Dear Sarah,

While swimsuit shopping this month, I was alarmed to see cottage cheese thighs staring back at me from the dressing room mirror. The horror! Bikini buying stopped there. Ditto wearing a bathing suit on the beach. Can exercise help get rid of my unsightly lumps? Are there any cellulite-beating workouts you recommend?
Rachel

Dear Rachel,

Cellulite is caused by clusters of fat cells. Unfortunately, you are born with these cells and will have them forever, but how big or small they get is up to you.

Have you got a stubborn last few inches of weight hanging on that isn't responding to diet or exercise? Now, I'm not one to focus on weight loss, but I know how frustrating it can be when you think you're doing all the right things and it doesn't seem to be working. If we look at the situation from a holistic point of view, it may be that spare tire isn't related to diet or exercise at all.

It might be stress. Stress is an often overlooked component of body fat accumulation and yet it is definitely a contributor. When we're stressed, the adrenal glands release a stress hormone called cortisol and cortisol increases fat accumulation around the abdomen. This belly fat is responsible for a lot of the inflammation that happens in the body.

Anything that can lead to inflammation in the cells of the body can cause further weight gain, among other serious issues. Constant inflammation leads to the major chronic diseases of aging like heart disease, cancer, diabetes, dementia, among others. And chronic inflammation is also a major contributor to obesity.

Natasha Turner, N.D. is a Toronto-based naturopathic doctor. She is the founder of the Clear Medicine wellness boutique and author of the bestselling book The Hormone Diet. Each week in her column for That's Fit.ca, Dr. Turner advises readers on how to remedy common health issues as well as improve their overall health.


With all my patients I always stress that it is not knowledge that ensures good health, but action. Think about it-how many diet or self-help books have you read but never applied the principles to your daily life? Or worse, how many have you purchased and never opened?

There are myriad theories, guidelines and information sources surrounding the nutrition and wellness industry. Sometimes it seems as though the more you read, the more confused you become. But the basic principles of healthy living are not rocket science. The baby steps taken today may result in giant leaps in your wellness in the future.

We all want a quick fix for better health, weight loss and more energy. The Hormone Diet provides you with a road map to wellness, but if you are not yet on the road to health, you can begin with this sample of a healthy day to get you moving. You can tweak the hours if you need to, just use this as a guide. Remember the old adage that definitely rings true when it comes to nutrition, "if you fail to plan, you plan to fail."

6:30 – 7:00 am: Drink two cups of warm water with lemon each morning. This simple habit increases the flow of digestive juices, helps to cleanse the body and resets our pH balance, making us less acidic, which helps reduce the risk of disease. If you have sugar or carbohydrate cravings, add 1 tsp. of glutamine powder into the water.

Natasha Turner, N.D. is a Toronto-based naturopathic doctor. She is the founder of the Clear Medicine wellness boutique and author of the bestselling book The Hormone Diet. Each week in her column for That's Fit.ca, Dr. Turner advises readers on how to remedy common health issues as well as improve their overall health.


If you ask a women if she has PMS, she might reply by saying, "No, but I'm sure my husband would say I do." Similarly, if you ask her if she experiences breast tenderness, irritability, cravings, water retention, weight gain, headaches, sleep disruption, acne breakouts, fatigue or other symptoms prior to her period, she might say, "Yes, I do, but isn't that normal?"

Countless women have no idea that their period should come and go, without symptoms, except the obvious - blood loss, each month. Some women even believe that PMS refers only to mood changes prior to their period, while others think the symptoms of water retention, sore breasts and irritability are normal.

These symptoms are not normal! Chronic symptoms prior to your period are not only troublesome, they're also detrimental and a clear indication of hormonal imbalance. This common misconception identifies two issues: Not only have we become so accustomed to hormonal imbalance that we are perhaps no longer able to identify balanced wellness, we are also out of touch with our bodies. This causes subtle messages conveyed by our symptoms to be missed and as a consequence, we also miss the opportunity to achieve better health.

What is PMS?
PMS (premenstrual syndrome) involves many different symptoms lasting a few days to weeks prior to the onset of menses. The symptoms, along with their intensity, can vary from month to month, but usually end after the first or second day of bleeding when the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle begins. The time before the menstrual flow, coinciding with PMS, is called the luteal phase. It begins at ovulation and continues until the first day of bleeding.

We know about 75 percent of women have PMS and that it's most likely to affect those between their late 20s and early 40s. Out of these sufferers, about eight to 10 percent require medical intervention to manage their mood and behavioral changes. Some women with premenstrual syndrome experience premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD). PMDD is a form of premenstrual syndrome associated with severe depression, hopelessness, anger, anxiety and low self-esteem.

