In the quest to find balance and choose the road (rather than a ditch on either side), magazine article titles with promises to lose "30 pounds in one month" make me cringe. Those theories can't be healthy, and there are usually some serious (i.e. impossible) lifestyle changes that would discourage the normal person from following through, or that would send an OCD person into rehab.
So, when I read an article that claimed to lose an exorbitant amount of fat in a short amount of time, I scanned the bold subtitles with the intent of scoffing at the recommendations. Instead, I found some interesting research that lured me to read the article in its entirety. The article focused on one source of obesity--toxic fat; and it suggested two steps toward eliminating it--increase your omega-3 intake and reduce your refined carbs and vegetable oil intake. The basic premise is that increasing omega-3s will fight the toxic fat in your body (fat from refined carbs and vegetable oil is toxic to your body, so your body creates fatty cells to store the toxins to keep your body alive--fat to store fat, yum!)
One article explains: "the underlying cause of chronic diseases (like allergies, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, Lupus, etc.) comes from the increased production of a natural fatty acid called arachidonic acid (AA), which can be toxic at high concentrations. Oddly enough, accumulation of excess body fat is your body’s initial attempt at protecting you, by encapsulating or trapping the toxic fat in your fat cells. The problem is that the toxic fat doesn’t stay trapped forever. Once it begins to spill into the bloodstream, Dr. Sears says you now have Toxic Fat Syndrome (TFS)."
Dr. Barry Sears is the man behind this research, and while I don't agree with all that he says (e.g. "if you're fat, it's not your fault" or "eat less or exercise more is meaningless"), I think there is some good truth to pull from this research--increase your omega-3s. That's something we all can do. This is one of those cases where you don't "throw the baby out with the bathwater." Yes, the Zone Diet (purported by Dr. Sears) is difficult to follow; yes, I disagree that a person can shirk responsibility for their obesity; BUT, yes, there is great value in increasing your omega-3 intake. So, baby step number one: buy some fish or flax oil and add it to your daily routine (I drizzle flax oil on my baby girl's toast in the morning; I take fish oil with my breakfast.) It's easy; it's something you CAN do!
Great sources of omega-3s: Fish oil (if you take capsules, you can freeze them so that the oil doesn't float to the top of your stomach and give you yucky fish burps); flax oil (be sure to keep heat-sensitive flax oil refrigerated, and don't cook it in your food--drizzle it on top of things like salads or breads so that it maintains its structure); walnuts (5 a day keeps the doctor away).
Not bad; not too big of a lifestyle change; feasible; something that you could do/afford.
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