I’m sure you all already know that there is no quick way to lose weight, neither is there a magic pill to take away your extra weight in one night and then let you wake up a new slim person. I have learned that all this can be achieved, but in time, with patience and a lot of will. And with herbs. I know that there are many herbs that can affect the way our body evaluates the food we eat. This works like drugs that affect the metabolism, only that they are natural ways of altering metabolism. This means that our brains will believe that the stomach is full when it isn’t. These herbs are a lot like hoodia and such, but be careful what you take, because they have to be 100% natural to work.

Herbal Weight Loss

Then, there are other herbs, like green tea, that contain caffeine and will speed up the metabolism. This means that we eat more and we burn fats better. And also, there’s another side effect of caffeine consumption that will help in weight loss. If you have too much energy, you will feel the need to exercise. This means you will not be sitting all days on the couch watching TV, and you will start doing something active for a change. After turning on green tea, I started early morning jogging, I started to sleep about an hour less and still feel rejuvenated. Some of the weight loss herbs are quite helpful, but I have stumbles on a number of products that I later found to be very dangerous for my health.

Keep as away as you can from anything that doesn’t have ingredients clearly stated. They might contain things that are forbidden by the law. You will be surprised to know how many natural herbs are very toxic for our body. Take a look at my list of herbal weigh loss products that must be avoided:

Herbs and extracts that act as a laxative, like senna, aloe and other types of so called diet teas. There are some good diet teas, but they must not have laxative effects.

Chinese herbs like fen-phen and ma huang. These have severe bad effects. They are really bad herbs and they both contain ephedrine. They can cause irregular heart beating and hypertension if consumed for too long, so the risk is not worth taking even if they can offer you good weight loss effects.

Not all herbs are bad, don’t worry. I have tried and still consume many. I highly recommend cayenne as a spice. It’s a good way to spicy up the food and at the same time to get higher metabolism levels without fearing hypertension. You can also try diet teas like green tea. A cup of green tea is half as harmful as a cup of coffee when it comes to caffeine effects if I may use the word harmful in this context… Also, algae and hoodia are herbs and extracts that will allow you to feel full faster.

Talking about seaweed, after trying some I’ve pretty much become dependent of them, as I love the way they taste in a salad, so you should also do it!

As many of you know, maintaining a healthy lifestyle is very important to me. But that doesn’t mean it comes easy. Lately, I’ve been stressed out, busy and not paying enough attention to my health. I started to gain the weight back, and as a result, have been extremely depressed, causing me to lose motivation to work out entirely. In my last blog post, I mentioned my recent appearance on Oprah, which was a big wake up call for me. Being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes while competing on The Biggest Loser a few years back has solidified the need to maintain a healthy attitude and lifestyle. That’s why I’m excited to announce that I am the national spokesperson for Health Across America: Pharmacists Partnering in Diabetes Care.

Health Across America Tour

Health Across America is a tour bus that will stop in nearly 60 communities across the U.S. raising awareness about diabetes, providing advice on staying healthy and offering free screenings, including cholesterol, blood pressure, glucose and Hemoglobin A1c tests. The campaign is supported by more than 2,000 Health Mart community pharmacies across the country, and it is co-sponsored two leading companies in diabetes care, Bayer Diabetes Care and Novo Nordisk.

Last Saturday we launched the campaign in San Diego. It was an amazing event. Lisa Gordon, protocol director of the San Diego Mayor’s office was there, along with David Sedrak, Health Mart pharmacist and Tim Canning, president of Health Mart. You can check out some of the photos from the event on the Health Across America Facebook Fan page. At the event, I spoke about the importance of working with your community pharmacists to help manage diabetes. Locally-owned community pharmacists are trusted, affordable and accessible resources and are committed to supporting their community’s health..

I’m heading to the Los Angeles area next - check out the details on tour stops and find out when the tour bus will be in your community. Come by, say hi and get tested. Take it from me, it’s better to face your health apprehensions today so you can live healthy and happy for the rest of your life.

I’ll keep you posted on this very important tour and the great things that will come from Health Across America. Be in touch soon!

Please be sure to come back and leave your thoughts and ideas in a comment.