Recognizing PMS
The symptoms of PMS are both mental and physical.

Natasha Turner, N.D. is a Toronto-based naturopathic doctor. She is the founder of the Clear Medicine wellness boutique and author of the bestselling book The Hormone Diet. Each week in her column for That's Fit.ca, Dr. Turner advises readers on how to remedy common health issues as well as improve their overall health.

We are still working our way though the eight hormonal imbalances that cause weight loss resistance. This week the topic of discussion is low thyroid hormone.

So far we've covered: Do you have too much estrogen? And, Are you a hotbed of inflammation?

Like so many other hormones, thyroid hormones must be present in the appropriate balance to ensure optimal health. Thyroid hormones regulate our metabolism and organ function. They directly affect heart rate, cholesterol levels, body weight, energy, muscle contraction and relaxation, skin and hair texture, bowel function, fertility, menstrual regularity, memory, mood and other body processes.

Too much thyroid hormone leads to hyperthyroidism, a condition that throws the metabolism into chronic high gear. Those with hyperthyroidism feel hot and experience a rapid heart rate, weight loss (or weight gain, if they eat a lot more due to increased appetite), irritability, insomnia, shakiness, and digestive troubles. Sufferers can also feel hyper, although fatigue is very common as well. Over time, hyperthyroidism can be extremely detrimental to bone density and muscle mass.

Dear Sarah,
I have just started exercising after work four to five days a week in an effort to lose weight. Unfortunately, dinnertime now lands around eight p.m. at best, at which point I'm starving and want to eat a big (but healthy like whole wheat pasta and chicken) dinner. Will eating this late affect my weight loss efforts? (I heard it will). Help!
Thanks,
Nora

Dear Nora,

Exercise boosts your metabolism (the rate at which you burn calories) and the idea that eating late prevents you from losing weight and may contribute to weight gain has been studied several times and yes, the subjects do gain weight from eating too many calories late in the day.

Ultimately, if you wait until eight or nine to eat dinner (like after a long day and or a great workout) you will tend to reach for calorie-dense foods like pasta, rice, meat, poultry and fish. And if you eat when you are extremely hungry, you'll tend to eat too quickly and eat too much. This delivers more calories than necessary for the next activity, which generally is sleeping. While you sleep your body is hard at work cleansing your organs, repairing tissues (like muscles), and restoring your energy for the next day, it does not need a full meal to do so. In fact, your body will spend more time digesting your dinner (did you know that steak can take over four hours to digest?) than repairing and resting. You sleep so that you can can recover from your day and get ready for the next day, lack of proper rest leads to stress, and stress leads to weight gain.

Next time you're wondering how those extra pounds keep creeping up on the scale, consider this: It might not be down to your lack of gym-time; rather it could be that you're not getting enough inactive time. We're talking about your sleep habits, and recent research shows that how much (or how little) you get every night can have a big impact on your waistline ... and health. In fact, even just one sleepless night can send your metabolism into chaos.

According to studies recently published by the Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands, sleeplessness can affect how your body produces and uses insulin, which can both hinder your metabolism and lead to serious conditions like diabetes.

They determined this by monitoring nine adults, after both a night of eight hours sleep and a night of just four hours. They found that restricting the amount of sleep participants were able to get led to a reduction in insulin sensitivity. Insulin, of course, is the hormone that helps your body metabolize glucose, so it goes without saying that it's a crucial aspect to helping your body run smoothly.

Natasha Turner, N.D. is a Toronto-based naturopathic doctor. She is the founder of the Clear Medicine wellness boutique and author of the bestselling book The Hormone Diet. Each week in her column for That's Fit.ca, Dr. Turner advises readers on how to remedy common health issues as well as improve their overall health.


Last week's column on 8 Hormonal Imbalances That Stop You From Losing Weight received a lot of feedback so I've decided to follow it up over the coming weeks with discussions on the cause and natural treatment options for each of the eight conditions. This week's topic: Estrogen Dominance.

Estrogen balance is essential for achieving and maintaining fat loss. In men and premenopausal women, too much estrogen, a condition called estrogen dominance causes toxic fat gain, water retention, bloating and a host of other health and wellness issues. While premenopausal women with too much estrogen tend to have the pear-shape body type with more weight at the hips, both men and menopausal women with this excess exhibit an apple shape with more fat accumulation in the abdominal area. Researchers have now identified excess estrogen to be just as great a risk factor for obesity – in both sexes – as poor eating habits and lack of exercise.

Estrogen dominance can also be an issue for men, as testosterone and progesterone naturally decline with age or stress, and estrogen conversely rises. This hormonal shift impacts not only the physique but also prostate health. Statistics show that shockingly high numbers of men who live to the age of 65 and older will develop prostate cancer, likely due to estrogen exposure.

