What is going on Lee County?

Let’s get a grip on our health and our weight! This is one statistic we do not want to lead the country on!

By Sharon C Sullivan, Clinic Director New Beginnings hCG clinics SW Florida – Nova Medical SWF, Inc. –

What is going on Lee CountyIn September, Fort Myers News-Press had an article on the staggering rate of obesity in the country and in Florida.  Shockingly,Lee County leads the way with this staggering statistic.

If the incredible trajectory of weight gain mentioned in the article continues in its current path, Florida projects a 58.6 percent rate of obesity for everyone over the age of eighteen years!! This would be over double the 2011 rate of 26.6 percent.

The article quotes Sally Jackson, spokeswoman for Lee Memorial’s Community Health Visioning 2017 program. This group of about 38 community and business leaders has been dismayed to see the county’s obesity numbers continue to mount. The group, formed in 2007, says Lee is even fatter than the state average. Using an extrapolation model similar to the study, almost 30 percent of Lee County residents qualified as obese in 2011. A body mass index of 30 or higher is generally considered obese.

We Americans now qualify as the fattest country in the world….Jackson goes on to say “And it has all happened in the last 20 years. It has happened so gradually that people don’t realize it. People eat too much, not the right foods, don’t eat fruits and vegetables, and they don’t realize that modest exercise is essential.”

There are some basic things a person can do to start getting their weight and health in balance. One very simple change costs nothing and can make a huge difference in a relatively short time: drink water…plain water…a lot of it.

Drinking water can boost your body’s ability to burn fat. A study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism found that drinking water (about 17oz) increases the metabolic rate by 30 percent in healthy men and women. The boost occurred within 10 minutes but reached a maximum 30-40 minutes after drinking. Dehydration is horrible for weight loss and yet, women who see me concerned about their weight routinely are dehydrated at some level. Even mild dehy
dration will slow metabolism as much as 3%. If you do not properly hydrate your body, it will retain water in an attempt to protect you. A properly hydrated body releases water as it flushes fat and toxins from the body.

Drinking one or two glasses of water about 20 minutes before a meal can cut hunger and facilitate digestion. There are lots of “diet” supplements that probably get most of their efficacy from the simple fact that the person needs to take the supplement with lots of water!!

Our food supply both at market and in restaurants is highly processed and manipulated to enhance flavor. Industrial restaurants and the obese chefs you see on channels like the Food Network, are constantly “turning up the volume” on flavor as well as portion size and we just lap it up. Literally.

Take time this fall to observe your behavior around food. Do you know how much food you are consuming? Do you mainly eat in restaurants? Start looking at the calorie and fat content of your favorite foods, either manufactured or purchased at restaurants. Add it up. Be shocked.

If you want to get really serious about your weight, go and look at the New Beginnings website:
www.newbeginningshcgclinic.com and read about the hCG diet.

Read the information from Dr. Oz and others on the 50 year old diet. There are no manufactured foods recommended in this diet, just plain low fat proteins, simple vegetables and whole fruit and coffee, tea and water. Follow the diet for 40 days, lose as much as 30-35 pounds and learn how good you can feel turning your back on processed and industrial foods. We have dieters that have lost as much as 100 pounds and have kept it off once they understand our concepts for keeping weight off permanently.

If you are motivated to get yourself in better health, call our offices in Bonita Springs and Fort Myers and schedule a complimentary consultation. Call Fort Myers: 239 288 6581 or Bonita: 239 676 5374 to learn more. If you are ready, you generally can start the protocol the same day as your initial consultation.

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