Don't Start Another Diet!

Posted on August 04, 2013 by Holly Stokes, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

When we think of weight loss, most of think – eat less and move more. But diets can actually set us up to fail. Read this before you start another diet. Not only are diets unhealthy, only good for a short term fix, but the reasons we can’t stay on track with a diet comes from our unconscious mind. The reasons we fall off the wagon are because of old habits, cravings, lack of motivation, and even self sabotage. Unless we address these reasons, we will continue to struggle with weight over and over again!

Diets are thought of as a short or quick fix. When dieters think of losing a certain number of pounds, they watch what they eat until they achieve their goal, and then they go back to eating how they were before the diet. Of course, the weight comes right back plus more.

Diets are unhealthy! Severely restricting calories puts your body in starvation mode and may cause your body to reduce your muscle mass. You may be losing weight, but you are losing the wrong kind of weight – losing muscle, not burning fat. Muscle mass dictates your metabolism, so if you lose muscle, you could be lowering your metabolism by as much as 10-15%. Most diets are not meant to be followed long-term and some may even have health consequences. What we really need is lifestyle change, change you can live with.

Cravings get in the way. When we restrict ourselves in what we can eat, it causes a backlash. If you say, “I’m not going to eat sugar anymore” – it seems to make it worse, you start noticing sugar everywhere. You might be good passing up the doughnuts in the office, the candy after lunch, but then after dinner you dive into the ice cream with wild abandon! Cravings are so hard to say no to because they come from our unconscious mind. In my A Lighter You System, I give you the tools to transform your cravings so that you can stop struggling and slim down to your ideal healthy weight.

Hidden Factors include Hormone Imbalances and Stress. Hormones regulate so much in our body from sleep to appetite, to metabolism and stress. Chronic stress can actually cause us to gain weight. Stress causes the body to release stress hormones, adrenaline and cortisol which can also cause us to retain weight. There is a complex interplay of hormones and if one is out of balance, it could be affecting the others. I ask all my clients to get a comprehensive hormonal panel, not just the TSH (Thyroid) hormone test. This can make a big difference for those people who are eating right and exercising, but just not losing the pounds. The stress we experience has to do with the mental habits and patterns in our brain.

Mental blocks are responsible for self sabotage. If we consciously know we want to lose weight, but our unconscious mind has another agenda, it won’t matter the efforts we take, we’ll fall off the wagon, experience cravings and self sabotage. When we know what we should do, but just can’t make ourselves do it – this is self sabotage! When our unconscious mind has a mental block, it can feel like taking two steps forward and one step back, our progress if any, is slow and we can’t sustain it over time.

A good example of a mental block of the unconscious mind comes from a client who was bullied when he was 9, he thought, “If only I were bigger they couldn’t pick on me.” The unconscious mind then began to run a program for being bigger – and he gained weight and couldn’t take the weight off until he addressed the unconscious program. Once the unconscious mind got the update, the weight just melted away, he didn’t even have to think about it. Now, weight for him is no longer a problem.

The reasons we gain weight are not the same for everyone. The reasons can range from simple to more complicated. At the simple level, maybe we just need to change a habit like overeating. At the more complicated level, we run into cravings that come from the unconscious mind. If you are experiencing lack of motivation, procrastination, knowing what you should do, but not following through, you are experiencing self sabotage. If you experience self sabotage, chances are you have a mental block that is getting in your way.

Unless you address the REAL reasons for gaining weight, you will continue to struggle. That’s why so many diets don’t work, they focus only on counting calories or the foods to avoid. But, the REAL reasons we gain weight are in our mind, in our motivations, our mental habits, associations and our mental blocks. When you address these at the deeper level, you can get to that place where weight is a non-issue, your body just naturally balances itself, you prefer healthy foods and enjoy them, and you have the energy and vitality that you desire.

Stop dieting, and get on your healthy weigh with small changes that you can live with. The real keys to addressing habits, cravings, lack of motivation and even self sabotage are in your brain. With the right tools and the right support, you can end the struggle with dieting, and train your brain to slim down to your ideal healthy weight and keep it!

The Author, Holly Stokes, “The Brain Trainer,” helps yoyo dieters break the cycle and enjoy lasting weight loss success with her breakthrough system, A Lighter You. A Lighter You includes two books A Lighter You Train your Brain to Slim your Body and A Lighter You Health Coach’s Guide to Nutrition in Action and six cds designed to transform the mental blocks around weight, including: Curb Your Cravings, Motivation for Fitness, and Boost Your Metabolism. See details at: www.ALighterYouSystem.com
Get the free MP3: Train Your Brain to Change Food Habits and Cravings to train your brain to prefer healthy foods at: www.ALighterYouSystem.com/free