Causes of Estrogen Dominance after the jump

As someone who has experienced fluctuations in weight since my teenage years, I know there is no magic weight loss cure. And while I can't attribute any single factor to my eventual shedding of the pounds, I am sure that yoga played a major part. According to Health Canada you need 30 to 60 minutes of exercise a day, raising your heart rate to between 130 and 150 beats per minute, to see any weight loss results. A few types of yoga can raise your heart rate enough for weight loss.

Hatha and Restorative yoga classes are slow, with poses generally held for longer periods of time. Ashtanga, Vinyasa, and Iyengar are all faster-paced, with the potential to get your heart rate up. It's all about trying out different classes available to you. I've attended classes where I've christened my mat with a pool of sweat and others where I didn't break a glow.

This is also known as "poor me syndrome."

I can't wait to see the hate mail.

There is a common myth that 95 percent of people who lose weight end up gaining it all back, which has contributed to the idea of a body weight set point, but in reality we don't have any accurate numbers as to what percentage of people gain the weight back. My guess is that it is considerably less than 95 percent.

The more important question is not how many people gain the weight back, but why. Does a person's body really have a set point?

Answer: No, it doesn't. It has an infinite number of set points based on current activity and caloric intake levels.

Find out more after the jump

In The Art of Overeating, psychologist Leslie Landis employs a humorous tone of reverse psychology to draw attention to some of the bad habits chronic overeaters develop. (For example: "Never share. OPPOSITE ADVICE: Always share. Whenever possible, split a meal with your dinner companion. It is worth the split charge and will save your waist and money.") Here, she explains how she uses humour to help her patients - including her husband - deal with the very serious problem of overeating.

Q: Why did you decide on a humorous tone for your book?

Comedians make us laugh because we see truths about ourselves in their humour. I believe that humour can be part of the solution to weight problems. I have used it in my book for that purpose. My book is so "over the top" in its suggestions of how and why to overeat, that only someone who wants to weigh over 600 pounds would take it seriously. In other words, no one would mistake it for real advice. However, many readers have told me that they have recognized themselves or their behavior. One woman sent me an email that said she felt as if I were looking at her through a peephole, and now she is eating less. As a clinical psychologist, I have used humor, when appropriate, with my patients. A woman I worked with confided to me that she hid candy in her lingerie drawer. We had some fun with the idea of where else she could hide candy and what other foods she could stash. Though we laughed at the ideas we came up with, it helped her to develop insight about her food obsession and, subsequently, gain some control over it.

You already know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. You also know that you are what you eat. So chances are you tend to save greasy bacon-and-eggs breakfast binges for special occasions, opting instead to start your days with some fruit, a cup of yogurt, a bit of cereal and maybe a slice of toast. You're making the healthy choice by starting your day off with something light and nutritious, right?

Not so fast, say researchers -- instead, they're suggesting that a fried breakfast might be the ideal way to begin your day. A study on lab mice found that the animals who ate a breakfast high in fat were able to break down fat more effectively throughout the day than the ones who started off with a carbohydrate-rich breakfast. They concluded that a morning meal rich in carbohydrates prepares the body only to break down more carbs, whereas eating fat in the morning helped rev the metabolism more effectively.

Each morning, we dish out a few links we love.

Are these words damaging your eyesight? Here's some important information on computer screens and eye damage, plus advice on how to avoid it.

When it comes to choosing friends, maybe you should take some advice from your husband -- here's why.

You know those proposed soda taxes? As it turns out, they'll have to be pretttttty high if they're going to make any sort of difference.

Addicted to washing your hands? Hygiene is important, but being too vigilant could be making you fat.

If you lose weight, what are you chances of regaining it? Some estimates say that 95 percent will gain it back -- ouch!

Are you sicking of weight loss slogans and miracle diets and are convinced that living a healthy life means more than a number on the scale? Well, Dr. Linda Bacon, author of Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight, agrees. Here, Dr. Bacon explains why we should shift the emphasis from a preoccupation with weight to adopting healthier habits - no matter your size.

Q: What is the purpose of the Health at Every Size movement?

A: In general, we're finding that people are preoccupied with food and weight, and there's a lot of fat bashing going on. People seem to harbour this idea that there's something wrong with being heavier and, if they're not there already, they're really scared of being there. It's not helpful in getting people to adopt healthy lifestyle behaviours. We're trying to get people to transform the paradigm and we want to encourage everyone to start from a place of appreciating their body, which will allow them to take better care of their body by making good health choices.

Q: Do you believe that you can be both healthy and overweight?