WELCOME TO THE "MIND OVER BODY" PROGRAMME!
The Mind over Body is a weight loss programme that is different from other weight loss and diet programmes .I understand that a fit and healthy body also needs a fit and healthy mind. Losing weight is more than "just eat less and move more". You also have to train your mind and learn mental skills that will help you stay motivated and learn lasting behaviour changes.
Throughout this programme you will learn how your thoughts can bring about behaviour changes around the way you eat and the way you look at food. Those behaviour changes will lead to lasting weight loss. We do this by providing you with scientifically proven tools, which will help you understand why you overeat and how you can stop it.
The reason why various diet and exercise programmes do not show positive long-term results in weight loss is, they do not address underlying issues of why you overeat and how your mind is key to changing your relationship with food. They focus only on how to change your behaviour. Most diet programs focus on what to eat more of and what to eat less of, on fat content, protein, carbohydrates and portion sizes. Those are important issues around weight loss, however what most diet programs forget about is your mind. Your mind is the most important factor in permanent weight loss as the way you think about food and your body affects your behaviour and therefore your weight. Losing weight and improving your fitness is a physical as well as a psychological process. It requires learning new mental skills and identifying thinking patterns, which have hindered your weight loss in the past. Learning those new mental skills will rewire your brain and it will make you change from the inside out.
After you have been on a 'diet' for a few weeks, do you find yourself thinking:
- I worked hard all week. I deserve a treat/reward.
- I am too tired for exercise.
- I had one biscuit; my plan is ruined I might as well have another 5!
- I am stressed! I need some chocolate.
Those thoughts are unhelpful or sabotaging thoughts. One of the reasons we self-sabotage is that your conscious mind wants to lose weight, but your subconscious mind is fighting it. As your subconscious is much stronger than your conscious mind, it tends to win most of the time. This goes back to our pre-historic ancestors, where change and weight loss meant danger. Your body is primal. It thinks you live in a cave with limited amount of food available. This way of thinking was very useful in pre-historic times, as it helped the human species to survive. In this day and age however, we are surrounded by an abundance of food and our pre-historic brain does not serve us well in terms of weight loss. The good news is we can reprogram our subconscious and turn sabotaging thoughts into helpful thoughts.
Identifying unhelpful thinking patterns and learning new mental skills takes time and practice. This programme encourages you to take an active part in it, which means learning new skills that will lead to weight loss. Like any new skill you learn, it will take time to get good at it. It's a bit like learning a new instrument or a new sport. Take playing the piano for example. You probably will get a piano teacher to show you how to play. Then you will find it very difficult at the beginning to play basic scales. But the more you practice the better you will get. And there is a difference between someone practicing once a week and someone who practices every day. Learning a new skill and new habits will rewire your brain. I like to compare the rewiring to cutting a new path into the jungle. The more you use the same path, the wider it gets and the easier it will be to walk on it.
On this programme you are also going to learn about emotional eating. Emotional eating is turning to food for comfort, stress relief or as a reward. Basically, you are using food to make yourself feel better. More often than not if you have weight problem emotions are buried with food. You will be able to figure out what your triggers to emotional eating are and what other triggers you might have that derailed your weight loss in the past. You will be able to work out your coping strategies to emotional eating, and how you can change your habits to make sustainable changes to your lifestyle.
Achieving permanent and sustainable weight loss is not a race. There are too many diet programmes out there that promise you fast weight loss. Ask yourself - how many times have you tried those approaches? They may have worked for you initially, however it's easy to start a diet, but not so easy to maintain it. There are no quick fixes that give you sustainable weight loss and the best way to approach a healthy life style is by changing or learning a new habit one at a time.
Enjoy your journey!!
Susi x
