In the final article of my 3-part 10 Fat Flush Commandment series, learn how Fat Flush can help you clean up your gut, improve bile quality, support your thyroid, and restore magnesium levels to lose weight and keep it off for good.
7. Support your thyroid.
Is your tired thyroid to blame for your weight gain? If so, you are far from alone. According to the American Thyroid Association, an estimated 20 million people in the US suffer with thyroid disease, and here’s the kicker – 60% of these people are unaware they have the condition. Major symptoms of low thyroid function include fatigue, cold sensitivity, muscle cramping, constipation, dry skin, hair loss, shortened eyebrows, brittle nails, and unexplained weight gain.
The thyroid is a butterfly-shaped gland sitting at the base of your throat, calling the shots on your metabolism. A sluggish thyroid leads to a lowered metabolism and this causes weight gain. Overcoming thyroid disease is more than just taking a prescription pill; it’s about finding the root causes of your overloaded thyroid, and stoking that furnace to wake up your fat-burning metabolism.
Everything in your body is interrelated and interconnected – what causes problems in one part of the body often extends to another. Your thyroid health is connected to your digestion, your sex hormones, your immune system, your adrenals, and so much more. So it should come as no surprise that the causes of thyroid sluggishness can also include viruses, stress, adrenal fatigue, estrogen dominance, poor quality bile, missing minerals, a destructive diet, and a messy microbiome – all addressed here in the Fat Flush Commandments!
I’ve designed Fat Flush to also specifically nourish and support the thyroid for optimum function. Coconut oil included in the plan has been found to improve thyroid function by up to 50%. You’ll avoid bromine, fluoride and chlorine which keep essential iodine out of the thyroid AND you’ll increase your iodine intake with sea vegetables. Because thyroid issues have become such a common problem with so many of my readers over the years, I have also developed a thyroid support formula, Thyro-Key, which contains bovine glandulars designed to provide DNA/RNA blueprint of the thyroid gland to promote rejuvenation and repair.
8. Clean up your messy microbiome.
Your microbiome has so many important functions in the body that some experts actually refer to it as an organ. Your body is home to trillions of microorganisms that live on and within your body. They outnumber your own human cells 10 to 1. This bacterial collective is known as your microbiome, and probiotics are your bacterial BFFs living within this community.
Bacteria have been given a bad rap; there are plenty of the good guys who help you digest and absorb nutrients, and manufacture life-sustaining enzymes, vitamins, hormones, and brain chemicals. Your probiotic BFFs “take out the trash” by removing toxins and waste products from your system, too. Your microbiome also helps to control hormone and blood sugar levels (including thyroid hormones), promote quality sleep, influence hunger hormones, and regulate stress. And last but certainly not least, these bacteria have epigenetic properties, which means they have the ability to turn certain genes on and off – including the genes that affect metabolism and weight gain. Wouldn’t it be great to have more “skinny” bacteria?
Unfortunately, most people today have a mess of a microbiome, wreaking havoc and causing inflammation, which leads to obesity. Taking antibiotics kills off the good guys along with the bad guys, allowing candida yeast and other unwanteds to overgrow. The way you were born – whether by c-section or vaginal delivery – determines which bacteria you start life colonized with, and how much. And of course, the quality of your daily diet affects the bacterial diversity in your gut.
I have designed the Fat Flush diet protocols to be especially supportive of your microbiome. First, the plan carefully and systematically eliminates all simple sugars and processed grains which feed yeast and fungus and crowd out beneficial bacteria and artificial sweeteners which enable fat-forming strains of bacteria to thrive. It also incorporates a number of microbiome-friendly features including gut-nourishing foods like jicama, apple, pears, cauliflower, broccoli, berries, garlic and asparagus; plus, adds special fermented foods in phase 3.
Medium-chain fatty acids from coconut and MCT oil are also included for powerful antifungal properties, along with soluble fiber to fuel the friendly flora in your gut and strengthen the entire microbiome. Last but not least, the Fat Flush staple probiotic, Flora-Key, is designed to balance the gut with an ideal combination of daily prebiotics and probiotics. Together, this combination of gut-cleansing staples and strategies can clean up your gut for optimum weight loss success!
