Lloydminster Laser & Vein Clinic, 4925 50 Street, Lloydminster, SK (2025)

12/23/2021

COMMON FOOD MYTHS – AND THE REAL TRUTH
There are some common food myths so ingrained in our culture that lots of people – including physicians and health care professionals – accepts them as fact even though there is no evidence to support them. We’re not sure where or why these myths started, but we’re here to get to the bottom of them once and for all.

Common Food Myth #1: Egg yolks are bad for you.
It’s true that egg yolks contain a significant amount of cholesterol – about 200 milligrams in a single yolk – and that too much cholesterol in the blood can contribute to heart disease, but that’s where the connection stops. The cholesterol you eat actually has very little impact on the cholesterol in your blood. In fact, your body makes 75 percent of the cholesterol in your blood; so when you eat more cholesterol, your body just makes less. Eggs are actually a good source of 13 different vitamins and minerals, most of which are found in the yolk.

Food Myth #2: Eating late at night makes you gain weight.
When someone is trying to lose weight, eating at night is often one of the first things to go. There is a common belief that when you eat food after a certain time, your body stores it as fat, but that’s not true. It’s not the time on the clock that is the cause for the weight gain; it’s the fact that in many cases, the late night eating occurs in addition to a full day’s worth of meals. If your late night snack puts you over your calorie needs for the day, you may gain weight.

Common Food Myth #3: Fat makes you fat.
This a myth that seems to persist no matter what the research shows. For some reason, people tend to believe that fat is largely responsible for weight gain, when in fact, eating it can actually help you lose weight. Some fats, like those found in coconut, actually help boost metabolism and give you a quick source of energy. It’s true that overdoing it on fat can lead to weight gain – since each gram contains 9 calories – but the same is true of any of the macronutrients. If you eat too many calories, you’ll gain weight, regardless of where they come from.

Food Myth #4: If there’s fiber in it, it’s good for you.
Manufacturers would love you to believe that their fiber bars and fiber-enriched snacks are the perfect alternative to fiber-rich whole foods, but don’t let them fool you. The faux fiber manufacturers add to these snacks foods does not provide the same health benefits as the fiber naturally found in things like beans and broccoli. In addition, these snacks are often loaded with sugar so the cons end up outweighing any potential pros.

Common Food Myth #5: You need to drink 8 glass of water each day.
The 8 glasses of water a day rule is one that is widely accepted and widely spread, but the recommendation is really just a suggestion that seems to have taken hold. The truth is everyone’s water needs are different. Your age, gender, activity level, size, and climate all play a role in how much water you need. If you’re looking for a general recommendation, aim to drink at least half your body weight in ounces. Although this is still just a suggestion, it’s a little more specific.

12/23/2021

INTERMITTENT FASTING: THE BASICS AND BENEFITS
If you’re immersed into the weight loss/health world (and if you’re reading this, chances are that you are), you’ve probably heard a little bit (or a lot) about a movement that’s been making its rounds: intermittent fasting.

While it’s typically done in conjunction with a keto diet (more on that later), anyone can incorporate intermittent fasting at any time. We know the name makes it sound complicated and a little bit intimidating, but when you break it down, it’s actually quite straightforward.

What is Intermittent Fasting?
Put simply, intermittent fasting is a term for an eating strategy that alternates between set periods of fasting and eating. There are no guidelines as to what you eat, just when you eat; but even those guidelines are loose, as it’s typically up to you to determine your fasting and eating windows. There are different types of intermittent fasting, but these are two of the most popular patterns:

The Leangains Method (also called the 16/8 Method): When following a Leangains intermittent fasting protocol, you fast for 16 hours and eat during an 8 hour window. This means that you pick a time, typically in the afternoon, when you will consume all of your calories for the day. Outside of that time, you eat nothing for the rest of the day. For example, you may eat between 12 pm and 8 pm and then fast for the other 16 hours.
Eat-Stop-Eat: The Eat-Stop-Eat method involves fasting for 24 hours once or twice per week; then eating normally for the rest of the week. For the fasting day, you would typically eat dinner and then fast until dinner the next day.
Benefits of Fasting
Most people venture into intermittent fasting for its weight loss benefits, but the eating method has several benefits that reach beyond weight loss.

