While weight loss is #1 goal that many of our guests have when they arrive, it is typically the last one on their list when they leave. What changes in their perspective, and why does Fresh Start not emphasize and does not guarantee weight loss?
Difference Between Weight Loss and Obesity
First of all, I would like to distinguish here between weight loss and obesity. While it may sound as if it is the same thing, it is not.
Obesity – Modern Pandemics
Obesity – is a major metabolic disorder, when body’s ability to regulate its own intake of nutrients and processing them out is disrupted. When a person suffers with obesity, it means that there are typically 50+ lbs overweight. Obesity increases risk of other degenerative diseases, including diabetes, mobility issues, high blood pressure and heart disease. In the modern world the rise of obesity all over the world became alarming.
Obesity Onset
Major systemic metabolism dysregulation typically starts in infancy, early childhood or during pregnancy, though it may happen later in life, too. After the metabolism has been majorly disrupted, the person may be struggling with extra weight in later years, because fat cells have memory. He/she typically goes on various diets, loses, then gains back.
One of the reasons why we touch on the topic of obesity here is because it plays a major role in self body image and body-confidence of many people, especially women, even if they do no suffer with it. The contrasting images of thin bodies and obese bodies are flashing on the screens of TVs and computers, confusing them, making them compare their bodies to both and making a conclusion that a bigger body is worse than a smaller one.
Two Important Factors Contributing to Obesity
1. Toxic acids accumulated in the tissues.
There are a lot of chemicals present in our food today: colourings, artificial flavours, preservatives and the like. The body will aim to keep them as far as possible from your vital organs and will store them in the extremities, lower back, neck, and fat cells.
For example, multiple researches extensively studied MSG-induced obesity in rats and reported a strong link between obesity and MSG.
MSG, or monosodium glutamate, present in many modern foods, is a well-known excitotoxin (toxic to the brain) that decreases brain size and destroys eye cells. Majority packaged foods contain MSG and other food additives, which may largely contribute to the modern pandemics of obesity we haven’t seen for centuries.
2. Function of Hormonal System, particularly Liver and Thyroid.
If your liver is sluggish, colon does not work, and your adrenal glands are burnt-out, you’ll have a hard time trying to lose weight. Hormonal system and liver health may be negatively impacted by eating food full of chemicals, frequent overeating, severe or prolonged emotional stress/ nervous system dis-balance, chronic lack of oxygen and other things.
Note: Working with obesity requires a very different approach than weight loss, as mobility issues and degenerative diseases are often already present. Dietary changes will play here the primary role in the lifestyle changes, and you need to be very careful with fitness, to ensure you do not overdo. However, most important here is to work on the health aspect and restoration of various body organs and system, particularly liver and hormonal system. These organs play a vital role in regulation or metabolism. Unless you get them to work properly, it will be hard to stabilize and maintain healthy weight successfully.
If you are suffering with obesity, look into our Go-Deeper Programs.
Weight Loss
I define weight loss as a small to moderate variance in weight of approximately 10-50 lbs., compared to the weight considered by the modern society standards “normal.” This is not a fixed number, but rather a typical representation of weight fluctuations between underweight and obesity. Some people call this zone the “stubborn last pounds.” According to BMI tables, a person is considered overweight with the BMI between 25 and 29.9. However, this number is not quite accurate, because the person’s natural body frame is not taken into consideration, and some wide-boned and fit people may get into the overweight and obese class I category, and underweight people may fall into the normal weight bracket, according to these tables. You can find out your body frame by measuring your wrist.
Unfortunately, because of these BMI tables and obsession with a specific type of a slim figure, modern people have extremely high expectations to their weight and disregard their individual body needs, including stage of life they are in, type of activity they do, weight of their bones and muscles, season of the year, emotional state and many others.
In the modern society, the body fat is considered as something super undesirable, and in many cases the fat vs muscle ratios recommended are way below what our body actually needs. Women are often encouraged to have lower fat percentage than it is necessary for pregnancy and breastfeeding periods, and even for her own needs.
It is important not to buy into the sport of losing pounds for the sake of imaginary ideal slim figure. Weight loss is not a race in which you need to compete with others, or even yourself when you were 20.
Weight Gain and Dehydration
Some Fresh Start guests are surprised that instead of losing weight they “plateau” or even gain a little, even though their belly may become flatter or inches may be decreasing. They panic and start wondering what’s “wrong” with them! What typically is happening is that their body started re-hydrated because they eliminated coffee and other diuretics, and started providing their body with healthy liquids and resting more.” Rehydration is a positive thing for a healthy person, and you want to welcome it.
Besides gradual rehydration, your body fluid volume normally fluctuates throughout the day. You may “lose” and gain up to 1-2 lbs. a day. This is why you cannot rely on the numbers on the scale.
Obsession with the “Ideal Size” at All Costs
Most women dream about shedding those unwanted pounds around hip, belly and chest areas. Some are super “lucky” to be the perfect 90-60-90, but even them, if one day after pregnancy and beginning of menopause not able to maintain it, go through an identity crisis. As a result, women start restricting calories and attempt dieting.
Trying to keep slim body at all costs has little to do with health, and often has quite an opposite effect: when you focus on weight loss and over exercise, you may become malnourished, develop various health issues and, worst of all, eating disorders, which are very difficult to treat.
Here are just a few negative side-effects of unhealthy weight loss:
Malnourishment and pregnancy issues: Some girls succeed in correcting their figure with dieting and pills, and a few are able to maintain the desired weight, but most often at a cost of malnourishment, resulting in vertigo, anemia, as well as difficulty to get pregnant and multiple miscarriages. Those side effects do not go away quickly an may last very long time after you stop dieting, because once you do damage to digestive system, metabolism or circulatory system, they do not heal instantly on their own.
