Valecia Weeks is licensed through the state of Texas as a therapeutic massage therapist who specializes in providing on-site chair massage for corporations and events. She is also a certified personal trainer with NESTA, as well as a licensed ZUMBA instructor
HERB – any plant with leaves, seeds, or flowers used for flavoring, food, medicine, or perfume. Since this is a very broad definition, let’s just look at the medicinal uses of these things called “herbs”. Have you ever sat back and wondered why people in the past were not so worried about gaining a lot of weight or becoming “fat”? Why extreme obesity was not a problem as it is in this day and time? Have you noticed that when people started processing natural foods and adapting a lifestyle which lacks physical movements, they started gaining weight?
If you know someone who has lost weight and kept it off, ask them how they are able to maintain. I’m pretty sure they will tell you that they used a lot of herbs and natural foods along with exercises. I’m sure all of us have heard of herbs, but don’t quite know what to do with them nor how they can help us lose weight. Hearing of them is not enough. ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS! Let’s look at some of the ways that we can adopt herbal remedies for weight loss:
- Coconut Oil – generally we don’t think of this as an herb but since coconut oil is from the plant, it qualifies as one of the herbs used for weight loss. Coconut oil speeds up metabolism and aids in the thyroid burning excess calories.
- Cayenne Pepper – this herb is usually used to set everything about us on fire; but the active ingredient found in hot peppers, moves up your metabolic rate so that you’ll burn more calories. So, see, more than your tongue burns with this herb.
- Ginseng – this herb is known to give you more energy so that you feel like moving more, thus burning more calories
- Turmeric – this spice is best known to be used in curry dishes for flavoring, but it also prevents fat from forming in the body and it also decreases inflammation.
- Guarana – it’s high in caffeine derivatives. This is a motivational herb which will give you determination to continue your diet plus provide the extra “umph” for you to do so.
- Dandelion – the leaves of dandelion are quite bitter but adding three to four in a big salad or omelet daily is enough to stimulate your gall bladder and liver to detoxify and cleanse themselves. When you process food better in the digestive tract, you can see weight loss sooner.
I know this is probably different for some, but try consuming four to five of these herbs daily as a little experiment to see what happens. Feel free to give me feedback on your results at www.assuringhands.massagetherapy.com.