How My Negative Body Image and Dieting Made Me Overweight

body image

How I Got Myself Overweight WithDietinglianda at 23 years old when she was thin and first started dieting

Twenty-three years old, and I must have been insane, to try to lose weight on a healthy, slender body (5’6 – 126 pounds- with a rounded backside). As a teenager, I remember that my waist was so thin that I had to learn how to tailor my pants to take in the
waistband and still have a size long enough for my extra long legs. Instead of a reputable doctor telling me I need psychiatric help to see and believe that my body was fine, I was encouraged to go on one diet after another. Each time I’d lose weight, after I went back to “normal” eating (I was never a binger), the weight crept back on; and added additional weight.

I’d go back to the doctors swearing that I wasn’t cheating, and insisting something was “wrong with my body”. But the doctors kept repeating the same ignorant line to me:

“EVERYONE loses weight if they eat less and exercise more”.  

But I knew I wasn’t cheating, even though they insisted. Doctors were Gods when I was young, and contrasting what they said with my actual results made me feel even worse. I was caught in the yo-yo syndrome, eating a chronically small amount of food, skipping meals, exercising and frightened to eat more. I got to a point where I had very little appetite; and thought my stomach inside my body had “shrunk” while my belly fat increased!

No diet every made a difference; vegetarian, vegan, raw food, gluten free, dairy free, elimination diets, probiotics, exercise regimes, cleansing fasts, Jon Gabriel’s program, diets proposed by Naturopathic doctors, vitamins, Paleo…. I had the same results to each diet. I’d start by losing a little weight, and then it would practically stop; until I gave up in misery, went back to my basic under-eating, skipping meals, and gained back the weight + extra padding pounds.

Doing the same thing and expecting different results is the definition of INSANITY and a diet.

It wasn’t until decades of chronic under-eating, feeling ashamed of, and hating my body, that I realized that I had unknowingly created my own problem. I developed Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, suffering from low body temperature, thinning hair, and a myriad of other symptoms.  My HDL, LDL, triglycerides were not looking good. I wasn’t young anymore (in my 50s at that point), and I knew that what was happening to me at this point could shorten my life! I was getting scared, but didn’t want to start taking statins! I had read enough to know that these pharmaceuticals are dangerous and don’t even do what they claim!

Hashimoto’s is an autoimmune disease of the thyroid gland where the body mistakes the gland as an invader and attacks it. It is particularly sensitive to stress. So when I was stressed (from what was going on in my life- divorce, loss of a job, children sick – OR from going on another diet), the symptoms would be very pronounced. When things were better, the symptoms lessened.

Mind/Emotion/Body Medicine to the Rescue

Are you having trouble believing that I caused my own dis-ease, or that you have unknowingly created your own illnesses?  That’s what Mind/Body Medicine is about. It’s not something that you do to get yourself sick deliberately, but it’s a physical reaction to your thoughts and emotions. An obvious symptom of how this works is by observing the direct correlation between anger, and physiological changes: your heart pounding, changes in your blood pressure, etc. in your body. When your negative thoughts and emotions are chronic, it causes continuous stress inside your body, that can cause or exacerbate any illness.

After years of dieting, and actually studying nutrition, reading hundreds of books, thousands of articles, taking to different experts, and making myself a guinea pig by trying all of these diet plans, I heard Matt Stone  from 180Degree Health, interviewed on the Paleo Summit. I must admit I thought “what is with this guy? – and why is he on this program when he disagrees with what they are teaching?” But because the Paleo diet had ALSO failed me, I decided to learn more about Matt and what he was saying. I read his books, and scheduled sessions to speak to him directly.

Lightbulb went on in my headThat’s when the lightbulb went on over my head, and I finally realized that I was causing my own weight issues by chronic under-eating and depriving myself. It was like I was punishing myself for being overweight and causing the overweight problem by that very behavior. DUH!

