The Real Reason You Aren’t Losing Weight

Do you spend weeks counting calories, exercising religiously, steadfastly refusing any food that may hint of flavor only to step on the scale and find that you’ve only lost 1-2 lbs.? Or even worse, no pounds at all?

Well, if you live in America, chances are very likely that this has happened to you. Not only is it defeating not to see any results from your hard efforts, its very frustrating as well because you’re following all the “rules,” sticking to your diet and exercise program like all of the diet gurus tell you and still..no results. The needle on the scale just laughs in your face.

You’ve likely given up in frustration and thrown the New Year’s resolutions out the window like day old garbage come February because the disappointment is just too much to bear.

We know that unhealthy eating is bad for us. If you grew up on the typical American diet of fast foods, frozen meals and fizzy drinks that don’t nourish your body in any way, then chances are by your late twenties to early thirties you are starting to see and feel their ill-effects despite your best efforts to exercise. The body simply can’t sustain a lifetime of this type of eating. So it fights back with a complex system to combat all of the junk it is being fed.

But there is one very important factor that you probably haven’t considered. In fact, most people don’t give it a second thought in their overall health and well-being, let alone their efforts to lose weight.

What is this big mystery?

It’s Your Colon.

Yes, your colon is the real reason you can’t lose weight.

It’s the colon’s responsibility to absorbs vitamins, salts, nutrients, and water. When the colon is working as it should, we feel great and can easily manage our ideal weight. But when the colon is not working well it begins to absorb toxins into the blood stream rather than getting rid of them. The result is a whole heap of problems ranging from constipation and gas, to candida, diverticulitis, weight gain and numerous other chronic health issues.

So, in plain terms, you can eat all the organic foods you want, take the best vitamins, and exercise until you pass out, but if your colon is clogged, it really doesn’t matter because you are just re-circulating toxins back into your system — your body never gets a chance to access the good stuff you may now being putting into it.

Think of your liver as a big recycling center that filters out all the bad stuff and the colon as the dump where everything is taken to get thrown out. If there is a blockage and the dump fills up, the garbage doesn’t get eliminated, it just gets recirculated back into the system.

Now if the garbage can in your kitchen was full to the brim, you wouldn’t keep piling on more garbage would you? Of course not…you would take it outside and throw it away.

The same thing is true about your colon. You wouldn’t want garbage piling up to stink and rot away in your house, so why would you let it stink and rot in your body?

Ideally, you want to have at least 3-4 bowel movements a day. One for every meal that you eat. If you only have a bowel movement once a week then you are severely toxic and not getting maximum nutrition from the foods you take in. Unfortunately most people think one bowel movement every few days is normal. Instead, they pile on antacids, synthetic stool softeners or do just nothing while their insides turn to toxic waste dumps thinking that the crummy, unsettled feeling in their tummy is “normal” because everyone else has the same complaints.

In fact, according to many experts you can have as much as 5 – 25 lbs. of fecal matter stored in your colon. How’s that for weight loss motivation?

So as you begin your New Year’s weight loss program, add a colon cleanse to start it off with. You will see far better results if you first do a clean sweep of the insides while working on the outside.

Here is a yummy constipation relief recipe I adapted from Dr. Mauro’s Constipation Relief Secrets. When I first saw beets listed as one of the ingredients, I immediately scrunched up my nose and refused to try it. I mean, beets in a smoothie? That in no way sounds appetizing. But I decided to put on my big girl pants and try it. After all, the whole goal is better health so I have to be willing to try new things since what we’ve typically learned about health all these years has turned out to be not in our best interests.

To my surprise, the smoothie was actually very tasty. Dare I say, delicious. I think there is something about the combination of pineapple juice and beet juice that makes it not only palatable but enjoyable. Give it a try and see if it doesn’t help your bowels move in the next day or so:

Greek Beet Smoothie Ingredients:

1/2 cup almond milk
1/2 cup pineapple juice
1/2 a beet, diced
1/2 cup greek yogurt (sometimes I omit this and it still works)
1 tablespoon of flaxseeds

Blend all ingredients together and drink immediately. I have a Shake N’ Take that I use as a quick blender. Although it’s very convenient when you’re on the move, want to make a smoothie and get going with your day, clean up can be a hassle because it’s hard to get down into the bottom of the cup being that it’s so long and tubular. So be mindful to rinse it out right after you finish your drink so none of the food particles start to harden and make it a bear to clean up later.

I’ve also used the Magic Bullet style blender. This was when I was staying home and had no issues with drinking from an open cup, but I think they have interchangeable lids so you can take this blender cup on the go as well.

Give the Greek Beet Smoothie a try and let me now how it works for you! Until next time, Be Well.