Hormone balance: When you fast, your body adjusts levels of several different hormones to make it easier for your body to use fat as energy. Your levels of human growth hormone (or HGH), which is associated with fat loss and muscle gain, increases as much as five times; while insulin levels drop significantly, helping to lower body fat.
Reduced inflammation: In some studies, intermittent fasting has been shown to reduce chronic inflammation, which is associated with many health issues, including asthma, arthritis, cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Heart health: Fasting may reduce several risk factors for heart disease, including LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, blood sugar, and insulin levels.
Brain health: Some studies have shown that intermittent fasting may increase levels of a hormone in the brain called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF. Higher levels of BDNF are linked to better long-term memory.
Although the scientific studies are fairly recent, the research is promising. We think the trend is definitely worth looking into.

What do you think? Have you tried intermittent fasting? Tell us your thoughts!

12/23/2021

HOW SLEEP HELPS YOU LOSE WEIGHT
Seriously, how much sleep you get each night impacts your body weight
If you’re looking for ways to lose weight without having to step on a treadmill, you aren’t alone.

And while I can’t advise avoiding exercise, there is one activity that requires zero movement and has a shocking impact on your weight:

Sleep. Glorious sleep.

The recommended amount of sleep each night is 7-9 hours for adults and 8-10 for adolescents.

But the unfortunate truth is that ⅓ of Americans don’t get enough sleep every night. And 70% of Americans report that they don’t get enough sleep at least one night a month.

Sleep issues affect around 50-70 million Americans every year and this impacts health in a variety of ways: increased risk of injury, depression, and high blood pressure (just to list a few).

Those might be expected results of not sleeping enough. But lack of sleep affects your weight too.

1. Poor sleep increases your calorie intake
There are so many factors that can lead to increasing your calorie intake each day.

First, sleep helps you lose weight by regulating hunger hormones: ghrelin and leptin.

When you don’t get enough sleep, your body doesn’t produce enough leptin which suppresses hunger.

And it produces too much ghrelin which tells your brain that you’re full.

As a result of that, you may perceive an increased appetite. But it doesn’t stop there.

When you don’t sleep enough, you don’t just want more food — you want more high-calorie foods. Specifically high-carb and high-fat foods.

These foods are difficult enough to resist on their own under ideal conditions.

But choosing healthful foods over junk food becomes a titanic struggle when you take into account how sleep affects decision-making.

When you are low on sleep you have a harder time making good decisions.

Lack of sleep is associated with lower performance in the frontal lobe of your brain. This is where decisions are made and you decide how to exhibit self-control.

So when you don’t get enough sleep, your self-control and smart decision-making suffer. And you’re more likely to eat foods that you’d rather avoid as you try to lose weight.

2. Sleep improves your physical activity
Exercise is one of the most important things you can do to help you lose weight.

But when you’re tired every day you won’t want to exercise. It’s as simple as that.

If exercise isn’t part of your regular routine yet, it’s hard to get motivated. And you make it even harder to get motivated when you aren’t well-rested.

Poor sleep has also been shown to decrease performance outcomes. While getting enough sleep every night has proven to improve athletic performance.

And then there’s the matter of recovery. Sleep is essential for your body to properly recover after exercise. If you want to get better at exercise and see all the weight loss outcomes possible from your workouts, you need to get enough sleep each night.

3. Sleep improves your resting metabolism
Resting metabolism is how many calories your body burns while at rest.

There are some ways of increasing (or decreasing) your resting metabolic rate. And it should come as no surprise now that sleep is one of them.

Sleep helps you lose weight by increasing your resting metabolism.

One reason this may be the case is that inadequate sleep can cause muscle loss. And muscle burns more calories at rest than fat.

Tips for getting enough sleep
It’s one thing to know how important sleep is for losing weight. But if you struggle to get to sleep at a good hour, you might need some help making the adjustment.

So if you’re like many who have trouble getting to sleep early, here are some pointers to get to more sleep.

Turn all screens off an hour before bed
Put your phone on the charger, close your laptop, and shut the TV off.

The blue light from screens reduces your melatonin production at night. Melatonin is the hormone that controls your sleep cycle. If you aren’t producing enough melatonin, you won’t fall asleep easily.

So turn the screens off and find something to do without a screen for the hour before you sleep.

