How Chronic Stress and Past Trauma Conspire to Hinder Weight Loss

“Calories In, Calories Out” Is Only Part of the Formula for Releasing Unwanted Pounds

This article is the third installment in a series exploring hidden weight stressors. If you missed the earlier installments, use these links to get caught up on Part 1 and Part 2.

“Burn more calories than you eat” is the tried-and-true rule for weight loss that most of us learned in high school health class and often read in popular health and well-being articles. But there’s so much more that contributes to weight — and weight loss — than meets the eye.

After 20 years in the health and well-being industry, with expertise in mind-body-spirit connection, I’ve identified 12 primary weight stressors that may be standing between you and the vibrant, radiant version of the life you would love to be living.

If you feel like your weight just isn’t budging, no matter how much you diet or exercise, these hidden weight stressors may be the culprit.

The Role of Our Mind-Body-Spirit Connection

On paper, the “calories in, calories out” formula is simple, straightforward and logical.

But it misses a big truth of our human experience: Our mind, body, and spirit are interconnected. Our weight is more than the result of how many calories we take in and how many calories we burn. Our thinking, life experiences, subconscious programming, level of safety, and stress levels also have a big impact on our weight.

Every human comes equipped with a unique inner health blueprint that defines her mental, physical, emotional and spiritual health. This blueprint is a creation of our subconscious “programming” — the beliefs we have about all aspects of our health and life. 

Our weight, then, is an outer reflection of our inner blueprint. If your inner blueprint says that you’re a “fat” person, you likely struggle to lose weight. On the flip side, if your blueprint says that you are fit and take great care of yourself, you’re more likely to be an average weight, eat healthy food, get plenty of rest, and engage in other self-care activities.

Our innate setpoint is health. We’re born to be vibrant, healthy and radiant, no matter what is going on in our lives. If you aren’t satisfied with how you feel, or when you look in a mirror or jump on the scale, it’s an invitation to update your blueprint. When we dive into our subconscious programming and do the inner work around resetting this underlying blueprint, our subconscious can be reset to homeostasis. 

However, if we don’t look within and get help doing the inner work of working on our subconscious programming and inner health blueprint, the subconscious mind will continue to override and sabotage even our best efforts to make a positive change. 

Our subconscious programming always overrides any conscious beliefs, intentions or efforts we make. This is why 80 percent of New Year’s resolutions are never met, according to the U.S. News & World Report. Although we consciously choose a goal, our subconscious programming doesn’t support this goal. The goal conflicts with our inner blueprint, and therefore, we sabotage our efforts to turn our dreams into reality. If you’ve already witnessed self-sabotage regarding your 2021 health and well-being goals, it’s probably due to your subconscious programming and weight stressors.

It’s Not Just About the Weight

Weight gain and weight loss resistance aren’t the only side effects of the 12 weight stressors we’re covering in this series. They also can cause and trigger hormone imbalances of cortisol, progesterone, and/or estrogen in women. Dr. Sara Gottfried, the author of The Hormone Cure and The Hormone Reset Diet, tells us that an imbalance of these important hormones can heighten a risk for cancer, memory loss, and depression, among other negative side effects and health symptoms.

Once you become aware of these stressors and the impact they have, you can discover tools, strategies and solutions to help you deactivate them. From there, you can become vibrantly healthy. Countless clients have reported that excess weight just melts away after implementing even a few of the tips I share in these series. 

Let’s explore two more weight stressors and how they may be impacting your weight and health.

Weight Stressor #1: Low-Level Chronic Stress

Human beings come hard-wired with a handy response mechanism designed to help us survive threatening situations: Fight or Flight. When we face a scary, threatening or highly stressful situation, our sympathetic nervous system releases hormones such as adrenaline, which gives us a burst of energy to either run away from danger or defend ourselves. 

