Carolyn Hansen: Living the best life possible

When we free ourselves from toxins and chemicals and begin consuming the right nutrient-dense foods, we can lose excess body fat naturally. Photo / 123rf

OPINION

If there is one thing we all have in common as human beings, it is the desire to live our best life. It is our natural state and based on that recognition, it’s safe to say no one wants to be overweight and/or suffer from the way it makes us look and feel. It damages us physically, mentally and emotionally.

The human body has always trended toward being lean and healthy. And, when it comes to living life to the fullest – with physical mobility, mental sharpness and emotional stability, there are eight healthy attributes we should all be striving for.

• A healthier, less toxic body. Circulating toxins in the blood are dangerous for the body ,so it uses fat cells as storage tanks. Fat cells become the first place the body looks when it needs to dump toxins and chemicals, causing a vicious cycle of inflammation.

Fat cells are in one of three states: small and immature, normal medium cells or large inflamed cells. They become inflamed when exposed to toxic stressors in the food we eat, our environment and even our emotions.

Detoxifying from the accumulation of toxins and chemicals that have caused overweight conditions/health complications, through nutrient-dense eating, dramatically improves our overall health levels.

Nutrient-dense eating is not a diet; it is part of a new, healthy lifestyle. It enables natural and effortless weight loss – the promises of rapid weight loss by calorie, carbohydrate and fat restriction used to be the standard way to lose weight. These unhealthy and unworkable ways of dieting have proven useless in the long term.

Any weight-loss approach that is properly designed is not just the result of taking calories out of the diet. -there also needs to be a cleansing aspect. The truth is, too much focus has been placed on calorie reduction, rather than reducing inflammation caused by toxins and chemicals. Calorie reduction alone only takes us so far before we hit the weight-loss resistance wall.

On the other hand, when we focus on reducing inflammation by eating a properly balanced, nutrient-dense, toxin-free diet, we improve the efficiency of the body’s blood sugar regulation hormones. This allows the body to dip into its fat cells/stores, providing us with natural, easy weight loss.

The result: when we free ourselves from toxins and chemicals and begin consuming the right nutrient-dense foods, excess body fat just melts away.

• An abundance of personal energy. A restricted-calorie diet reduces our overall energy levels, causing our body’s metabolism to slow down to compensate, leading us down a dead-end path. A body freed of toxins and chemicals is light and feels more alive. With an abundance of energy, every part of life, relationships, business, parenting and even sex begins to improve.
• Dramatically improved physical, mental and emotional health. When we detoxify, we being to self-heal physically, mentally and emotionally. Our metabolism and digestion improve, our mood lifts and brightens, and our energy levels rise. Newly energised, we look, act and feel more youthful. We want to play. We are inspired to become stronger, fitter and more active. The vision of a strong, healthy body, one free of the disease and the standard ailments of growing older - once a distant dream - becomes a reality.

Most of us are aware that stress negatively affects our body. “Eating a healthy diet can reduce the negative effects of stress on your body,” said Matthew J Kuchan, PhD, a senior research scientist at Abbott Health. “A healthy diet builds a solid, more enduring foundation for your body by reducing oxidation and inflammation and by helping to reduce weight gain.”

• Slower ageing, maximised longevity and a more youthful look. Detoxifying and the reducition of inflammation dramatically improve our health while reversing lifestyle-induced diseases – obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease etc. This allows us to age slower while extending our lifespan.

All the above successes happen one after the other, each adding to and supporting the previous one. They are the natural outcome for anyone who detoxifies their body and chooses a nutrient-dense way of eating. If permanent weight loss and improved health are on our agenda, we must adhere to and honour a few principles.

We must affirm we want to break free of the horrible cycle of consuming nutrient-poor foods and make a conscious effort to switch to nutrient-dense, healthy eating. We must begin stocking up on and enjoying nutrient-dense food choices and enhance our diet for nutrient density, free of addictive chemical substances. This allows us to rebalance our fat-storing/fat-burning hormones and eat the correct amount of food and calories.

And last but certainly not least, we must develop healthier lifestyle choices that continue to support our success. Exercise comes to mind.

For a real power-punch and the best return on your investment, pair your new, healthy nutrient-dense eating plan with challenging exercise and watch the focus of your lifestyle habits begin to shift from fixing your body (after the fact) to those that protect your body (preventive medicine or wellness).

Life is meant to be lived and pretty much anyone can fill that void. But more importantly, it is meant to be loved and the first step towards loving life is to love our bodies into the best version of health we can imagine. When our personal health becomes our primary objective and our lifestyle habits are generated from this health concern, we are truly on the road to not only “living life, but to “loving life”.

Carolyn Hansen is the co-owner of Anytime Fitness.