Weight Loss Once and For All: It’s a Matter of Trust!
It is the beginning of February, can you believe it? How are those New Years Resolutions working out?
If you are like millions of Americans, losing weight tops your list of New Year’s Resolutions and chances are, you started or are thinking about starting some kind of diet.
For years, losing weight was a top resolution of mine and the New Year was when I would start my diet.
And I would lose weight. In fact, I am probably one of the only people who think this but, DIETS DO WORK! Think about it: a diet is designed to help you lose weight quickly, and most of the time, you do. However, the keeping the weight off part is where diets fall short. And year after year, I would typically gain the weight back and find myself making the same resolution again come December 31st.
Looking back, I realize that I NEEDED diets to give me direction because the truth was, I simply did not trust myself to make good food decisions. At the time, I didn’t see the gravity of this lack of self-trust clearly, but it was seeping into every area of my life. I didn’t know what I wanted so I said yes to everything and was wearing myself out and I was holding myself back from being the person I knew I was meant to be.
Bottom Line: The way you do anything is the way you do everything, and food is no exception. If you don’t trust yourself with food, you just plain don’t trust yourself.
When I realized that this lack of trust with food was holding me back from being my authentic self, I had a choice to make: I could keep things the status quo (which was painful but also familiar) or I could learn to trust myself to make healthy food decisions. It took a leap of faith not to diet (what if I gained 100 pounds?!!) but in learning to trust myself, I was able to lose weight without dieting and keep it off for good. More importantly, I developed trust in myself, became more decisive and was finally able to stand in the authenticity of who I am.
Since then, I have been on a mission to change the way people lose weight. I believe the key to getting off the yo-yo dieting rollercoaster is learning to trust yourself to eat the foods that your whole body wants (not just your taste buds) and listening to your body when it tells you when it is hungry or has had enough.
Sounds easy, right? Hardly! It takes regular practice, but since we eat several times daily, there is LOTS of opportunity to practice! Here are a few steps in helping you lose weight this year without dieting:
Focus on HEALTH, not weight loss: Have you noticed that when you let go of something it is free to come to you? Such is weight loss. I encourage you to let the goal of weight loss go (forever!) and focus instead on becoming healthy and vibrant. With health as your goal, weight loss will happen, and so will many other life-changing things, like a calmer mind and increased energy and vitality.
Eat When You Are Hungry: Sounds simple, right? But how many times have you thought to yourself, just one more errand, meeting, phone call…then I will stop and eat?” When we repeatedly ignore our body’s signals we lose touch with our inner signs of hunger and fullness. Eating when you are hungry is the best way to STOP eating when you are not hungry.
Listen to your body: Are you listening to your body? It is easy to get distracted by our minds, taste buds, and habits when making food choices, but your body knows the truth. It will tell you what eating program it likes best. It will tell you the foods it needs to be in its most vibrant and healthy state. It took me a while to really learn this, but if you struggle with food, you can’t just think your way out of it, no matter how hard you try—you have to really feel and listen to your body.
If you are interested in learning more about how to trust yourself to make good food decisions, join myself and Dr. Aimee Shunney for a free telecall: ‘How to Lose Weight This Year Without Dieting’ on February 9th at 5pm PST/8 pm EST. For more information and to register, go to http://www.cleanseorganic.com/february2011FREEtelecall.
I hope to ‘see’ you there! ~Jenny
Chef Jenny Brewer MS, CNS