No one has to tell you that our portions have gotten beyond ludicrous to downright dangerous over the last 20-30 years. For a fun review on the madness, click here.

Given that I’m only slightly larger than your average 5th grader, I have to be VERY mindful of portions when eating in or out – remember, as portions have grown, so has what we consider to be a ‘normal’ plate size – just look at grandma’s china set for historical reference.

Here are some of my favorite ways to keep portions in check:

1) Choose a smaller plate. When eating out, keep your appetizer plate and serve your meal onto it, or better yet, order a healthy appetizer as your meal. I do not keep dinner plates in my home at all, simply because they encourage overportioning, or make it look as though I am depriving myself with all that white space!

If you are dining out and you want an entree, ask for a take-out box to be brought with the meal so that you can place what you don’t need that moment in the container and out of sight.

2) Ramekins and juice glasses keep portions in check – a juice glass is still 8 oz, and a ramekin for desserts like ice cream or treats like tortilla chips keeps portions easier to manage than using a standard bowl.

3) Chopsticks are our friend – they make it impossible to shove fist-sized globs of rice in my mouth when I am noshing on yummy Thai cuisine after a workout, and they slow my meal wayyyy down. Given that it takes 20 minutes for your stomach’s signal to the brain to activate the sensation of fullness every thing we can do to slow down our eating is a step in the right direction. Want to slow down even more? Try a mindful meal.

While living a fat loss lifestyle does take some planning and preparation, it needn’t consume your life! Here are some of my top tips for easily integrating more fat loss habits into your life:

1) Keep your workouts quick and effective: You’ll get far greater results if you ante up on the intensity and cut your time in half. Studies consistently show, whether it is high intensity intervals, circuits, or fartleks, you’ll burn more calories during the workout, have a greater afterburn (which means burning more calories after the workout) and get a more lean, toned look if you push yourself to the place where you have to back down and rest, rest, and then push yourself to that place again. How do you know you are at ‘that place’? Your muscles are burning, you are breathless, sweating and it’s HARD. I also tell my clients and cycle participants this is the place where they hate me, or they question their own sanity.

2) Get more protein: Take two groups. Put them on the same amount of calories per day and have one group have a higher protein diet (25-40%) and the other a lower protein diet (15%). The higher protein group will lose significantly more body fat, according to a study by Skidmore College. You will also burn more calories throughout your day, says the  European Journal of Clinical Nutrition and not only burn more fat, but reduce your risk for heart disease, according to Nutrition Metabolism. Why? Greater control of insulin levels, for one. Also, protein takes much more effort for the body to break down into usable amino acids, burning more calories in order to do so AND leaving you satisfied longer.

3) Mix your cardio with your weights: If you do cardio spurts in the middle of your weight sets, you’ll burn more fat than if you separate the two. Keep your heart rate up and you’ll get better results – guaranteed!

4) Fixate on fiber! Fiber is a beautiful thing. It keeps you satisfied, clears out your arteries,  and contributes to fat loss with it’s amazing ability to create bulk in the digestive tract without calories and keep insulin levels stable. Look for a fiber source in every meal! Your best bet: veggies. A close second is fruit, followed by whole grains. Consider adding a fiber supplement to your morning smoothie to get even greater results.

5) Make every day casual day - A University of Wisconsin study shows that wearing jeans led study participants to walk nearly 500 steps more than those dressed in normal work attire. That’s an 8% difference, which over time can yield significant results. It makes sense, right? Pencil skirts and stilettos have never made for comfy marathon gear! If you work in an environment where casual day is only on Friday (or never) switch to flat shoes and less constrictive skirts. Opt for layers so you can go for a walk at lunch without getting too sweaty.

6) Lift heavy, ladies! You don’t have enough testosterone to look like a bodybuilder, I promise. What you will do is get that toned look you are after, burn off a butt-load of fat, AND give yourself stronger bones with which to age gracefully. I encourage you to pick a challenging weight that you can lift – with good form – no more than 8-10 times and work with that for a few weeks. Then try for a little more. The key is to shock your system so it adapts. The adaptation process is what we call results.

