A recent post on Facebook got me thinking.
A woman who sells a popular weight loss product listed “appetite suppressant” as one of the benefits of using it, which prompted me to ask, “Why would you want to suppress your appetite?”
Millions of products on the market hail the virtues of suppressing your appetite as an effective way of losing weight, yet if it were, why would millions of people keep trying to do it, but continue to overeat anyways?
Herein lies the problem when it comes to weight loss with women.
They usually so grossly out of touch with their own bodies and their natural, inborn appetite that they have no idea when they're even hungry or what a normal appetite even looks like. It's all a result of their twisted conditioning, bombarded by images of the ideal body and how to attain it, and as a result, become vulnerable to gimmicky ads, hoping for a quick fix, never stopping to question any of it or worse, trusting what their bodies tell them instead.
Coupled with feelings of shame, remorse, guilt or any other self-defeating emotion they pile on, they fall victim to sleazy marketing ploys and buy into a one-size-fits-all mentality, reasoning that if they just ate less and exercised more, they'd never have to deal with their weight again.
Or would they?
My own experience dictates that merely focusing on diet and exercise only gets you so far so long and is never a lasting solution in and of itself, because what I never realized was happening in the process was if I kept avoiding the underlying reasons why my eating was so out of control in the first place, or how I was conditioned to eat (as in, learned behavior), no matter how much I tried to restrict my calorie intake or force myself to work out, anything that triggered me subconsciously and caused me to feel unsafe, scared, angry, doubtful, or any other emotion that drove my eating, I'd ultimately fail.
It didn't matter how long I’d been eating right and exercising either. My weight would shoot right back up, and without knowing otherwise, I’d consequently blame myself for having no willpower and wind up feeling like a failure for having gained weight again.
Yet to the contrary, willpower has nothing to do with it when your life is in overdrive 24/7! Or when your values conflict. For example, I always wanted to look a certain way, which required a carefully regimented routine and commitment, but money and career always took precedence, even though at the time I wasn’t consciously aware of it, so when my job had extended periods of down time, I had extra time to focus on myself, so I did, yet other times, when it demanded more time and attention, I automatically abandoned my what-I-thought had become permanent habits in a mere week's time.
The subconscious drivers are so powerful, if you do nothing to change them, you will ALWAYS fail!
What I never realized then was that although I desperately wanted to attain – and maintain – my ideal weight and body, I didn’t make it a priority but rather an afterthought, as in, “If I have time, I’ll do something about it.” In other words, my values conflicted and I had no concept of it. It wasn’t until I did that my priorities shifted and I stopped pushing it to the bottom of the list when other parts of my life demanded more from me.
Gaining weight is no reason to panic. It’s actually valuable information from your body that something’s out of alignment, not just with your body, but your career, your relationships, or anything in your life that’s significant to you. And ignoring your appetite will no more work to help get the weight off than full blown starvation will.
Dieting as a way of life does nothing to promote intuitive eating either, the part of you that never has to question what to eat or whether you’re truly hungry or not. Think of it this way. When you were a baby, you were much less of an emotional eater and just ate because your body told you to. You never refused your bottle when you were hungry, or ate snacks when your mom yelled at you.
Even up to early adulthood, for many, eating is just for nourishment and a natural response to hunger. It's when a life-changing event takes place that you don't know how to manage emotionally that you start to turn to food for comfort, and you become an emotional eater.
Understanding weight loss from a new perspective are what women are really craving. They want to be acknowledged for the fact that they hate gyms, don't want to spend countless hours on the treadmill, revere chocolate cake, and want it to be ok. And it can be, when it's not an obsession or the only way to cope with life when it gets overwhelming.
Understanding your emotions and how they influence your eating is truly the first step to losing weight if you care to make a lifelong impression on how you look and feel every day. Managing your emotions will help you when it comes to overcoming overeating, and just about everything else; developing yourself emotionally, regardless of your age, is a worthy investment that will pay off in spades in every aspect of life that matters most, and especially weight loss.
Ignoring this critical piece will leave you in the same vicious cycle of dieting, over and over and over again, only perpetuating the emotional downfall you're already experiencing when it comes to your weight and your body.
But you don't have to do it alone! Just click here for a free copy of my 7-video eCourse on how to stop emotional eating:
Enjoy!
Love,
Angela
Angela Minelli is an author, speaker and founder of Angela Minelli International, a heart-based global business serving purpose-driven everyday women and entrepreneurs whose self-image and weight issues are inhibiting their confidence and blocking them from pursuing their life’s passion.
Angela's joy is in taking a stand for women who are living less than ideal lives, stopped by fear and doubt, which prevents them from stepping into their innate power and delivering their God-given genius to the world. Her coaching programs and products are designed for women with busy lifestyles yet allow for powerful transformation to take place within a small segment of time.
As a natural health practitioner and digestive health specialist, Angela specializes in helping people overcome weight and energy issues through holistic, non-invasive protocols that address the root cause of their conditions, including adrenal fatigue, candida, thyroid disorders, and more.
Explore the ideals that are the cornerstone of her work at angelaminelli.com.