There are many fad diets and many quick fix weight-loss drugs, pills and products marketed today. The truth is, there is no quick fix or fad that works for long term health, weight-loss or sleep, mood and hormone improvement. But, there is a real way to heal your body and improve your metabolic rate, sleep pattern, hormonal regulation, mood and lose weight by maintaining optimal leptin manufacturing. Leptin is the hormone that controls our satiety and is stored in our fat cells. Leptin is considered a master hormone and is attributed to all matters having to do with weight management, mood, sleep and overall hormonal balance and metabolic function. There are specific steps one can take to actually reset leptin regulation and the steps are easy, straightforward and maintainable. In taking the recommended steps, the body, with time, relearns to self- regulate food intake, food and energy metabolism, sleep cycles, hormone regulation and mood patterns. The steps are as follows:
Eat a protein dense breakfast. This is essential to a complete leptin re-set and is required for a metabolic re-boot, sustained energy and blood glucose regulation. Try to eat breakfast within an hour of waking. Drink water throughout your morning as well. This will wake the body, hydrate the body and help cleanse the body.
Eat only three meals per day that are protein rich and free from all dairy and grain and space them 6 hours apart. No snacking. This is a very important step in teaching the body to regulate energy, efficiently digest nutrients and to understand true hunger and rest. The body needs food, but not as much or as often as most manufactures and restaurants would like you to believe. Let your body feel. Let your brain register and allow your body to be both hungry and fed. It is normal to experience these feelings. Being full all the time is not a natural state. Our body’s need to empty at times, this allows for gastro-intestinal rest.
Do not eat after dinner. It is imperative to hormonal regulation, mood health and deep sleep to allow the body to not “work” after a certain time in the evening. If one continues to eat late in the evening, the body must continue to work and that decreases restful sleep, deregulates hormones and dampens the mood.
Do not eat large meals, stop eating before you are full. For optimal metabolic regulation, energy and happiness, stay less than stuffed. When a body is over fed and stuffed, energy decreases, mood plummets, hormones become inhibited and rest becomes uneasy. Fat is stored and the body gains weight.
Reduce carbohydrate intake. Carbohydrates are metabolized into sugars within the body and can spike blood sugar and insulin levels. A low carbohydrate diet allows the body to settle into a healthily maintained glucose environment and to optimize energy and fat metabolism.
