Weighing in on weight

I should be studying right now but I attended a class tonight on stress and weight loss and feel compelled to share a little bit from the class. It was taught by a Naturopathic doctor. Naturopaths practice by treating the root or cause of a health issue not just symptoms. They also believe in the mind, body, spirit connection. This is called a holistic viewpoint. These things are important to understand.
Excess weight is a symptom that something is out of balance. Correcting the imbalance is the sure fire way to long term weight loss. A very important point is that there is not one diet that is right for everyone and it is not about diets it is about "nutrition for life". We must make attainable goals and hold ourselves responsible for achieving them. Our health is our own responsibility. If you are picking an exercise program and diet that you know you will have trouble sticking with then you are not being realistic and you will likely not succeed. We all need support which includes education when it comes to maintaining our health. We need to take a realistic and deep look at our emotional state and how that relates to our relationship to food. Often we find comfort in certain foods so we turn to them in times of stress. If we find ways to deal with stress like meditation or walking, etc. instead of eating that will help. It is about changing our lifestyles and learning ways to deal with stress and toxins that will allow us to loose weight and maintain health. Extreme diets, diet medications, stress, etc. burden our bodies and sends them into a fight or flight mode screwing with our hormones and causing a cortisol build up. Hence, ladies, the muffin tops we are obsessively fighting.
This is a big topic that needs to be addressed in a holistic fashion instead of with fad diets and crazy workout routines that further stress the body. Rapid weight loss is not healthy and is not usually long term. One pound per week is good but again this is individual. Proper weight is important for several reasons but an important one is that toxins get stored in fat and this leads to disease.
Fat is not the enemy but refined sugar is. It is in everything even cigarettes. They are cured with it. We need natural sugars. We get these in fruits and veggies but this is not a green light to go crazy with the fruit. I have a hard time with that one myself.
So let's learn ways to handle stress, enjoy ourselves and have a proper relationship and understanding of the role that food plays in our lives.