But under-eating was only part of the problem. I had to understand the mindset that I had that created my need to do this to myself. I had to remove society’s conditioning that made me think that unless I was super skinny, I was unloveable. And I had to change the blame I had for my body with gratitude and appreciation. I had to re-establish a nurturing, positive relationship with my body and my mind to heal.

From speaking to so many other women, I learned that this pattern of chronic under-eating, over-exercising, stress eating and binging, body shame was a common problem and that their story was the same as mine.

The Stop Stress Eating Program was created to help women (and of course men) discover “your story” that started your weight gain, and re-write it. It’s a program to reconnect you back to using only your body’s cues to decide when, what and how much to eat. It’s a program to learn how to be your best friend and love yourself like your dog does: Unconditionally. And what could be better than that?

Love yourself unconditionally like your dog does

 

There’s no better way than to have a personal coach take you through this program. It will be a life changing event to reboot your relationship with your body,  and food. It’s the key out of your self-imposed diet prison. Read about it, and start with the questionnaire to see if you’re a candidate.

Lianda saying Be Yourself, everyone else is taken

 

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Fat shaming response

body image, Stress

Comments About Your Weight

an angry fat woman

photo from TheConversation.com

Why is it that people feel entitled to make fat shaming comments about your weight? You don’t even know them? You’re eating at a restaurant, walking down the street, shopping for groceries. Maybe you have become hypersensitive to other’s eyes on you, their laughter after looking in your direction. You can feel their judgment of your personality as a cause for your weight- they think you must be lazy and can’t control yourself.

Can it be that others are so insensitive and mean that they feel alright to fat shame another person? Unfortunately, the answer is often “yes”.  They are lying if they tell you that they’re just trying to help you. “Oh really? I NEVER thought about your diet suggestion before! I’ll definitely have to try that out so I can get thin like you!”  N O T !!!!

Insensitive Comments

So many women (in particular) have fallen for the notion that they have to be thinner, that they are totally oblivious when they discuss that they were “bad” when they ate a cookie or cookies at an event in front other women who weighed a LOT more than them. This happens to me practically every day! Women are always talking about their body and what “bad” food they ate. They are so self-absorbed, lacking self confidence about their own appearance that they probably don’t even realize that you’re standing there and they are essentially fat shaming you!

Women have been taught to find fault in their bodies and that they NEED to be thin in order to be attractive. This brainwashing from a young age really does make us crazy! It’s so stressful to have to “watch your weight”! Thin women don’t watch their weight!  It take so much time and effort to clear it out that conditioning. So in some ways, you can feel sorry for a person who is judging herself and making her own life miserable with “watching her weight” and judging herself because she actually eats food! She may not yet have realized that all the lies from Dr. Oz, Oprah and the Diet Industry is only going to make her gain weight after each bout of dieting. YOU might actually be able to help her and relieve her stress about her body! She’s actually fat shaming herself!

AWARENESS and Assertiveness

For the person who is just uninformed about the futility of dieting, you could gently try to educate them. You could also let that person know that what they say can be hurtful to those around her.. even if it doesn’t hurt you! (I sure hope that is so!). But there is another flavor of the insensitive comment. It’s MEANT to be hurtful and it is mean and degrading – but that works only if you let it be so.

Only an opinion

The most important thing you can possibly do for yourself as a human being is to understand that ANYTHING that some utters is simply their opinion! YOU have opinions, and so does everyone else. Why get upset about a differing opinion from yours? If you do respond with anger or sadness you are giving your power away to another person.

Your opinion about me in none of my business.

Keep repeating that until it takes hold in your brain. There are few people on this planet who I believe in more than I believe myself- and those people are not going to be mean and shallow and want to be hurtful. If the people you listen to and believe are hurtful intentionally, it’s time to DUMP THEM!

 How to be Assertive

confident woman leaning forwardFor the rest, you must learn to be assertive and make them realize that it’s NOT OK to belittle or judge other people because of their appearance. That goes for their color, their age, their weight or any other characteristic. Only when there is awareness brought to bear will there be change.

