In part one, I talked about keeping your blood sugar levels even, and making coconut your new best friend. (I wanted to clarify, after receiving a few comments and an email, that I wasn’t trying to advocate that most of us had to go on a low-carb extreme diet to lose weight. Most of us just eat an extreme amount of carbohydrates without even realizing it! So cutting back will help many of us lose weight.)
Today, I would like to give just a few more tips and resources. So here we go…..
Eat Your Vegetables
We all know we should, but we don’t always get enough. In other countries, such as Italy, they eat high amounts of vegetables. This may be part of the reason why they are so healthy, and weigh so much less, despite not having a “perfect” diet. We should follow their good example, and really learn to enjoy vegetables. Once you start eating vegetables in higher amounts, you will literally crave them, if you don’t get them. They provide not only important fiber and nutrients, but they feel you up with fewer calories.
On that same note, when I went on The Body Ecology Diet, to help clear up some digestive issues (caused by back to back antibiotic use), not only did I have to food combine, and eat high amounts of cultured food, but I was supposed to eat 80 percent vegetables. I don’t think I was always successful in that, but I did certainly eat a lot of vegetables. Despite that fact that I felt like I was eating (vegetables) all day long, I still managed to lose weight. In fact, I lost too much weight, though I have since regained it successfully (that’s a good thing!). But all to say, eating a lot of vegetables and not eating as many carbohydrates certainly made me lose weight!
Watch Out for Nuts and Olive Oil
I know, I know. I said that fat doesn’t make you fat. That was only a half truth, perhaps. This is another point I gleaned from Eat Fat, Lose Fat. Olive oil and nuts may be great for your health, but they do tend to fatten you up. So, if you are trying to lose weight you should limit them. Mary Enig (the co-author of both Nourishing Traditions and Eat Fat, Lose Fat), suggests that you melt one cup of coconut oil over low heat, and add to one cup of olive oil and one cup of sesame oil (keep at room temperature). This is a healthy oil to use, the coconut oil stays liquid, and you won’t have to worry so much about the weight gain caused by olive oil.
Now, I should note that there are some studies done on certain nuts that show that they could be helpful in losing weight (I recently saw one for almonds). So, you can research it yourself. I am sure that some nuts are more fattening than others. Overall, just remember moderation.
Don’t Think “Eat Less”, Think “Eat More”
The tendency we have when trying to lose weight, is to think about all of the things we need to eat less of. Instead of thinking of all of the no-no’s, concentrate on all of the wonderful food that you should be eating more of, like coconut, beautiful salads, meat dishes, and creamy vegetable soups. Think less processed food, more whole grains. Think less carbohydrate foods, but more metabolism friendly coconut meals. Keep a positive view point!
Make Your own Broth and Soups
Chicken Noodle Soup with Turkey “Sausage”
Making your own very delicious chicken and beef broths is a gourmet, nutrient rich choice. By using that broth to make soups, it will give you satisfying meals that keep you thinner. And don’t be afraid to add some cream or coconut milk to your soup. It will help you absorb your nutrients, and keep you fuller for longer (oh, and it makes it taste better too!)
Stay Hydrated and Drink Tea
I find that I will sometimes eat something when I am really just thirsty. Staying hydrated helps solve that problem. We want to eat when we are hungry, not when we are thirsty! Sometimes I am just in the mood for a “treat”, but not really hungry. Often, making myself a cup of my favorite herbal tea, with a dab of honey and a bit of cream or coconut milk fills that desire completely. Sometimes I will also add a bit of coconut oil as well (though that gets my metabolism going so much that I usually have to have a snack soon after!).
And the Obvious
Don’t overeat. It’s not only bad for your weight, but also for your health. Eating just until satisfied will leave you feeling less “weighed down” in more than one way! Also really avoid going on extreme diets. They are very hard on your body, health and metabolism. Choose instead to nourish your way to a proper weight.
If you follow practical steps to lose weight, but still don’t find it helping, you may need to consider going to a nautropath or qualified doctor to make sure that you don’t have any medical reasons that are causing you to hold on to weight. For example, low thyroid function will make you hold on to weight and I am sure that there are other medical reasons as well.
