A Holistic Approach to Sustainable Weight Loss
Those who struggle with weight challenges are typically motivated to lose weight and for good reason. It is well known that carrying excess weight (particularly around the midsection) causes the body to remain in a heightened inflammatory state thereby causing hormone imbalances and symptoms such as joint pain, depression, and fatigue. It also increases the likelihood of developing a myriad of dis-ease states including type 2 diabetes, hypothyroidism, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Yet despite the negative impact that carrying extra weight has on one’s quality of life at all levels, the percentage of the population that falls in the overweight/obese category is continuing to increase. The predominant way we are approaching weight loss is not working.
The Relationship Between Stress and Weight Loss
As a naturopathic doctor, I understand that establishing and maintaining a healthy weight requires more than simply placing attention on the number of calories we consume and the number of calories we burn. Whether we are losing, gaining or maintaining weight is ultimately determined by our metabolic state, which is negatively impacted when our hormones are out of balance, our detoxification pathways are compromised, and our digestive health is disrupted or dysfunctional. Having healthy liver, adrenal, and thyroid function are essential to maintaining a healthy weight so it is important to optimize the health of these organ systems.
Our physiology prioritizes our survival above all else so when our body is under chronic stress (whether the stressor is from a chronic infection, toxins stored in the body, and/or persistent mental-emotional stress) there is a resulting heightened level of cortisol which forces our body to operate in self-preservation mode, driving our metabolism to operate in a fat-storing state instead of a fat-burning state. If the stress state persists long enough, metabolism will be slowed further and the individual may develop hypothyroidism, thereby compounding the cortisol-influenced weight gain. Those who have trouble balancing their blood sugar (as seen in those with insulin resistance or Diabetes) or too much estrogen circulating in their bodies (as seen in those who are overweight or have symptoms of PMS) are also hormonally primed to gain weight.
Identifying and removing the stressors that are keeping the body in a fat-storing state is essential and can be accomplished through specialty laboratory testing. Effective treatment plans provide dietary and lifestyle modifications alongside nutritional, herbal, and hormonal therapies that help restore balance in the physical body and establish a healthy foundation that supports long term weight management.
The Real Reason You Can’t Shed Those Pounds
However, to return to a state of vital wellness where maintaining a healthy weight is a natural consequence and weight loss challenges are a thing of the past, the approach to achieving weight loss must be comprehensive and address the imbalances at the level of the body, mind, and soul. We must dig deeper to identify and address what drove the imbalances in the physical body in the first place. When we have been carrying excess weight for some time, being “overweight” has become part of our identity and we lose sight of who we are, what is important to us, and our true motivations for weight loss. With each failed attempt at losing those stubborn pounds, we often lose hope that we will ever return to ourselves. We are now eager to not only shed the pounds but also the shame that comes along with it.
In my years of helping patients reach their weight loss goals, I have seen the same trend again and again: those who seek to lose weight just to lose weight never keep the weight off. No one ever really wants to lose weight solely to fit back into their favorite jeans. What they seek is something deeper, something I call their one thing. Patients often come to me seeking support with weight loss reporting their motivation level to be at a 10 out of 10, yet it is not uncommon to see these same patients experience a high level of resistance when it comes to making the needed dietary and lifestyle changes to reach their weight loss goals. What this reveals is profound. While it is undoubtedly true that these individuals want to lose weight, what is also (and perhaps more) true is that they are not wanting or willing to lose the weight if they believe that it means that they are going to lose that one thing that they desire most.
The Mind-Body Connection
The problem is that this one thing is often deep-rooted in our subconscious and so it is hard to be objective enough to discover how we all get in our way of receiving that which we desire and seek. For some that one thing is freedom, for others, it is comfort, love, belonging, or self-love and self-acceptance. Because not having that one thing is like death to our soul, if we perceive that making the recommended changes threatens our ability to experience or have access to that one thing we can pretty much guarantee that we will not prioritize making those changes. Doing so would feel like a threat to our existence and then suddenly something like being overweight doesn’t seem so bad. So in our humanity we often choose to remain stuck, asking ourselves why it is that we won’t do that which we already know we need to do to achieve our voiced goals.
Understanding our psychology of eating, our current relationship with food, and what fuels our sabotaging habits is essential for our ability to keep weight off once we lose it. For some, the habit is food as a source of comfort under heightened states of stress and thus they form an attachment or addiction to food as a means to offset the distressful experience they are having. For others the habit is the overconsumption of food because of “boredom”, using food as a means to offset boredom and where food is used as a stimulant. The list of habits can be extensive. Without understanding our relationship with food and our eating psychology, it is only a matter of time before we will naturally revert to our same old habits and begin to put the pounds back on.
Addressing Your Hunger For Wholeness
Identifying that one thing is the key ingredient to transformative weight loss, where the changes we observe in our physical body (i.e. weight loss) are a natural arising from a radical transformation of our inner being. When we understand how our desire for that one thing reflects a deeper hunger that exists at the level of our soul, we shed our feelings of powerlessness and hopelessness. We learn how to step into the authentic expression of our truest nature and embrace our worthiness and mattering. We shift our focus away from our need of shedding those stubborn pounds to our need of shedding the unhealthy habits and the self-limiting beliefs associated with these habits that prevent us from losing weight. Within this space of transformation, we stop seeking weight loss as a means to returning to our true selves and understand that it is the returning to our truest self and a state of wholeness that naturally brings about long-lasting weight loss. By shifting our primary focus away from the numbers on a scale and toward what matters, we naturally begin making more empowered and healthier choices with less resistance and can reach and maintain a healthy weight.
As a trained transformational coach, I have a rich understanding of the trappings of our humanity and know the recipe for true behavioral change. I help others identify their true priorities and the roots of their self-sabotaging habits so that they can discover their one thing and begin transforming their (often subconscious) self-limiting beliefs that have kept them engaged in unhealthy habits and away from living the happy and healthy life they desire.
Book an appointment with me to begin a transformational weight loss journey that will help transform your body and your life through the transformational change that occurs at the level of your being.