At the end of 2017 I tipped the scales at 86 kilos. I was miserable. I hated my body and I felt like I was on the edge of a nervous breakdown or creating serious dis-ease in my body.
(For those in the US - this is a starting weight of 189 pounds with a weight release of 57 pounds).
I lived in my head and was completely disconnected from my poor body, which just got dragged along for the ride. I found myself on my (old but barely used) yoga mat one day and I broke down in tears. How the fuck had I let myself get to this stage?
It’s a question many of us ask, with more than a tinge of blame and shame attached to it.
The reality is that carrying excess weight is never just about what we eat. It’s about what the food is trying to replace. It’s about feeling safe to be seen. It’s about the layer of excess tissue as comfort and protection that we build around ourselves to keep the world at bay.
I not only wanted to keep the world at bay, I wanted to keep men at bay. And the fabulous thing is that when you get to a certain weight threshold you simply become invisible to most men. And for the longest time I enjoyed being invisible.
Now there are some women who carry weight and exude an energy that turns heads. It is safe to say I was not one of those women. And I liked that. Until I realised that life was passing me by and I was ready to let go of all that excess tissue padding that had stopped feeling like protection and had started feeling like a prison. I was ready for my next step in personal growth that involved a partner but how could someone else love me when I didn’t even love myself?
It was time to act.
As I’ve released this weight I’ve shared progress on my personal Facebook page and with the fabulous women in my online weight release programs. Everyone who hears about what I’ve done always asks “WHAT ARE YOU DOING? HOW ARE YOU DOING IT? WILL IT WORK FOR ME?”
Quite simply if it worked for me who has tried ALL THE DODGY DIET THINGS with nothing ever working long term then it can work for anyone.
So I’m going to share with you now what I did to release 27 kilos WITHOUT deprivation, dodgy pills, shakes, or even buying into a specific dieting dogma with loads of rules (that I’d usually immediately break), by embedding a slim mindset.
First and foremost I loved my body - starting from when I was still 86 kilos
I found things about my body that I loved. And to be honest at the very beginning it was my eyes and my nail beds. What can I say, I’ve been genetically blessed with lovely nail beds. I looked for positive things about myself instead of trying to avoid my reflection in the mirror.
I changed the way my brain worked using transformational hypnotherapy
I realised that all those old critical thought tracks on an infinite loop in my head reminding me of how shit I was needed to go. I replaced them with new empowering thoughts that supported where I wanted to go instead of keeping me unhappily stuck where I was.
I also used transformational hypnotherapy to quit my junk food addiction. Hypnotherapy was such a powerful game-changer that I don’t even linger at the lolly, chips, or biscuit aisle in the supermarket let alone lust after any sugar-laden, processed non-food.
I healed my tribal tissue issues
Where our weight is distributed on our bodies shows us what is ready for healing. Even though I had weight all over my body it was concentrated most in my legs. This is your tribal tissue. I had a LOT of work to do in letting go of things related to my Mother and as I worked through the emotions the weight released from my hips, thighs and butt. Everything that has ever happened to us is encoded into our tissue so when we release the emotions connected to any trauma we can release the weight easily.
With my clients I use the energy centres of the body to determine where they need emotional healing and we focus on the holistic view because it’s never just about how many calories you’re eating. The emotional healing is EVERYTHING when releasing weight and 99.99% of programs completely ignore it.
I ate intuitively and healed my sugar addiction
What a difference six months makes! On the left hand side I went up the road to get paper towels and let loose in the supermarket like an unsupervised nine year old with $100. I also forgot the paper towels.
On the right hand side 6 months later = smug healthy AF groceries AND I remembered the paper towels.
Screw meal plans, complicated schedules or even meal prep. It all feels like a diet mentality and I wasn’t having a bar of it because we all know that diets just don’t work.
Instead, I listened to my body to see what foods it liked and what foods had me bloated and heading for the bathroom. Then I stopped eating whatever made me feel like shit. I know, it’s not rocket science! The biggest culprit for me was refined sugar and I programmed myself to simply be indifferent to it. You can’t feel like you’re deprived or you want something if you’re completely indifferent to it. THAT’S SWEET SWEET FREEDOM.
I also realised that dairy and gluten were not my friends and I’m now gluten and dairy-free. I don’t miss them AT ALL.
It’s important to realise that if you’re consistently eating food that doesn’t agree with your body you’ve got a whole lotta inflammation going on inside and you can’t release weight when your body is inflamed. Long-term, constant inflammation leads to dis-ease so listen to the whispers of your body before it has to turn up the volume to get your attention.
It’s hard to listen to your body when you’re literally silencing the signals by overeating so that’s the first step.
I focused on a WHOLE NEW WORLD of food
I was the girl who would use toast as a vehicle to get butter into her face. I’d lay it on so thick that it’d leave teeth marks. One day I ate butter, the next day I didn’t. And I never missed it. That’s the beauty of using transformational hypnotherapy because you can simply change your mind record to change your reality.
I programmed myself to not want dairy. I used to LOVE cheese and now I don’t even think about dairy cheese (although I’ve successfully experimented with dairy free cheese). Throw me an apron and call me a homesteader because I now make my own dairy free butter (it’s so fricking good) and love me some gluten free and refined sugar free baking. My Facebook feed is chock full of healthy eating blogs and I get recipe inspiration for my old favourites with a fresh and healthy makeover.
