To achieve lifelong wellness, we need to understand our personal story and accept ourselves fully. We need to overcome the social markers of success and learn what personal success means for us. I remember one woman who struggled with weight for years until her mother passed away. Her mother was extremely critical of this highly successful woman, and being a highly successful woman, she very much wanted to show her Mom that she could measure up. She ate her frustrations when she could not.
Most of the people I work with in my nutrition practice are highly intelligent women who have suffered for years over their weight. What they find as we work together is that weight is really secondary, or a distraction, to the real issue. The real issue is learning to love yourself fully. To shut down the inner critic. To stop people pleasing. To slow down and put yourself first. When you do that, everyone wins.
Here are just a few of the reasons overweight is such a common problem today
your bucket is empty
You give and give. You start your day with intentions of eating well. You may have a healthy breakfast but everything goes downhill after that. Or you may skip breakfast thinking you’ll “save” your calories. By 4 pm you’re bingeing on any snack you can find to fill up the empty bucket. It’s not hunger for food that drives you; it’s the mental or emotional toll the day has taken on you for lack of self-care.
your food choices never fill you up
you really are hungry all the time. This happens when you eat low nutrient, high sugar foods. Your brain knows you haven’t had any quality nutrients so it keeps activating your appetite hormones, hoping your next choice will be nourishing. When it’s not, you stay hungry.
your hormones are out of balance
all hormones talk to one another. When your adrenals have you in high gear, your digestive hormones conserve energy and won’t burn off the food you ate. When your thyroid is sluggish, you need to heal it by eating the foods that restore its balance.
you’re protecting yourself from difficult memories
some shop, some over-exercise, others eat. These habits can be symptomatic of other issues. It is common for victims of sexual abuse to become over or under weight. One analysis of 57,000 women cited in The Atlantic found that those who experienced physical or sexual abuse as children were twice as likely to be addicted to food.
These are just some of the reasons overweight is so prevalent. You may be thinking of several other causes. For any nutritional program to be successful, it cannot be just about weight loss. It explains why 95% of diets fail. Weight is not the primary issue. Our life story, present and past, and how we make changes in that story is what leads toward healing on all levels, including weight.
To achieve lifelong wellness, we need to understand our personal story and accept ourselves fully. We need to overcome the social markers of success and learn what personal success means for us.
These causes don’t sentence you to remaining overweight. We just have to figure out what drives us, and how to heal or let go of that anxiety or those everyday habits that keep us stuck.