7. Green tea – drink it! Drinking 3+ cups of green tea boosts metabolism by about 4% – and it isn’t from the caffeine. 4% is not a lot – it certainly isn’t license to eat another brownie – but over the course of a year it can add to additional fat loss you otherwise would not have seen. Metabolic boost aside, green tea has a host of happy chemicals in it that prevent cancer, heart disease, and aging, so drink up!

8. Groove to tunes (esp fast ones!) When you have your tunes with you, you are more likely to push a little longer, go a little harder, and get a more effective workout. Some studies indicate it will boost your consistency and make those hard workouts feel a little easier, leading to greater fat and weight loss. One caveat, though! If you are exercising outside near traffic, omit the music altogether or keep it low enough that you can hear traffic and cyclists. Safety first!

9. Contract consciously: Contract your abs when you lift those weights (or that box!), squeeze those glutes when you push off with each step..by using those muscles with awareness you activate them more often, leading to better form, addition muscle recruitment, and greater results overall.

10. Get fidgety: Fidgeters burn more calories – keep it moving by toe tapping, taking regular water fountain breaks, stand up when on the phone (or better yet, pace around). When researchers hooked people up to calorie monitors they found that sedentary fidgeters still used an average of 350 more calories a day than other sedentary folk. Not surprisingly, they were leaner as well.

11. Believe you can  I underline this because I believe it is the most important one. Without believing in the possibility of your healthy, happy self, you don’t stand a chance. Monitor all the positive things you have done for fat loss; you’ll be more likely to do more of them. And get this – according to a study in Psychological Science, when hotel housekeepers were told that their work was good exercise they lost about 2 pounds and reduced their blood pressure by an average of 10% in only 4 weeks, while those who were not told this had no change.  Whether or not it’s the placebo effect is irrelevant. Those results are noteworthy.

12.Learn to love fish oil -  Fish oil is an amazing nutraceutical. It boosts mood, heart health, and fat loss. It’s believed to aid in fat loss in conjunction with a fat loss diet by telling fat cells to reduce or stop replicating and storing additional fat, as well as controlling some of the inflammatory markers that cause insulin resistance and further aggravate fat storage. If fish oil gives you tasty burps, try chasing down your morning dose with a spoonful of nut butter. My recommendation: 4-6 grams of omega-3s a day. If you are taking blood thinners, please make sure your doc is closely monitoring your blood status, as fish oil can have a blood thinning effect.

13. Visualize! See it happen in your mind, watch it happen before your eyes! Your subconscious mind does not recognize the difference between fantasy and reality, and seeks to experience externally what it is expecting internally. Visualize your waistline shrinking, your muscles becoming more defined, and your strength increasing. Do this often, and avoid the things and people which may indicate otherwise (this is one reason why I encourage clients to step off the scale – or opt to weigh in every 1-2 weeks if they can’t  kill that relationship completely. Body weight fluctuates wildly due to salt intake, hormones, and other factors and can jack up your mental state and completely derail you).

Think it’s too New Age woo-woo? Check this out: a study in the North American Journal of Psychology reports that those who regularly visualized going through a specific weight workout actually gained almost as much strength as those who actually did it. Even better – when you visualize the workout’s results and THEN do it, your results are even greater than if you just mindlessly go through the motions or don’t do it at all.

Detoxes are incredibly popular – especially in the fall and spring. Equinox time, as our seasonal transitions, are an excellent time to detoxify the body. There is a natural shift in energy during these times – we all sense it! Fall comes and we begin to conserve our energy a bit, focus on the tasks at hand, travel less and stay in more. Springtime is the opposite – as the Earth wakes up from winter’s slumber, so do we! We stay out later, get busy with activities and naturally set goals for ourselves – usually around getting into that summer bikini or clearing out our closets. There is a natural biorhythm occurring within Nature, therefore within us. This is why such times are ideal and natural to cleanse.

