Biggest Mistake #1 To Avoid- Under-eating, Starving Yourself or Meal Skipping
Under-eating, fear of food or starving yourself, meal skipping or in effect, dieting is the #1 contributor of weight gain in many women that I see in my practice.
Now how can this be you ask?
Have you ever eaten something and then felt really guilty? Have you ever felt like you were gaining weight so you began restricting your food intake? These are very clear indicators that you may be thinking like a dieter... and dieting is truly NOT the way to lose weight sustainably over time, and keep it off. Here is why.
If dieting, calorie restricting, avoiding food or meal skipping is your strategy for weight loss, you are lowering your metabolism and in turn potentially effecting your mood and energy levels at best and at worst perpetuate a love/hate relationship with food.
Here are some things to ask yourself:
Have you tried many diets and failed, from vegan, vegetarian, raw or maybe even high protein?
Have you developed a fear or hatred of food, or maybe even have a love/hate relationship with it?
Do you skip meals often, especially breakfast to lose weight?
Do you eat most of your calories at night, sometimes uncontrollably?
Do you sometimes think that you just need to go on a cleanse to lose weight?
Do you have food and sugar cravings that sabotage your success with weight loss?
Do you eat "emotionally" or when stressed?
Then you may be making the #1 Biggest Mistake to Weight Loss.
When dieting, under eating, or skipping meals become a weight loss strategy, we are guaranteed to be yo-yo with our weight. Though this strategy may work temporarily, as a long range strategy it's seriously flawed and can lead to chronic unhappiness with our bodies.
Your body has a metabolic "set point." Mess with it at your own risk! Your body will learn that you are starving it and slow down your metabolism when you calorie restrict. You then burn calories more slowly. Another problem is that when we under-eat, skip meals or diet, we activate stress hormones.
Did you know that your body experiences low calorie dieting, under-eating or meal skipping as STRESS?
Stress hormones that are released in turn raise your blood sugar which in turn may contribute to those nasty CRAVINGS for sweets. Eating disorders have been triggered in studies with people who never reported eating disorders in their lives after just two weeks on a calorie restricted diet. The biggest secret to raising metabolic rate is to eat more, not less! Of course the quality of what we eat is also essential, and eating balanced meals is the key here.
If you are feeling a lot of resistance to this concept, you are NOT alone. Resistance can be part of the healing process believe it or not and it is something I work with in helping people with cravings, emotional eating and natural weight loss.
What I have found is that many women begin dieting or gaining weight for specific reasons and when we address those reasons, from internal stress, negative beliefs about their bodies, food or weight and heal the past experiences that are still creating some of these beliefs today they no longer need to use the food either to eat emotionally or to then diet.
Helpful Tip #1: Stop Dieting
Eat regular, balanced meals daily. Never skip meals, especially breakfast.
If this frightens you because you think this will make you gain weight, you are normal for those who are used to dieting or skipping meals and fear gaining weight. Don't let this stop you! The trick is to uncover what foods work for you as an individual so that you feel good in your own skin, which is a process. Sometimes this requires uncovering hidden food sensitivities and correcting digestive imbalances or working with what is going on emotionally.
Helpful Tip #2: Love Food and Your Body
Find and release negative beliefs about body image, food and weight.
I have found that without having a tool to change how we think about our bodies, food and weight, the above is simply impossible to do.
This is when we can't stop dieting no matter what we do and when we diet, we can't lose weight because we not only can't stick to it for very long but feel so deprived when on the diet that we just feel worse.
When we labor under false negative beliefs about ourselves and food in this way we have out of control cravings, eat emotionally and basically "self-sabotage" endlessly and year after year just feel more hopeless and stuck.
You see the solution to ending the meal skipping, food restricting, starvation and dieting is to heal within.
Here is what is possible when we do this work.
I was working with a client whom I will call "Sarah" who had a life-long habit of doing cleanses to lose weight. She didn't just use this strategy occasionally but every few months. It was her fast and starve weight loss strategy. She was a very health conscious woman who actually feared food and would tell me that she wished she didn't have to eat at all! I couldn't blame her with that kind of diet... But besides the fear of food, the biggest problem with her strategy was well, it didn't work! She would lose and gain weight over and over and over. She was 56 years old when we started working together and had been doing some form of this kind of "dieting/cleanse" approach since she was a
teenager. To say she was resistant to giving up that habit would be an understatement. Though it did not work, she was totally trapped in some beliefs that kept her going round and round with it. So what did we do? We discussed all of the above and healing metabolism by eating regular balanced meals but she couldn't get herself to eat this way at all for fear of gaining weight. We did some tapping on the beliefs about food, weight and dieting and we uncovered an earlier incident about body image that changed everything. She had judged her body as ugly and too big when she was a teenager. It happened really in an instant as often these beliefs do at that time. When we cleared it through tapping she completely stopped dieting/cleansing and started to eat regularly without stress! It was truly amazing for her. And she began to lose weight naturally... and it was over the holidays that this happened, which was doubly amazing. No stress, just eating sanely without fear in a sensible way without needing to eat for comfort, or cravings.
That is how this process works every time. When we find and release the internal peace, the external peace shifts with ease fast.
What is your strategy for letting go of struggle with weight loss and finding peace with food and your body?
