Are stress and overwhelm getting in the way of your efforts to lose weight?

Are you feeling stressed, overwhelmed, exhausted, and trapped in some area of your life (work, home life, Covid, to name a few possibilities)?

Do you dread going to work in the morning, knowing what awaits you? Or even worse, do you dread going home at the end of the day?

Do you fantasize about quitting your job or running away from some other part of your life?

Or maybe you get anxious thinking about your next meal, or about getting on the scale.

Are you sick and tired of the standard advice from the weight loss gurus what about you need to do?

"Eat this, not that."

"Eat less, move more."

"Avoid carbs."

"Avoid fat."

"Eat lots of protein."

"Eat vegetarian."

"Go Vegan."

"Try intermittent fasting.

"Do this or that cleanse."

"Eat 6 small meals a day."

"Eat 3 meals a day and no snacks."

"Use this meal service."

"use meal replacement shakes and bars"

"You just need this supplement."

In fact, if you look at the medical data, some of these are good advice and some are terrible advice. But unless you do the research or have really trustworthy sources, you may have trouble knowing what to do.

It's enough to make you want to grab some noise-cancelling headphones so you can block out the endless chatter from well-meaning friends and relatives, TV ads, and the print media.

This ignores one big problem that is likely getting in your way more than all of the external chatter.

The problem is that noise-cancelling headphones only help with the noises outside your head.

The real problem is the internal noise, the unconscious thoughts that derail you and hijack your brain, keep you from doing what you want to do, and even prevent you from finding solutions that might be right in front of you.

And this applies not only to your efforts at weight loss but also to the bigger picture of who you want to be and any other big goals you want to achieve.

Our thoughts can sabotage us, and can make us miserable and yes, keep us from taking action or reaching our goals.

Sometimes we endlessly second-guess ourselves and doubt ourselves, rather than taking action.

Other times we make assumptions that don’t always hold up to scrutiny.

And sometimes we just get so upset, angry, and frustrated that we can't find or implement solutions to the things that are bothering us, or even enjoy doing the things we use to love.

We might get so stressed out about our eating that it gets in the way of our relating to our friends and family, turning down invitations to parties or other events out of fear about how we will behave around all that food.

The takeaway is that it’s important to be aware of your sneaky thoughts and take steps to curb them if they’re getting in the way of your success.

However, just being aware of the sneaky thoughts that sabotage you may not be quite enough to actually clear them.

The thing is, these thoughts (and their resultant behaviors) are usually due to old brain programming that was conditioned into you when you were very young, without your even realizing it.

They operate in the background as an unconscious operating system in your brain - you generally aren't even aware of them, so they are even more insidious than the conscious thoughts you are aware of.

And it turns out that what you don't know CAN hurt you.

Don't get me wrong. There are plenty of these thoughts that you can bring to the surface yourself and overcome that way.

But others are buried deeper and just knowing that you think the thought isn't enough to help you clear the emotions or the behavior.

Here are some examples:

For some people trying to lose weight, simply knowing that the reason they feel compelled to clean their plate is that their parents told them to do so when they were little, will be enough to get them to stop doing it. But most people wanting to lose weight will need something more than just using willpower to change a behavior like that.

Or, think about knowing that you want to stop overeating. Now go do it. Oops. Not so easy.

You can probably probably think of some changes related to your eating or other areas of your life that might help you reach your goals. For some of you, identifying these changes might be enough to get you to do it. But most of you would find that your brain offers up all sorts of excuses:

"I don't like dieting." (note: you don't have to diet to lose weight)

"Every time I've lost weight in the past I've gained it right back...and then some, so why bother?"

"If so much as look at a cookie I gain weight."

"Everyone in my family is overweight. It's in my genes."

"I can't lose weight after menopause."

"I'm hypothyroid."

"I can't change the food in my household. My family would complain."

"I don't have time to cook."

"We eat out a lot."

"I can't ask my spouse/kids to help."

"I'm just a victim to my cravings."

"I'm an emotional eater and there's nothing I can do about it."

Another example might be that you feel like there is some part of it that you just hate, like cooking, or meal planning. Something you just don't want to do. But what if you took that task you hate, did whatever you could to delegate it, and streamline it to the bare minimum, and then got to the point where the rest of it no longer bothered you?

You may be saying, "but Dr. Jill, I can't possibly do that. Only rich people can get someone to help with meal prep," or "but Dr. Jill, my husband likes to eat out at least three times a week."

And in a way, you 'd be right. It might indeed be a bit easier in a setting where you had someone to cook for you or your spouse also wanted to eat more healthy, home-cooked meals rather than eating out all the time.

But the fact remains that if you can't even imagine the possibility of change, it really won't matter how willing your family is to help, or what way of eating you decide to follow.

And if you hate what you think you have to do to lose weight, how can you fix that? How do you actually stop hating something, or stop something from bothering you?

Just telling yourself you "could" or even "should" do something won't work for most people.

Because understanding something intellectually usually isn't enough to create permanent change.

You have to clear the barriers at a deeper unconscious level and rewrite the old programming so that your unconscious brain will let your conscious brain and your physical body take action.

In other words, you need to turn down the internal voice in your head that is telling you that you "can't" or "shouldn't" do something, or that someone else or some rule is telling you that you can't or shouldn't do it.

The problem isn't that you need noise-cancelling headphones to stop the outside chatter.

The problem is you need to cancel some of the noise.

I can pretty much guarantee that there is some internal noise or thought in your head that is holding you back from something, AND that you can let go of that unconscious message a lot more easily than you think.

You just have to know how.

So I'm opening up some complimentary spots in my schedule for people who really want to make something happen in their life.

So if you are feeling stuck or hopeless in your efforts to lose weight because you suffer from cravings, emotional eating, or self-sabotage, and you'd like to learn how you can clear those and move the needle on your weight loss, please reach out to me.

I would love to chat with you and hear what you are wanting to do that isn't quite happening the way you want it to, and help you figure out why and what you can do about that.

Click here to book your complimentary appointment and we'll get you started on the road to your dreams.

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