And the statements that they make about their own weight being unattractive are not lost on those around them who are heavier than them! Let them know that words have power to hurt. And actually, those attacking words stay a lifetime. Is that how they want to be remembered??

Our strong memory of mean words are designed to stick for the purpose of preserving our lives! The people who say things like that are dangerous and to be avoided! That’s why those words have such staying power.

Try it yourself: think about the nasty things people have said to you that you remember from your past. Count them.. Then think about the nice things that people have said to you. I’ll bet you remember the negative ones more often than the nice ones?!

Assertive Template

So many times you walk away from an uneasy situation saying: “I SHOULD have said…..” and feeling even worse about yourself for not standing up. That’s why I encourage you to use my assertive template, where you always know what you want to say. This method gives the other person an “out” where you kind of let them off the hook. Because most time, people don’t want to hurt your feelings. They’re just not aware- and it’s your job to make them so!

You start with something like: I guess you didn’t realize ________________  but when you said (or did)  ____________________ I felt ____________. So I’d like to request that you do this __________________ instead.

This really works. I fact it opens the lines of communication between people and can improve relationships.

Assertiveness helps you feel better about yourself. But just remember, you’re not always going to get a response that you want from the other person. Many people become defensive, or even attacking. But just stick to your statement, and remember that what comes out of their mouth is about THEM not you!

You can do it- and you start changing the world, one person at a time.

 

 

 

 

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8 Reasons Why Mindful Eating Fails

body image, Stress Diet

8 Reasons Mindful Eating Fails

Mindful eating is not easy to do if you’ve been on and off diets for a while. Many Mindful Eating “gurus” will tell you that you are failing because you are still restricting foods you eat. So, essentially, that’s having a mindset of still being on a diet. Mindful eating is NOT a diet. If you are learning this on your own from reading blogs, you’ll probably notice that most (if not all) of the gurus teaching this are thin, or relatively thin.

This raises reasonable assumptions in your mind. One of them being that these gurus were once fat and then did Mindful Eating (or intuitive eating) and lost weight. The other assumption can be that they were never heavy and are teaching you how to eat like them. Well, assumptions are not always correct.

Will I Lose Weight Eating Mindfully?

Let’s deals with the first assumption. Some people do lose weight using intuitive eating. Others gain weight, and still others stay the same weight. Think about a diet. There is almost a guarantee that after the suffering of going through a diet (any kind of restriction, or even “lifestyle change), you have a 95% chance of regaining the weight you lost, plus adding additional weight to your starting point. And it doesn’t matter if you exercise.

However, if you can maintain the practice of mindful eating, you will not be obsessive about what you eat, when you eat, or how much you eat. You will learn to trust your body, and pay attention to the natural signals of hunger and being full. Isn’t that a better way to go through life?

Rebuilding Trust In Your Body

To me, this is the most important issue with regard to the practice of mindfulness. It’s accepting that your body knows what the correct amount of food to eat is at any time.There’s never a once size fits all approach to how much to eat, like when you’ve been told to weigh your food, or make it fit into the palm of your hand size portion. This is totally worthless. And  if you’ve been a chronic dieter, you’ve probably gotten used to being hungry, ignoring your feelings of hunger. There are times when you are going to be hungrier- like after doing some hard exercise. You NEED more food at those times, and not eating is harmful to your metabolism.

Self Hatred

You’ve also been, at least dissatisfied with how your body looks. That dissatisfaction can be minor, or very extreme to the point where you HATE your body. Those feelings causes a physical response of stress within your physiology which have been clearly researched. Those negative mindset with hate filled words written on her bodyfeelings raise your cortisol level – the stress hormone. Your body feels attacked, and it doesn’t matter if the attack is from outside you, or inside you. It’s all the same.

Women, in particular have been conditioned to focus on their appearance from a very young age. We’re told as little girls that we’re so pretty, our clothes are pretty…. and that becomes the way we know we are valued and accepted. It’s not the same for boys who are told they’re smart or strong. And you can see the effect in life. Females are always concerned about their body- what clothes we wear, wearing shoes with high heels that can break your back, putting on make-up, dieting…. on to plastic surgery to fit what society says is the way we “should” look.