Detoxification happens naturally within our bodies every day. Our system is in a constant state of detoxification and rejuvenation, utilizing the filtering capabilities of the liver and kidneys to remove unwanted compounds that exist naturally from simply being alive, as well as external toxins such as alcohol and pollution. In order to maintain vibrant health and wellness, we must be able to balance our body’s ability to detoxify with our capability of rejuvenation.

Cleansing offers us a great way to prevent seasonal illnesses that come with these changes because it allows out body a period of rest and rejuvenation, as well as a clearing out so that it is less burdened by seasonal changes. I would argue that  external detoxification and cleansing protocols are essential to well-being in this day and age for the following reasons:

1) Our food quality is at an all-time low. GMOs have permeated the marketplace, our topsoil is largely at the ocean’s floor, and even organic foods are not as nutritionally dense as they were 50-60 years ago. Our industrial commercialization of the food supply is for the purpose of convenience and commercial profit – NOT health. Consequently, we are consuming far less nutrition from the same apple eaten today as our parents or grandparents did. Our ability to rejuvenate is thus compromised, and our food contaminants are incredibly high.

2) We are stressed and overstimulated creatures! Finances are on nearly everyone’s mind, we work more hours than ever before and are paid less for those hours. CNN can give you the update on the state of our Union – I don’t need to share this with you. These stressors filter out into our workplace, our relationships, and burden our families. With less downtime to restore ourselves and a greater pressures in our culture, we are all in a chronic low level state of stress. Chronic stress inhibits all of the body’s functions, including metabolism, liver, kidney, lymph detoxification, and cellular rejuvenation.

3) We encounter greater pollutants which tax our bodies. Regardless of location, we are all inadvertently exposed and ingesting several man-made compounds that did not exist even 10 years ago. This comes from air, commercial and private buildings, food supply, cosmetics, and many other sources. All of this stress inhibits the body from ridding of toxins AND decreases the absorbability of nutrients we receive from the foods we eat, further taxing the burden on the body via low level malnourishment.

Many people think detoxifying involves strict, radical means such as juice fasting, harsh stimulants which purge the colon, or radical diets of nothing but soup or fruit. Not so! In working with active populations, I have designed detoxes which allow the body to detoxify while maintaining a work schedule or a physically active life. (note – this does NOT include high intensity or peak athletic training!) My detox time is always a great opportunity to whip up some of my favorite meals, like nori-wrapped salmon and detox-friendly pesto, and I never go hungry or suffer from low blood sugar. Detoxing can also extend out beyond food choices. A media detox is strongly recommended during times of overstimulation or stress; many, many people experience great epiphanies when they carve out the space to listen to the small quiet voice within.

In connecting with our body, a cleanse can offer us insight into the foods that may be problematic or troublesome for us. For those who are having digestive issues or difficulty taking off weight, I recommend very systemically re-introducing foods to determine exactly which dietary habits are responsible for ill health and poor weight. It is not uncommon to gain 3-6 pounds of water weight after consuming a food we are intolerant to. Consuming such foods regularly may not create overt or severe symptoms, but they can be the hidden reason why weight has plateaued or why it has been challenging to reduce in the first place.

Cleanses can be powerful to reset ourselves for the new season and get back on track. They allow us time and space to reconnect with our most precious possession – the vessel we live in and the spirit it contains – and bring us back to a place of honoring that.

Are you ready to detox? Ask yourself the following questions:
Did you have a touch too much fun over the summer? (You know what I’m talking about!!)

Do you feel sluggish and tired despite adequate sleep?

Do you have skin inflammations, achy joints, or seasonal allergies?

Are you susceptible to all those illnesses that comes around this time of year?

Do you have trouble taking off weight you’ve gained?

Do you have digestive issues (such as constipation, loose stools, stomach heaviness, bloating, or cramping, indigestion, etc) that you’ve deemed as ‘normal’ because they occur so often for you?

