For the past few years, I've been really interested in taking control of my own health. Having to self diagnose my gluten intolerance led me to lots of information that makes a lot of sense to me. The more I learn about the chemicals and toxins in the food we eat and the medicines we take, the more convinced I am that there should be a better way to optimum health.
Our Medical doctors aren't trained very well in whole body health and healing. Rather than look for the causes of symptoms, they tend to just want to treat the symptoms, usually with drugs. Symptoms may improve with the drugs but it only masks the condition. Like my gluten intolerance which caused all kinds of chronic autoimmune responses in my body, there is usually a reason why your body is not acting like the well designed machine it is meant to be. Whether it's a food sensitivity or an environmental factor, it seems like we have to be our own investigators and seek out the causes and remedies to live a life of optimum health.
It may be easier to pop a pill to make something go away, but when you learn what is going on inside your body...when you understand how our organs and systems work in perfect balance with each other and what we put into them can make so many things get out of whack, it will become clear that there is a better way to live, to eat and to care for yourself that will result in a long and healthy life.
I made an appointment with a Naturopathic Physician a couple of weeks ago. As I've documented so well in this blog, I am having trouble losing weight and I thought maybe she would have some kind of therapy to boost my metabolism. As it turns out, after she did a BIA test on me, my metabolism is just fine!
The test consists of electrodes on my hand and foot and the machine sends a painless electrical charge through my body that measures the amount of water in my tissues. It took about 2 minutes.
So, Dr. Arnold suggested a program which will not only help me lose weight but will set me up for a healthy life. It includes a binder with all the info I need to get started, How my body works, explaining the Glycemic Index and insulin resistance and how it affects weight loss....and weight gain., how to exercise, how and what to eat. I had a lot of this information before but I like the fact that it is all in this one little binder that I can refer to often. I have a chart for each day where I cross out each serving as I eat it so I can see right away what I need to eat...or not eat :-)
The program is called First Line Therapy put out by the Metagenics company, which I already knew was the leading nutritional supplement company that most Naturopathic practitioners use because of its reliability and quality. The FirstLine Therapy program is a low-glycemic-index dietary plan and accompanying soy-and phytosterol-containing beverage, combined with a moderate exercise regimen, The program is based in functional medicine:
My program includes a protein and nutritional drink that I can drink twice a day as a snack. It's good to know that even if I don't get all the foods I am supposed to eat in a single day, this drink is feeding me all the essentials my body needs to stay healthy and in balance. I'll have another BIA test in a few weeks to monitor any changes. She also has me taking a probiotic for gut health, fish oil, calcium and Vitamin D supplements. I've taken supplements before...sort of off and on and been lazy about it. I learned how important consistency is and I have a routine now where I never skip a dose.
Following the diet part of the program isn't as hard for me since I am very used to not eating processed foods and such because of my gluten intolerance. But, I hadn't been as good with the dairy. My testing showed that I had an autoimmune reaction to milk protein as well as wheat protein(gluten) so following this program, I've cut out all dairy now too.
What helps me to stay committed to the diet is all the information that comes with it. I now understand WHY I don't want that baked potato. I look at it now as something that will raise my insulin level and will work against my goals. There are plenty of tasty alternatives. And I have found that it is true that you do lose your cravings for the fried, fatty and processed sugary foods after a week or so.
So far, after a week, I feel great, I have terrific energy, a positive outlook and I think I probably burned off a little fat. I'll keep you all updated on my progress.
To learn more I suggest you follow the links I've provided above....lots of great info.
Our Medical doctors aren't trained very well in whole body health and healing. Rather than look for the causes of symptoms, they tend to just want to treat the symptoms, usually with drugs. Symptoms may improve with the drugs but it only masks the condition. Like my gluten intolerance which caused all kinds of chronic autoimmune responses in my body, there is usually a reason why your body is not acting like the well designed machine it is meant to be. Whether it's a food sensitivity or an environmental factor, it seems like we have to be our own investigators and seek out the causes and remedies to live a life of optimum health.
