Welcome back everybody. It is Becky Williams and I am back with another bonus video. This week I'm going to be talking to you about why your waist circumference actually matters a hundred times more than your weight. I know you're super excited. Go ahead, throw those scales out. You know you didn't like it anyway, right?

A lot of times what happens on the inside of our body is not going to be represented on a scale. A scale can only measure certain things, such as how much gravity you have pulling down on you, right? Sure, you have the fancier scales that will test your body fat percentage and your water percentage and that type of thing.

But overall, your waist circumference is really going to give you a better idea of how you're doing on your weight loss plan versus the scale itself. Okay, so I'm going to talk to you a little bit more about that today. 

So your waist circumference or aka your belly fat, this is what I'm going to be focusing most on today. Do you remember that fruit body shape description? It's like you can either be an apple or you could be a pear. Well, the apple is kind of round around the middle, you know, belly fat, beer belly, whatever you want to call it. A pear shape is rounder on your hips and your thighs. This is what I'm talking about here.

The shape of what you have going on, not how you're naturally built. Okay, hear me out. But I just mean the shape that you've turned into from eating unhealthy. This is what's going to help you to understand, if you're a higher risk for sleep apnea, if you are having blood sugar issues like insulin resistance or diabetes, heart issues, high blood pressure, blood fat, arterial diseases, all that stuff. Okay, that's typically going to be surrounded by a body shape of an apple, that beer belly type shape, muffin top, whatever you want to call it.

And it's not just because you have that subcutaneous fat underneath your skin that you lovingly call a muffin top. But the health risk is actually due to the fat inside your abdomen because it's covering your liver. It's covering your intestines and other organs. The internal fat is called visceral fat. And that's where a lot of the problem actually is. This is fat that's not pinchable. Okay. You can't feel this fat. That's the fat that's really dangerous. The reason that the visceral fat can be a health issue is because it releases fatty acids, inflammatory compounds and hormones that will negatively affect your blood fats, your blood sugars and your blood pressure.

So this is more than just not fitting in your little black dress or, you know, in that new pants suit that you have or this new nice suit that you have. Okay. It goes deeper than that. Apple shaped people tend to have a lot more of this hidden visceral fat than the pear shaped people do. So as you can see, where your fat is stored is more important than how much you weigh. Okay. All right. 

So are you an apple or are you a pear? Well, it's pretty simple to find out if you're at a higher risk category or not. The easiest way is just to measure your waist circumference with a measuring tape. Okay. Waist circumference. All right. I'm going to stand up. Hopefully you can see this. All right. Your waist is going to be the smallest part of your body here. Okay. So here, waist circumference. All right. You're going to measure that.

And if your waist right here is 35 inches or more, then you're considered to have abdominal obesity and be in a higher risk category. If you're pregnant, this is not talking about you. Okay. This is not referring to you. All right. So that's for women. If it's more than 35.

If you're a man, then the number is actually 40. So 40 inches around that waist. All right. Of course, this is not a diagnostic tool. I'm not a medical professional. I've told you that a bunch of times. There's lots of risk factors for chronic disease. I'm just saying waist circumference is important.

And this could be one of the factors that say, you know, I kind of need to be checked out. I need to be making sure that everything's okay. All right. So if you have concerns, see your doctor. That's always our advice here. Right. All right. So you feel like you have too much belly fat around your midsection.

Let's talk about tips to reduce it. Number one tip. Just in order. Not of importance. But number one is eat more fiber. So fiber can help reduce belly fat in a few ways. First, helps keep you full. You're not snacking all day. It also helps to reduce the amount of calories that you absorb from your food.  So some examples of high fiber foods would be like Brussels sprouts, flax, chia seeds, avocados, blackberries. 

The second kind of way that you can help to reduce some of your belly fat is to add more protein to your diet. Now, let's say that you're following a ketogenic diet and you want to have a high fat, moderate protein, low carb. A lot of times what I see happen is people will go way skyrocket high on fat and they don't get their protein in for the day. And they're like, wow, I'm still hungry on keto or I'm not really eating at all because I'm super full. But they feel lethargic. They don't have energy. They still have brain fog. And they're like, oh, keto doesn't work for me.

Well, it's possible that you're not getting in your protein for the day. I always tell my clients, get your protein in for the day. Use fat as a lever to help keep you full and of course, keep your carbs low. If you're following keto, I hope that makes sense. If it doesn't make sense, let me know and I'll be happy to explain it more.

OK, so adding more protein to your day, protein is going to reduce your appetite. It's going to make you feel full longer. Also, it has a high TEF, which is thermic effective food compared with fats and carbs. And so it ensures that you have enough of your amino acid building blocks for your muscles. Okay, so this is very important. 

Also, number three, Nix added sugars. I know with all of our eating plans that we have here at Sprightly Soul, we don't have added sugars. We don't have all that extra stuff. But if you still have a couple sneaking in your day here and there, you need to ditch those. This means processed sweetened foods, especially those drinks like 100% pure juice straight to your midsection, guys. All right. 

The next one, I think this is for one, two, three, four. Number four is move more.  Okay, get some aerobic exercise, lift some weights, walk, take the stairs. You know, I've talked about movement before. It does not have to be. I think this was last week. It does not have to be, you know, specific exercise. It doesn't have to be, you know, walking 10,000 steps a day. It doesn't have to be that.

Think about the example I talked about. I'm pretty sure it was last week talking about the ladies that worked in the hotel industry did not believe that they were exercising. They changed that mindset. They realized how much exercise and movement they were actually getting in their day. And that really helped them. Okay. All right. 

Next is stress less. Seriously, elevated levels in your stress hormone cortisol have been shown to increase your appetite and add abdominal fat. Okay, definitely a reason to stress less. All right.

And lastly, is get more sleep. So please make this a priority. See how much better you feel and you look. Your skin just will look more vibrant. Sleeping is attached to so many things that we just don't even know. 

Okay, so I want to end today's bonus video with a recipe.  I didn't do that last weekend and only I did it the week before. So let's make sure I get a recipe in today. Okay, so this recipe is going to be a high fiber side dish. This would be really good with like salmon or maybe some chicken or even some type of red meat. So this is going to serve four people.

• 1 pound of Brussels sprouts (You want to wash them, remove the ends and cut them in half.)
• 2-3 cloves of garlic (minced works best in this)
• 2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (I personally would probably use avocado oil simply because this is going to be cooked and baked at such a high level. I like something that's not going to break down.)
• 2 teaspoons of fresh lemon juice
• Dash of salt and pepper
• You're welcome to add other seasonings if you have a preference. 

1. You're going to preheat your oven to 400 degrees. 
2. Toss in just a bowl the Brussels sprouts, the garlic, the oil and lemon juice. You're going to spread them onto a baking tray. Season them with your salt and pepper.
3. Bake it for about 15 minutes and then toss it and then bake it for another 10 minutes on the other side. 
4. Serve it. Enjoy it. 

Brussels sprouts are really good because they have a fat soluble bone loving vitamin K in them. So you may enjoy eating Brussels sprouts more often. Right. So hopefully you try this recipe.

If you do post it in the Facebook group, as always, I will see you next week. Be well and have a great day.