Nice Figure, What's Your Secret?
I frequently get people commenting how lucky I am to have a nice figure. But luck has absolutely nothing to do with it. I wasn't always slim or healthy. I'm capable of gaining weight and health complaints as easily as the next person, but consciously and deliberately I make lifestyle choices to avoid these symptoms.
Yes, you heard me right - obesity is a symptom. Most commonly - a symptom of eating the wrong kinds of food. In short - processed food.
Processed food is poisonous. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
Weight-Gain & Processed Food
Weight gain is one of the most prevalent effects of processed food consumption. But you don't need me to tell this... just have a look around.
Many people don't understand the difference between processed food and real food, and that's the biggest problem to start with. The difference is: real food is natural, in its whole and unaltered state, complete with all its nutrition in-tact. Processed food has been interfered with, bits extracted, bits added, and usually contains an abundance of sugar and artificial ingredients. They add bulk, they add flavour, and they have a carefully engineered bliss point... which is designed to make you crave more and more and more...
Before mass-production and consumption of processed food, obesity wasn't a major issue. The bellies you'd see were more of the 'beer-belly' variety rather than the 'who-ate-all-the-pies' kind.
But the weight itself isn't even the worst part... weight-gain is indicative that something is wrong on the inside. Our bodies aren't coping with what we're putting them through. The thing is - you don't even have to over-eat to gain weight, and you can be obese and malnourished simultaneously. Many of us come from cultures that recommend we avoid fat because they say it makes us fat. So we buy all these 'diet' and 'low fat' alternatives, which have much of the natural goodness and beneficial fats removed, and they put sugar and flavourings in its place.
An enduring healthy weight isn't achieved by 'going on a diet' every so often or other temporary approaches, but only through permanent changes to our lifestyles that ensure our bodies remain in good working order as well as looking good. Yes you can lose quite a bit of weight eating nothing but cabbage soup for 6 months, but what happens after the diet is up? How do you keep the weight off? You can't eat cabbage soup forever!
These 'Weight-Watchers' and 'Slimming World' and other courses are very popular, but I wouldn't recommended them, not even if I was paid to. Their branded products are filled with sugar and artificial ingredients, and the recipes they hand out call for ingredients such as 'diet orange soda' for the curry, or 'diet coke' to marinate your chicken in. Oh my goodness. My mouth literally hung open the day I looked into what these slimming clubs entail.
My 4-Step Method for Health and Healing - I Am The Proof That It Works!
This is a tried-and-tested approach my friends, and my UK size 6-8 figure and very good health is testament to that! You can read about my 4-step approach here; it's a short post but worth a wee nosey.
In summary: I printed out a list of all harmful ingredients to avoid, and threw out anything containing these ingredients or sugar, no matter how tasty. For the next few weeks I took my list to the supermarket, and time-consuming through it was I diligently checked every item until I became confident in recognising harmful ingredients and what products/brands were now off-limit. Within 6 months I no longer had IBS symptoms, and my fibromayalgia symptoms were massively (and permanently) reduced. Through the combination of natural diet and daily exercise I lost 3 stone within 5 months. In total I lost 5 stone over the course of a year... and have kept it off easily ever since. From Hippo to Gazelle in no time at all!
From this, nearly 13 stone and looking rather chunky (March 2016)...
To this... 8.5 stone and much lighter in body and spirit! (August 2017)...
Without the vital knowledge of how to shop for our health we can very quickly end up overloaded with toxins, malnourished, suffering internal damage due to chemical reactions, malfunction of organs and systems, and before long we're presenting with worrying symptoms and we have no idea what's happening to us. There are many, many symptoms of processed food poisoning, and the thing is... we're all allergic to processed food. We're not supposed to eat it!
Self-discipline is required when switching from processed to real food, especially at first because sugar and many of the artificial ingredients are highly addictive. Similar to tobacco addiction you can't expect to just stop and be ok immediately.... no, you'll likely experience mad cravings (that are hard to resist), but after only a week perhaps the cravings will be gone, I promise. So it's easier than giving up smoking, which I can attest to - I quit smoking 3 years ago and still dream of tobacco, but I never dream about sugar or Happy Meals!
Forget the Gym, Just Use Your Legs!
As well as attention to diet, a good balance of exercise and rest is needed in order to maintain an effective metabolism. As lives get busier there's temptation to drive instead of walk, to socialise instead of resting, to cut back on sleep to fit more into our days.