Please contact me if you are ready to stop dieting and truly start feeling good in your body and your life.
Under-eating, fear of food or starving yourself, meal skipping or in effect, dieting is the #1 contributor of weight gain in many women that I see in my practice.
Now how can this be you ask?
Have you ever eaten something and then felt really guilty? Have you ever felt like you were gaining weight so you began restricting your food intake? These are very clear indicators that you may be thinking like a dieter... and dieting is truly NOT the way to lose weight sustainably over time, and keep it off. Here is why.
If dieting, calorie restricting, avoiding food or meal skipping is your strategy for weight loss, you are lowering your metabolism and in turn potentially effecting your mood and energy levels at best and at worst perpetuate a love/hate relationship with food.
Here are some things to ask yourself:
Have you tried many diets and failed, from vegan, vegetarian, raw or maybe even high protein?
Have you developed a fear or hatred of food, or maybe even have a love/hate relationship with it?
Do you skip meals often, especially breakfast to lose weight?
Do you eat most of your calories at night, sometimes uncontrollably?
Do you sometimes think that you just need to go on a cleanse to lose weight?
Do you have food and sugar cravings that sabotage your success with weight loss?
Do you eat "emotionally" or when stressed?
Then you may be making the #1 Biggest Mistake to Weight Loss.
When dieting, under eating, or skipping meals become a weight loss strategy, we are guaranteed to be yo-yo with our weight. Though this strategy may work temporarily, as a long range strategy it's seriously flawed and can lead to chronic unhappiness with our bodies.
Your body has a metabolic "set point." Mess with it at your own risk! Your body will learn that you are starving it and slow down your metabolism when you calorie restrict. You then burn calories more slowly. Another problem is that when we under-eat, skip meals or diet, we activate stress hormones.
Did you know that your body experiences low calorie dieting, under-eating or meal skipping as STRESS?
Stress hormones that are released in turn raise your blood sugar which in turn may contribute to those nasty CRAVINGS for sweets. Eating disorders have been triggered in studies with people who never reported eating disorders in their lives after just two weeks on a calorie restricted diet. The biggest secret to raising metabolic rate is to eat more, not less! Of course the quality of what we eat is also essential, and eating balanced meals is the key here.
If you are feeling a lot of resistance to this concept, you are NOT alone. Resistance can be part of the healing process believe it or not and it is something I work with in helping people with cravings, emotional eating and natural weight loss.
What I have found is that many women begin dieting or gaining weight for specific reasons and when we address those reasons, from internal stress, negative beliefs about their bodies, food or weight and heal the past experiences that are still creating some of these beliefs today they no longer need to use the food either to eat emotionally or to then diet.
Helpful Tip #1: Stop Dieting
Eat regular, balanced meals daily. Never skip meals, especially breakfast.
If this frightens you because you think this will make you gain weight, you are normal for those who are used to dieting or skipping meals and fear gaining weight. Don't let this stop you! The trick is to uncover what foods work for you as an individual so that you feel good in your own skin, which is a process. Sometimes this requires uncovering hidden food sensitivities and correcting digestive imbalances or working with what is going on emotionally.
Helpful Tip #2: Love Food and Your Body
Find and release negative beliefs about body image, food and weight.
I have found that without having a tool to change how we think about our bodies, food and weight, the above is simply impossible to do.
This is when we can't stop dieting no matter what we do and when we diet, we can't lose weight because we not only can't stick to it for very long but feel so deprived when on the diet that we just feel worse.
When we labor under false negative beliefs about ourselves and food in this way we have out of control cravings, eat emotionally and basically "self-sabotage" endlessly and year after year just feel more hopeless and stuck.
You see the solution to ending the meal skipping, food restricting, starvation and dieting is to heal within.
Here is what is possible when we do this work.
I was working with a client whom I will call "Sarah" who had a life-long habit of doing cleanses to lose weight. She didn't just use this strategy occasionally but every few months. It was her fast and starve weight loss strategy. She was a very health conscious woman who actually feared food and would tell me that she wished she didn't have to eat at all! I couldn't blame her with that kind of diet... But besides the fear of food, the biggest problem with her strategy was well, it didn't work! She would lose and gain weight over and over and over. She was 56 years old when we started working together and had been doing some form of this kind of "dieting/cleanse" approach since she was a
teenager. To say she was resistant to giving up that habit would be an understatement. Though it did not work, she was totally trapped in some beliefs that kept her going round and round with it. So what did we do? We discussed all of the above and healing metabolism by eating regular balanced meals but she couldn't get herself to eat this way at all for fear of gaining weight. We did some tapping on the beliefs about food, weight and dieting and we uncovered an earlier incident about body image that changed everything. She had judged her body as ugly and too big when she was a teenager. It happened really in an instant as often these beliefs do at that time. When we cleared it through tapping she completely stopped dieting/cleansing and started to eat regularly without stress! It was truly amazing for her. And she began to lose weight naturally... and it was over the holidays that this happened, which was doubly amazing. No stress, just eating sanely without fear in a sensible way without needing to eat for comfort, or cravings.
That is how this process works every time. When we find and release the internal peace, the external peace shifts with ease fast.
What is your strategy for letting go of struggle with weight loss and finding peace with food and your body?
Please contact me if you are ready to stop dieting and truly start feeling good in your body and your life.