I’m particularly disgusted with the way that women feel like they have to be sexy and show off their bodies practically everywhere they go! When I go to the beach, women are almost naked. Men are wearing appropriate swimming attire that won’t get pulled down or off in a wave! I love tennis, but to see the difference in sports attire between men and women is sickening. Shorter and shorter tops and bottoms for women, and men wearing sports appropriate clothing. It’s time to wake up women!

It’s time to jettison this conditioning, this brainwashing and stop focusing on how our bodies look. Get out of the YOUniverse, and see your amazing, unique qualities that make you special. Dieting is part of the brainwashing – and it’s the “cure” (of fat) that CAUSES the condition (fat).

Realize that mindful eating is only going to be effective when you have learned how to manage stress. Your stress reaction is both a psychological response as well as a physical response. It can be to an event, or to harassment. You pick the things that you allow to stress you. Please don’t add self-hatred of our body. Stop dieting!

 

 

 

Are You Ashamed of Your Body?

body image

Do You Spanx Yourself?

Are You Ashamed of Your Body?

When did you start feeling ashamed of your body? Where you a child? Was it because of a teasing remark in your teen years? Or was it when you were an adult and you started comparing yourself to the images of other females in the media and decide that your body was not like theirs – and yours was not good enough?

Women’s Self Esteem Is Tied to their Appearance

Woman, more than men are preoccupied with their body image. Glamour magazine did a study that found that 97 percent of women are “cruel” to their body everyday. Negative self-talk and name-calling is prevalent among women. Women use of derogatory terms to describe body parts is common. I HATE the term “Boobs” , which actually means “a foolish or stupid person”.

Men don’t wear make-up (the vast majority of straight men), while many women won’t take the garbage out without “putting their face on”. Have you looked at the ingredients in make-up lately? Unregulated by the FDA, they read like a description of unhealthy chemicals in a toxic waste dump!

Only 11 percent of men dye their hair in comparison to 80 percent of women over the age of 25!  In an investigation of the ingredients in more than 23,000 products, Environmental Working Group found that nearly one of every 30 products sold in the U.S. fails to meet one or more industry or governmental cosmetics safety standards. But women “NEED” to be beautiful – even at the cost of health?!

Plastic surgery is also much more common among women. While society describes older men as “distinguished” older women are described as “hags”. Older woman are stereotyped as inactive, unhealthy, asexual and ineffective.

I think of how many women “Spanx” themselves, squishing themselves into a tight garment that is really uncomfortable. Sure, you might say it doesn’t bother you, but think about how much relief you feel when you peel it off at the end of the day.

What about those high heels? How many injuries do women suffer from tripping; back aches from the misalignment of your spine?

Women Torture Themselves To Look Good

And then there’s the torture that many women put themselves through, every day, by getting on a scale, and then determining whether they’ve been good or bad because of that number. Punishment begins with deprivation of food, and continues with self-loathing, sadness, and even depression necessitating medication.

It stops being minor when women are so obsessed with their body that they develop a full-blown eating disorder such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa. These mental illnesses are KILLING young women!

Why do women do this to themselves? Why do WE fall for this harmful manner of judging ourselves as unworthy because of an appearance that doesn’t fit “society’s standards”? WHO makes the decisions that “thin is in”?  It wasn’t always this way. There was a time when “plump” was in fashion.

Women’s negative focus and shame about their body not only makes them put unhealthy products on their body, but continues with over-exercise that is physically punishing, starving themselves and depriving themselves of food they enjoy, and being able to eat with the people they care about. The end result, low self-esteem can cause physical and mental illness.

Isn’t it time to jettison the negative words about yourself and your body, and start appreciating your body? A lifetime of negative self-judgment can take a while to jettison. And, you are inviting negative results with the Law Of Attraction when you focus negatively on your body!