High Protein Diets: There are many variations of these, from Atkins to Paleo, but their basic principle is to consume a lot of meat and to eliminate starches and sometimes all sweet foods. The way high protein diets work is that they increase your metabolism (this is why you lose weight). However, the down side is that animal protein requires a very complex and prolonged process of digestion (it may take up to 3-4 days), and your kidneys, heart and other organs have to work very hard, to eliminate by-products of the excessive protein digestion and putrefaction. Long-term high protein diets are not safe and may lead to gallstones, gout, arthritis, as well as in kidney and heart failure. In addition to this, elimination of all sweets and starches will contribute to glucose deficiency. Glucose is the primary fuel for our brain and is a very important source of energy for all cells. If you completely exclude it from your diet, you will starve them. The sign of this severe glucose starvation will be strong, almost uncontrollable sugar cravings, when you’ll be “shaking” when seeing a chocolate bar and whenever you get to it, you’ll pig out and will have a hard time to stop. Glucose cannot be fully substituted by other sources of energy, such as protein or fats. It is critical that you get some glucose on a daily basis, as it is an essential nutrient your body needs.
Eating Disorders:
If through dieting you deprive yourself of nutrients on a regular basis, the body will initiate a self-preservation mechanism. As it won’t be able to trust that you will reliably feed it, through a strong craving it will “force” you to eat compulsively, when the nutrients content becomes low. Or on the opposite, you will start experiencing severe dizziness, when you skip a meal. It is another protective mechanism, how body may “motivate” you to get scared and eat.
If the patters above repeat multiple times, you may end up with a pathological food addiction, when you will look for food to binge, just like an alcoholic for a bottle. You may walk for miles to get the food, or to jump into a cab to get and hide some in your room, even though just a few hours ago you have committed you will work on your addiction and on purpose got to the temptation-free zone. To prevent eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia, you need to eat regularly and to provide your body with all it needs! Eating disorders are not fun; they negatively impact your nervous system and mental health. Yet they originate from skipping meals and ignoring your body needs.
Body and Good Weight Loss
You may still really want to get rid of those pounds, and at the moment it is the goal of your life. But just think about it: what is more dangerous, to have some extra weight or to have your kidneys fail? What is worse, to occasionally overeat, or end up with a life-long eating disorder?
The best approach is to consider weight loss as a by-product of health, not the goal in itself.
Healthy weight loss means not only decreased pounds and inches, but healthy blood sugar and blood pressure, flexible joints, calm emotions and vibrant energy. You want to focus on your health, not on the weight loss. It is a paradigm shift in thinking, and it may take awhile.
One of our coaches started her health journey by gaining 25 lbs. This is what her body and heart needed to be healthy. If for a moment you put weight loss on the back burner, what do your mind and soul need at the moment? Maybe you’ve been burning your night fuel for the last 5 years and are so exhausted that you run mostly on coffee? Maybe your energy tank is low, and so is your joy of life? Does your digestion need a tune-up, and your appetite is virtually non-existent (you simply stuff yourself without enjoyment)? Do you feel disconnected from your soul, just going through motions and day-to-day chores automatically?
When you start looking after yourself, you’ll understand that weight loss is so secondary. When you have energy and joy, you will have desire to eat healthy, exercise more and look after yourself more consistently. When you learn to manage your time, energy and finances, you will have much more stable level of health and weight. It is not those folds on your lower back or belly that you want to worry about, but your ability to enjoy your life, as well as finding ways to create a fulfilling life path. Stop thinking about those 5-15+ extra pounds, and focus on what you need to gain in your life and your heart first.
How Can Fresh Start Help You and Why We Do not Specialize in Weight Loss?
Goal of the Fresh Start Detox and Recharge program is to help you improve your body organ function, to rejuvenate and to help you feel your best. We understand your desire to have optimum body weight. Our program includes may components that may help you with it.
#1 Advanced whole body detoxification may be very beneficial in assisting you with lbs. loss and inches loss, with a great benefit to the entire body. Detoxification will help with elimination of toxins, which compose a lot of extra weight. The toxins are stored in our fat cells, as well as in and around our organs.
#2 Healthy nutrition – regular healthy meals with a large % of raw food and no meat or dairy are very nourishing and cleansing at the same time. They assist your body with weight loss.
#3 Rest and Exercise – combination of beautiful nature surroundings, fitness, yoga, rest periods and bodywork with help you recharge and restore your depleted energy resources.
As you’ve seen above, there are so many factors that are involved in weight loss, from your genetic make-up and your real vs perceived body needs, to hydration and stress levels, liver and hormonal system health, and how tired are your adrenal glands. On all of these and more will depend if natural weight loss is going to happen during your program and how much.
We’ve seen many guests shedding 1/3-1/3 lb. a day, and often they continue doing so after the program, as their metabolism and organs work much better in the result of cleansing. As long as they were not fixated on specific numbers and did not make them a priority, they got wonderful results.
The reason we do not focus on weight loss and do not use stimulants to achieve it at all cost is because it would be as if trying to beat the tired horse (your body) in attempts to make it run faster and more (give the remnants of its precious energy for weight loss). Most people live in very high stress environment, and what they need most is to unwind, not to “beat their body to pulp”. When your body is fatigued, the last thing it needs is to be run even harder and be put on a treadmill. While boot camps have their place, the reality is that most people are on a treadmill of life ever day and are dreaming to get off it.
This is why we designed a program, where you can focus on relaxation and rejuvenation, nourishing your body and soul. Whether you lose a few lbs. or not, does not matter. What matters is that your cells are re-nourished with good foods, your digestion works better, your sinuses are able to clear mucous, you can sleep better and as a result feel stronger.