Read in bed instead
Reading helps you fall asleep as long as you read from a classic bound book, not an e-reader.

It works because reading relaxes you. It takes your mind off your worries of the day. So if you have a hard time falling asleep because of racing thoughts, this is a useful tool to get out of your own head before bed.

Sleep meditation
Another tool to overcome any anxiety that keeps you up at night is meditation.

There are meditations made specifically to help you fall asleep. So you can lie in bed, get all cozy, turn on your sleep meditation, and easily relax into sleep. Programs like the Calm app provide plenty of anxiety-reducing and sleep meditations to help you get a full night’s rest.

Create total darkness in your bedroom at night
Depending on where you live, you might have a lot of city light coming in through your window at night.

If the brightness at night is keeping you up, getting better blinds, heavy curtains, or an eye sleep mask to keep out the light will help you sleep better at night.

Create a consistent sleeping rhythm
If you like going out for late nights on the weekend, this can be a frustrating suggestion.

But if you want to lose weight, then having a consistent sleep pattern is just as important as following a steady diet and meal plan.

Having a regular sleep schedule makes it more likely you’ll get tired at an early enough time to get your full 7-9 hours of sleep.

12/23/2021

LOSE STUBBORN FAT WITH LIPOTROPIC INJECTIONS
This weight loss supplement gives you the health benefits of vitamin B and helps you lose weight
Lipotropics might sound like some strange kind of injection. If you read that word and wonder what the heck is that?—you aren’t alone!

It’s easy to question the legitimacy of lipotropics when the name of it doesn’t sound like anything you’re familiar with. But when you break it down, the purpose is right there in the name: lipo means fat and tropics means related to, influencing, or changing a certain hormone or part of the body.

Lipotropics simply means a substance that changes fat content in the body. So these are nothing more than injections that help people lose the stubborn fat that’s been most difficult to lose.

But how do these injections help people lose weight?

What Are Lipotropics Made Of?
Lipotropics are most often a mix of B vitamins, methionine, inositol, and choline. And these injections are proving to drastically improve weight management and overall quality of life.

For starters, Vitamin B is an essential nutrient with a ton of health benefits. Vitamin B:

Prevents osteoporosis
Reduces risk of eye disease like macular degeneration
Improves mood
Reduces depression symptoms
Improves brain health
Boosts energy
Promotes healthy hair, skin, and nails
And there’s more than just one type of vitamin B. What’s often called vitamin B complex is the whole group of B vitamins that we need to be in good health.

Vitamin B-12 specifically is one of the most important for healthy metabolism and weight loss. But the absorption of vitamin B-12 isn’t always complete through normal consumption. Which is why injections are often provided now for those who will benefit from it.

As for the other compounds in lipotropic injections—methionine, inositol, and choline—these are incredibly beneficial molecules that get to work improving your metabolism and preventing fat accumulation in your cells.

Methionine is an amino acid that must come from our diet. Although our bodies can’t produce it on their own, it’s important for proper cell function, relieving pain, liver function, and detoxing the body.

Inositol has varied health benefits, but significantly elevates mood and prevents fat build-up in your cells.

And choline is another essential nutrient your body can’t produce on its own. But your body needs it for transporting nutrients and good metabolism.

But how do all these compounds mixed together lead to weight loss?

Lipotropic injections reduce fat in your liver and improve metabolism
Your liver function is important for good, healthy metabolism. But that gets compromised by having too much fat in the body. Because as fat levels elevate in the body, fat also builds up in the liver.

The way you can end up with too much fat in your liver is simply by eating too many calories. And when this fat build-up happens, your liver loses the ability to function at full capacity. This means it won’t be able to filter out toxins as efficiently and liver inflammation develops. And if your liver gets inflamed, you can end up with more serious and life-threatening complications beyond weight gain alone.

Lipotropics are actually able to prevent and reduce fat build-up in the liver.

The compounds in the injection get delivered to the areas of your body that hold onto fat cells—including the liver. As the liver loses fat, it works more efficiently. Your metabolism improves and your body has an easier time breaking down carbohydrates and stored fats.

So how can you ensure you get all these essential nutrients to protect your liver and lose stubborn fat?

At Valley Medical Weight Loss we offer four affordably-priced high-end options that get you the results you’re looking for safely.

