough acid in your stomach to carry on the process of digestion; correct amounts of bile and digestive enzymes throughout the small intestine and so on. The end result is all the nutrient content of the food being absorbed into your body to nourish you, repair and maintain all the organs and cells, keep you fit and healthy and at your ‘fighting weight’ without any excess fat.

What’s your mind got to do with that process? Well, research suggests that your digestion will improve if you have a positive attitude about what you are eating.

Today’s lifestyles tend to work around the 24/7 way of existing. You’re on the go all the time, rushing to cope with the pressures of work and family, living with the worries of finance and health, rushed snacks, and catching a meal without stopping to consider what you are eating.

Life is all pressures and stress, and that is a major factor in the efficiency of your digestion. Stress is all about the fight or flight response. The stress hormones change the emphasis of your bodily functions so you can fight or run away. Your heart, brain and muscles get more blood to make you ready for this and, at the same time, the blood supply to your stomach and intestine is reduced. So, digestion becomes less efficient.

Your body is not built to digest food and run away at the same time. It does one or the other, not both. This is where modern life doesn’t help. A great many people live with almost constant stress. At the last estimate it was well over half of the population.

Give two people the same diet, one is stressed and anxious, the other calm and relaxed and the impact on their health and weight is very different. Stressed means poorer health and more weight.

If you want to get rid of some pounds and feel better, it isn’t simply a matter of cutting the fats, sugars and carbohydrates and getting some exercise. You have got to address your stressors and worries too. Find a way to relax at meal times. Discover how to calm down and enjoy your food. Improve your attitude and state of mind. Then your chances of losing that weight will greatly improve.

Find out what stress does to your body and how alternative therapies can help control that stress by visiting http://www.healthexplored.com , sign up for the newsletter, get hold of my STRESS e-books and much more.

Wishing you the best of health.