Weight loss is something it seems most of the western world is constantly charging after.  There are many tools people use to lose weight, and the effective ones have something to do with nutrition. It has been said before but it is worth repeating – you cannot out-work a bad diet.

This is extremely true unless you are an ultramarathon runner, then you can basically do whatever you want and stay lean but lean doesn’t mean healthy. Keeping a slight negative energy balance and preventing hormone dysfunction is critical to healthy weight loss.

This needs to be done through nutrition mixed with other lifestyle factors. There are certain foods we can integrate into our nutrition to help and support a healthy weight loss goal.

One thing all people have in common who succeed in losing weight is dedication to the goal. I am sorry to say that losing weight is not an easy and painless process. When I had 30 lb to lose, it took a lot of work from monitoring what I was eating, to tough workouts, but eventually I got there and I got it done, Commitment is key – there are no shortcuts, but there are things that can support us.

Smoothies are a great, easy meal to make and I frequently have one these days as my breakfast. One thing with smoothies that we need to remember is that it is food, which means that we need to be chewing it even though it is in liquid form. Our saliva has a number of enzymes that help us to break down food properly – the act of chewing starts this process.

Chewing our smoothies also slows us down and makes us more mindful of what we are consuming. All food is a blessing and we need to treat it as such.

Four things I put into my smoothies to help me to feel great and to help keep me lean are Maca, Matcha, Lion’s Mane and Chlorella. Here are the benefits of each:

Maca:

This is a Peruvian plant which has been cultivated for over 2000 years. Maca has been used in that time for a number of reasons but one of its greatest benefit is on hormone function on Men and Women. Having proper hormone function is critical for weight loss and keeping them healthy is essential.

Maca has also been shown to lower levels of inflammation. Chronic systemic inflammation is when we have low levels of inflammation in our body that is often undetectable to the naked eye, but is very damaging to our system, including our brain. Excess body fat has been shown to cause more inflammation in the body, so if we have weight to lose it stands to reason we also have some inflammation to take care of.

One blood marker of inflammation is called IL-6 and supplementation with Maca has been shown to lower serum levels of IL-6 and is also associated with better health score. IL-6 can play a role in insulin-resistance which can make it much harder to lose weight, so by supplementing with maca we can help our hormones and our whole body during the weight loss journey.

Matcha:

Is finely ground powder of green tea leaves and has more antioxidants than regular green tea because we are using and consuming the whole leaf. Matcha is amazing, as it has been shown to assist in weight loss, weight management, increase abdominal fat loss and enhance changes in body composition from exercise.  

Matcha can enhance fat oxidation during exercise which means we will burn more fat during those workouts! Matcha does contain some caffeine so it will give us a boost of mental and physical awareness and energy and compared to coffee, and matcha can actually provide a longer lasting buzz. That longer lasting boost can be used to increase our physical activity during the day.

There is something called NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) and this means the energy we burn during the day not from exercise, when we increase the energy expenditure (walking, taking the stairs, etc.) it helps get us towards our weight loss goals faster and matcha can help us increase our NEAT each day.

Lion’s mane:

Is a medicinal mushroom that is capable of inducing a number of great effects on the human body from improvement in cognitive function to strengthening the immune system. When it comes to losing weight, we need to work on creating new habits. We cannot continue with the habits we used to have because they are what put us in the position we wanted to change. If I continued to eat frozen pizzas with chocolate milk a couple times a week, my weight wouldn’t have changed.

I needed to break this habit and start instilling new ones. This means rewiring our brain and that’s one of the things lion’s mane helps us with. Lion’s mane induces something called neurogenesis which is the growth and development of nervous system tissues including neurons in the brain. By adding a bit of lion’s mane in a smoothie we make it easier to engrain our healthier lifestyle by encouraging new neurons and connections to form which will allow us to keep the weight off so we don’t fall back into old patterns.

Lion’s mane also has been shown to increase the metabolism of fats in mice fed a high-fat diet. This is great because you may be surprised to learn that a higher fat diet has been shown to be beneficial for not only long-term health but weight loss as well, so taking lion’s mane helps us to utilize all of these great fats for hormone function, energy, etc.

I take anywhere from 1/8 tsp to 1 tsp a day depending on what I intuitively feel like my body would like that day.

Chlorella:

Is a type of green algae that is becoming an ever-popular health food supplement and it is worth the hype! Chlorella has a lot of benefits and has been shown to lower damaging cholesterol (small dense LDL), pull heavy metals out of the body and can really help with weight loss in humans. In rats, chlorella helps to modulate insulin signalling and helps to prevent insulin resistance which is extremely beneficial if the same effects happen in humans.

The thing with chlorella is that it doesn’t taste the greatest, so I only put in very small amounts (¼ to ½ tsp) or else I find it messes up the flavour of the smoothie too much. That being said, the benefits of chlorella far outweigh the taste and it is a staple in my life. If you have ever been a smoker then chlorella is an excellent idea to help pull out some of those heavy metals.

Smoothie Recipe:

Ingredients:

• ½ cup Blueberries
  
• ½ cup Raspberries
  
• ¼ cup coconut milk
  
• 1 cup filtered water
  
• 1 Scoop protein powder (I currently use either a pumpkin or a beef protein)
  
• ½ tablespoon almond butter
  
• 1 teaspoon Maca
  
• ½ teaspoon Matcha
  
• ¼ teaspoon Lion’s mane
• ¼ teaspoon Chlorella

Procedure:

1. This smoothie is easy to make and pretty darn tasty! If you need more sweetness, add 1-2 drops of liquid stevia.

Calories 369 | Protein 27g | Net Carbs 24g | Fat 18g

Summary:

Natural sustained weight loss is not a quick path to walk. It takes time, consistent effort and most of all discipline to achieve. We can use certain foods to help make that path a little bit easier, and I have outlined four of them above (Maca, Chlorella, Matcha and Lion’s Mane) which can all be found in powders and added to super charge your smoothie and get you where you want to be.

You do not need to use any of these, they are just options available. When I went through my weight loss phase, I didn’t use them because I didn’t know about them and my weight loss went great! However, if I had known about Maca, Matcha, Lion’s Mane and Chlorella, I would have surely have used them as I do today!

This fantastic article was written by The Healthy Happy Coach, Joshua Graham (Fitness Expert and Nutritionist). Connect with him on Facebook at The Healthy Happy Coach .

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