There is an effective way to make peace with your body and start eating ALL foods joyfully without fear of gaining weight. It’s a long road, and you will find many detractors along the way. One of the most powerful methods is starting a yoga practice.

Your body is the vehicle through which you experience life. It’s time to love it. It’s YOURS – and you might as well be happy with it. It’s time to realize that the entire world doesn’t focus on what you look like. There’s more in this world than your YOUniverse!  And if you are lucky enough to live a long life, your body will show the changes gravity brings: gray hair, wrinkles, slowing down and the rest. You are so much more than what your body looks like right now. FIND your purpose on this planet and give to others. They will love you in spite of what your body looks like when you give from your heart. That is the most important thing in life!

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Obesity Epidemic

body image, Stress Diet

Is there REALLY an Obesity Epidemic?

I don’t know where people come up with the statistics that tell you that there is an obesity epidemic in the US. The CDC is now claiming that 62{5b8e831512cf0c284f7edae7fc403e9a09e5b1736c5b1d60e4451a29dc064ebe} of Americans are overweight or obese! I live in Southern California and am frequently outside at the beach, on the streets, in yoga classes,  shopping, etc. I see people in the grocery stores grabbing for “fat free” and low calorie (which I know is not healthy) food choices because they believe that these are healthy choices.  I see lots of people are the vast majority of them are average weight or thinner. Yet you read in the news all the time about an obesity epidemic.

Diet Industry Defines Overweight

The industry that profits from categorizing people as overweight, and therefore in need of dieting is the one to lobby congress about standards of obesity.  This is essentially the fox guarding the chicken coop. The BMI and weight average considered overweight and obese has been lowered consistently by this unethical industry that includes owners of weight loss clinics, best selling diet books, diet supplements, and all related money making businesses. That’s where that statistic come into play.  Marilyn Monroe would be considered obese by the diet industry.

Medical doctors learn practically nothing about nutrition in medical school,  and they get their information about health statistics from biased “research” done by these same owners of weight loss companies. Therefore doctors are the ones telling people they “need to lose weight” despite the actual unbiased statistics from insurance actuary tables show that being overweight even by 70 pounds is healthier than being underweight by 5 pounds! That’s right, you’ll live longer being overweight verses being underweight!

Revolving-Door-of-Dieting

Diets Create Obesity

If there was an actual diet that really worked – one where people did this diet, lost weight and maintained the weight loss, wouldn’t EVERYONE go on it, and never have to diet again?? Well, sure! But the FACT IS: there is NO DIET, not Weight Watchers, low fat, Paleo, “lifestyle change” or anything else that is more effective than achieving 5{5b8e831512cf0c284f7edae7fc403e9a09e5b1736c5b1d60e4451a29dc064ebe} of people lose and maintain weight loss!

The Treatment creates the condition

In fact, this is an industry that gives a recommendation that actually CAUSES the condition it purports to wanting to end! It’s like doctors recommending increasing the number of cigarettes you smoke to stop lung cancer!

DIETS are responsible for the increase of weight in the United States.

It’s been estimated that 50 percent of women are on a diet at any given time, according to Judy Mahle Lutter in her book “The Bodywise Woman.” Up to 90 percent of teenagers diet regularly, and up to 50 percent of younger kids have tried a diet at some point.

It is clear that after each diet, 95{5b8e831512cf0c284f7edae7fc403e9a09e5b1736c5b1d60e4451a29dc064ebe} of people regain the weight they lost and add additional pounds to their original weight! It’s as if all the people who diet are in mass hypnosis believing that if they did it right, then they would be thin forever. They actually believe that 95{5b8e831512cf0c284f7edae7fc403e9a09e5b1736c5b1d60e4451a29dc064ebe} of people have no self discipline and are responsible for diet failure! This is a complete outrageous lie.

Why Are Some People Thin?