Helpful Resources:
Eat Fat, Lose Fat-Sally Fallon and Mary Enig not only give wonderful information on health and weight issues, but also provide wonderful recipes and menu plans for weight loss. Half of these recipes are coconut based, a big boon for those of us trying to add coconut into our diets.
The Body Ecology Diet-I definitely lost weight on this diet and also lost my sugar cravings as well. I do think that it helped my health, but found it to restrictive for long term use (this might have been because I was nursing at the time). There are some things that I don’t agree with, and many things I question, but I have gleaned a lot of wonderful advice and information from this book. It could prove very helpful to people trying to lose weight.
Weston A. Price Foundation– If you do a word search for “weight loss” on this site, you will find many wonderful resources, including book reviews on different diet books from a ‘nourishing” view. This would be quite helpful to those trying to sort through different diet books.
I found this article helpful in dealing with the “how many carbs” to eat question. This article gives helpful links to other articles on the site.
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Thank you so much for all of the information, I am always trying to eat healthier, and recently went on a “eat better” diet, where the point was to reduce sugar and flour intake. Even so I just wanted to comment about specific problems I feel you might have in the US. Here in Uruguay, people really don’t eat enough vegetables, although we have amazing and fresh ones. People are real beef and potatoes eaters, but everything is fresh, I think unfortunately that in the US the main problem is how processed foods are, everything has some sort preservative or conservative in it. I say this only from an observational standpoint, thats why I like this blog so much it stands by making your own food. I don’t think that a cake or cookies are so awful every now and then, but only if you made it yourself, and new what went into it.
Thanks
Gobertina,
Excellent point! I think that processed food with all of those nasty additives does not help our weight or health. So many people would see profound health and weight improvements if they took out refined, processed and fake food out of their diet. Thanks for sharing!
I recently became vegan and have found a ton of great resources to help me manage my diet and come up with new recipes. My favorite site right now is this one:
http://www.mypyramid.gov/
Click on menu planner and you can put in everything you eat for a whole week. You customize it to your age, gender, weight, and activity. It tells you how much of each food group you need. This was really helpful in understanding “how much is too much” in terms of carbs and how many vegetables I really was eating. It’s helped me eat a LOT better and healthier. Also, I found that making your own snacks (muffins, granola bars instead of packaged snack bars) can help as well since you know exactly what goes in them and can make them with less sugar, whole wheat, whatever you want!
PS That’s a Ball canning jar! I go to Ball State.
Excellent information Kimi! As a Nutritionist I often find myself doling out the same advice to my clients who are looking to lose weight while increasing their vitality. Great site!
One small point: there’s a big difference in the quality of coconut oil available. Real, extra-virgin, raw, organic coconut oil is the best one to get for cooking with. The raw, organic coconut ‘butter’ is also divine for putting on food, shakes, or eating straight out of the jar.
Off to eat my bone broth/miso veggie soup with my farm fresh, organic, free range chicken. Yum….
I wanted to ask you a question about antibiotics. I saw that you had mentioned that in this post. I have been on antibiotics for acne for several consecutive years. I’ve tried a couple of different times to go off of them, only to find myself having terrible breakouts within a week of going off of them. I really don’t want to be on them, however the acne is so bad without them that I continue to take them. I was wondering if you knew of any natural ways to fight acne or if you have any resources in this area…I know this isn’t really so much about food, but I thought maybe you might have some insight.
I just found your blog today (through Kitchen Stewardship) and I am really enjoying it! Thanks so much!
Klutzymama I have acne too, but it’s so much better now than it ever was. I actually used to believe I had to use the harshest face cleansers in order to clear up my skin, but then I tried some natural products and I had amazing results. I really liked the Burts Bees Deep Cleansing Cream but now I am doing the Oil Cleansing method. There are many websites that explain how to do it.
This is a great post. It would be helpful if you linked to the first post (at the top or bottom) as well as link to this post from the first one: http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2008/07/q-losing-pregnancy-weight.html