B12 Injection
You’ll typically find two types of B12 injections. Some use cyanocobalamin and others use methylcobalamin.

Our top-of-the-line B12 injections are made using methylcobalamin. This is the most natural option for B12 injections. While cyanocobalamin is purely synthetic (man-made), methylcobalamin is a compound that naturally occurs in foods like eggs, fish, meat, and dairy.

Our B12 supplements are designed to give you the many benefits of vitamin B12 including:

More energy
Fat metabolism
Better sleep
Healthy immune function
Improved vision
Lipo B Injection
With the Lipo B injections, you get a blend of B12 and B6 plus methionine, choline, and inositol.

All of these together prevent fat build-up and increases fat removal from your liver.

This is one of our most popular entry-level injections that will help you feel energized, lose stubborn fat, and detox your liver. It’ll help you achieve the weight loss you’ve been working hard for.

Lipo Excel Injection
Our Lipo Excel injection is our most popular option for a reason: you get everything in Lipo B plus a B5 vitamin and L-carnitine.

Why are B5 and L-carnitine so important?

B5 gives an extra boost to your energy levels and helps your body more efficiently break down fats.

L-carnitine does the important work of increasing your strength and lowering fatigue while suppressing your appetite.

It’s common knowledge that you’ll lose weight by cutting calories. L-carnitine makes that easier to do. You can cut calories without feeling all the fatigue and frustration that often comes with eating less!

Lipo Blast Injection
When you get the Lipo Blast injections you get the very best of what lipotropics has to offer.

This injection is a complete B-complex vitamin blend with the best lipotropic compounds that burn fat fast.

The Lipo Blast injection can help lower your cholesterol, boost metabolism, and improve your overall energy and mood. Plus you still get the L-carnitine for the added benefits of suppressed appetite and improved energy.

12/23/2021

STRUGGLING TO LOSE WEIGHT?
If you’re struggling to lose weight, work with a physician to get a weight loss plan that supports you and gets results
You’ve decided you’re ready to lose weight and improve your health.

So you researched weight loss diets and combed the internet for all the tips and tricks to lose that weight.

Maybe you’ve even decided to exercise three days a week to burn some extra calories.

And you start out strong, feeling super motivated for those first few days. Even for the first week. And you’re thinking—I got this.

But all the aspects of your life that prevented you from losing weight in the first place start to get in the way again.

You’re busy and getting to the gym seems nearly impossible even three days a week.

And that busy schedule makes cooking a total drag. Seriously, who has time for this? It’s easier to eat out or buy prepackaged meals—even when you know they aren’t the best for you.

And while you’re thinking about food, what about all those favorite snacks you said you’d cut out of your diet? The temptation to indulge is always there now. Truly you want to eat all your favorite unhealthy foods more now than you did before.

Why? Because you’re hungry. Not just kind of hungry—you feel like you’re starving and it’s making you tired and irritable.

And now that certain foods are off the table you feel like it’s harder to unwind with friends and family at the weekend when everyone loves dining out as a way to connect. So you can add isolation to the list of growing frustration.

And the next thing you know, 2.5 weeks into your attempt at losing weight, you’ve given up on the whole plan because why bother? You feel more miserable now than before.

Any of this sound familiar?

If you’ve experienced even one of these frustrations on your weight loss journey, then you know how hard it is to lose weight on your own. You know how long it can take and how many ups and downs there can be along the way.

Because barriers to losing weight are tough.

Barriers like demotivation, embarrassment, or pain are deeply emotional and challenging for anyone to overcome.

It’s so easy to get frustrated and feel like it’s impossible. Especially when progress comes slower than you hoped.

And it’s easy to feel alone. To feel like no one can understand how it feels to go through this journey.

But the support you need is out there.

And it turns out that when you feel supported, you’re more likely to lose the weight you want.

This is why working with a physician for weight loss is the best investment you make to get results.

Because with a physician you find more than injections, weight loss supplements, and meal plans.

What you get is a team dedicated to your success. Dedicated to helping you become the healthiest and happiest version of yourself. With the support you need every step of the way.

So how does physician-led weight loss support you?
1. Weekly Check-ins
If you’ve tried losing weight on your own, you know how easy it is to get off track.

