The concept that weight gain isn't just about the food that's consumed flies in the face of a society that callously attributes excess weight on people to them not having any self-restraint, lacking willpower, pure laziness or even being a glutton.
We may have even sunk into despair thinking that about ourselves.
I know that I've sat in the broken dreams of my latest failed diet before as I wonder "WHY AM I SO SHIT AND WHY CAN'T I STICK TO ANYTHING?"
Then I'd go through the stages of post-diet breakdown grief and blot out all those feelings with bags of brightly coloured, junky, binge food arranged on little scooby snack plates and demolished mindlessly in front of the TV.
I'd have it down to a fine art so I could eat as much as possible. Balancing out sickly sweets with a potato chip palate cleanser, followed by ice-cream, then some more potato chips and then I'd be ready for more sweets or chocolate. But nothing could fill that gnawing, empty, sensation in my belly as I flooded my poor body with sugar, desperately trying to fill the void and to feel soothed and comforted as I artificially elevated my mood.
Sound familiar?
Or maybe your thing isn't the snacking, it's the portion size as you eat the equivalent of two meals in one.
The good news is that weight gain ISN'T just about the food and it isn't as simple as attributing weight gain to inherent character flaws.
We are not defective.
We are not weak willed.
There is so much more at play.
You see the food is a symptom of a weight issue, NOT the cause. Eating too much food is actually the last thing in a whole chain of events that leads to us putting on weight.
So let's look at all the factors that cause weight gain.
First of all there are four WEIGHT GAIN CATALYSTS that contribute to excess padding appearing on your body.
And then there are four WEIGHT CONTROL MECHANISMS that make sure it stays there.
The catalysts for putting on weight in the first place can intersect as you may find you're influenced by more than one.
They all cause your brain to think that you're not safe in some way so it stores excess tissue on your body as a protective barrier between you and the world. Quite clever really.
WEIGHT GAIN CATALYSTS
Weight gain catalysts are caused by outside influences, combined with the meaning that you attach to these events.
This starts a chain reaction in your subconscious mind - often manifesting as symptoms in the body, including weight gain and dis-ease.
1. PAST TRAUMA
This could be as long ago as childhood with experiences that have caused the child to feel unsafe, unloved or violated. With a childhood perspective, these events and the meaning attached to them form beliefs that the world is unsafe. The same applies if the trauma was from an accident or some other traumatic incident that has never been fully resolved and released from the brain and the body.
2. PROLONGED STRESS
When the body is under stress for a prolonged period of time then stress hormones like cortisol flood the body. This is a direct reaction to the instinctive fight or flight mechanism, except we're not running from a saber tooth tiger and then recovering from our ordeal - it's relentless.
Stress could be caused by being in an abusive relationship, getting bullied in the workplace, worrying about money, living as a co-dependant or from our always connected lifestyle. When we're under stress for a prolonged period of time then stress becomes the familiar feeling in the body and what it defaults to. Excess cortisol has a direct correlation to weight gain, impaired cognitive ability and even lower life expectancy.
(Keep reading to the bottom because I've got something for you to start reducing stress in your body).
3. COMPROMISED HEALTH
Often caused by suppressed emotions in the body that manifest as dis-ease, when your immune system is lowered and your body is battling disease then weight gain may be the body's attempt to protect itself by storing reserves.
Recovery from dis-ease isn't as effective when only the symptoms are focused on. Rapid recovery can take place when the emotional wellbeing is addressed as well. When unresolved issues and suppressed emotions are released from the body healing takes place from the root cause, not just the dis-ease symptoms.
4. ENVIRONMENT
This is where you are most of the time, who you're with and how you eat. In some families food is their way of sharing love. There are food traditions, there are go-to meals of comfort food and it's ingrained habits that are reinforced by those around you.
It could be that you're used to carbalicious meals at night time with lots of mashed potatoes, gravy, or pasta dishes.
It could be that you want to release excess weight but your partner isn't happy about that because they feel threatened or they simply don't want to look at their own weight issues so they want to keep things as they are. This can manifest as them bringing home treats the day after you announce your diet or protesting that if you want to eat rabbit food that they're not going to join you.
WEIGHT CONTROL MECHANISMS
The situations and experiences above affect different people in different ways because it's all down to the meaning that we attach to them and that's where the weight control mechanisms come in.
These are all factors in your subconscious programming that run on a perpetual loop making you bigger or keeping you at the same weight.
1. STORIES
Everything that happens to us becomes a story that we attach meaning to. It's how we filter our life experiences. Sometimes we're unaware that we're attaching stories from things that happened to us as a child and if we look at it rationally now from an adult's viewpoint we can see the story for what it is. The big thing here is that not many of us examine these stories that form the foundation of our beliefs.
2. BELIEFS
Our beliefs are our truth. We'll defend our beliefs because to us they are reality. But sometimes our beliefs are built entirely on sketchy stories that don't support us in what we want. Our outdated beliefs can be the shackles that keep us prisoner to our past because they directly inform our thoughts and emotions.
3. THOUGHTS + EMOTIONS
These are the thought loops that we run on a continual basis and the thoughts we think create the emotions we feel. In a cyclical way, the thoughts we think and the emotions we feel create our habits and actions. Then the habits and actions feedback into our thoughts and emotions - sometimes taking us in a downward spiral
“Your thoughts construct patterns like scaffolding in your mind. You are really etching chemical patterns. In most cases, people get stuck in those patterns, just like grooves in a record, and they never get out of them.”
Steve Jobs
4. HABITS + ACTIONS
First we make our habits and then our habits make us. We're the product of our habits so if our habit includes going to the refrigerator when we're stressed or unhappy then this action becomes our neural pathway go-to in our brain.
So when the thought comes in that we need soothing then this pathway lights up with like a beacon to signal that we need comfort food STAT and like we're on autopilot (er, because we are) we comply by burning a track between the pantry and refrigerator.
Even if we're not emotionally eating, the ingrained habits and actions are what keeps us buying and eating food that we know isn't good for us but we continue to do so because it's part of our habitual buying and eating patterns.
Food is the last contributing factor to weight gain.
So you can see now why it doesn't work when you simply approach weight release from the food angle as you slavishly try to follow an eating or exercise plan. You may release some weight initially but you're fighting against your brain determined to keep you safe by holding on to that excess body tissue.
This is a losing battle - as you know.
Your brain sabotages you, stops the weight release, piles it back on and then adds some more padding for good measure.
So what CAN you do to release weight permanently then?
Get your subconscious mind on board with your weight release by reassuring it that it's safe to do so. It very cleverly put the weight on and kept it on to keep you safe but it's now hurting you emotionally and physically to have this excess weight on your body.
There's a conflict happening between wanting to release weight and your brain not wanting you to. So for lasting change we simply resolve that conflict so your brain feels safe to release the weight. We reprogram your subconscious mind, creating new neural pathways that support your weight release instead of sabotaging it.
How do we speak to your subconscious mind?
Transformational Hypnotherapy is the most powerful way to speak directly to your subconscious mind. We replace outdated thought loops by rewriting your stories, releasing your suppressed emotions, changing your beliefs and reprogramming those unhelpful habits that ultimately lead to improved actions like making better food choices.
Because it's only when you get your brain on board using transformational hypnotherapy that your body is able to create permanent change. Because life is too short to be unhappy in the one and only body we have to live in.
Download a FREE HYPNONSIS today to break-up with your diet brain.