Go Back to Childhood to Root Out & Heal The Limiting Beliefs That Hinder Weight Loss (For Good!)
By Jennifer Joy Jiménez
When faced with a famine, the human body fights to hold onto every last ounce as a way to boost the chances of survival.
Chances are good that you’re not living in a famine. You probably have access to more than enough food.
Yet two common weight stressors may be tricking your body into believing that you’re facing a famine — making it difficult to shed unwanted pounds.
What Are Weight Stressors – and How Do They Hinder Weight Loss?
Weight stressors are blocks or self-sabotaging beliefs that can wreak havoc with even the best health and well-being programs. We all have subconscious stressors that can block our ability to release unwanted weight, but unfortunately, many health and wellness professionals are unaware that these barriers exist.
In transformational coaching, we believe – and it’s been tested and proven – that our subconscious beliefs are what drive our thoughts. Our thoughts produce feelings, and our feelings drive actions. And ultimately, our actions drive results.
You may know at a conscious level that it’s not healthy to eat a massive portion of pasta just because that’s what the restaurant served you. But you may end up eating the entire bowl by the end of the meal because your subconscious beliefs drive that behavior.
To change the behavior, it’s not enough to consciously know you need to change – in this case, that you need to eat less. You need to get inside the subconscious limiting belief and replace it with a new, more empowering belief.
In this article, the second in our series, I’ll unpack two more of the weight stressors to help you release unwanted weight and unleash your most healthy, happy and vibrant self!
The two weight stressors that we’ll cover here are what I call the “Nasty F’s.”
“Nasty F” #1: Food Famine Mentality
The Food Famine Mentality boils down to one subconscious belief: There is not “enough” food!
If you have this mentality, somewhere along the way, you were taught one of two things — and maybe even both!
- You have to eat every bite on your plate.
Maybe you were stuffed one day. Maybe you just wanted to go outside and play. Maybe you were having a stare-down with a plate of Brussel sprouts.
No matter what your particular scenario was, you probably had at least one meal in your life when you were told to eat every single thing on your plate.
(You may have even been told something like, “Clean your plate! There are starving people in <insert the country of your choice> that would love that food!”)
What happens as a result of hearing this message? You internalize the belief that you must clean your plate. You then carry that belief with you as you grow into an adult.
Unfortunately, too often, especially in the Western hemisphere, we’re given much more food than we actually need. Cleaning our plates, as our subconscious belief drives us to do, leads to overeating.
And that’s a problem because overeating causes the body to save that extra fuel as excess weight.
How do we uninstall this subconscious limiting belief that we’re required to eat every bite?
A tested and proven way to install a new, more empowering belief — such as “I eat enough to feel satisfied” — is through repeated exposure to the new belief. One of my tools to employ repetition is through guided meditation.
Guided meditations are great to use:
- First thing in the morning, when you want to start your day with the right mindset.
- In the afternoon, for a quick reset.
- In the evening before you go to bed. (This actually is my favorite time to use guided meditations, because whatever thoughts, ideas and content you’re exposing your mind to right before sleep is what you’ll process throughout the night.)
To support you in creating the body of your dreams, I’ve created a free guided weight loss meditation that will help you install new more empowering beliefs that are in alignment with your dream of vibrant health. Download it here!
- There isn’t enough.
This belief is common among people who grew up with siblings, but it can crop up even if you’re an only child. If you grew up feeling that you didn’t get enough, you weren’t given enough, or you weren’t going to have enough food, it can create the Food Famine subconscious belief.
“Nasty F” #2 — Fun Famine
The second Nasty F is the all-too-prevalent famine of not having enough fun in life!
And because you have no outlets for fun or ways to decompress in a healthy way, you turn to food.
When food is our only source of fun, we tend to eat more food than is necessary and/or to eat the kinds of food that aren’t the best or healthiest for our bodies. Rather than an apple or handful of nuts, you instead find yourself reaching for Skittles, a candy bar, or a bag of chips – or even heading to your closest fast food drive through.
Here are two powerful, proven tips to help you reset from having a Fun Famine to having some fun in your day:
Tip 1: Install Fun Boost Into Your Day
What do you love? Think about the kind of fun you used to have when you were a kid or a teenager. How could you bring some of that fun into your life today?
I encourage my coaching clients to connect with fun music, rediscover games they used to play, or to bring more fun movement into their lives. Having fun by yourself is great, but also schedule fun with friends and family.
If you loved to draw, take an art class or watch free art tutorials online. If you loved to play games, schedule a family game night. If you loved to play outside, explore local parks or take a hike.
The more you can install little boosts of fun in your day, the less likely you’ll be to reach for foods that aren’t healthy simply as a way to entertain yourself.
Tip 2: Create an Evening Routine to Decompress
Research has found that exposure to the blue light emitted by electronic devices inhibits our production of melatonin. Melatonin is absolutely necessary to get a good night’s sleep. A lack of good sleep drives the production of ghrelin, the “hunger hormone” that fuels our desire to eat more the next day, sabotaging our efforts to lose weight.
To improve the quality of sleep and help you quiet your body’s desires to eat, turn off electronic devices at least 30 minutes before you go to bed.
Other activities you can incorporate into your calming evening routine include:
- Take a shower or a bath
- Do some gentle movement, such as yoga or stretching
- Light a candle
- Use essential oils in a diffuser or sprinkle a few drops on a cotton ball
- Play soothing music
- Rub lotion on your hands and feet
- Read a book
- Listen to a guided meditation, such as this free weight loss meditation that I’ve created for you
These are simple actions, but they make a huge difference in the long run.
Address These Weight Stressors … Then Watch What Happens
When you begin to take incredible care of yourself by implementing these suggestions, you might be surprised by what happens. Many of my clients weigh themselves after a few weeks or months of using these suggestions and find that they’ve released 10 pounds without even trying.
I’d love to know which of these ideas — eating for nourishment only, installing some fun in your day, finding empowering ways to decompress and relax, and creating an evening routine — impact you the most. Share your thoughts in the comments below.
I also invite you to take advantage of the fantastic free gifts on this page, especially the free guided weight loss meditation. Listen to this guided meditation daily to help uninstall the two Nasty F’s. Let’s replace them with the new empowering beliefs that there’s more than enough food to go around, that all of your needs are met, and that you can absolutely eat nourishing, healthy, holistic food in the correct amounts that are just enough for what your body needs.
Have fun playing with my time-tested suggestions for addressing these two weight stressors and creating more calm, confidence, radiance, health and vitality in your life!
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