How to Get Rid of the Quarantine Weight

Are you looking at your scale after a few months of the stay at home orders and not liking the number on the scale? It may feel hard to lose the weight, but if this is something you desire, the way is there. And maybe there is a better way than what you’ve done before. Photo Credit TipsTimesAdmin

So you want to lose weight and you want it to work. You may have lost weight before but it felt like so much work. Then gained it all back. So you don’t feel like trying again if your efforts are so high for it not to last right?

Let’s talk about what works. If you were told about a method that sounds a bit unconventional, are you willing to try it if it worked? Are you someone who tends to reject ideas and miss out? Are you someone who likes to consider new and better ideas? Imagine if you were living in the early 1900s and made your travels by horse and buggy, and someone told you, you can get from California to New York in 6 hrs, would you believe it then? Sounded impossible back in the 1900s then but we now fly this route all the time without thinking it is impossible.

Back to losing weight, most patients ask me to help them with a “diet” to lose weight. The problem most people have is difficulty sticking to a diet, not that they absolutely do not know what to eat. I would say most people have some idea of what foods to eat to lose weight but the hard part is sticking to it, or that it is too much work, or they gain the weight all back.

Here’s the part that most people do not think of when wanting to lose weight but is key to getting more lasting results. In my practice, a few sessions to remove unconscious sabotaging beliefs have made a huge difference in successful weight loss. Doing it this way also makes losing weight feel easier, because what causes you to fight yourself is removed. I dropped 8 pounds myself during the quarantine in 4 weeks time, without feeling like a did much. You can as well!

For example here are some un-helpful beliefs some patients had that after they were released allowed them to lose weight and keep it off:

• I’ve worked hard today, food is my reward (So why would you take your reward away?)
• today was stressful food makes me feel better (If food is mostly your way to cope with stress, it will be hard to fight your body’s desire for comfort)
• I feel empty: food fills the void (Do you keep eating even when you are not hungry? It’s more an emotional void than hunger)
• People who looked good when I was growing up got it easy. I felt judged by my looks when growing up. I need people to love me no matter how I look. (Need to prove value of self not based on looks, so with this belief, it sabotages one’s desire to achieve a desired body.)
• I have been violated in the past. This trauma makes me self-conscious of my body. (Until the trauma is healed, the extra weight can subconsciously feel “safer”)
• I feel like people are looking at me, or judging me. I feel vulnerable. (Sometimes weight is a protection from being seen).
• I’ve been stressed (people often hold burdens as extra weight, and stress increases cortisol which increases belly fat)

There are numerous healing techniques I use to help patients identify and release their unique unconscious beliefs that block them from successfully losing weight. I want to give back, and make a video to walk you through getting rid of a belief that gets in the way of losing weight. I’d love to hear from you. Please respond to this email, with what mental/emotional/belief system is hindering you from losing weight. I will select one of your responses (no name will be mentioned), and do a healing video next time. Email me and we could be working on yours.

To Eat or not to Eat...That is the Question

How does our attitude about food affect how successful we can be to achieve a healthy weight?

Angelina comes home from work at 8:30pm. Her team at work has successfully completed a month long project today and all she wants to do is to go home, have a couple glasses of wine, some comfort food and desert to reward herself. She is 5'6 165lbs. She used to be 130lbs when she was younger, but the weight has slowly crept up over the years. She has tried various weight loss programs and has been able to loose 20-25 lbs or so, but she seems to always gain it back. Why? What are some obstacles to her keeping the weight off? 

Growing up, Angelina's mom always rewarded her for good behavior with ice cream. Her mother would have lots of cheese and crackers if she was having a bad day to soothe herself. If she was having an especially bad day, she would say to her daughter, "Mommy's tummy looks so fat. I wish I looked like you. You make sure you don't eat too much so you stay pretty."

Many of my patients and friends believe that the less they eat, the less they weight. Calories in = Calories out. But that is not true. When you consume a food with less calories, for example a plain bagel, 70 calories (Panera Bread plain bagel 290 cal), compared to 2 eggs, 170 calories; it is natural to choose the bagel with 70 calories because it has the lowest calories. However the bagel is a carbohydrate, which means if you don't burn it, it gets converted by the liver into fat. The egg is protein and has much less of an effect on weight. Also, the bagel has almost no nutritional value, so when you consume it, your body is still asking you for more food, because it is nutrient deficient and you are more likely to crave more food after consuming the bagel. A study shows that people who consume zero calorie beverages are more likely to gain weight in 1 year than people who drink non-diet drinks. That is not to say that I am advocating for sugary non-diet drinks, but the zero calorie drinks may be worse because of the chemical effects the artificial sweeteners have on your brain, programing your brain to crave more food, because it is empty nutrition. Every type of food sends a different signal to your metabolism, so choose foods that are nutrient dense, and your brain will get the signal that you are satiated. This will help reduce cravings.

Another tendency I see is that people believe that the less they eat, the less they weigh. So especially with my busy patients, this is both convenient and works with their innocently misguided beliefs. Many people will have a coffee and skip breakfast, then have a light lunch at noon and not eat for 8 hours till they get back home from work. By that time they are starving, and will binge on foods for the rest of the evening. They often tend to eat more than they would have, if they had eaten nutrient dense meals and snacks during the day when the point of "hunger to no return arrives". Nutrient dense foods such as good quality proteins and healthy fats induce a chemical called somatostatin, that makes you full. Therefore, having these foods combined with fruits and vegies (which generally have zero effect on your weight), will help you feel full and reduce cravings. When you are overly hungry, your blood sugar drops very low which sends a message to your brain to eat the fastest thing that will elevate your blood sugar. That would be sugar and carbohydrates! But these foods will turn into fat if you don't burn them. So please eat breakfast and it is generally healthy to have some food every 3-4 hours.

Lastly with popular culture, we have often associated the word diet with beauty and restriction of food. This can have profound psychological effects on us when we view food this way. Hippocrates said, "let food be your medicine". So perhaps instead of thinking about restricting foods or calories; what if the paradigm was shifted to, "what foods can I choose to have more of, that nourish my body". And if you have more of nutrient dense foods, you probably would just naturally be more full and not want foods that do not support your body. I believe we all should live life, so do not feel bad if you ocassionally have deserts, or choose whatever you like when you eat out. Let's not punish ourselves with guilt that should not be. Rather let us be educated and make decisions that support our wellbeing. If you generally had 80-90% healthy foods, you would feel quite well. If you have 60% or more vegetables and fruit on your plate, you would also feel quite well. So to eat or not to eat, I'd say eat with gratitude.