I have wanted to write this blog post for a while, and now I am finally pumped up enough to write it all out. I just started reading “The Brain Diet” and it gave me that extra kick to want to share what I already had researched and knew to be true in terms of why people who eat real food actually lose weight, and people who don’t gain a LOT of weight over time.
Everything I am going to share can be googled and read and researched, so don’t mind my lack of citation for information shared. I am not a doctor, or any kind of expert in this stuff. I am just a regular person who has become passionate and interested in all of this information, and now that I understand it simply, I want to pass it on to anyone who cares to read it! 🙂
So the simplest way I can explain it is by saying this: when you only eat processed foods, simple carbs (bread, candy, pastries, etc.) —- your body turns all that food you ate into UN-USABLE FAT.
Say this out loud: “UN-USABLE FAT”.
So after eating these types of food, not only does the body store it as fat that CAN NOT BE USED for energy, your body now also thinks you didn’t feed it anything, so you are STILL HUNGRY. This in turns leads to obesity and a host of other health problems.
On top of that already startling information, the body then becomes TOTALLY dependent on these types of foods, and you will only crave them, and train your body to depend on them alone.
It is a vicious cycle. You only eat non-nutrient filled foods, your body turns it into un-usable fat, and thinks you didn’t feed it anything, so you are still hungry, and all you crave, still, are the non-nutritious foods you are already addicted to eating!
I had this problem for years! But I never became obese, thankfully. It wasn’t that I ate A LOT — it was that, when I did eat, which wasn’t THAT much, all I wanted was simple carbs. I lived off of bagels, cereal, toast, pasta filled foods, pizza, and snack bars. I rarely ate fruit and vegetables or dairy. I had absolutely no idea about gut bacteria enhancing foods/drinks or about anything that might be beneficial to my body.
I thought since I wasn’t in any way overweight, I had nothing to worry about.
But that turned out to be a lie. There came a point when all of it finally caught up to me when I was 29. I found myself chronically tired, sitting on the couch all day, taking naps, having no life or energy whatsoever. I was depressed, irritable, and getting sick a lot in the winter times. This was SO not me!
At first, I thought it was all hormone-related, so I sought to change that. And for a minute, the changes I made seemed to have some positive effects.
But it wasn’t until this past January, after hearing about the whole 30 diet, and learning about leaky gut, which sent me into the land of fermented drinks and soaked grains and the need for LOTS of fruit and vegetables, that anything real and lasting has happened in terms of change for the better.
I cut out my un-soaked oatmeal for breakfast, stopped eating home made pizza, stopped eating all pasta, and stopped eating bread of any kind and replaced all of that with meat, fruit, and vegetables.
After only a week or so of that, I felt like I had all the energy of my 20’s back and I was HAPPY! I started a workout routine (free on youtube by fitnessblender) and it was like I got my life back! I was living again, no longer tired, and no more mid-day naps!!! I lost the 5 pounds I did actually gain over those miserable carb-only-eating years in a month’s time, and have kept it off since!
Now here is why eating real food actually makes people lose weight—— when you eat real food, your body recognizes it as actual food, and immediately uses that food you just ate for energy and all the things the body needs. It doesn’t turn it into un-usable fat unless you eat a ton of extra calories and gain weight from that, but eventually, your body will use that stored fat because it was stored by real foods. (Eventually, your body uses the un-usable fat too, when you are lacking in calories but eating real food too). But the difference is —- when you eat real food, your body knows that you ate, and therefore you are satisfied and no longer constantly hungry or craving only carbs to eat. You start wanting REAL food, and you will be surprised how sweet fruit becomes to the tongue!
So, to keep this short and to the point: if you find yourself in a slum-carb phase of life, and you are gaining weight, always tired, and only eating/craving carbs —— I promise you from personal experience that trashing the carbs and replacing it with REAL food such as bacon, sweet potatoes, broccoli, apples, strawberries, blueberries, and any other type of real food you can find —- you will not only come back to life, but you will start shedding the extra weight if you stay active on a regular basis! 🙂
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