It’s a handy response when facing a real threat to our safety and survival. Unfortunately, low-level chronic stress — such as the COVID-19 pandemic — also puts the body in a constant fight-or-flight mode. Our bodies aren’t designed to live in a state of continual heightened arousal, and it wreaks havoc with our health.

Prolonged stress triggers the same response our bodies would choose when we were facing the stress of a famine: Our metabolism slows down in an effort to hold onto as much fat as possible. Not knowing when we’d find the next meal, our bodies would cling to calories as a strategy to increase the odds of survival.

Consciously, most of us know that we have enough to eat (even if there might be occasional shortages of some supplies because of panic buying). But our bodies misinterpret our stress as a warning sign of a looming famine.

Here are two health steps you can take to counteract this weight stressor:

• Be aware of and recognize your stress triggers. Start recognizing when you’re feeling stressed out, overworked, and under-rested. Women especially want to be aware of the tendency to put everyone else’s needs in front of their own.
• Start putting yourself and your needs on the front burner. Your self-care belongs in the “non-negotiable category” (meaning you’ll do it no matter what). Start small. Pick one or two activities, or start with 5-minute increments and then work your way up.

Here are some ideas for good self-care:

• Plan healthy meals in advance so you aren’t tempted to reach for less healthy foods.
• Allow plenty of time to eat. When we eat in a stressed state, our bodies tend to hold onto whatever calories we’re eating, even if they’re from something healthy like a salad. 
• Eat mindfully. Don’t mindlessly eat in front of the television or at your desk. 
• Get some fresh air in the middle of the day. Can’t go outside? Sit by a window and enjoy the view. 
• Make time for plenty of quality sleep. 
• Give yourself some non-hectic movement each day, such as gentle yoga, a stroll in nature, or dancing to your favorite song. (My favorite, admittedly biased, favorite activity is a TranscenDance™ class.) Every little bit counts here — even just 5 minutes. I especially encourage you to do some gentle movement before bed. It will help unknot your muscles and prepare your mind and body for a restful night.

Weight stressor #2: Traumatic Stress

Traumatic stress is the result of an event with a strong emotional impact, such as the death of a loved one, a divorce, an accident, an injury, or abuse of some form. This type of event creates a huge shift in your paradigm, or way of seeing the world. As a result, your body can gain weight quickly as a protective measure and then hold onto it as a form of safety until you release the trauma.

If you have ever experienced a traumatic event, as most of us have, my heart goes out to you. I pray and meditate daily that our stress, trauma, and hurts will be healed and that the power breathing us will guide us to the processes and solutions that can help this healing.

The great news is that it is definitely possible to overcome trauma and go on to live a happy, healthy, vibrant life. Once you’re aware of these traumatic stressors and the impact they have on your weight, you can adopt healthier ways of living and thinking that can help you create a weight you love! 

Remember that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. The power breathing us is far more powerful than any human experience we can ever face. We contain so much more potential than any of the circumstances, conditions or trauma we’ve experienced!

Here are 3 proven ways to effectively address these underlying deeper issues triggered by traumatic stress:

1. Transformational life coaching and/or therapy. The difference between these two approaches is that therapy traditionally looks to the past to heal. Transformational life coaching looks forward with life goals, vision, and empowering behaviors. Anything within your subconscious that isn’t a match for your vision will be drawn to the surface for the purpose of releasing, repatterning, and renewing.

Skilled, certified transformational life coaches are trained in methods and systems to help facilitate the release of trauma, repatterning of beliefs, and renewal of your capabilities.

2. The healing modalities of Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT or “tapping”), Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, and somatic healing such as conscious dance, can be extremely effective. Numerous studies have shown all of these to be effective at healing trauma. 

EMDR therapy, an interactive psychotherapy technique used to relieve psychological stress, is particularly effective for treating trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). According to the National Library of Medicine and Institute of Health, 24 randomized controlled trials have found that EMDR therapy is effective for treating emotional trauma and other adverse life experiences. EMDR can even be faster and/or more effective than other forms of therapy, such as trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy.