Do you feel groggy or get brain fog after lunch?

The more questions you answered ‘yes’ to, the more likely you’d benefit from a cleanse! Know that any ‘yes’ (aside from summer fun) is a sign of an abnormality, and it doesn’t have to be something you live with daily! Small steps can cause huge changes in our energy, digestion, and health. If you are interested in detoxification or suspect you may have a food intolerance, email me for more information and to set up a complimentary consultation. Mention this post and receive 10% off our new detox program, Purify! This 7 day detox focuses on cleansing all systems – lymph, liver, kidney, blood, and fatty tissue, and can be done without great interference in your daily routine.

FINALLY! It appears that the calorie counting method of weight loss is gasping its last shallow breaths. With such a weight loss icon as Weight Watchers – nearly 50 years old – changing their tune, the country will soon be looking at food in a newer, healthier way.

Click here to read more from the Time magazine article:

My thoughts – definitely an improvement, I’d like to learn more and I disagree that fruit should be free (yes if health is the objective, no if fat loss is). I think Jennifer Andrus’ comment about a calorie is a calorie is factually correct, but for purposes of health and fat loss, absurdly inappropriate to come from the mouth of a nutrition professional. Fat loss is far more complex than the units of heat we ingest (calories). Consuming sugar causes hormonal releases in the body that promote fat storage, while consuming protein does not. Yes, you can gain weight by consuming too many calories of any food, but to lose fat effectively, one must be discriminating in determining where one’s calories come from.

Chewing my food did not really come to my attention until I was doing some post-grad studying at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. How I managed to move through over a decade of studying and a university education without “getting” this concept is a mystery. It may simply be that, like drinking water, chewing is one of the simplest things you can do to improve your health.

I first conducted my own chewing experiment after hearing Andrea Beaman share  the lesson she received from her macrobiotic teacher, Michio Kushi, who explained the importance of chewing each bite 100 times. Andrea related that such a task was difficult to do, but encouraged us to try chewing each mouthful 30-50 times to observe what happened.

What I initially noticed was how little I actually chewed. Try 6-10 times before swallowing! Large chunks of food were sliding down my esophagus, burdening my stomach and digestive system. When I stopped to chew, amazing things happened:

1) I grew bored, and quickly! Chewing is a tough task for those of us used to eating on the fly, multi-tasking, or otherwise handling multiple levels of information at once. The task of counting each chew was agonizingly dull at first. Then I began to notice other things…

2) The more I chewed, the more the flavors within foods changed: crackers and apples became much sweeter!

3) I came to understand the compulsion of swallowing – you literally cannot help it after a certain time…small amounts of food become liquid and the need to swallow arises from an area of the body unaffiliated with our conscious mind.

4) And most importantly: I became full on 50 – 75% less food. I realized how little mass my body actually needed to be satisfied, when given the chance to fully assimilate and absorb the nutrition it was receiving. I had the very personal experience of understanding how to work with the digestive process. (remember – it takes 20 minutes for our body to receive the hormonal signals to shut down appetite!)

Truthfully, I still have a hard time chewing 30 times. I still get distracted, bored, and my ego steps in and convinces me I have “more important things to do”. each time I do though, I find I get greater enjoyment and satisfaction from my meal, I lose weight, and I experience more moments of peace throughout the day. This week I’m making the commitment to chew at least one meal very, very thoroughly. I encourage you to give it a try and let me know what YOU notice!

Below are my list of top ten calorie free treats. These are suitable for any diet, whether you are a vegetarian, omnivore, lactose-intolerant, or even a gluten-free triathlete!

1) Massage

2) A walk in nature – the beach, a wooded trail, around a lake…

3) Good Conversation

4) Laughter

5) Spontaneous Dance Parties

6) Exercise

7) Spa treatments
A Good Book

9) Candle-lit, rose pedal, scented baths

10) Playing with dogs, cats, and/or kids

What are some of your favorite calorie-free treats?