Whatever you’re facing, a physician gives you strategies to help and even creates a plan that gets around those difficulties.

So when you go to a weight loss center for a weight loss plan, you set yourself up for success by getting a support network.

You get weekly check-ins so you don’t feel isolated as you go through your weight loss journey.

These weekly check-ins help you stay accountable and give you the chance to check in with a physician for support and advice. And this support is hugely influential for successfully losing the weight you want.

Plus a physician will remind you to celebrate even the smallest loss. And cheer you on as you stay consistent with your plan.

2. Personalized Meal Plans
There are three major struggles with dieting:

You give up moments of joy from eating your favorite foods.
Finding time to make the healthy foods you need
Getting the right food for complete nutrition
While working with a physician means you’ll likely still forgo some of your favorite junk foods on a regular basis, they can help you with the second and third roadblock.

When you work with a doctor, you get the best advice about eating for your needs and lifestyle. They give you realistic ways of finding time to prepare food in your busy schedule.

They’re also experts at setting you up on a diet to lose weight and still get all your nutritional needs.

As humans, we all have certain essential nutrients we must get from our food.

But depending on personal nuances in your biology, you might need to cut certain foods out of your diet and emphasize others.

If you’ve already tried before, you know revamping your diet is no easy task. Largely because there’s so much information about diet out there that it’s hard to know what’s right and what’s wrong.

It’s easy to be unsure what the diet is for you.

When you work with a physician to lose weight, you get a personalized meal plan that’s backed by evidence and produces results.

3. Personalized Exercise Routines
Believe it or not, there’s no one “right” way to exercise.

While you’ll hear people who do every type of exercise say their way is the best way, the truth is this: the recommendation for exercise according to the Department of Health and Human Services is 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week.

It doesn’t specify what this exercise must be.

The most important thing is finding something you love doing and doing it any 3 days a week that work best for you.

You can swim, walk, jog, lift weights, play basketball, hike, or do yoga.

But if you’re struggling to find an exercise activity that you enjoy and want professional guidance, your team at a weight loss center can set you up with a workout plan.

That way you don’t have to wonder how you should exercise. And you don’t have to spend time planning your workout routines either.

12/23/2021

FASTING TO LOSE WEIGHT: WHY IT WORKS
Feeling stuck in your weight loss journey? A fasting weight loss diet might be the key to losing that unwanted weight
There’s no doubt fasting is more popular than ever right now.

And if you’ve never tried it yourself, you might be wondering:

Is fasting healthy?
Does fasting to lose weight really work?
Despite its more recent surge in popularity, fasting isn’t just a recent health food trend. People have been fasting since ancient times. And the latest studies prove it’s actually an effective and healthful way to approach eating.

So what is fasting?
Fasting is commonly just thought of as going for many hours without eating anything.

But there’s more to it than just not eating all day. Fasting is about timing your meals and even abstaining from certain foods. And there are many different ways of fasting that can work for anyone.

One of the most common ways of fasting for health benefits and weight loss is intermittent fasting. Which is when you alternate fasting days or times with your typical eating habits.

It might look like this: on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, you only eat 600 calories in a day while on all the other days of the week, you eat as you normally would.

Or it might be that you choose to skip breakfast every day of the week and only eat between noon and 8PM. This has you in a fasting state for about 16 hours every day.

You could even do two full 24-hour fasts during your week and eat normally on the other five days. This becomes alternate-day fasting when you consistently alternate full days of eating and fasting.

There are also clinically tested and effective fasting weight loss diets like the Prolon Diet. It’s a diet designed to help you get the most out of your fasting meals and reap the most health benefits from fasting.

However you choose fasting to lose weight works, and there are many other related health benefits.

Fasting Limits Calorie Intake
As you cut meals out of your week, you’re ultimately more likely to shrink the number of calories you consume.

When you do a full 24 hour fast, you cut out all those calories from your total consumption each week. This means you consume fewer overall calories than you otherwise would. And your body will start tapping into stored energy sources in fat cells.

Another way fasting limits calorie intake is that it often means cutting certain foods out of your diet. So you indulge less in all the processed foods like cake, chips, and ice cream (you know, the tasty but unhealthy foods we all get cravings for). The reason these foods can be a problem for weight loss is that they are super high calorie but low satiety. In other words, you can eat a lot of these foods before you start to feel full. And consume a deceptively large number of calories in the process.