I freed myself from sugar addiction and sugar binges became a thing of the past. (And if that’s something you need help with, there’s a Sugar Rehab program in my Mind Key Community).
I realised gluten doesn’t agree with me either, so I simply stopped eating it. If I’m ever out at a restaurant and there’s food there that I used to eat I think “If I ate gluten I’d really enjoy that” and then I choose something else because I know that food causes inflammation in my body and I love my body too much to do that to it. BUT the key here is that later on I’ll find an innovative way to recreate that food at home with a fresh and healthy twist.
You may have noticed that I never say LOSING weight as I’m not losing anything. I’m releasing everything that’s ready to be released. It’s a picky but important difference.
I haven’t lost anything, I feel like I’ve gained EVERYTHING. I don’t do deprivation.
I shortened my feeding window and occasionally fasted
Some ‘diets’ will tell you to eat six meals a day. That’s like the WORST advice you can give someone who is food-obsessed. I eat when I’m hungry and I stop when I’m full. I usually eat all my meals in an 8 hour window and then fast for 16 hours.
I’ll throw in an occasional fasting day where I have my iced coffee in the morning but no food all day until I break the fast the next morning.
This is a bit head fucky at first but then you realise that you’re actually ok without food and you’re not going to starve. And that feels like FREEDOM. It’s also a bit of a soft reset every now and then because the next day you find yourself eating even more mindfully.
The key here is to not use a fasting day as a balance for eating all the things because this is tipping back into diet mentality and it’s a slippery slope to disordered eating.
I simply stopped eating my emotions
Again, this was made possible with my hypnotherapy. The more I loved myself and my body the less I felt like there was a deep void that I needed to stuff with food to feel safe again. If emotions rose I would deal with them. I’d meditate. I’d fall into rabbit holes on Facebook (hey I’m not perfect) or watch Netflix or walk my dog OR ANYTHING THAT WASN’T STUFFING MY FACE. Our mental conditioning is so powerful that sometimes my brain will stop me in my tracks as I’m heading for the pantry and I think “oh I don’t do that anymore” and I do a hard pass on just eating for the sake of eating.
If you’d seen me before as I’d burn a track between the couch, pantry and fridge then you’d know how huge a deal this is!
I moved my ass
I started going to yoga and fell in love with it, deciding to train as a Yoga Teacher! Me, the girl who used to watch yoga videos in her activewear sitting on the couch eating potato chips.
I now regularly get my downward dog on and this is one of the practices that connects me back into the wisdom of my body.
I dance - starting out with Body Groove videos in my lounge and I just trained in Body Groove myself so I can share the dance your heart out magic with others. I also go to ‘come dance your ass off’ kind of events like No Lights No Lycra, 7 Rhythms, and Ecstatic Dance. SO. MUCH. FUN!
I celebrate ALL my wins
I’d share little updates with friends and on my Facebook page to celebrate my progress and in the process I inspired others on their own weight journeys. I even dipped my toe in the strip tease arena as I used the pile of clothes that I’d outgrown to show how far I’d come with an excruciating but enthusiastic strip as I shed them.
I don’t think I have a future in stripping but it was so liberating to celebrate what felt like old skin and stories being released as I removed those saggy baggy clothes.
I tracked my progress in a kind and loving way
In the past, I’ve weighed myself and if the weight was up then it would ruin my mood and I’d feel like crap about myself. But this time it didn’t at all. If my weight went down I’d be happy about it and invariably it would go up sometimes and I never once gave myself a hard time or even felt bad. THIS is the power of reprogramming the mind from a weight/diet mentality!
If weighing yourself negs you out then stop weighing yourself. Take your progress from how you feel, how your clothes feel, your increased energy and happiness - whatever works for you!
For about four months I stayed consistently at one weight. I was ok with it because I realised that I was on the tipping point of having released enough weight to get noticed again. And I needed to be ok with that. Once I was the weight started releasing again.
ALL the food I eat is guilt-free
There would be some days where I’d have an extra slice of gluten and dairy-free pizza and I’d realise that I felt a bit uncomfortable and perhaps I didn’t need it. But I never beat myself up about it. I simply popped it away as a piece of information to make a better choice next time.
And once I broke a fast with a gluten and dairy-free donut. I forgot that it would have so much sugar in it and I was sugar rushing like a mofo. I realised that maybe next time I’d have a quarter of it and save the rest for later - and not use it as the meal after a fasting day!
No blame or shame in my eating game. THIS is food freedom.
So, in a very large nutshell that’s how I released 27 kilos. And the biggest gift ISN’T the weight release, although it’s a photo finish second fo-sho. It’s that I now love and respect myself with thoughts, words, and actions that honour my miraculous body.
We have one home for our soul to live in. And when we think about the thoughts, words, images and harsh criticism that we direct at ourselves it’s a wonder that our soul even wants to live there!
For me to think loving and supportive thoughts and speak kind words about myself is the biggest gift. Having a new body, new energy, and even a new career because of the transformation that I’ve had and have helped others with is just icing on the dairy-free, sugar-free, gluten-free cake.
Big love,
Bron xo