I set this to post while I am away meditating. It seems appropriate, as meditation is an act of creating mindfulness.

Mindfulness is a key element in successfully maintaining weight loss, determining which foods work best for your body, and for staying healthy and balanced in all areas of life. With countless external cues creating an environment suited to overindulgence, vigorous attention to our body’s cues is perhaps the most effective tool for health available — and it costs nothing!

We can all agree that what we eat has a huge impact on our health and energy, but what is less commonly known is how what we eat affects our appetite, our moods, and our thoughts. With hectic, busy lifestyles, we are no longer aware of the impact that our food choices have on our level of functioning, and many have lost sight of what high level functioning feels like.

When we begin to pay attention, our entire world becomes possibility for change.

By noticing how the foods we eat affect our body, we empower ourselves to make different choices. One of the key things clients who work with VIBRANCE experience is a greater connection between food and body wellness, and a greater understanding of the language their unique body uses to communicate with them.
When we begin to make different choices based on how our body feels, we capitalize on the body’s ability to restore and heal itself and experience a greater sense of wellness and vitality.

In the arena of weight loss, mindfulness is mandatory for sustained success.

When I first started setting everything aside to enjoy my meal, I found it boring. Painfully so! I wanted to rush through my meal so I could get back to whatever seemed more pressing at the time.
Then I slowed down even more, focusing instead on the food that was in front of me — the gloss of the dressing on my spinach leaf, the sensation of biting into a crisp bite of apple or celery, the feel of different textures and tastes in my mouth as I chewed. I became aware I only chewed about 6 – 10 times before swallowing, so I tried to quadruple that and I found I needed to take smaller bites. Then I noticed I was full long before my plate was empty.

So I started putting less food on my plate…   You can see where this is going.

Multi-tasking is registered in the brain as stress; inducing a fight or flight response because the brain is divided between important duties.  The adrenaline kicks in to increase our attentiveness, but ultimately this has negative impact on our short term memory as well as our overall health and well-being.

When we multi-task while eating, we do not pick up on the very food cues that initiate digestion. The smell of food, even the thought of food starts our systems preparing for digestion and assimilation. Chewing begins the process of tearing down a meal and key enzymes located in saliva are responsible for digesting carbohydrate.  The sight of our meal cues the hormonal cascade that lets us know we are full 20 minutes after we begin eating.

When stressed or distracted, our digestive system takes a backseat. The body isn’t interested in extracting vitamins from an orange when it’s white-knuckling it through a stack of emails or preparation for a board meeting.  Consequently, digestion is impaired and stomach troubles,  fat storage, and blood lipids increase while the ability to detoxify, extract vitamins and minerals,  feel full and be satisfied decreases.
Simply sitting down, looking at your food, and paying attention to how it feels will make you feel more satisfied. Make it a habit and you’ll likely drop some weight, improve your digestion, and you may even find out you don’t actually like the convenience foods you’ve been eating all this time. (it’s happened before!)

Give it a try for one meal a day for the next 10 days and let me know what the effects are.  I’d love to hear back from you.

More information:

The Pitfalls of Multi-tasking

Why Being Mindful Matters

There is no arguing that the obesity epidemic in this country is caused by multiple factors. Among them is our increase in calories — mainly coming from refined sugars.
Candice Wong, a UCSF cardiovascular epidemiologist and a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association says, “The average American caloric intake has increased by about 150 to 300 (daily) calories in the last 30 years…it’s coming from processed foods, half of it from sugared beverages.”

While lack of movement is also a strong contributing factor, our sugar intake is finally getting addressed in a powerful way. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom recently suggested that San Francisco become the first city in the United States to charge retailer suppliers of sugary beverages.
Also, for the first time ever (and at least a decade behind, in my opinion) the American Heart Association has taken a stand and called for a cap on added sugar consumption — with recommendations that most women limit their intake of added sugars to only 100 calories a day and that men take in only 150 calories a day. (Added sugars are those that aren’t naturally found in foods like fruits and plain dairy products.)
For a majority of women, that equates to less than one 12-ounce can of soda; men could have the soda plus a very small chocolate chip cookie.