Oftentimes when people fast, they remove those processed foods from their fasting diet and replace them with lower calorie satiating foods. When you do that, it’s a huge number of calories you give up each week!

The fact that fasting makes it much easier to reduce calorie intake is why it’s possible to get results like losing 9% of body weight after 24 hours of fasting each week for 12 weeks.

And fasting is actually more effective than just reducing calories alone, especially if you want to lose fat weight but maintain lean muscle mass.

Fasting Produces More Human Growth Hormone (HGH) and Improves Insulin Sensitivity
Why is fasting more effective than just reducing calories for weight loss? It has to do with the way fasting influences two important hormones — human growth hormone (HGH) and insulin.

Despite the word growth in the name, this hormone is important for weight loss. Your body creates more of this hormone when you fast — and ultimately improves your metabolism and helps you lose weight.

Fasting also helps your body manage insulin levels.

Insulin typically surges after we eat to transport energy (in the form of sugar) into our cells for storage and use at a later time.

When you fast and resist the urge to snack, your body will produce insulin less often. The result is that your body will start using the stored energy and glucose in fat cells.

This has major health outcomes — especially for those who have prediabetes or type 2 diabetes. In one study individuals with diabetes were able to decrease their insulin level through fasting.

The influence fasting has over HGH and insulin helps you boost your metabolism, improve your insulin sensitivity, and ultimately lose weight.

Fasting Keeps You On a Proper Eating Rhythm
Our metabolism is adapted to a rhythm of being awake in the day and sleeping at night.

While some people might be night-owls, one thing is true about human beings: we are not nocturnal creatures.

That means our body expects and is prepared for eating during the day.

It’s no surprise then that nighttime eating is associated with obesity and diabetes.

Fasting is a perfect way to ensure you eat based on the circadian rhythm of your body. Many time-restricted fasting plans are set up for you to eat all of your calories within 8 hours every day.

And it turns out that having your meals within 8 hours each day instead of 12+ leads to health improvements.

One study found that by spreading your meals out over 8 hours each day instead of 12 hours, you can improve your insulin sensitivity and lower blood pressure. And believe it or not, those who fit their meals into 8 hours were less likely to feel extreme hunger pangs. Even during the fasting period!

12/23/2021

DON’T BELIEVE THESE COMMON WEIGHT LOSS MYTHS
Breaking down 5 of the most common and unhelpful weight loss myths. Plus what you should do instead.
There’s a lot of misinformation about there about health. We see it all the time, but especially when it comes to losing weight. There are weight loss myths of all kinds that get spread like wildfire.

The reason is that people know how hard it is to lose weight. They know it’s one of the toughest things to do and there are millions of Americans who are somewhere along their weight loss journey, just looking to make it easier.

So naturally, myths about how to do it best are everywhere. And it’s easy to get caught up in some of these myths, especially if you feel like you’ve been trying and failing over and over again.

So let’s get into some of those most common weight loss myths and what actually works instead based on the best research around right now.

Myth 1: You must have an intense exercise plan to lose weight
You’ll find any number of trainers and health gurus suggesting the most extreme measures when it comes to exercise.

But the truth is, you can lose weight through diet alone, but not through exercise alone. If you exercise and just keep up with the same eating habits, or even add food because now you’re hungrier after adding intense exercise, you’re actually undermining your weight loss efforts.

For most people, losing weight depends on eating fewer calories than you burn each day. But how you go about doing that will depend on your unique circumstances. And it isn’t as simple as it sounds. There are tough physical and psychological challenges that come along with changing lifestyle habits to lose weight. Weight loss is hard. No matter how anyone tries to boil it down to a simple equation of calories in vs calories out.

With all that being said, it’s still important to do exercise. There are countless other benefits from exercising regularly, from preventing cancers, improving heart health and blood pressure, to reducing stress, and improving sleep, energy, and mood. And the kind of exercise you do has an impact on your physique as you lose weight through dieting efforts. Your physique outcomes will be different if you spend most of your time exercising by lifting weights instead of running.

But the important thing to know about exercise and weight loss is that you don’t have to do a crazy intense workout program. The minimum recommended amount of exercise for optimal health benefits is 150 minutes of moderate exercise each week.

