Shifting Focus to THE Secret Sauce for Success!
Atkins, Weight Watchers, Wheat Belly, Keto, Paleo, cleansing plans, Mediterranean, Blue Zone, the Eastern ideologies of Ayurveda or Traditional Chinese Medicine and more... There are so many diet and lifestyle plans to choose from when you are embarking on a journey to weight loss and wellness. Some are better than others by a mile. However, if you were to apply yourself to any one of the above methods you would likely experience at least some incremental shift toward achieving your weight loss goals in part or in whole. This is because the typical American diet, often called "S.A.D." or standard American diet, is acidic forming by design. (I will do a separate post about S.A.D. in the near future.) If you reduce that acidity, you remove a big barrier to success for the average American when choosing any of these diets.
Once you isolate and zoom in on this core "secret sauce" of the dietary program of your choosing, I daresay you'll have uncovered a way that not only provides a healthy weight loss boost- but you will also find a sustainable way to maintain and increase your success. Because, what is the good of achieving a goal without long term success to show for it and enjoy exponentially?
So what do these plans have in common that sparks this initial progress?
Consider this: Each of these plans, if applied as intended, sparks a detoxification process that improves your daily body pH for at least the period in which you are engaged in the plan of your choosing.
These plans will suggest different ways to consume more alkaline ingredients and arguably, consume less acidic foods, without telling you that this is the underlying secret of their success. This may be achieved with a point system goal, a reward system, a reduction of acidic foods to reduce acid load, an increase of alkaline items to increase alkaline load, or a combination of two of more of these processes. You may say, well of course you will lose weight if you are eating more fruits and vegetables. But how many people do this naturally? Many people want a different way that is seemingly easier, so they bury this detail within their plan and promoting its more appealing features.
It is worth mentioning, in the case of those amazing Blue Zones, which are places around the world where humans are the most long lived and least diseased, you will find that they have the added boost of being in more alkaline inducing environmental and cultural situations. For example, having some combination of living in open air spaces and those spaces often being near more alkaline water sources, minerally rich salts and soils, getting more sun and or ocean/ sea, being more active and engaged with their families or communities socially, laughing more, access to fresh clean fish, growing their own alkalizing foods and cultivating healthier less acid forming animals for meat. It is also worth noting, with these Blue Zones we get further from modern (acidic forming) medicine and find more use of local natural plants and herbs for managing these healthy lifestyles. Instead of intense cardio and weight lifting they opt for low intensity walking, biking, tai chi, qi gong, meditation and yoga. The last four of those options incorporate mind and spiritual connection which can further support alkaline balance to increased hormonal stability. But I digress...
The introduction of alkalinity into these plans is so subtle that even while keeping your eyes on one ball -"eat less carbs!", "count those points!"- the program of your choosing recommends other supportive steps that further boost your alkalinity. A great example of this are the Atkins Diet and the Wheat Belly Diet where the core idea is to eliminate or reduce processed carbs (acidic) while buried within the text it provides suggestions to enjoy alternative food items, often more alkalizing options. What gets increased? Some balance of protein (animal or plant based) and an emphasis to incorporate more plant foods (especially the alkaline plant foods). That brings me to the Keto Diet. We all know the attraction of Keto and Paleo is that they each allow and even encourage fats and more meat for protein. Paleo eliminates dairy, legumes and grains, all of which are acid forming, thereby reducing some of your acid load while incorporating plant foods, including more alkalizing fruits and vegetables. There are several types of Keto plans with varying proportions of carb reduction to fat increase. This switch ignites a fat burning process called ketosis, especially when done in combination with intermittent fasting. It remains to be seen how American arteries and gallbladders will fair in the long term from a health perspective, but surprise, surprise! An interesting "hack" Keto folks are encouraged online to employ is of the alkaline variety! Such as "drink lemon water every morning" or "take an apple cider vinegar shot mixture daily". And adding in alkaline avocado, coconut and olive dishes and oils are often encouraged en lieu of a 100% animal fat approach. So while the lure is BACON! The undercurrent is alkaline maintenance measures.
Alkalinity initiates a detox effect. And each of these plans employ, to differing degrees an increase of alkalinity, decrease of acidity (thereby increasing alkalinity) or a combination of both that will initiate some level of detox.
Detoxification, regardless of the level of detoxing you embark on, is achieved only by consuming alkaline nutrient/ supplementation, food and/ or drink. The average person on a typical American diet cannot tell you the last alkaline thing they ate. So whether you make a single change of one green juice a day, take alkalizing herbal supplements or teas, incorporate more greens, drop meat one day a week, eliminate all processed carbs, embark on a fast of any type (water, watermelon juice, Master Cleanse, grapefruit juice, green juice, smoothie, intermittent) or some combination of these methods, you are essentially changing the proportion of acid load to alkaline load even if you did not realize it. By sparking that detoxification process (at whatever level of intensity) you reduced inflammation by eliminating debris and bloat in your body and allowed your cells to begin to focus more coherently and efficiently on healing and repairing your tissues and organs. Continuous engagement in some manner (for example, maintaining or transitioning from the initial plan to more plant based meals in your day to day regime) begins to even balance the release of hormones and the metabolic process often improves.
Of course there are other considerations for diet plan success. In future posts we will discuss calorie counting, exercise, balance of macro nutrients, micronutrient deficiencies and how alkalinity and your pH still wins every time! While success often eludes those who tend to put the cart before the horse, the first change that begins to move the cart forward with regard to weight and wellness goals is your alkaline balance. You don't need one of the above plans to incorporate alkalinity. You can do this today with your current diet and lifestyle!
The secret sauce of incorporating more alkaline foods and reducing acidic foods is something you can begin use to your benefit immediately! To turn up the dial on those results, turn up your alkaline consistency and to make the results long term, maintain your pH and your body intended.