It may be easier to pop a pill to make something go away, but when you learn what is going on inside your body...when you understand how our organs and systems work in perfect balance with each other and what we put into them can make so many things get out of whack, it will become clear that there is a better way to live, to eat and to care for yourself that will result in a long and healthy life.
I made an appointment with a Naturopathic Physician a couple of weeks ago. As I've documented so well in this blog, I am having trouble losing weight and I thought maybe she would have some kind of therapy to boost my metabolism. As it turns out, after she did a BIA test on me, my metabolism is just fine!
The BIA test is a simple, non invasive, painless procedure. By using a very small amount of electric current, this test can not only show the ratio of lean muscle to fat, but also other important indicators such as the amount of intra-cellular and extra cellular-water. Your total body weight is not just what is important, it is what makes up that total body weight, and how it changes over time.
The test consists of electrodes on my hand and foot and the machine sends a painless electrical charge through my body that measures the amount of water in my tissues. It took about 2 minutes.
So, Dr. Arnold suggested a program which will not only help me lose weight but will set me up for a healthy life. It includes a binder with all the info I need to get started, How my body works, explaining the Glycemic Index and insulin resistance and how it affects weight loss....and weight gain., how to exercise, how and what to eat. I had a lot of this information before but I like the fact that it is all in this one little binder that I can refer to often. I have a chart for each day where I cross out each serving as I eat it so I can see right away what I need to eat...or not eat :-)
The program is called First Line Therapy put out by the Metagenics company, which I already knew was the leading nutritional supplement company that most Naturopathic practitioners use because of its reliability and quality. The FirstLine Therapy program is a low-glycemic-index dietary plan and accompanying soy-and phytosterol-containing beverage, combined with a moderate exercise regimen, The program is based in functional medicine:
Functional medicine is personalized medicine that deals with primary prevention and underlying causes instead of symptoms for serious chronic disease. It is a science-based field of health care that is grounded in the following principles:
- Biochemical individuality describes the importance of individual variations in metabolic function that derive from genetic and environmental differences among individuals.
- Patient-centered medicine emphasizes "patient care" rather than "disease care," following Sir William Osler’s admonition that "It is more important to know what patient has the disease than to know what disease the patient has."
- Dynamic balance of internal and external factors.
- Web-like interconnections of physiological factors – an abundance of research now supports the view that the human body functions as an orchestrated network of interconnected systems, rather than individual systems functioning autonomously and without effect on each other. For example, we now know that immunological dysfunctions can promote cardiovascular disease, that dietary imbalances can cause hormonal disturbances, and that environmental exposures can precipitate neurologic syndromes such as Parkinson’s disease.
- Health as a positive vitality – not merely the absence of disease.
My program includes a protein and nutritional drink that I can drink twice a day as a snack. It's good to know that even if I don't get all the foods I am supposed to eat in a single day, this drink is feeding me all the essentials my body needs to stay healthy and in balance. I'll have another BIA test in a few weeks to monitor any changes. She also has me taking a probiotic for gut health, fish oil, calcium and Vitamin D supplements. I've taken supplements before...sort of off and on and been lazy about it. I learned how important consistency is and I have a routine now where I never skip a dose.
Following the diet part of the program isn't as hard for me since I am very used to not eating processed foods and such because of my gluten intolerance. But, I hadn't been as good with the dairy. My testing showed that I had an autoimmune reaction to milk protein as well as wheat protein(gluten) so following this program, I've cut out all dairy now too.
What helps me to stay committed to the diet is all the information that comes with it. I now understand WHY I don't want that baked potato. I look at it now as something that will raise my insulin level and will work against my goals. There are plenty of tasty alternatives. And I have found that it is true that you do lose your cravings for the fried, fatty and processed sugary foods after a week or so.
So far, after a week, I feel great, I have terrific energy, a positive outlook and I think I probably burned off a little fat. I'll keep you all updated on my progress.
To learn more I suggest you follow the links I've provided above....lots of great info.
