If your appearance carries more weight than you’d like, you are not alone. When we feel sad or depressed, one of the most common actions taken to fill the empty void is by eating food. That’s why the term “comfort food” exists. It’s food that helps you feel comfortable, warm, and safe.
And in the United States, these types of eating habits have led to serious health issues. This leads to new diets, different trends, and other potentially unhealthy eating habits that are essentially a “get thin quick” scheme. Weight isn’t something that just vanishes overnight. It’s a slow and methodical process that takes time.
Everyone is different, and the same goes for their eating habits. Just because one diet may have worked for a friend doesn’t mean it’s the right one for you. If there was a one-size-fits-all diet, wouldn’t we all just eat that way on a normal basis?
Weight loss is about a positive connection between the mind and body. When you’re in control of your thoughts, emotions, and behavior, your diet is also under control. Diets and eating habits don’t take into consideration obstacles that enter your life. It’s how you react mentally and physically to these obstacles that correlates to your weight, behavior, and overall well being.
Focus On the Long-Term, Not Short-Term
If you find a way to lose a lot of weight in a short amount of time, have you stopped to think about your long-term health? Weight loss is a commitment and testament to your will-power to show how strong willed you are. Going to the gym on a regular basis is a commitment but if you aren’t doing the right exercises to achieve your goals, you’re just enjoying your drive to and from the gym.
After attempting to lose weight for a considerable amount of time without showing any results, our mentality begins to change from ,“I need to stick with this, “ to, “maybe what I’m doing isn’t working. What else can I try?”
So many people choose to focus on their weight, what they eat, how often they exercise, how much water they drink, how many vitamins they take, how much sleep they get. All of these factors are important, but the one that people rarely consider is their mindfulness.
Meditation for weight loss is a simple, effective tool that could be the key to your weight loss journey. Not only does it provide benefits to your weight loss journey, you’ll be calmer, more mindful, more relaxed, and more attentive to your surroundings.
Meditation for Weight Loss
Through meditative techniques, your weight loss journey will be off to a positive and most importantly, healthy journey.
Curb Your Appetite
Meditation can help you curb your appetite so your need for “comfort meals” is drastically reduced. Your stress eating habits are minimized. Your fixation on your weight reduces so you can be more mindful about your entire body, not the five extra pounds you may have.
By becoming more aware of your thoughts, behavior, and emotions, you can allow yourself to eat without judgment. You can have a positive relationship with food and forgive yourself if you happen to eat a cheeseburger when you’re out with friends.
Maintain Your Weight Loss
Once you happen to lose weight, your journey isn’t finished. Meditation has been proven to be an effective weight loss tool for individuals who have negative eating habits. This is due in part to meditation making you aware of your surroundings, your actions, and how you currently feel. Your unconscious mind will process these thoughts and allow you to take action without judgement.
As you improve your short-term eating habits, your long-term habits will improve leading to a healthier, better you.
Improve Your Overall Health
Your weight is only one element of your overall health. Meditation helps slow down your thoughts and be present. This correlates to a decrease in your metabolism and blood pressure, slows down your breathing, and improves your heart rate. All of these lead to a lower BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) so you can reduce the calories your body needs, leading to natural weight loss.
Self Control
Self control isn’t something everyone has. Some people see their favorite food and just can’t stop eating until it’s all gone. Others get one taste of sugar and continue saying they’ll have just one more. Meditation improves your awareness and mindfulness so you can reject negative temptations.
These meditative techniques will help you have a more positive relationship with food so you can be present while eating. You will no longer feel poorly about yourself after a meal or a snack. You’ll recognize how you feel after eating specific foods and different quantities to prove to yourself that you can exhibit self control.
Make, Don’t Take Time
Meditation provides a heightened sense of focus helping you make, not take, time to meditate. You’ll find yourself focusing more intently on more than just your diet. Distractions at work, social media, day-to-day activities, will fall to the wayside and provide you with a clearer thought processing picture.
Start Your Weight Loss Journey
When it comes to our relationship with food, acknowledging the relationship between mind and body is essential. Stress and how we manage it plays a key role with weight loss and meditation can help. GMS (Guided Meditation and Suggestion) therapy can help realign and refocus you to have a positive relationship with food and detach existing negative connotations.
Having a positive outlook on life is not enough. It takes determination, perseverance, and conscious effort to make a true, lasting change.
At Theta, we use GMS to help you create new ways of thinking about yourself and build the inner strength to keep you focused on a new, healthy, improved you. By changing the way you eat, you’ll consciously choose a healthier, more supportive lifestyle that will last you for a lifetime.