The biggest single contributor to added sugars is high fructose corn syrup, which became a big hit with manufacturers in the 70′s.  Back then,  Americans consumed about 9 teaspoons a day of fructose, according to a 2008 study. By the mid-1990s, consumption nearly doubled to 14 teaspoons a day. Today, the average American guzzles about 22 teaspoons of added sugar a day, mostly as fructose, according to the National Cancer Institute. Tragically, the young consume the most – teenage boys average about 34 teaspoons of sugar every day (that is over 2/3 cup of added sugar).

What does this mean?

High fructose corn syrup is extremely unhealthy, disrupting metabolism and cellular communication in a way that is believed to be linked to metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, and diabetes. In a study of more than 6,000 people (the Framingham Heart Study), people who drank at least one soft drink daily had a higher risk for developing metabolic syndrome compared with people who did not often have a soft drink. The Nurse’s health study supports the negative effects of soda, demonstrating soda drinkers to average ten pounds heavier and be twice as likely  to develop diabetes over an 8 year time span.

Think diet soda is a better option? Think again. Diet soda drinkers tend to weigh more than regular soda drinkers, according to a study conducted at Perdue.

Unfortunately, even eschewing sodas doesn’t mean you’ll effortlessly keep sugars at bay.  Manufacturers cleverly slip sweeteners into all sorts of products you wouldn’t think of — crackers, spaghetti sauce, chips, sauces on frozen or packaged entrees, and almost anything they can get away with. The sweet taste is one that has a powerfully alluring effect on human beings, and food manufacturers make the most of this fact.  It truly is a case of “Buyer Beware” out there; label reading is an essential skill in navigating a grocery store these days.

Meanwhile, Mayor Newsom and others are looking at making it harder for us to get our hands on sugar. While suggested limits and taxes may be helpful, a nation addicted to sugar won’t be so easily dissuaded.

If obesity, diabetes, hypoglycemia, metabolic syndrome or other blood sugar diseases run in your family, it is important to begin to get savvy about your food labels to prevent a similar future. Make it a priority to eliminate high fructose corn syrup from your home, and be mindful that common dishes such as the pancakes and sweet and sour chicken you order will likely contain added sugars as well.  Become a sleuth at detecting hidden sugars and keep your intake of sweets down whenever possible.

Sources: Seattle P.I. October 12, 2009 (click the source for a list of the amount of calories from sugar in several food items)

I like to try new things.  A lot.
I’m a dabbler. If it holds up to my quality standards and seems like something my clients might benefit from, I’ll give it a try.

Right now I am playing with a lot of new products, which I will be talking about here in the coming months, but I wanted to share this one first.

NutriiVeda is a weight management shake that is based on Ayurvedic herbs and modern nutrition. At first I thought it probably wouldn’t be that much different than anything else. My experience had been that protein powders generally feel the same in your body (unless one has a food sensitivity) and it is really a matter of taste preference and quality assurance.

In this case, it’s a little different.

While the basis of NutriiVeda is whey protein (which research shows to be most beneficial to retaining muscle and providing highly absorbed amino acids), the most notable difference is the addition of seven plant botanicals which very effectively curb cravings and appetite.

I tried it. I can vouch for it.
I currently exercise between 7 and 10 hours a week, which means that I get hungry often. I eat about every 2-3 hours, be it a handful or trail mix or an all out meal. When I received my first jar of NutriiVeda and mixed it as directed (just the powder and unsweetened almond milk) I found that no thought of food crossed my mind until nearly 4 hours later.

People, this is unheard of.

That got me pretty excited. It exceeded my expectations, which is hard to do!
Not only this, but being sensitive to dairy I was a little wary of a whey based shake, even if it is listed as casein and lactose free. My digestive system handled it quite well and I have found it to be a tasty, quick snack during busy work hours that allows me to focus more on work and less on snack. I find my blood sugar stays balanced, I stay focused and am actually as productive as I am on caffeine, without the nasty side effects.

