How To Master Your Metabolism with Jillian Michaels

I never knew just how big of an impact my hormones had on my metabolism until I read Jillian Michael's new book, Master Your Metabolism. It's a revealing and extremely informative diet book like no other. It contains the 3 diet secrets to naturally balance your hormones so that they are working with your body, not against you in your effort to lose weight. Call them the 3 R's of Jillian's diet plan: Remove, Restore and Rebalance.

Jillian Michaels is a strength trainer and life coach for the NBC hit series The Biggest Loser, is the author of the bestselling books Making the Cut and Winning by Losing.

Jillian explains how we got to where we are in our lives:

"When we starve ourselves on yo-yo diets, eat processed foods, surround ourselves with toxins, work beyond the point of exhaustion, all of these choices influence the way our metabolisms process food, burn calories, and regulate weight."

Master Your Metabolism is designed to reset our metabolism, no matter how bad it has gotten.

The first diet secret is to Remove from your diet things such as processed foods, sugars, and hydrogenated fats to name a few. Jillian explains that the reason you need to remove them is because they cause your hormones to actually store fat in your body, something you definitely don't want if you're trying to lose weight.

There are other surprising items that she includes in her list of foods to remove such as soy milk, or other forms of soy products other than tofu due to its link to breast cancer. Soy, she explains, mimics estrogen in our bodies and can increase a woman's chance of developing breast cancer, especially if she is already genetically prone to it.

It's also about removing toxins in your home that can affect your health such as plastics, cleaning chemicals and Teflon.

The second diet secret that Jillian talks about in her book is Restore. What requires restoring in our diet is foods that trigger fat-loss hormones.

She categorizes these 10 Master Power Nutrient food groups as follows:

1. legumes
2. alliums
3. berries
4. meat and eggs
5. colorful fruits and veggies
6. cruciferous veggies
7. dark green leafy veggies
8. nuts and seeds
9. organic dairy
10. whole grains

Rebalance is about learning when and when not to eat certain foods to take advantage of your body's hormone patterns that lead to weight loss.

3 Key Techniques include:

• Eat every 4 hours
• Eat until you're full, but not stuffed
• Combine foods correctly

Rebalance is also about eliminating heavy levels of stress in your life by:

• Getting 7 hours of sleep
• Moving your body every day
• Being good to yourself

Included in her book are some useful tools to help you lose weight, master your metabolism and balance your hormones. She includes a 2 week meal plan and 12 pages of recipes (I don't think they included more because she has a book of these awesome recipes) as well as tidbits of information throughout the book about things like, hidden sources of high-fructose corn syrup.

There are natural remedies, a shopping list, and a list of resources for natural/organic and sustainable foods for example.

There is a wealth of information in this book.  My head was swimming by the time I put it down.  After reading this book I suddenly became more aware of the foods I was shoving into my mouth and what affect they might be having on my body. 

As we get older our metabolism slows down and it gets harder and harder to lose weight.  This book is a valuable resource for anyone trying to shed those stubborn pounds or needs more energy and vitality in thier life.  It's easy to follow and Jillian writes from a personal perspective, making it feel like she's right there with you as you progress.