Fasting can be done safely and effectively for weight loss if you do it in a proven healthy way. But who really likes to deprive themselves?

I don’t. As to exercising – is healthy and it can enhance weight loss, but it isn’t absolutely necessary. About 75% of weight loss comes from diet and 25% from exercise.

Wait a minute – we said we didn’t want to fast. Well, there’s a lot of hype about lifestyle changes (and I’m confessing that I’m one of those people who push for lifestyle changes); switching to a healthier (proven) way of eating for many can bring about weight loss without even being hungry. 

Please understand that carb and other food binging can bring on hunger that’s not real hunger, but rather triggering that place in your brain’s chemistry that tells you that you want and need more food, preferably more carbs, when your tummy is telling you you’re full!

So, balance is a real key to this process of getting off your extra pounds. Here is a video by Lauren Grant with The Hungry Heart and she explains how to stop binging. How many of us are stuck in this vicious cycle of binging?

Here are my top 3 tips on helping you lose weight without too much exercise and no real fasting unless it happens while we’re asleep! (We all walk, right? So, we’re getting some exercise.) 

1. Eat Smart

Eat Smart

 

By this, I mean eating healthy, including multiple food groups (although you don’t need to do this at every meal, perhaps just during the day).

Make sure you develop a taste for fresh local fruits and vegetables, and clean proteins, and be very careful that your carbs or starches are healthy ones, like beans, sweet potatoes, etc.

Do not eat too much of even healthier carbs as they can trigger overeating.

2. Take Time While You’re Eating

Take Time While You’re Eating

 

Chewing well takes time, so chew your food thoroughly. This has the added advantage of your body having time to send you the signal that you are getting full – and become aware of when you’re pleasantly sated.

3. Listen to Your Body

Listen to Your Body

 

It knows best. It is intuitive and will let you know what you need, when you need it, etc. What happens is that we overload our systems with lots of grains and sugars, propelling us toward addictive responses, and we no longer listen to what our bodies are actually telling us.

Don’t be too upset if you have trouble identifying your body language. It takes time to relearn this. We might also need to work through some emotional/thought processes to fully overcome compulsive eating. Be nice to yourself during this process!

Binge eating is an addictive process. Watch Dr. Joseph Mercola interviewing Dr. Michelle May concerning mindful eating.

To learn more about how to eat healthy without worrying about the scale every day or fasting or going to the gym to work out, consider taking the course, Healthy Nutrition, which will give you the basics of how we can best balance out our biochemistry with healthy food choices, and why.

For more holistically healthy tips on improving health, please visit Health and Wellness.