3. Forgiveness. Resentment is toxic and creates a blockage of your spiritual energy. If you’re holding onto resentment, it’s time to let go! Forgiving someone doesn’t make whatever happened right. However, it does release you from having to carry the burden of the traumatic memory or issue. 

In many cases, you’ll experience your best results by addressing trauma with a multi-pronged approach using all three ideas. For example, your transformational life coach can work in conjunction with an EMDR practitioner to help you release old patterns and forgive people who hurt you, so you can move forward to the healthy, happy, vibrant life you envision.

A Guide By Your Side

When making changes to your health and your weight, having a transformational coach who is specifically trained not only in the proven science of wellness, but also  the mind-body-spirit connection is really one of the only ways to effectively address these underlying deeper issues. This is where I can serve you!

I am a trained and certified transformational life coach with expertise in the mind-body-spirit connection. I have 20 years of experience in supporting women in creating optimal vibrant health, including their ideal weight, through a special mind-body coaching method and powerful wellness program I’ve developed. This program, The Vibrant Healthy Woman Coaching Program, combines transformational coaching, proven health science, and mind-body-spirit tools and techniques to address weight stressors and other underlying issues. 

The Vibrant Healthy Woman program helps you create optimal health, ideal weight, and radiant energy, and lead a happy, healthy life.

“I completely re-patterned a very heavy habit of self-criticism which had been running since childhood. This has led to deeper feelings of self love and acceptance, freedom, expansion, and abundance as I move through life. I am finally releasing extra weight, which I’ve carried as a form of protection for over 15 years! I’ve made major changes to my diet and have released 40 pounds. Also, I found it easy to release the clutter in my home, which had plagued me for decades! Now I live in a home that is organized and beautiful. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with Jennifer and to have had such massive growth in the past year due to her programs and her incredible skill as a coach and mentor!” – Kimberly Tilton, Santa Rosa, CA

If you’d like to either explore more about my work and coaching programs, and especially receive support with any of your weight stressors, your first step is to claim a complimentary Vibrant Healthy Woman Consultation! This consultation is valued at $250, but it’s yours 100% free for a limited time.

We’ve been in an unusually stressful situation for months now. I’m giving you this gift to support you in creating thriving health and wellness, no matter how off track things have gotten. Let’s create amazing results together moving into the next few months!

The first step is simply having a powerful consultation about where you currently are, crafting a vision for where you’d love to be, and exploring which of the 12 weight stressors you think you’re experiencing. We can make some suggestions on which proven steps you can take to start creating your ideal weight and wellness you desire, and most importantly help you explore getting the coaching support you need to release your weight stressors.

This complimentary session is for women who are interested in doing the deep inner work needed to address underlying issues and their inner health blueprint. Weight stressors and subconscious programming are deeply embedded and take time to change. One coaching session is simply not enough to create results. 

Therefore, a gentle and respectful request: If you’re not ready to commit to several months of focusing on your health and well-being, please pass on this opportunity so another woman may take advantage of this gift. We have only a limited number of spots available, and I’d like to share this gift with women who are ready for this particular transformational journey. 

However if you do feel this opportunity has your name on it, and you are ready to invest in yourself, and your health and you know you’ve been needing coaching support to become your most vibrant, radiant self, experiencing optimal health, “let’s do this!”

Click HERE to BOOK your Complimentary Vibrant Healthy Woman Consultation! 

Your Thoughts

Many people, even health and well-being professionals, don’t know that hidden stressors can affect your weight. If you’ve found this article and/or series helpful, please spread the love and share this post with people in your life! We all have stress, and most of us have experienced at least one trauma. Now you have the opportunity to take action and stop these stressors from standing between you and your healthy, happy, vibrant life.

Have you experienced one or more of these stress-ers in your life? Leave a comment for our amazing community below. We’d love to hear from you!