You just finished the Full Body Cleanse. You haven’t weighed yourself during the cleansing process because you wanted to surprise yourself with how much weight you released. You haven’t felt this energized, youthful, and healthy in a long time, so you dust off the scale, take your shoes off, remove everything out of your pockets…you might even get naked because every ounce counts. After stepping on the scale, you realize that you are not far from your pre-cleansing weight. We are talking about zero to five pounds of weight loss. Perhaps you stuck to the raw foods diet, took the capsules as directed, and those efforts did not yield 10-30 pounds of weight loss. While it is easy to blame the cleansing program, it is important to look at the body during this time to make sure that everything is functioning optimally.
When it comes to losing weight, it is important to eat healthily and incorporate exercise into your daily routine. While the two work hand in hand, you have to continually alter what you are eating and change up the exercises in your workout routine to yield progress. The body can become accustomed to repetitive exercises and meals; therefore, new routines are necessary to avoid complacency and increase your chances of weight loss.
How Was Your Exercise?
What constitutes a solid workout? While everyone has a different definition of exercise, an agreeable definition is a workout program that leaves you tired, sweaty, and a little sore. You don’t want to be immobile or in pain, but you should feel like you gave it your all, especially during a cardiovascular workout. Cardio is integral, but one should also practice strength training and balance exercises to hit all of the pillars of exercise. Additionally, heading to the sauna after a workout promotes more sweating (one great way to release toxins), but it also helps to lubricate the joints to reduce inflammation and tension. If you have access to an ice bath, jumping into the freezing water works to burn calories (the body burns calories to maintain its internal core temperature), decrease inflammation, and improve recovery time. Being able to get in the sauna and then the ice bath is the ultimate way to continue the workout.
What if you ate different foods, changed your exercises, and still only experienced minimal weight loss? While we can’t give you an exact answer, we can give you a few probable causes, the first of which relates to the thyroid gland. Keep in mind that you should not take this as medical advice. They are merely suggestions for you to research and become more in tune with the inner workings of your body.
Thyroid Issues
There are 20 million Americans living with a thyroid disorder.Of those 20 million people, only about 30-40% are aware of their thyroid disorder. An undiagnosed thyroid condition can increase a person’s risk of osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, and can make it difficult to lose weight. Theses common disorders include hypo- and hyperthyroidism, Graves’ disease, and Hashimoto’s disease.
Hormonal Imbalance
While this can be linked to a malfunctioning thyroid or adrenal problems, hormonal imbalance can often be linked to lifestyle or the foods you eat. If you aren’t getting enough fiber, for example, estrogen levels can climb because fiber helps to excrete estrogen from the body. Too much estrogen can lead to bloating, water retention, or gas. This typically tends to be an issue for menopausal or pre-menopausal women.
Cortisol, the stress hormone, is another hormone that can interfere with weight loss. An overabundance of stress hormones can cause you to store fat (specifically in the abdominal area), and can be linked to sugar cravings, food addiction, or depression. You may want to consider taking a break from caffeine after cleansing or consider yoga, meditation, breathing exercises, or other stress-relieving techniques.
Don’t Lie About What You Ate
If you cheated during the cleanse, that is completely acceptable, but don’t say that the cleansing process failed you. Eating raw for a couple days and then eating some bread or chicken with a soda or two does not mean that you ate raw. Don’t feel bad about cheating; rather, let it go and try to do the best you can the next day.
Food Intolerances
An estimated 15 million adults suffer from food allergies, but that doesn’t account for all the people who have food intolerances or sensitivities. Doing a food allergy test may be illuminating for some people, but the rest can greatly benefit from an elimination diet or a food sensitivity test. The elimination diet is a short-term program that forces you to eliminate certain foods, which may be causing allergic or digestive reactions, from your diet. After about a month without the foods in your diet, you can slowly reintroduce them in order to identify which foods the body does not agree with
We hope this information helps and we wish you the best of luck with your weight loss goals.