Instead of  judging overweight people as having a character flaw for their weight problem, why not study thin people? From my observation of my many slender friends, they have ALWAYS eaten larger meals than I have. They also have not participated in the very active exercise programs that I did (fast walking with hand weight, aerobic classes, step classes, tennis, roller skating, jogging, skiing) in order to burn calories. It was as if they maintained their weight by magic! I had one thin best friend who I swore had a tape worm because of the amount of food she could eat and never change her size of clothes!

And when you met their parents, they were similarly built (although I didn’t spend a lot of time having meals with their parents). Hmmm, could there be a genetic factor there?

A statistical analysis done of civil service workers in England tells an interesting story as well. The higher up the job title, and hence the economic level, the less overweight were the numbers of employees. In the US, the ACE Study, a long-term investigation of the effects of childhood abuse, neglect and humiliation shows that those people who suffered as children had the highest levels of overweight and other medical conditions as adults!

Other than genetic factors, it’s CLEAR that STRESS is the common denominator for what is causing weight gain. Stress from abuse, stress from low self-esteem and fear of not being accepted by others. Stress from economic disadvantages. The medical profession KNOWS that stress affects metabolism, but instead of telling their patients with weight issues to do stress relief, they tell them to do the very thing that causes MORE STRESS!

Weight Challenged?

If you have a weight challenge, WHEN did it start? Did you have a stressful event in your life that happened before you gained weight? Were you abused? Were you bullied – by school mates, or your family?  Or were you like me, and just thought I needed to be thinner because of the media, because a size 10 was too big?

Do you binge eat comfort food when you’re stressed? If you want to get control of out of control eating, dieting is not the answer. The answer is a Stress Relief Practice that is done daily- not just when you’re stressed out!

If you are in your 20’s or early 30’s,  I can encourage you to IMMEDIATELY STOP DIETING. It will only end up getting you stuck in a revolving door. And if you’re older and have been on a chronic diet for decades, it’s time you too, to stop dieting start nurturing yourself with food and forgiveness. Forgive yourself for being fooled by a greedy diet industry that makes money on your misery and tries to convince you the only way to feel good about yourself is when you are thin. Read publications that expose their treachery so that you’ll never fall for another diet plan.

Sign up for my newsletter and let me help you accept yourself right now- not when you’ve lost weight; but exactly the way you are. Just imagine how much better your life will be when food not longer controls you!

dog licking face of a fat woman

Love yourself the way your dog loves you- anyway you look.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can make your own Mindset

 

 

 

 

Is Under-eating why you are OVER-weight?

body image

Is UNDER eating why you are overweight?

Do you eat enough to lose weight?

It’s paradoxical, and hard to believe, but I know we’ve all been brainwashed. We’ve been led to believe that you get overweight from over-eating. But what if we have it reversed? All of my skinny friends eat like rock stars! (thin ones). They don’t binge eat, they just eat decent sized meals when they’re hungry. All my heavier friends eat like rabbits. And the research shows that the less you eat, the more you slow down your metabolism. In fact, if you chronically under-eat, you have probably damaged your metabolism to the point where you won’t lose weight unless you are really starving.

In fact, that’s what happened to me. I went on one of those “cleansing fasts” where you only had apple cider vinegar, lemon juice and maple syrup (VERY small portion) for TEN DAYS!! Everyone said that you would only be hungry for the first couple of days, and then you got a burst of energy and felt great.

That didn’t happen for me. But I am VERY disciplined and despite being painfully hungry, I only drank that disgusting combination. My hunger didn’t go away after a couple of days. And even worse is that you find yourself noticing all the food commercials on TV, all the food stores wherever you drive and all the people eating everywhere. It was like the world was conspiring to make you eat despite your best intentions. But I didn’t…. I stuck to that fast completely.

I had so much extra time because I didn’t have to shop, cook, eat, and then clean up from dinner. It amazed me how much time we actually spend around meals! And when you don’t eat, you really don’t have a lot of energy to do practically anything. Even my sleep was disturbed because I was dreaming about food! It’s kind of like when you really have to pee when you’re asleep, you dream about looking for a bathroom!

