Want to Speed Up Your Metabolism? Go to the Sauna!

For those of you who are new to my health journey, four years ago I was diagnosed as pre-diabetic with failing kidneys, leaky gut, irritable bowel syndrome, inflamed gallbladder, fatty liver with eczema on my eyes and in the corners of my mouth, heart arrhythmia that was lasting longer each episode, along with extreme bloating, severe water retention and 40 extra pounds. My hair was also falling out and I had developed thick ridges on my nails and vertical cracks up the center of my nails, nail splitting. This last symptom was a serious, visible indicator of my failing health. All these conditions seemed to come out of nowhere, creeping up on me suddenly. I didn't know why, but growing up I was taught that you are what you eat and that is where I began my journey.

I have now been Nutritional Keto for four years. I have personally witnessed the reversal of life-threatening diseases through diet change. I lost 35 lbs and my energy was through the roof. I no longer suffered from depression or anxiety and developed an enormous abundance of patience and tolerance for others. But recently I have felt a little sluggish. I haven't changed my diet, but I noticed that I was putting on weight. I had continued to walk every day, get a good deal of sleep, continue to deal with stress to keep it at a minimum and made sure I took time off to just do nothing and give myself a break. I was doing everything I was supposed to do and I never cheated.

After a little research I realized that perhaps in the last four years my metabolism had slowed down and that was why my regular routine was not sufficient. I knew that I could go back to running and that would stimulate my metabolism and speed it up and I would begin to burn more fat and keep weight off, but I knew that running at my age causes a lot of stress on my body that isn't necessary, because I could attain all the benefits through walking, well all but one. I knew that to increase my metabolism I actually needed to get my body temperature way up until I was sweating like crazy and Dr. Annette Bozeman on YouTube suggested going to the sauna.

Could it be that easy? Could sitting in a sauna relaxing, sweating away all that detox, cleaning out those pores, bringing blood to the outer cell layer of your skin to feed it, could it also increase my metabolism? It turns out Dr. Bozman was right.

Last night, I went to the public pool and sat in the sauna until I was in full sweat for 20 min. 20 minutes of sweating is sufficient to stimulate your mitochondria, which then increases your metabolism, which then causes your body to immediately begin burning sugars or fats, depending upon your diet. After my sauna, I felt very relaxed, had nice energy through the evening, didn’t get cold, which can happen at night and slept extremely well. All signs of increased blood flow, which is a result of a high functioning metabolic system.

In the morning I woke energized. I got ready faster than usual. I noticed my skin looked really lovely, so much so I actually forgot to put on my concealer. I had amazing energy all day at work even enough to be writing this blog after doing my hour's walk in 45 minutes after the day's work. I noticed my pants fit much better today and that's just one day.

Fully convinced that a 20 minute sauna sweat significantly increased my metabolism, I have taken two of my walking days and will be going to the sauna instead.k