Strategies for Improved Nutrition, Weight-Loss, and Overall Health and Wellness

Break the skip breakfast habit: Breakfast awakens our metabolism from its overnight slumber, while providing us energy for the day ahead. A healthy, well-balanced morning meal will also increase fullness over the course of the rest of the day, lessening the probability for overindulgence at subsequent meals.

Meal size and snack selections: Eating smaller meal portions, along with healthy snacks between meals, allows our metabolism to remain efficient throughout the course of the day, while supplying a steady supply of food as fuel for daily function. Between breakfast and dinner, regular eating is recommended every two to three hours in some manner. Choose healthy, natural foods such as nuts and fruits for a convenient between-meal source of energy!

Fewer before-bed binges: Consuming a smaller dinner, while generally avoiding eating in the final two to three hours before bed allows our body to release fat-burning growth hormones, necessary for cellular and tissue repair, while we sleep. Otherwise, when our bodies are still digesting food, the release of those essential growth hormones is inhibited, and oftentimes our sleep quality becomes impaired. Avoid pre-sleep snacks and burn more calories overnight!

The sabotage of stress: When we are stressed (either actual stress or perceived stress), our body's natural survival response is to store what calories we have taken in as fat, because of the perceived crisis. Our bodies do not discriminate between stresses, but respond in the exact same way to stress each time, whether we are stranded in the mountains and need to preserve energy to survive or whether we are running late for work. Taking time to do something stress-free after dinner (walk, read, yoga, bathe) calms our nerves and helps our metabolism function as efficiently as possible.

Nature knows best: Our bodies are not designed to eat the processed, packaged foods (sugar is a toxin) of today, but function efficiently and effortlessly when we consume foods as close to as possible as how they exist in nature. Consuming natural, label-foods or choosing organic or all-natural alternatives to our normal food choices remains paramount to accelerate a struggling metabolism and enhance the overall performance of our bodies and minds.