NutriiVeda also comes with a 12 week weight loss program that introduces the follower to the concepts of Ayurveda and eating for one’s dosha to find balance in the body (which is designed to facilitate weight loss).  What I love most about the program is it’s incorporation into MINDFULNESS as an essential component; journaling and meditation are key elements to this program. Beginning in January, VIBRANCE will be offering the 12 week program in a group format and include other concepts of healthy living and more detailed information on Ayurvedic eating.

I am considering keeping a supply of it on hand for clients to try.  In the meantime,  if you are interested in trying it out contact me and I can assist you in getting started. The product is currently available through distributors only (unless you live near the Chopra Center in Carlsbad, CA) so it is pretty hard to stumble upon unless you know someone (and you do!)

For more information on the product and to check out the NutriiVeda Diet Program, click here. Want to try it yourself? Click  “join” on the top right corner to give it a try!

People often believe that weight loss is going to be a effortless bonus to living a more cruelty-free, planet-conscious lifestyle.

For some, this is definitely the case. When I became a vegetarian at 13, I dropped about 10 pounds without any effort on my part. I did gain it back, but I was still a growing child. Whenever the diet is restricted in any way, the odds for increased weight loss tend to occur.

Others find it harder to lose weight on a vegetarian diet, or have difficulty feeling full, satisfied, and energetic.  The differences between individual metabolisms and genetics mean that each person needs a different dietary lifestyle to have the health, energy and body they desire. For some people, a vegetarian diet is not suited as a life-long choice and a transition back into a omnivorous lifestyle needs to be done with attention paid to physical health, ethical beliefs, and any emotional implications of such a transition (especially if vegetarianism is due to ethical or religious convictions).

If you are a vegetarian and find it difficult to lose weight, here are some tips that work and take YOUR needs into account:

1. Vary Your Protein Sources: Protein plays an important role in satiety and retaining muscle mass on a low calorie diet. As a vegetarian, it is easy to rely on soy deli slices, soy cheese, soy protein, and other forms of highly refined soy to keep your protein needs up. The problem with this is that soy is very difficult to digest, 90% of it is genetically engineered, and the rates of soy intolerance (especially among vegetarians) is rapidly rising. Mix it up by including hemp or rice protein, quorn, eggs and dairy (if tolerated) and whole beans (canned or boiled) to stay satisfied. A benefit to the beans is the fiber which, as you’ll see below, is also an asset for weight loss.
2. Up the Fiber: This post details the benefits and recommendations in using fiber for weight loss. Adding vegetables to every meal, psyllium husk or ground flax to your morning smoothie, and consuming whole and sprouted grains will keep you satisfied for much longer. If you consume bread, Ezekiel 4:9 ensures you receive maximum fiber and nutrition in every slice – naturally!
3. Practice Mindfulness: regardless of what is on your plate, knowing how hungry you are and when you actually feel satisfied is the biggest secret to sustained weight loss. This alone prevents overeating, mindless nibbling, and being lured into unnecessary snacks and extra portions due to cues in our environment. In addition to food education, much of the work with weight loss clients is learning tools to increase mindfulness and identify sources of food cravings.
4. Get support: I cannot say it enough — supportive atmospheres increase your likelihood of success, regardless of the endeavor you are undertaking! Join a group, hire a trainer or nutrition professional, team up with a coworker, enlist your family members, but do what you need to to have the camaraderie and support to make your goal a reality!

These tips apply to anyone, regardless of dietary choices. Losing weight needn’t require hours of counting points or calories, nor does it mean limiting yourself to canned shakes or dehydrated, freeze-died diet meals. Instead of further disconnecting from your food, re-connecting to your meal and to yourself is how sustained weight loss can be assured.  If you are struggling to lose weight and need additional support, check out my services to see if a package can work for you, or contact me to create a more customized option to suit you, no matter where you live!