In my observation, trying to schedule trips to the gym is not only unrealistic for people who are already super busy, but often causes issues around self-consciousness. The most realistic option is good old fashioned walking, and fitting as much of that as possible into your daily life. Basically - every time we move we spend energy, so get moving!
Personally I don't drive but I like to live in the countryside, so I have no choice but to walk far far far! I've deliberately never learnt to drive so I'm always forced to walk. I like it though, and I'm perfectly willing to walk one, two or more miles to the nearest shop or to get to work. I take the stairs instead of the lift or escalator. I take a rucksack to the shop and carry my groceries home. All this exercise I would miss out on if I had a car, the luxury of convenience. Not that there's anything wrong with having a car, don't get me wrong, but the amount of people I've known over the years who drive to the corner-shop and then try to make time for the gym later... um... what else can I say but – duh!!!
If our lifestyles take into account a good balance of exercise, then we don't need to make time for the gym. And anyway, these 'boxy' approaches to achieving good health can often seem like impossible expectations/demands/requirements and many of us shrug, sigh and resign ourselves that we simply can't change a thing about out already busy days.
An Obvious Truth...
The thing is, it's not rocket-science, it's actually really obvious, hillariously obvious, once you're aware of it. Then you wonder how you were ever so blind to the facts. Our bodies can't handle poison, and if we put poison in, eventually we get sick. Like putting the wrong kind of fuel in a car, it will break down at some point. Not surprisingly we begin to experience adverse reactions to the poisons, as our bodies are unable to deal with them they start to let us know by presenting us with symptoms. Often they're so common we don't think for a second they might be related to what we just ate. Headaches, fatigue, diarrhea, aches and pains, irritability, insomnia. Then after a while we might get more severe symptoms, indicative that something is seriously wrong, and we begin to pay attention, fearing something terrible, fearing the dreaded big C.
It's no secret that governments and corporations and even so-called 'health services' deliberately give out phoney info. Therefore it's crucial we do our own research – comparing information from several sources to get the full picture and truth behind it – rather than merely accepting the information we're given through education or health systems. It's no secret that powerful people can be very good at deception – they put a lot of time and money into concealing truth, but truth is available if we can be bothered to look for it.
To help us out, we have a whole community of enthusiastic health foodies right here on Steemit! Check out this link to see what tips and recipes are being shared daily... all 100% natural and healthy for your benefit, and mine too.
Many of us have been eating the wrong food for too long. Now it's time to eat to heal, which we do every time we choose to...
Initiated by...
(Shared with kind permission of @kiwideb - and you can too!)
Great and informative post! My husband and I share a very similar lifestyle that you have written about, and we both are the healthiest we have been in years! So much truth and much appreciation. Thanks for sharing your journey!
It's wonderful to hear that @sburton, I take much delight in knowing others too have found their best health ever :-) I just took a wee nosey at your blog and I see we really are alike in our passions... vaccines, corrupt pharma, disease... I am very excited to see so many interesting topics and am returning later for a real good read!
Yes, we do seem to have a lot of the seem passions! I look forward to reading your past and current posts as well! Thanks for your compliment and keep up the great work on your page!
You're very kind, thank you! :-)
It sure is a journey to find the basic secrets that arnt all glittliz and glammer it's just real common sense at the end of it.
Your looking fabulous, in both pictures your sprit rains out in both.
Alot of it is we don't want to believe or think it's true that our governments would allow harmful ingredients in our food, as arnt they meant to protect the people.
Then you have the other saying people should be responsible for there own choices.
Thank you so much for your lovely compliments! I'm just proud to be living proof that natural is the best and really only way to achieve genuinely good health. I agree it's so hard for people to know what's the truth these days, especially since our governments and corporations are masters in deception and truth-twisting, and don't care one ounce about our health. The opposite in fact - they deliberately make us sick for various reasons, but of course no-one wants to believe that! And then our lives are so busy we don't get time even to think things through, so common sense is often out the window too! Phew... thank goodness for Steemit where a little truth gets through!
Hi @woman-onthe-wing
As a radio show researcher for @pennsif I saw during my travels that you are a living a very interesting lifestyle, and so was wondering whether you might consider being a guest on his radio show, for a 15 minute slot? Your Make It Healthy initiative would be wonderful to showcase too.
