Over the last few years, I have shared my story with many women who could not lose weight and didn’t understand why. I shared my story because I’ve always had a hard time losing weight—more so than the average person. Many believe the saying, “Calories in are calories out.” Others believe that if we overeat, we will gain fat, no matter what. Then, others are on the opposite end of the spectrum, trying to get people to eliminate lectins and histamine foods and go on an AIP diet to reduce chronic inflammation. As I fought through my chronic inflammation journey, I realized that there is so much more to it than just gaining weight. Yes, weight is easy to put on and hard to lose. Most women don’t understand why they are putting on weight when they walk 32,000 steps a day and maintain a 900-calorie diet. The truth is that it wasn’t fat. I learned that chronic inflammation, which turns into phlegm, makes the weight feel like fat, but it’s just a check engine light with our bodies.
In my younger years, I didn’t care if I saw the “check engine light” come on in my body. I was used to the pain in my stomach and the digestive issues. I felt that they were part of me. As I grew older, I got more fed up and gained weight for no reason. I started searching for answers in the hopes that someone would help me crack the case eventually.
Here is what I learned on my journey and what most of us are not really looking into when it comes to fat:
Infections, bacteria overgrowth, and viruses
I’m not one to give medical advice; I simply share my story as a health advocate. I have been told by trainers time and time again that I was not putting out enough effort at the gym. I had to increase my effort to see results. They put me on a low-calorie diet and had me eating food on a diet that provided no flexibility when it came to meals. I was defiantly putting in the work—and more work than I should have. The truth was that there was so much inflammation in my body with viruses and bacteria overgrowth that it was covering up the results. The problem was that they had me on six meals a day—and with chronic inflammation, less is more. The body is already fighting a lot of things; it doesn’t care what you are putting in it. It doesn’t care about your weight. It is in fight mode, and all you can do is surrender and help your body fight. I remember taking loads of anti-virials, vitamin C, and zinc to reduce the effects. I also took CBD to try to reduce the inflammation overload.
Hormones shift things fast
When I hit my body’s peak, I saw it changing real fast because I was trying to maintain the lower calories and stay fit. This was the wrong thing to do at the time because it shifted my hormones and I became estrogen dominant. This told my body to stop burning fat and start storing it. I don’t really see men having this issue, but it was a big ordeal for me. No matter how hard I tried, I could not get in the shape I wanted. I had to learn how to balance all my hormones and keep my blood sugar balanced. Again, I found that these infections were causing digestion issues that made it impossible to balance my hormone levels, and it caused a downturn of many other things. It all starts with the infections and an immune system that isn’t resilient against infections. We can strengthen our immune systems, but if we are bringing in too many toxins, the immune system will be prone to infections—at least it was in my case. I realized that avoiding toxins was nearly impossible, so how could I get my life back without losing my sanity?
Cause of poor functioning immunity
After hopelessly looking for answers, everything I did tied back to my immune system’s performance. I went to many different doctors who practiced all sorts of modalities, and they were not able to help me. In turn, I had more problems. I realized the only way I could get through this was to develop the mind-body connection, something that conventional medicine doesn’t teach us. It is how we create oneness with ourselves. This is how I learned what foods my body wanted more of and which ones to eliminate. I understood how I needed to reduce inflammation in my body to feel great again. This is something I learned by tuning into my body.
There are so many reasons why many of us have the word “fat” wrong—trust me, I am a walking example of why it has nothing to do with calories. It is more complex than that and sometimes tough to figure out. Losing weight is not something that happens overnight. However, you will know your body is functioning when you are able to lose fat and feel great again. I learned that sometimes we must go backward to move forward. Be okay with not being at your ideal weight for a while so that you can heal your body. It will come back stronger so that you can reach your goals.
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