How to exercise for weight loss:
The important thing to know about exercise and weight loss is that you don’t have to do a crazy intense workout program. The minimum recommended amount of exercise for optimal health benefits is 150 minutes of moderate exercise each week.

What’s most important is to find the kind of exercise you like most and pair it with a healthy diet and ideal calorie intake for your weight loss goals. You also want to make sure your program is something sustainable—something you can actually stick with for long enough to see results.

You also want to train in progressions. Start with 30-minute sessions and build to 60-minute sessions if you have the time for that. It’s ideal to get a mix of training styles. Two days of cardio and three days with strength training, all for 30 minutes, is a great place to start.

Myth 2: Healthier foods are more expensive
We hear this one all the time, don’t we? We hear about how all the healthy food is just so out of reach for many Americans.

But the opposite is actually true.

Let’s think first about what we mean by “healthy”.

Healthy doesn’t mean organic. By healthy foods, we mean whole foods—fruits, vegetables, legumes, complex grains, and depending on your dietary restrictions, certain dairy (like yogurt and low-fat cheese) and lean meat as well.

So how expensive is it to eat healthy whole foods compared to lower quality foods and fast-food? Well it depends on how you calculate the price of food. According to USDA, we often hear that unhealthy foods are cheaper than healthy foods because the conversation centers on one way of calculating cost: price per calorie. It’s true that unhealthy foods are cheaper than healthy foods when talking about calorie density. But it’s a misleading way of talking about food cost alone.

Calories aren’t the only way to think about food. You can also think about the overall nutritional value. And how filling the food is. The same report from the USDA found that when calculating the cost of food by edible weight or by average amount eaten, the healthy foods are cheaper than unhealthy foods.

The one caveat is that you do end up spending more time preparing meals when you opt to buy the fresh whole and healthy foods over other options. And that time can seem like a huge downside.

But in the long run, for your health, that time spent is worth it. And cooking, once you get used to doing it and learn some tricks, can be not only fun, but relaxing.

Myth 3: Losing weight is impossible if you have snacks
Okay, there’s a lot of hate for snacking out there. But there’s nothing inherently evil about snacks. It’s all about moderation and smart choices in your diet plan.

How to snack smart
First off, make sure any snacks you add don’t put your over your daily calorie amount. Then you want to make sure your snacks are still nutritionally balanced. If all of your snacks are a serving of chips, sweets, and other high calorie foods, then your snacks aren’t serving you well.

The point of a snack is to have something to tide you over until you get to your next meal if you need it. Or for an energy boost in the afternoon when you start feeling sluggish.

So to make it impactful, you want to have a snack that is filling and full of essential vitamins and nutrients.

Good options would be a high-protein, low-fat yogurt. Greek yogurt or skyr are great choices. An apple with 1-2 tablespoons of peanut butter, depending on your calorie allotments. Both of these are tasty snacks that are filling enough to get you through to your next meal. Plus you get important nutritional requirements from them.

Myth 4: Losing weight is all about willpower
This is very likely the most harmful weight loss myth on this list. And one of the most damaging of all the myths around weight loss.

Now I won’t deny that losing weight takes a certain amount of discipline. But it’s about so much more than that.

There are ingrained patterns to overcome. There are eating habits that you’ve been living by for years and it will take time to undo and recover from that damage. A lot of times, these are habits or thoughts about food you don’t even realize you have. This is true of everyone.

How to think about your weight loss journey instead?
Will power isn’t something you can rely on forever. The key is to find a weight loss plan that works for you and that you’re happy to do.

And equally as important is to be patient with your progress and trust it will come. And in the meantime practice gratitude.

Be grateful for what your body does for you and be patient while waiting for the outcomes that you want.

Take it all one day at a time. Don’t judge yourself for what you did last year, last week, or even yesterday. Know what you need to do each day and give it your best effort to reach it. And if you fail one day, it doesn’t mean you’ll fail the next. With continued effort, changes will come about over time.

Lloydminster Laser & Vein Clinic

12/23/2021

12/23/2021

12/23/2021

12/23/2021

12/23/2021

12/23/2021

12/23/2021

Address

Telephone

Website

Alerts

Contact The Practice

Shortcuts

Share

Category