You can read about the show here: https://steemit.com/mspwaves/@pennsif/msp-waves-radio-pennsif-s-alternative-lifestyle-show-three-guest-finders-join-the-team
The show is (obviously) about people living alternative lifestyles in some way.
Pennsif has posted a recording of his first show if you would like to listen and get a feel for it.
https://steemit.com/mspwaves/@pennsif/msp-waves-radio-pennsif-s-alternative-lifestyle-show-friday-26-january-2018-recording
The show airs live Fridays, 10pm(UTC).
You can reply or find me on Discord (same name). My fingers are crossed. Much appreciated. :D
Hi there @ravenruis, wow, I am a little intimidated by your request hehe! But thanks very much for asking. I will check out those links you gave me and will get back to you after I've had a little think :-)
Thank you, I appreciate it. :)
Hello again @ravenruis, I have thought about it and I've decided yes, I will take courage and come on the show! Why not! I tried to find you on Discord but having trouble... I haven't really used that site so it confuses me a little!
Oh thank you for agreeing to come on the show. :)
I agree that Discord can be a confusing place. I have found that in order people to easily connect in DM they have to share a common group. Are you a member of any groups there? We shall figure this out. :D
I don't think I'm part of a group on it, but I could be wrong haha! I am woman-onthe-wing there too. I'm also on Steemit Chat under the same name if you use that!
I finally found you on Discord, and have DM'd you. :)
Looking good! Food is so important. Let's all the ditch the processed carp and start eating real foods. Important message. have a great day xxx
Thank you Amy! Real food all the way... anything else is just asking for trouble!
So much truth my friend! Not only just the government, but the fitness and "nutrition" industry are just as bad many times. I preach what you have written about every day to people, but unfortunately it's not"sexy". Everyone wants the quick fix or magic potion.
It's disheartening sometimes to be in the fitness industry and see so many people sacrifice long-term health to lose weight fast. It makes me so happy to hear stories like yours to counter that! Eat real food and move your body. Throw some good rest and a little meditation in there and you're golden! 😀
I hear ya @plantstoplanks! Disheartening indeed, but hopefully even if our advice is rejected at first, perhaps we plant tiny seeds that blossom in due course! The same is true for myself... I might not want to listen straight away, but things come back to me maybe years later and then I finally accept that person was right after all! If there was a magic potion I wouldn't want it - I love how my body feels after eating right and exercise, and the satisfaction of it all... and I'm guessing you're the same :-) Keep it up anyway, I'm sure you do more good for people than you realise!
Great post, your transformation is incentive for others. I am a fan of fermented foods though https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=UthGeCBkVHY
Upvoted and resteemed.
Hey there @marymg2014, thanks for the link I will check it out! Fermented foods are not a huge part of my diet at this point, I guess because I didn't grow up eating them so they can be a little strange at first! But I intend to introduce more over time and learn how to prepare them myself too :-)
Great Stuff!
I truly believe that if more people would just eat un-processed "natural" foods--there would be a lot more healthy--and happy people walking around.
Great point about fat--fat does not make you fat, I know it has gotten more play as of late, but, I am sure that there are tons of people who still worry about this--it is all the processes foods that we eat.
I couldn't agree more @thewritingman! Processed foods have a lot to answer for, including people's happiness. I think more people are starting to make links between their health complaints and the food they eat, thankfully. I only wish that doctors and schools would address these things too and that would go a long way in helping real understanding. We live in hope!
I absolutely agree with you on eating fresh food, the right food, and your exercise method of walking. You look great and healthy indeed.
Thanks very much! I feel the healthiest I've ever been and finally comfortable in my own skin, hooray!
Fun day although again the trouble of thinking of households in terms of economy, please upvote have me. Thank you
damn right!
it's those ingredients that read like a chemistry experiment that causes all the misdemeanors in the body!
and yes sugar!!!!
you're definitely fit woman! :D
Aw thanks Ivy, I can always count on you for a comment that makes me smile BIG! :-)
Yes, a chemistry experiement is exactly what it is! No wonder everybody is ailed with something or other these days. But we persevere on Steemit and hopefully do some good by revealing the truths that are lacking in the mainstream world!
You look fantastic! Great job losing and keeping the weight off! @woman-onthe-wing P.S. You never were a hippo😉
Ha ha thanks very much @ninahaskin! It was so strange and distressing for me to have all the extra weight, I couldn't even kneel down properly, it was horrid! But now I'm happy once again in my own skin, as I believe we all can be :-)