9. Improve your bile quality.
Your body’s brilliant bile is one of the best-kept secrets to fat flushing. No conversation about weight is complete without discussing this yellowish-green liquid that your liver produces about a quart of daily. When the liver cleanses your body, it dumps all the toxic waste products into the bile, which then carries those toxins out of the body to be eliminated. When you are constipated, or your liver is congested and fatty, the bile can’t flow the way it needs to, and detoxification is impaired. This means these toxins need a place to go, so your body shuttles them into the fat cells for storage, until you’re able to eliminate them. This is a cause of weight gain.
When bile flows freely, it fights off candida and parasitic infections, and also breaks down fats for digestion. Gallbladder issues (or a missing gallbladder), candida, parasites, constipation, poor fat digestion, low energy, and weight gain are all symptoms of a bile problem. Bile has such a key role in detoxification that by the time allergies, arthritis, and inflammation in joints and muscles develop, there’s already a 75% bile deficiency. By the time cancer and chronic illness is diagnosed, a whopping 90% deficiency has already occurred.
Signs of bile deficiency can include queasiness after a fatty meal, light-colored or floating stools, history of gallstones or gallbladder issues, nausea, dry skin and hair, constipation, constant feeling of fullness, inability to lose weight, pain under right rib cage, hemorrhoids, varicose veins, pain between the shoulder blades, bloating or gas, headache over the eyes, bitter taste in mouth after meals, easily intoxicated, fibromyalgia, hypothyroidism, sensitivities to chemicals and history of prescription or recreational drug use.
I could write enough about bile to fill an entire book, but instead I’ll leave you with one more important feature of this liquid gold. Healthy bile breaks down estrogen for removal from the body. When bile is congested, estrogen gets reabsorbed. This leads to estrogen dominance. Too much estrogen causes water retention, hypothyroidism, and an increase in body fat. Estrogen also increases cholesterol levels in the bile, which results in thickened bile fluid – a vicious cycle that ends with you gaining weight.
So what does Fat Flush do to build better bile? First, you will enjoy bitter foods like arugula, dandelion root tea and beets which are a potent way to trigger the release of bile from the gallbladder and assist with fat digestion. On a daily basis, I’ve incorporated my signature hot lemon water to cleanse and thin the bile. For those with fat digestion issues, no gallbladder or symptoms of bile deficiency, I have developed the ideal support with 6 key ingredients – Choline, Taurine, Pancreatic Lipase, Ox Bile, Collinsonia root (stone root) and beet root – all included in Bile Builder.
10. Replenish your magnesium levels.
Magnesium is truly a magnificent mineral. It plays a role in helping to address almost all of the other Fat Flush Commandments! When magnesium is missing, the body can’t regulate the hormones responsible for metabolism, so fat burning slows down and the pounds pile on. Magnesium actually promotes metabolism in more than 300 different ways, including the actual act of burning calories.
Magnesium also helps turn food into fuel. For every molecule of sugar you eat, it takes 54 molecules of magnesium to break it down. Stress also depletes your magnesium stores at a rate faster than they can restock. Between stress and sugar, it’s no wonder that 90% of Americans are estimated to be magnesium deficient. Magnesium is the “master relaxer.” Signs of magnesium deficiency include muscle tension, anxiety, constipation, heart palpitations, depression, fatigue, asthma, fibromyalgia, leg cramps, high blood pressure, migraines, unstable blood sugar, weight gain, insomnia, and more.
A dose of 400-1000 mg of magnesium per day is one of the first supplements I recommend to my clients because in our toxic, stressful world with hidden sugar in almost everything, we burn through this essential mineral faster than we can store it. However, it’s very important to keep in mind that not all magnesium is created equal. Different forms of magnesium target different functions and organs in the body. For example, Magnesium citrate is a common supplement on the market, but it’s mostly beneficial as a laxative.
If you’re looking to reap a full spectrum of benefits from magnesium supplementation, it’s important to be sure that you’re taking a magnesium formula like Mag-Key. It contains four different forms of magnesium targeted for the heart, body, mind and muscles, along with vitamin B6 to ensure optimum absorption.
Don’t miss part 1 and part 2 of this 3-part series. If you’re ready to get started on your own Fat Flush journey, order your copy of The New Fat Flush Plan here. My team and I are also waiting to welcome you to our private Fat Flush Nation community, come join us!