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Memorial Day is almost here, and that means we will soon be reveling in the summer sun!
Summer is my favorite season thanks to long evenings when it stays light and warm outside, hot days spent at the pool, and plenty of trips to the playground with the kids.
This summer has the potential to be better than ever. We’re finally doing so many of the things that we haven’t done in so long – vacations, parties, and time spent with friends and family.
And I know you want to feel like your best when you’re doing all of that!
But unfortunately, summer can also be a reminder of New Years resolutions that went unfulfilled, diets that didn’t go according to plan, and the realization that pandemic weight gain has stuck around.
The answer is NOT going to the store to buy a new wardrobe! If you’re dreading putting your swimsuit on this summer, or thinking you’ll need Spanx to wear your favorite summer dress, today’s post is for you.
You absolutely CAN feel awesome about the way you look this summer.
And it does NOT require a strict diet! I see it with my patients in my wellness clinic all the time – they think they need to lose all this weight by making DRASTIC changes in their lifestyle, when in fact, they feel much better with just a few simple, realistic changes.
Let me be clear: often, it’s not really about the way you look. That’s the byproduct.
It’s about how confident you feel, what your body is capable of, and the abundant energy you feel when you shed the acid that’s been holding you back from feeling your best.
When you have all of that going for you, I guarantee you’ll feel better about the way you look too.
That’s why my best tips to get off your acid and shed excess weight this summer are NOT your typical diet tips!
Even if you just incorporate one or two of the tips above into your routine this summer, you’ll go a long way toward your health and fitness goals.
Let’s dive right in…
Tip #1: Take the Emotions Out of Eating
This one tip alone makes a huge difference for people who are prone to emotional eating. How often do you pull out the chocolate stash when you’re upset? Or open a pint of ice cream when you’re stressed?
If emotional eating is a crutch for you – been there, done that! I get it! – you’ll go a long way toward your fitness goals if you get rid of the crutch and handle the stress or emotions without using food to do it.
Often, emotional eating is a self-sabotaging cycle. You eat to compensate for how you feel, and then you feel guilty because you know you shouldn’t have eaten the way you did, and then you eat because of the guilt.
Instead, tackle the underlying emotions and stress, and you won’t feel the urge to eat some of the foods you’re better off avoiding. If your instinct is to eat, try doing the opposite – go outside and take a walk, or do some yoga or other physical activity. You’ll feel better and break the cycle of emotional eating.
Tony Robbins says, “Motion is emotion.” Simply by moving your body, you’ll be amazed at how easy it is to follow that up with more healthy choices. Then if you are STILL experiencing a craving, have a healthy alkaline snack like the suggestions in the tips below.
Tip #2: Eat 80/20
If you’re trying to lose a few pounds, shift yourself closer to the 80/20 alkaline lifestyle for a SUSTAINABLE weight loss plan.
Eat and drink 80% alkaline, which means:
- Leafy greens and herbs
- Healthy fats (more on that below)
- Low sugar fruits
- Raw nuts and seeds
- Green drinks and smoothies
- Salads and plant-based soups
…And no more than 20% acidic, which is made up of sugar, gluten, artificial sweeteners, trans fats, dairy, meat, processed foods, soda, carbonated water, and alcohol.
This applies to what's on each plate as well as a whole week's worth of meals, so if you have 21 meals in a week, it's okay to have a few meals that are more acidic (20% = 4 meals) – AKA “cheat meals” – if you're going to balance it out over the course of the week with really nourishing, alkaline foods at the rest of your meals.
Tip #3: Stick With Water
My motto when it comes to hydration is, “The solution to pollution is dilution!”
If you want to clean out the bad – and that includes unwanted pounds, bloating, and belly fat – hydrate more. Drinking more water is going to do 2 things for you. First, it’s enough to keep you out of dehydration, which slows down the metabolism, the opposite of what you want to happen when you’re dieting. It’s hard to lose weight if you aren’t getting enough water.
Secondly, getting plenty of water keeps you from drinking acidic beverages like soda, juice, carbonated water, coffee, most teas, and alcohol.
This one is an easy fix. Aim to drink 3 to 4 liters of filtered water, and alkalize it with minerals, which you can achieve by squeezing a lemon or lime slice. Another way to calculate it is half your body weight in ounces. So if you weigh 130 pounds, drink 65 ounces per day.
Tip #4: Eat MORE Fat
For years, I struggled to lose extra pounds and keep them off. And you want to know how I finally did it? I ate MORE FAT!
Yes, more fat in my diet and fewer carbs and sugar is how I finally kicked that extra weight for good.
Why should you shift your diet to be based around healthy fats? Because your body creates energy by burning sugar and carbohydrates. This leads you to crave more and more – you guessed it – sugar and carbohydrates!
Meanwhile, sugar and carbs interfere with the normal function of your hunger and starvation signals, so you want to eat even more. When you shift to burning healthy fats on the other hand, these hormonal signals (ghrelin and leptin) will function properly.
