Losing Weight Naturally

One of the most common complaints I hear from others, especially women, is how hard it is to lose weight. As we get older and our bodies go through changes, it is not as easy  to keep our weight under control as it was when we were younger and weren’t facing the issues of raising kids, working long hours at our jobs, and just dealing with the daily hectic schedules most of us have. Once I started my herbal studies, my school had me reading books by authors who brought up really good points about how differently we live today compared to our ancestors just a generation or two ago and how we view eating in general. I’ve never been fond of fad diets, or dieting in general, and have struggled myself as I’ve gotten older and can no longer eat anything I want, get little exercise, and keep the same energy levels as I used to. Friends talk to me all the time about wanting to find that one answer to help them get their weight back under control. There definitely isn’t one miraculous thing we can all do, but there are lots of ways to use herbs and healthier ways of thinking to help with this issue.

One popular method is to begin any weight loss regimen with a whole body cleanse. Cleanses help to rid the body of all the built up toxins we have acquired over time due to eating less healthy and “junk” foods, being exposed to environmental toxins, and the illnesses we experience due to a lack of healthy living. Cleanses can be purchased as a ready-made pill for convenience – Renew Life offers a full line of cleanses including their Organic Total Body Cleanse along with other products designed for certain conditions. Fasting is another way some will work towards cleansing their bodies, and there are tons of references online regarding different methods, including juice fasts. There are also various homemade concoctions used for cleansing including the popular “Master Cleanser”, even used by celebrities, which is a mix of lemon juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper. I personally know someone who has tried this and swears it helps cut out cravings, and Elson M. Haas, M.D., discusses this (along with cleanses in general) in great detail in his book Staying Healthy with Nutrition, rev: The Complete Guide to Diet and Nutritional Medicine.

There are a mind boggling number of diets out there – so many it gets very confusing figuring out what would best work for you. I’ve personally found it hard to follow any specific diet; it is just too easy to get bored with eating the same way all the time, or it is too time consuming trying to look up specific meals, or too costly buying all of the recommended ingredients. One of the first books I had to read for my studies written by Stewart Mitchell, Naturopathy, really drove home some points to me about how we view eating today as compared to in the past. We no longer eat just because we are hungry and to keep up our energy reserves, but we depend on food a great deal to help us get over stress, or as “emotional eating” as a lot of us know it as today, or we just eat to be eating out of boredom or because of cravings. Our bodies are designed to handle a certain amount of food and to store what we need for survival….only most of us don’t have to worry about going extended periods of time where food is scarce (we just drive to the grocery store) and those of us working desk jobs don’t use up a lot of calories unless we supplement with a lot of cardio exercise. Basically if we just learn to listen to our bodies and eat only when hungry, eat more natural and less processed, high-calorie, low-nutrient foods, we’d all be better off. When we’re sick and lose our appetites, that is our body’s way of telling us it needs more energy for healing instead of using it for digestion, and it doesn’t hurt us to eat less, or even skip meals, at this time. Keeping a journal or just paying attention to how you feel when you eat can really open your eyes as to what is causing unhealthy habits.

Herbs can help us along with losing weight also. One thing a lot of people try to do at the beginning of their dieting is to lose some water weight, or use “diuretics”, as a quick burst of weight loss to help them get started. Nettle is one of the most popular herbs used in weight loss formulas. Parsley and dandelion are other popular herbs to use. Plantain, which is a common “weed” in many yards, is another herb used as a diuretic, along with burdock, wild strawberry, lemon balm, carrot, red raspberry, thyme, sweet basil, and many others.

I have seen many references to spirulina being used for weight loss. Spirulina is a type of freshwater algae usually found in powder form in bulk or in ready-made capsules. It is highly concentrated in protein and is thought to be good as an appetite suppressant.

One thing that I think would help a lot of us is to just take some time for ourselves to relax. Using relaxing herbs such as chamomile and lavender can help you to unwind after a hectic day. Eat meals in a relaxed setting, read a book or go for a walk, or even use meditation to help control emotional eating. Get plenty of exercise in whatever form you like best — I don’t feel that forcing yourself to do lunges when you hate them or making yourself work out so hard you begin to dread it is going to accomplish anything, and you’ll find excuses not to exercise. If you love to dance, there are plenty of DVDs out there using dance as exercise, or just turn on the radio. If you hate working out to cardio with those trainers on television and in videos, but love to run, use running as your cardio. If you are more into less intense forms of exercise, take up yoga and walking. Find what works best for you and change it up every now and then – just do what you can to get up and move and work out your body. Our ancestors had to spend all day working in the fields, hunting for food for survival, and just doing general daily chores which kept them moving – while a lot of us today spend long days sitting at computers or standing in one spot in a factory watching machines do the work for us all day – so our bodies are storing more than we need for modern survival.

In review, I think the best “answer” to our weight loss and maintenance for most of us is really just basic common sense and listening to our bodies, eating naturally, taking time for ourselves, and getting the exercise we need. I know it’s harder than it sounds – trust me, I know! But it doesn’t hurt to try and it will help our overall health in the long run.

For those interested in networking with others who want to lose weight naturally, or who are just trying to live healthier overall, I have updated my social network on Ning and have added a group for natural weight loss support:

http://herbsaregreener.ning.com/group/naturalweightloss