To end this long story about my 10 day fast – I lost 14 pounds – but that was the first time I did the “Master Cleanse”. I was THRILLED. And guess what? I went back to eating- and remember, I was a chronic dieter, so I still didn’t eat lots of food when I DID eat. I gained that weight back REALLY fast. Within a month I had regained the 14 pounds and 2 additional punishment pounds.

And what did I do? I thought, there MUST be something the matter with me- my thyroid must be screwed up…. Well, not eating gives you “functional hypothyroidism” where you don’t have the disease itself, but the symptoms!

I was disgusted, once again and stopped dieting for about six months, and then did another stupid diet, with the same kind of results, but I sure didn’t lose 14 pounds in 10 days like the first time I did that fasting!  In fact, when I tried to do the Master Cleanse the second time, I lost 1/4 of a pound in 10 days!!!!!!  I swear I’m telling you the truth!!

 Stress Causes Dieting

Overweight people generally don’t feel too great about their body.  They probably felt that way before they were overweight, and  that’s why they started over-eating and then dieting. Stress makes you feel awful, and food can be a drug to make you feel better. It’s even called “comfort food”. Some people will reach for drugs or alcohol, and you know how that makes your life even worse and ends up ruining your life! Don’t reach for the food (or those other really bad things), but DO stress relief that will make you feel better.

 

 

Diets Make You Gain Weight

this is me when I started dieting

this is me when I started dieting

I starved myself my entire life, to the point where it was difficult to eat a full meal. I started dieting when I was a size 10- yes, like those crazies I mentioned above who want to be thinner (and richer). Look what it did for Whitney Houston!

Here’s the fact that the Diet Industry either doesn’t want you to know, or hasn’t figured out: Under-eating, avoiding certain foods, and dieting is depriving yourself is a mindset that attracts overweight. It’s the way the Law Of Attraction works!  It’s been proven by BRAIN science as well! This is a overweight mindset. It’s stressful to your body, and to your mind. Once you’re stressed, your body shifts into fat storage mode, and your diet is doomed to failure!

In over 80{5b8e831512cf0c284f7edae7fc403e9a09e5b1736c5b1d60e4451a29dc064ebe} of cases, people are stressed, and they may use “comfort food” as a drug of choice to treat the stress. So are they overweight because they ate the food, or are they gaining weight because they are STRESSED?

Ta Da: STRESS is the cause of overeating; over-eating is the symptom of stress.

Most women I talk to under-eat chronically, and that is the reason that they can’t lose weight.  Their metabolisms have slowed down, their hair is thin, (outer third of their eyebrow is thin or gone), have cold body temperature, don’t sleep well, and a host of other problems. The good news is: #1- you can EASILY self-diagnose a slow metabolism yourself; AND you can re-set your metabolism.

In fact, a good friend of mine who saved me from dieting is Matt Stone from 180º Health (on Facebook). I heard him talking about how diets and under-eating are actually the thing that makes you gain weight – and it was like a lightbulb went on over my head. My life suddenly came into focus and I KNEW, BEYOND a scintilla of a doubt, that he was right!

If you are young enough, his premise is that you have to start RE-FEEDING yourself to slowly teach you body that you’re not starving. You should eat all the food that you fear, and gain some weight, and then your body will naturally start losing the excess weight. Now I don’t recommend this for us older crowd. We may have done so much damage to our metabolism that this flip to fast metabolism is not going to happen; and you’ll just end up gaining weight, and not losing it. But it’s certainly worth your investigation and reading his books. He’s a funny guy, but he does have a potty mouth- so if that offends you, either don’t read it, or just laugh a lot.

 

And when you are ready to really manage your stress and NOT use food, and want to talk about my Stop Emotional Eating program, start by taking the evaluation and a no-cost last strategy session to see if this program is right for you. What have you got to lose?

you can choose how to live your life by adjusting your mindset.signature from Lianda Ludwig

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