You STILL want to lose weight - How many years of New Year’s resolutions have gone by..? Whether you’ve got some excess, jiggly belly fat or love handles or even worse, visceral fat around your organs, let’s see how you can get yourself on a real actionable path of weight loss!

Of course you’ve been told by your doctor – change your lifestyle habits for the positive, reduce your intake of processed and sugary, calorie-laden foods and get out and exercise 30 minutes at least 5x/week. However, as time wears on, you add more items to your “to do” list which means trying to “lose weight” means looking for something in a bottle - or nowadays, an injection of Ozempic or Tirzepatide. Of course, you do you but even if you elect some sort of injection in your weight loss journey, you may still want to look at your habits and adjust them so you don’t simply yo-yo back to heavy once the pounds are injected-away. Here are some actionable tips that will number 1 help your glucose spikes to stay a little lower and more steady and number 2, overall will help you lose weight (not as fast as those injections but better for your overall health in the long run).

If you find yourself reaching for sugary snacks, make sure you ADD something beforehand – this will slow down the glucose absorption in your body. For example, something I like to do: every time I reach for something sweet, I add 5-10 baby carrots before eating that sugar rush. Or maybe I reach for a slice of cheese (fat) or meat (protein). Over some time, you will find that you may even stop reaching for that sweet something!

If you are going to eat something sweet, choose to have it as dessert instead of a sweet snack alone during the day. This follows the same theory as above – having other food in your belly before dessert will slow down glucose absorption and keep your glucose spikes a little lower than off the charts.

Remember, sugar is sugar. In other words, glucose and fructose make up your molecules of sugar whether it’s cane or date or maple syrup or fruit sugar. Your body is going to do what your body does (much of the fructose is going to go to fat especially if you have an abundance of any sugar). The bottom line is they all have about the same impact so eat the one you like. (however, do avoid the chemical substitutes like AceK and sucralose – studies currently show that your body will react as if you had the sugar anyway and spike your insulin!

Just a few more ideas – if you’re going to snack in the day, it’s better to do a savory snack with high protein and/or high healthy fats plus fiber. Don’t worry about getting in breakfast before a certain time. Your body has plenty of circulating glucose to get your motor running very well just from moving from horizontal to vertical. When you do get hungry, make sure you’re having a savory breakfast of protein and fat (maybe a little fiber (optional starches) and try to avoid all things sweet - including fruit and fruit juices!)

Also, there is a lot of data showing that our glucose cravings are heavily tied into our dopamine hits that we are actually craving. As you adjust your glucose spikes you’ll find that your cravings will adjust and go down. Of course there are a additional things (like certain herbs to take in tea or capsule form, adding fermented foods, etc) to help you lose weight so if you would like to know more regarding your specific needs and weight loss goals, just let me know and I can help you with a personalized nutrition plan!