As I sit poolside on this sunny Charleston afternoon, it’s suddenly very apparent to why I’ve received at least half a dozen “urgent” emails and text messages from friends and patients looking to drop a few (or more than a few) pounds before the official start of summer. Without a well developed tan to hide behind, every last holiday indulgence, Easter chocolate consumed, and every workout put off until “tomorrow” is apparent, and no amount of self tanner can hide that. Bikini season is upon us.
While there are at least as many fad diets out there as there are reasons not to do them, there are great, easy implemented techniques to help shed that winter weight once and for all.
First, and this is my “if I had a dollar” tip: increase your water intake. I generally advocate drinking more water because of the almost immediate effects it has on muscle tonicity and the fact that nearly all new patients I encounter don’t drink nearly enough of the stuff. An added side effect is that it aids weight loss and helps keep you fuller, longer. Our bodies are literally 50-75% water (varying on age and sex), and proper water intake is absolutely crucial not only for the health of your muscles, but of your discs, skin, blood, and bones. Your brain and muscles are 75% water. Your blood, 83% water. Dehydration can manifest in so many ways, from mere chapped lips to chronic pain syndromes. I have had patients that consumed next to no water improve almost immediately from increasing their water intake. They experience marked improvements in pain, fatigue, and even skin tone and hydration. You’ll not only look better, you’ll feel better too!
So how much is enough? A good goal is to consume half your body weight in ounces of water per day. Sodas don’t count (and if weight loss is your goal you should toss those anyway) and caffeine and alcohol count against you so you have to double up for those. This may seem like a lot at first, but with 70 percent of the population having become completely unresponsive to their thirst reflex, you may be mistaking thirst for hunger. An easy way to start is by drinking eight ounces of water before a meal, or whenever you’re hungry. Adding lemons or oranges can make water more palatable for a lot of people, and sparkling water counts too. I’ll take mine with lime, please! Using wine glasses can also take the mundane factor out of water, and can even improve the taste.
OK, tip two. So with only three tips on this list, I debated between move more and cut carbohydrates (you like the alliteration?) Clearly moving more more helps burn calories and is great for heart health (ok, ok) but this is about quick tips after all. While I am certainly an advocate of working out, the visible changes of working out can take time to manifest. So, cut carbs it is. While I’ll savor a bowl of handmade pasta with the best of them, cutting simple carbs out of the diet is a quick way to accelerate weight loss. We could discuss at length the Paleo diet, Carb Nite diet, Adkins and others, but the bottom line is that unless you’re a high performance athlete, carbs consumed generally get turned into sugar and are then stored as fat. In fact, the premise behind low carb high fat diets is that there is no metabolic pathway for fat in the body. This means that fat consumed isn’t stored as fat in the body. Carbs are. There goes every diet from the 90s.
OK, so you’re chugging water and trashing the Barilla. What else? Well, if you want to lose weight quickly, and don’t want to change too much about your lifestyle, there is a great product to help aid you on that journey. First, a short background. When I opened Absolute Wellness Center a year and a half ago, I was troubled by the number of people trafficking a popular weight loss program located near my office. I had heard the techniques they used, and had even tried the diet “foods” they pushed from a friend of mine that was doing the program. They are low calorie, nutrient vacant “food substances” that are loaded with fake sugars (read: neurotoxins) and preservatives. There had to be something better.
So I began my quest for a healthy weight loss supplement. I recalled a family friend with a lifetime in health and wellness who promoted a chocolate based one. Though it helped that I trusted her inherently, I still did my research and decided to order a couple bags of this miracle chocolate meal replacement shake. Fortunately, I had a friend who needed to lose some weight, and who also happened to be one of those ultimate consumers, the people who like to buy for the sake of buying. So he started on the shake. Fifteen days later he had lost 12 pounds. Forty five days later he was down 25 and telling everyone who would listen about it. This was convincing, but in my professional and personal experience, it is generally easier for men to lose weight than women. Enter Katie, a peri-menopausal woman who I had put on an excellent pharaceutical grade supplement and elimination diet the year before. To this day, she is the only person not to lose weight on that detoxification plan. She was interested in this new shake merely because she travels frequently and wanted something convenient. She returned two weeks later and exclaimed, “I’ve lost nine pounds!” Without trying, without the intention of weight loss, she had lost nine pounds. I was sold.
So what is this miracle supplement? Beautifully, Xocai has only three main ingredients: raw cacao, Acai berry and blueberry. The effectiveness of this combination is due to the high-antioxidant content. Raw cacao has more antioxidants than any other food found in nature. Acai berry is a close second. The main premise behind this combination that all of our chronic degenerative diseases like cancer, heart disease, and more subtle afflictions like weight gain are all rooted in inflammation, which is a result of oxidation (unstable molecules trying to steal atoms from other ones). While we can’t eliminate oxidative processes, what we can do is consume an anti-oxidant diet, which is one reason fruits and veggies are so highly touted. Consumption of very high anti-oxidant foods literally has the potential to stop or slow aging, and by reducing inflammation, promotes weight loss.
And this isn’t just theory. Just one meal replacement shake reduces CRP levels (an inflammation marker) by 37%. A study on weight loss and Xocai made the cover of Bariatric Magazine because of the results found. In a 12 week program (with 100% participant retention), participants lost an average of 31.4 pounds, and an average of 5.8 inches around the waist (the deadliest type of weight gain). In my practice, I’ve seen patients lose up to 40 pounds, and maintain that weight loss over a year (and counting). And the best thing for patient compliance? The stuff tastes great, chocolate lovers can testify.
So now that you’re armed with all this great weight loss knowledge, you just have to put it to use. If you’ve found that anything here speaks to you or to someone you know, if you have further questions about anything I’ve discussed, or if you just want to try Xocai Healthy Chocolate for yourself, give us a call at 843-416-8218 or shoot us an email at [email protected]. You can even order Xocai directly from our website at http://mxi.myvoffice.com/absolutewellnessmtp/ Let us know, we’re never too busy to help you or your loved ones. Happy May y’all, and rock those bikinis!