When you eat sugar, these hormones make you always hungry. But more fat changes all that!
If you’re trying to take off the weight, get at least 1 to 2 servings of healthy fat at every meal. When it comes to fats, a serving equals one tbsp. of oils or seeds, 1/3 of an avocado, or ¼ of a cup of nuts.
[Read: The Top 7 Ways to Get MORE Fat in Your Diet]
Tip #5: Eat MORE in general
How many people do you know who practically starve themselves, eating like birds because they think it’s the only way to maintain their figure or lose a few pounds? How many times have you done that to yourself?
However, eating less is the quickest way to sabotage your health. When you deprive your body by eating less, it goes into starvation mode, packing away every carbohydrate you consume, often as belly fat.
Remember what Kelly Ripa said about my 7-Day Alkaline Cleanse? “You will eat more on this cleanse than you do in your real life!”
When you eat the RIGHT foods, you can eat as much of them as you want, without worrying about calories, or fat grams, or portion control. Focus on the foods talked about in this post, and eat as much of them as you want.
Tip #6: Exercise Every Day (Even If It’s Just 15 Minutes)
When your air conditioner filter gets clogged with dust, it requires so much more energy to maintain the desired room temperature you want, and the air conditioner needs so much more output just to keep up. Sometimes it has to work so hard, it can blow a fuse.
Your body is no different. When you are not moving, your body and all of its elimination pathways have to work so much harder to get acids out. Not only does this drain your energy, but can also produce common over-acidic conditions like reflux, acne, eczema, digestive issues, and stubborn weight gain.
Since the lymphatic system is in charge of getting rid of acids and toxins, if you are too sedentary, acids and toxins begin to accumulate in the body because moving our bodies is the only way to move lymphatic fluid.
So whether it’s 15 minutes a day on the rebounder, an hour-long cycling class, or a 2-hour hike, get your body moving each day. And once you’re done, replenish with Acid-Kicking Minerals so you don’t build up acid in your muscles.
Tip #7: Focus on What You CAN Eat
I’ve said this before but it’s so important, I will say it again… Sustainable weight loss is NOT about taking away the foods you love.
It’s not about deprivation. It’s about moderation. You can still enjoy the benefits of the alkaline diet WITHOUT taking away the foods you can’t imagine going without.
If you love sugar and you’re addicted to it like I was, telling yourself you’re not going to eat sugar anymore means you will fail every time. It never worked for me and that’s certainly NOT how I overcame my lifelong addiction to sugar.
If you, instead, tell yourself, okay, I’m going to enjoy a smoothie every morning with some of the sweet fruit I love, that’s sustainable. If you’re a fan of salty snacks, for you it might be that you get to eat as much salty greens and roasted veggies as you want. That’s focusing on what you get to eat, rather than what you “aren’t allowed to” eat.
Tip #8: Rev Up Your Metabolism
By eating alkaline foods rich in vitamins and minerals, you’re going to be supplying your cells with what they need to ensure that your metabolism speeds up.
It’s no coincidence that foods that boost your metabolism are also proven to help you lose weight. So load up on as much as you want of these mineral-rich foods, don’t deprive yourself, and watch the weight come off as your metabolism speeds up:
- Spinach, kale, watercress, and other leafy greens
- Broccoli
- Beans
- Nuts
- Seeds
- Seaweed
- Garlic
- Cacao
- Celery
- Avocado
- Herbs
- Tomatoes
Tip #9: Try Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting is when you restrict your eating to a specific window of time each day, but you still eat as much as you would on any given normal day.
It's an excellent way to reboot your metabolism so that your body can start burning fat as its primary fuel source, and not sugar or carbs, which so many of us are currently burning instead.
If you’re just getting started with intermittent fasting, start with a 12-hour window for eating, then move to 10 hours, with the idea being that you eventually can get down to 8 hours. You can select your own unique 8-hour window to eat and then you fast the remaining 16 hours.
[Read: My Guide to Intermittent Fasting]
Tip #10: Start Your Day With a Plant-Based Smoothie
This is an easy way to get more of the foods that fuel your metabolism. By replacing a meal with a smoothie, you’re getting a ton of vitamins and minerals, protein if you want it, and healthy fat. Depending on what you’re currently eating for breakfast, this one tip alone can make the difference in how you feel in a swimsuit.
My breakfast nearly every morning is a smoothie made with some combination of dark, leafy greens, a couple healthy fats like coconut oil and chia seeds, and a plant-based protein source like raw almond butter or Alkamind Organic Daily Protein, plus a frozen fruit to make it taste great.
Fitness Magazinecalled our protein powder “a superfood lover’s dream.” AndShape Magazinelisted it in their “Top 10 Plant-Based Protein Powders That Don’t Taste Like Dirt.”
You can add a scoopful of clean keto fats and proteins to any smoothie without adding any sugar or artificial anything! But you will get 3 healthy fats that will keep you full until lunch!
So try it today! You can buy one jar or
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GET OFF YOUR ACID!
Dr. Daryl
