I don’t know about you but one of the most frustrating things about being of a certain age (25, heehee) is that it just seems harder and harder to lose that extra pinch or two of the lovely lady bumps. Do you feel like you’re a hamster perpetually on the running wheel when it comes to weight loss? Maybe you’ve tried running on a treadmill like a hamster and that still doesn’t do the trick.
Well, if you can relate, don’t despair but I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve.
Breaking A Weight Loss Plateau Tip #1: Have A Bitter Beer Face
Remember that funny advertising campaign for bitter beer face? Classic, right? So what does one of the most clever commercials of recent memory have to do with weight loss?
Glad you asked. Well, beer is bitter. But there are lots of healthy foods that taste bitter. And if you add more of them to your diet, there’s a good chance you’ll watch the pounds melt away.
Bitter is one of the 5 essential tastes that your tongue can detect. If you’re like me, you’re probably all too familiar with Mr. Salt and Mrs. Sweet. They make a perfect couple, don’t they? Unfortunately, with the plethora of modern processed food at our disposal, those are the primary taste receptors that get activated and in excess they are making our society sick.
The bitter taste buds are only located way at the back of your tongue and when activated, they do some pretty amazing things for weight loss. For starters, digestive bitters improve bile production and quality, which helps you better digest fat. If you have poor bile secretion, then you’re stuck with a toxic metabolism. This is what I help my clients overcome in my health transformation program, Revitalize Your Health!
Bitters do a lot more than that but I’ll save that info for a future post. In the meantime, start eating more endives, radishes, radicchio, chicory root, ginger root, and peppermint to name a few. Believe it or not, bitters work to break a weight loss plateau. It may not seem possible. I can’t wait to share with you more on this topic…
Tip #2: Do Your Jane Fonda Routine In The A.M. Before Breakfast
If you want to break a weight loss plateau, one of the most common pieces of advice is to exercise more. Duh! But you know what, that doesn’t work for everybody. In fact, several of my health coaching clients swear to me that they’ve tried every fitness fad and didn’t help them shed a fraction of a pant size.
So what gives? Well, the root cause may be related to the next section. But don’t skip ahead just yet. You see, nobody is told what kind of exercise to do and when to do it. And not every form of exercise is the best for every single person. In other words, one person’s marathon could be another’s heart attack. Well, that’s a bit of an exaggeration—except for the one out of approximately 100,000 long-distance runners who will experience a cardiac arrest while running—but you get the point.
When you learn what the best type of exercise is for your specific DNA, amazing things happen.
And no matter what your DNA reveals about what form of exercise best suits your metabolism, I suggest engaging in it first thing in the morning before you’ve had any calories. This will help break a weight loss plateau.
Tip #3: Work With A Functional Medicine Coach (Ahem, That’s Me!)
You may have heard of hypothyroidism but maybe aren’t sure what it is. In a nutshell, your thyroid releases hormones that govern your metabolism. If you have thinning hair (female pattern hair loss), gain weight easily for no apparent reason (you’re not eating bad or in excess but for some reason you keep gaining) and feel weak, pale and cold there’s a good chance you have a sluggish thyroid (hypothyroidism).
If you go see your family doctor and request a thyroid test there’s really only one test that will be given. And a lot of times what happens is that the thyroid test (thyroid stimulating hormone or TSH test) will come back saying that your levels are normal and there’s nothing wrong with your thyroid.
But this is where conventional medicine underperforms in diagnostic testing and where a functional medicine practitioner like yours truly can really dig deeper in the woods. You see, there are several different lab tests that reveal the true function of your thyroid gland.
Having a professional health coach and functional medicine practitioner holding your hand every inch of the way makes the journey so much easier!
If you’re interested in learning more, the most important thing you can do right now is schedule a complementary discovery session with me.
Until next time,
Jenna Witt, NP