Weight Loss, maintenance and a healthy lifestyle.

Weight Loss, Supplements, Vitamins and Your Chiropractor.

Fontana Chiropractic firmly believes that a low carbohydrate lifestyle and exercise is optimum for both weight loss and maintenance. Low carb is the key here, not elimination. Carbohydrates are the main energy source for the human body, so we don’t want to eliminate them completely; the goal is to make the best choices when eating them. Remember your grade school biology classes where you learned about a process called photosynthesis? Carbohydrates are a mix of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen and are manufactured inside plants from carbon dioxide in the air and water, under the influence of sunlight. The four basic carbs classifications are as follows:

• Simple Carbohydrates (or “simple sugars”), and Complex Carbohydrates (or “complex sugars”) are the two main types.
• For classification purposes carbs are often defined as: sugars, starches and dietary fiber. Generally, sugars are “simple carbs”, while starches and dietary fiber are “complex carbs”. But, just to confuse you even more, fructose (fruit sugar) is a simple carb that behaves like a complex carb! 
• Carbs can be divided according to how fast they are digested, and this impacts just how quickly they raise our blood sugar levels. The Glycemic Index divides carbohydrate-containing foods into high, medium or low glycemic index foods. Typically its best to avoid the ones defined as high, and try to always choose from the low category.
• Ones to avoid: Refined or unrefined carbohydrates, depending on how “processed” they are by food manufacturers.

To really maintain and lose weight long term, you have to find an easy to follow plan that is simple to incorporate into your lifestyle, and Fontana Chiropractic feels that eating low carb (low Glycemic) fits that ideal. Other diets can be easy too, but who wants to eat cabbage soup all day long?  Counting points can get confusing, and meal replacement or food delivery can often become bland and hard to maintain over the long term.  Low GI can mean you still get to eat regular foods that you can choose on a daily basis, but the food choices you make are enabling you to stay fuller longer, feel more satiated and give you enough choices to not become stale or monotonous.

The goal is to replace refined carbs and sugars, alcohol, with foods that are low on the Glycemic Index. David Medosa, the author of “Mendosa.com Living with diabetes”, has this on his website “…The Glycemic index ranks foods on how they affect our blood glucose levels. This index measures how much your blood glucose increases in the two or three hours after eating. The Glycemic index is about foods high in carbohydrates. Foods high in fat or protein don’t cause your blood glucose level to rise much. A lot of people still think that it is plain table sugar that people with diabetes need to avoid. The experts used to say that, but the Glycemic index shows that complex carbohydrates, like baked potatoes, can be even worse. When you make use of the Glycemic index to prepare healthy meals, it helps to keep your blood glucose levels under control. This is especially important for people with diabetes, although athletes and people who are overweight also stand to benefit from knowing about this relatively new concept in good nutrition.” …

Obviously portion control and exercise is important, but to really follow a healthy eating plan you must be able to do it at a restaurant, at the supermarket, in the home, otherwise when confusion and indecision kicks in, the “whatever” attitude follows quickly behind it and you find yourself off your diet once again. In fact the best decision you can make on your ideal weight journey is to remove the word “diet” from your vocabulary and replace it with “healthy eating”.  Stop telling yourself “when I lose 5, 10, 15 pounds” instead start focusing on health, on longevity, on your overall fitness and the rest should fall into place. There is nothing to stop you eating a doughnut once in a while, or indulging in pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, but we all know that we can’t do that every day and stay healthy. Start reading and learning how to make better food choices.  You may just find that the low carb lifestyle is the solution you have been looking for. We all know that losing weight is going to involve replacing bad diet and exercise habits with healthier ones. A low carb plan, based on the Low Glycemic Index Food Pyramid, works very well, and research suggests that such low carb plans are good for blood-glucose control, the key to managing our hunger. Less hunger = easier to maintain. Better yet, a low carb diet seems to produce faster weight loss than more orthodox diets, at least for a few months. Some weight loss studies have shown that this rapid weight reduction advantage is largely dissipated over the course of 12 months, that’s one more reason to think of this as a long term lifestyle and not a “diet”.

To get started here are some examples of low Glycemic foods and their index number:
Fruits:  Cherries (22), Grapefruit (25), Apple (38), Strawberries (40), Grapes (46).
Cereals:  Bran Buds (47), Oatmeal (49).
Vegetables: Broccoli (10), Cabbage (10), Lettuce (10), Red Peppers (10).
Rice & Grains: Brown rice (55), Pearled Barley (25).
Bread: Pumpernickel (41)  ~ HIGH: 100% Whole Wheat (77), French Baguette (95).
For more Glycemic food values, and the ones that can benefit you the most,  see Fifty50  

Foods to avoid: 

1. Fat-free foods, most are supplemented for taste with sugar.
2. Again also avoid sauces or salsa where sugar is one of the main ingredients.
3. Never purchase highly processed or sugar-coated cereals, pancakes, bagels, muffins or waffles, white bread, white rice and pasta, if you must buy those items replace them with the 100% whole grain variety. 
4. Of course we all know to avoid chips, pretzels, and even popcorn,
5. Replace your daily sodas with water to keep yourself hydrated and healthy, the 8 glasses of 8oz water daily is still a good measure.
6. Limit your alcohol to a glass of red wine with dinner, not only is alcohol empty calories, it is also known to cause dehydration. Avoid altogther if you are trying to reduce your weight.

Drs. Paul and Susan are well versed in helping people lose weight.  Their approach follows the rule that: ”Calories in, be equal to, or  less than, the calories we expend”.  Using this approach, incorporated with the Low GI food plan, they are able to help their Evergreen clients maintain or lose weight with a very straight forward approach.  Drs. Paul and Susan are concerned with your overall health, not just weight management. They can give you advice on supplements for health and wellness, advise you on what vitamins you body really needs, and very importantly can give you advice on how to incorporate low impact exercises into your daily regimen to maintain or kick-start any weight loss plan. 

Make an adjustment, stay healthy ~ be happy: Call Dr. Paul or Dr. Susan at (303) 674 1500 to schedule a consultation or email office@fontanachiro.com

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