Strategy to maintain ideal weight is enjoyed as a way of life

If we combine resentful stomachs from overeating during the holidays with lists of resolutions for the new year, slimming diets are one of the most recurrent topics of conversation these days.

Getting a drastic reduction of essential nutrients in the middle of winter is like cutting the root of a tree. When the tree lost its leaves in autumn, it was nature’s clever strategy to use all its energy indoors to prepare for winter. In the same way, our organism takes advantage of the lack of light and the cold to accumulate essence and recharge its inner energy. Don’t you find it more appealing than ever to take refuge under a blanket, seek calm, sleep, or eat the same old slow-cooked casseroles?

Getting distracted now at an energetic level has its consequences in spring, starting with the symptoms of asthenia and exhaustion. As if it were a mobile phone battery, it is now that we must “plug in” to good nutritional habits. It is not a question of eating less food, nor of depleting our reserves to the point where we can hardly recover in a couple of months. It’s about making the right choices about what you need. Even the retention generated by previous excesses can be corrected with the right foods, helping the body to regain its balance at all levels (including the ideal trouser size), without starving, with common sense, nourishing, strengthening defences, and above all, building “a deposit” of reserves for our body that is clean and of good quality.

A fair and healthy weight is not only about food and calorie intake.

We must remember that the factors that contribute to balancing the metabolism, and therefore a person’s weight, are diverse, and that is why food should not only nourish, but also activate the digestive, circulatory and hormonal systems, while contributing to good cellular repair during the hours of rest and maintaining an optimal state of mind and vitality.

Overweight comes from an excessive intake of food, a metabolic and energetic imbalance that produces accumulations. It is related to intake and elimination. There are people who eat a considerable amount of food throughout the day and do not put on weight because they have an active and efficient metabolism; or the opposite case, people who, due to a weak digestive fire, eat little food, but feel constant retention and their metabolism does not allow them to eliminate the residues of the food they eat.

On the other hand, we know that while one part of the world’s population dies of hunger, another suffers from food poisoning. Nearly two billion people in the world are overweight, leading to a state of overnutrition but undernutrition, which in turn is directly related to modern non-communicable diseases associated with unbalanced diets and sedentary lifestyles.

In most cases of overweight, the problem is not just eating too much, but not having enough energy to metabolise what is ingested. This is why it is not just a matter of reducing the volume of food in general, but of reducing the volume of certain foods in particular, as well as improving metabolism.

For this, physical mobility, stress management, and hours of rest are also crucial to be able to achieve the benefits of a healthy weight during our lifetime. 

Each person is a particular case, and that is why the strategy to achieve the ideal weight must be fully adapted to their physical, emotional and energetic condition, their genetics, their life rhythms, and social environment. It is important to understand that a person with excess energy, retention, inflammation and low mobility does not change quickly. The excess has been generated slowly, and will dissipate at the same rate, to achieve a state of balance that is sustainable over time.

It is important to integrate foods that purify and reduce inflammation in a tasty, simple and creative way, without “masks”, so that our body (especially our microbiota) will change biologically in a progressive way and will notice the benefits of a healthy and natural diet, with the necessary supply of nutrients to avoid long-term energy deficiencies.

The next step to achieve a balanced weight is to remove or reduce as much as possible foods such as refined and baked flours (bread, pizza, pastries, biscuits, cakes…), raw salt, salty condiments, salty snacks, fried foods, excess oils, chemical additives, processed products, refined sugars, sugary drinks, smoked foods and saturated animal fats. In addition to minimising the use of raw foods, which slow down and “cool” digestion, especially in the colder months.

The best times of the year for this process are undoubtedly spring and summer, when the body begins to open up energetically, like all of nature. However, as long as there is good professional advice to accompany the process, any time can be a good time to start purification work.

Before starting the appropriate diet, always indicated by a health professional, it is interesting to take into account some guidelines that will benefit the achievement of the objectives:

• Chewing: eating slowly, chewing well, releasing the fork with each bite and without technological distractions, are habits that help to digest food better, enjoy the flavours and receive satiety signals in time.
• The power of visualisation. Observe the food that in a matter of minutes will be in my stomach and visualise the sensations I want to achieve when I finish eating.
• Eat at set times.
• Eat dinner early, trying not to eat any food during the hours when there is no light (adapting to circadian cycles).
• Increase the proportion of foods from the plant kingdom as opposed to those from the animal kingdom.
• Remember that extreme actions provoke extreme reactions.

The foods with the greatest cleansing effect to integrate them into everyday life in a tasty way and lightly cooked:

• fennel, beetroot, radishes, turnips
• all kinds of mushrooms,
• leafy and intense green vegetables (green cabbage, broccoli, leeks, celery, watercress, endive, artichokes, asparagus…)
• ginger, garlic, spices, a variety of fresh aromatic herbs,
• wholegrain cereals (barley, quinoa, brown basmati rice)
• variety of fresh aromatic herbs,
• seaweed,
• local seasonal fruits and fresh smoothies,
• natural sweeteners such as honey or rice molasses,

or infusions such as green tea or dandelion.

And finally, we could add some lifestyle suggestions, which undoubtedly contribute to the maintenance of an ideal weight:

• Physical movement on a daily basis: walking, dancing, cycling, yoga…
• Clear, simple, clean life, without excesses.
• Living day by day, in the PRESENT.
• Clean the house thoroughly, recycle objects, clothes, etc.
• Integrating elements of nature on a daily basis: sun, water, air, earth.
• Having plants in the house.
• Purify the emotional body by expressing oneself: singing, running, etc.

Only with awareness, self-knowledge and good guidance will we achieve our dietary goals, enjoying the pleasure of eating well, without having to subject the body to long and exhausting fasts.

María Kindelán

Associate Director Physical and Emotional Wellness, Benefit Brokers

Nutritional Coach 

Physical and mental well-being consultant for companies

Well AP by IWBI