Every person I speak to initially tells me they want to lose weight. All their attention, drive and energy is aimed at that target. After questioning them I soon find out that what they really want is peace, confidence, control and to feel good about themselves. However, with weight loss as their goal it makes sense that they would then have rules to follow like eating low fat diet foods, eating or drinking artificial sweeteners, pounding their bodies at the gym, counting calories, following a diet plan and having in their minds a list of the things they should and shouldn’t do to lose weight amongst other “rules”!
You may be able to relate to this. Like many people you may believe this is how you achieve your natural, most comfortable weight and mastery over your eating. But you would be wrong. With every successful client I’ve worked with we have had to shift their perspective away from weight loss and towards Health, that is, health that is all encompassing; body, mind and spirit health, which is to say that it is actually Love. Love acts with kindness and in alignment with the laws of nature.
This is why the holistic health approach is so valuable.
More and more science is validating ancient principles of healing, vitality and longevity. Let me give you just one example related to the causative factors underlying gradual, unhealthy weight gain…
The 5 foundational naturopathic principles are:
- Wholesome food
- Fresh air – which includes exercise and breathing
- Clean water
- Natural sunlight and
- Rest and relaxation
Applying these very simple principles to our life balances everything including our weight! One of my first goals when discussing weight loss with my clients is to make sure their biochemistry is balanced. If our biochemistry is out of whack all our best intentions will be undermined. Unbalanced hormones, toxicity, poor digestive function, nutrient deficiencies can all lead to bingeing and poor food choices.
I was particularly reminded of the importance of our hormone chemistry yesterday when I was researching appetite control hormones in the body. We have several appetite control hormones (there are probably more yet to be discovered as this is a relatively new area of research) for example leptin and ghrelin, which regulate our appetite and therefore our weight over the long term.
Studies have shown that poor lifestyle choices leads to poor leptin and ghrelin levels which in turn can lead an individual to never feel full and to continuously eat until they are obese.
One of the factors adversely influencing these hormone levels is insufficient melatonin. Melatonin is activated by light, particularly sunlight! So regular exposure to the sun not only tops up our vital vitamin D levels, it regulates our appetite! But wait, there’s more! As you may know melatonin also regulates our sleep. One of the causative factors of obesity is poor quality or insufficient sleep. Lack of sleep keeps our stress hormone, cortisol, elevated, which in turn programs our bodies to go into famine mode and hold onto weight. And lack of sleep means we are still tired throughout the day so we tend to eat more than we need in order to get that energy boost that we crave.
The moral to this story is this: shift your attention from weight loss to being loving to yourself and you will start to treat yourself with kindness. When you do this you will be inclined to slow down, relax more, sleep better, eat foods that make you feel good, take a walk in the sun, love yourself more, become present, move your body, appreciate more, eat less and, guess what? Lose weight! And it will be forever.
The tricky part is giving up hating ourselves.
With kindness
Brenda
For more information on how I can help you achieve your dream to be free, please email me at brenda@brendarogers.com.au
