In this short article I discuss how an aware and compassionate approach to yourself and your eating habits can promote lasting weight loss.
There are a multitude of diets, Paleo, 5 and 2 fasting and Keto to name but a few. The theme underlying most is deprivation and self-discipline and people often combine these diets with punishing exercise regimes. The trouble with all such diets is, that whilst they might work in the short term, they are unsustainable. Most people who come to me for weight loss are looking for real transformation in their lives; they want to gain more energy and feel great in the long term.
To lose weight sustainably we often need to entirely overhaul our relationship with food. We should look honestly at:
Why we eat
When you finally get a chance to relax on the sofa at 8.30pm after a stressful day at work, putting the kids to bed and finishing the chores you deserve a treat, right? Now when you open the freezer and reach for your favourite ice cream, ask yourself honestly why you are eating. You will have some short-lived enjoyment but then it is gone and you feel guilty – was it worth it? Sometimes “yes”, but probably “no” most of the time. Many of us eat the worst foods to fill a hole in the stomach when the hole is actually in the heart. This is destructive behaviour and we may need to reach out to our loved ones for good company and support.
When you are thinking about eating the wrong foods build in a pause and look at what is driving you to eat. Are you feeling stressed or bored? Perhaps you feel lonely and really require a good hug or a meet up with a friend. Possibly what you need in your super busy day is not more stimuli from the TV while eating a bowl of ice cream but something else entirely. Maybe you could tune in to what will serve you best and is less destructive. A candlelit bath, some yoga, a walk or a run with a friend, for example, might just help you to reset. A pause and a moment of awareness can help us to make a conscious decision about what we actually need and is about being kind to ourselves.
Importance of sleep
Another key aspect of being kind to ourselves is ensuring that we are getting sufficient sleep. Research shows that people who sleep less than is recommended are more likely to have greater body fat, be at risk of obesity and find it harder to lose weight on a diet.
Sleep influences two important appetite hormones in our body – leptin and ghrelin. Leptin actually helps to decrease your appetite so when you have high levels of leptin you generally feel full and satisfied.
Ghrelin (known as the ‘hunger hormone’) stimulates appetite and makes us feel hungry. Studies have shown that sleep restriction actually increases levels of this ‘hunger hormone’ and decreases leptin making it much more likely that a person will overeat.
I suggest you start to wind down early, turn off the mobile phone and other gadgets and build in some peaceful time to help ensure you get to sleep on time.
Our preparedness
Being prepared is another key element of weight loss. It sounds simple but you really have to diarise and plan the time to shop for healthy food and also pre-cook nutritious food for the week so that it is always available. Cooking up tasty Mediterranean vegetables and making some soup on a Sunday can be hugely helpful.
Resetting our habits and brain chemistry
We need to learn to eat in a way that leaves us feeling satisfied and full so that we are not caught in a vicious cycle of constant cravings. Eating increases dopamine, especially the intake of high fat and sugar foods so we literally need to retrain our brains and create new cravings for real and healthy foods.
Exercise
Exercise alone has little affect on our weight. Herman Ponzer studied the daily energy expenditure of the Hadza, hunter-gatherers from northern Tanzania. Life for the Hadza is very physically demanding with both the men and women needing to be incredibly active. Amazingly, however, the Hadza burn only a similar amount of calories per day as an average sedentary Westerner. The conclusion from the study is that people with intensely active lives are likely to burn no more calories over a day than those who are only moderately active.
Exercise is absolutely key to maintain health and good mental health but its role in weight loss has been overstated in the past. The best way to lose weight is by making the right food choices and learning how to eat in a way that nourishes and stops cravings for the wrong foods. You do not need to follow an incredibly rigid and restrictive diet which is unsustainable and often anti-social.
