More and more, we are becoming a world of overweight, and even obese, people. Every time the people in a country "make progress" and start to eat the diet of industrialized nations, they start having all kinds of diseases and weight problems. Apparently, there is something about our so-called modern civilized diet which causes this. This is why many people start looking for natural weight loss help.
Most of us are told to simply eat less and exercise more. True, in our modern society we are more likely to sit for hours on end in front of a computer or tv and not get the exercise that our ancestors did in hunting and foraging for their food. But if it was as simple as just eating less and exercising more, surely by now our society would be on its way to thinner people, not with increasing numbers of overweight people. Just think of the years of low fat foods and all the ads on tv and special exercise programs in our schools. Guess it's just not that simple.
So maybe we should look at what a more natural weight loss might be. Let's address our diet to start with.
The food we eat today is far from what our ancestors, who did not have the diseases and obesity problems we have today, ate. They ate lean, grass-fed meats that they hunted or trapped. OK, just to be a little more exact, not all the animals they ate eat grass. Deer, for instance, are browsers and more likely to be eating broad-leafed plants and leaves on trees just like goats will as well. Even wild cattle and bison ate a varied diet of what was growing and in season as they migrated along their migration routes. We just use the term grass-fed to indicate that they did not eat industrialized grains. The meat sources of our ancestors were browsers and grazers, not grain eaters. Our cattle being grain-fed is due to the cheap grain that was available mid-last century. Grain produced marbled meat which then became the standard, though it never had been before.
Our vegetables and fruits as well are not what our ancestors ate, even a hundred hears ago. Our soils have been depleted and our fruits and vegetables just don't have the nutritional content now that they used to have. This is why it is important to buy organic products. It takes three years of crops being grown using organic methods before they can actually be certified organic. The soil will recover some from organic practices in that time, but not totally. The soil, especially where there has been commercial crop production, just cannot recover in that little bit of time. This is why you will still need to consider some supplements to help you with your natural weight loss.
Further, even fish sources are not safe. A lot of salmon, considered one of the healthiest fish, is farm raised. They are fed grain as well and kept in quite polluted and crowded circumstances not eating the diet that made these fish so healthy at one point. Most likely you know of the pollution of our seas. That is why even wild caught fish may not be safe. The amount of mercury and PCBs in warm water fish definitely is cause for concern. You need to be careful to get wild caught salmon preferably from cold Pacific waters if you use this meat as part of your natural weight loss program.
Turning to exercise, it should be obvious by now, that after decades of aerobic exercise programs and exercising for long durations, that we have not become healthier. In fact, as stated above, our obesity rates are increasing and those exercisers now have to contend with bad knees and heart problems. It's doubtful we could lay all that onto TV watching and computer time (though we agree that this does have an impact - look at our kids). Perhaps it's time to look at the type of exercise.
For more natural weight loss, let's look quickly at what our ancestors did. They exercised by hunting and migrating or traveling around from wintering spots to summer locations, whichever gave them the most food and resources depending on the time of year. So yes, walking is a good exercise. Exercise in short bursts is good as well. But for the most part, our ancestors did what they had to do to get the job done (i.e., get a deer for dinner) and then they took it easy.
Our modern day equivalent of this would be walking, as stated above, and interval training. In this interval training, you do quick bursts of intensive exercise followed by periods of lesser exercise. And the overall time of the exercise does not go on for more than about 20 minutes at most. As your ability to exercise more intensely goes up, the time can actually become less. Add to this some body weight exercises or resistance training and you have an exercise program that will help you with your natural weight loss.
So if you are wanting some natural weight loss help, look to the type of food your are eating and the type of exercise you are doing, if any. Add in the proper supplements to support your efforts and your health in getting the proper nutrients.
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