How much would you love to be able to eat the foods you
love without fear or guilt and never, ever, ever, ever have
to worry about dieting again?
You can.
I'm sure by now you already know that dieting has failed
you. That's because your excess weight is not due to lack
of self control or laziness. It's just a symptom of another
problem which is rooted in your emotions and diets fail to
address your feelings. If you are overeating because you're
seeking out food for comfort, then you are not alone. Many
women who have histories of abuse have found comfort in
food.
You may have already thought that you handled your abuse
years ago by talking to a therapist or taking a more
traditional route to healing, however the excess weight you
carry may just be the last vestige of evidence of your
abuse. Deep down, you may be conflicted, feeling the need
to hold onto excess weight in order to feel safe. This
could be the core of the reason why you may not have had
success with dieting. Your subconscious mind has been
responding to your brain's messages that you needed to
continue to insulate yourself from hurt and protect
yourself.
Speaking as a woman who is an abuse survivor, I've learned
that it is possible to change your relationship to food and
your body and in so doing love yourself more than ever.
However in order to successfully stop dieting, it is
essential to focus on releasing negative emotions from the
past and combine that with a non diet approach to food
called Intuitive Eating.
Intuitive Eating is a term first used by registered
dieticians Elyse Resch and Evelyn Tribole to describe a
natural process that we all have to listen to our bodies,
eat when we are hungry and stop when we are satisfied.
However after years of negative reinforcement programming
from dieting, you may have learned to mistrust yourself
around food and hate your body, thinking of certain foods
as either good or bad and judging yourself harshly for
wanting to eat.
Despite that negative conditioning, you can relearn how to
trust your body. After all, it's already taking care of you
in so many ways. It tells you when you need to relieve your
bladder, regulates your heart beat, blood circulation and
sleep rhythms, and so much more. Face it. Your body is
miraculous and once you begin to learn to listen to it, you
will naturally eat less and eventually return back to a
normal weight that is perfect for you.
Getting there is a two step process. You have to legalize
all foods and eliminate feelings of deprivation by dealing
with the emotions that crop up when you want to turn to
food when you're not hungry.
The toughest part is to resist the urge to fall back into
the old habit of eating when you're overcome by emotions.
As a survivor of abuse, your brain made a connection that
food=love. Therefore, any time that you feel pressured,
anxious, upset or unloved, your brain sends signals to your
body to seek out food.
As a coach, I tend to favor using the Emotional Freedom
Technique or EFT. EFT will break this subconscious
connection and puts the power of choice and control back in
your hands. You don't have to rely on anyone else.
EFT is based on the science of Acupuncture and often
considered to be it's emotional equivalent without the pain
of needles. Anyone can use it anytime to balance their
energy, feel better and overcome negative emotions in
minutes.
Now without further ado, here are 9 steps you can take to
lose weight naturally and effortlessly without dieting.
Step #1: Say Goodbye to Dieting. Toss out the old diet
books, stop counting calories, points, carbs or fat grams
and get rid of your scale. You are going to learn to rely
on your body to gauge what is right for you. No more diets.
Step #2: Pack Your pantry and stock your fridge. The
battle is over. Give yourself unconditional permission to
eat what you want. By doing this, you will quickly develop
new abilities to be discriminating. You will soon learn
that you truly can trust yourself with all foods.
Step #3: Eat only when you are physically hungry. By
waiting to eat until you are hungry, you will be able to
tune in and discover how satisfying your food can really
be. It also reinforces the message that you are in control
of your food.
Step #4: Eat without guilt. Take back your sense of self by
setting a new precedent. Eat what you want in full view of
other people, let critics know that they have no right to
comment on your body or what you eat.
Step #5: Feel Your Fullness Listen to your body and
become sensitive to the new sensation of a gentle feeling
of satisfaction and fullness. You might like to pause in
the middle of a meal and ask yourself how satisfying the
food tastes to you and gauge your level of comfort.
Step #6: Rediscover the Satisfaction Factor in your food
When you eat what you want, in a pleasing environment, your
satisfaction will be enhanced. As you gain more pleasure in
food, you will naturally find that you eat smaller
portions. Feast all your senses. Smell, taste, touch and
fully enjoy your meals.
Step #7: Cope With Your Emotions Without Abusing Food
When you realize that you want food, and you're not hungry,
explore your feelings and address them without food. I call
this questioning your phantom hungers.
Step #8: Be Gentle With Your Body Respect your body and
realize that this is a process that will take some time to
learn. It's important to question your old negative black
and white thinking to reduce the stress load in your life.
Step #9: Get Support Join a group of like-minded women
also on the road to losing weight without dieting. Share
resources, encourage and support one another as you learn
new techniques and strategies to love yourself more and
yummy up your life one bite at a time.
Now that you have these 9 steps, the next step is up to
you. Are you ready to learn how to lose weight without
dieting?
----------------------------------------------------
Andrea Amador, CEC, M.NLP is President of The Juicy Woman.
She is devoted to empowering women to love themselves more,
yummy up their lives and lose weight without dieting. Join
her free Yahoo group:
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/thejuicywoman/
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