4 Mind Hacks To Feel Lighter, Shed Weight, and Eat Better

The saying “You Are What You Eat” is a worthy one to ponder.  As a health and wellness coach, I prefer the saying, “You Eat What You Are”!  You eat according to how you are feeling and the thoughts and images you have of yourself.  You are not always conscious of this and may need a few mind hacks to bring it all to the surface.

This was the topic of our last Live With Lorie & Lucille Show on Facebook.  Click here to watch the show.

 The Real Reason You Eat Too Much

As a coach and a nurse advocate, I have witnessed clients who eat poorly and have great difficulty losing weight.  They tend to have little awareness of the reasons why this is so.  Many times, they are just not aware that this is more than a physical process.  Their emotions such as sadness, fear, frustration anger, worry, or just not being in touch with who they are and what they want all contribute to the process of eating and weight gain.

Conversely, when they were able to:

• Become more aware of how to manage negative emotions
• Have a strategy to make the needed changes in their life
• Build up confidence and a better body image
• Understand the connection between their thoughts/mind, body, and spirit

They were able to shed the “heaviness” of their life and shed weight and feel better overall.

Heaviness in Life

Deepak Chopra speaks about that this heaviness is more than physical, it can involve any aspect of your life.  Heavy moods, heavy stress, heavy workload.  These are burdens that need to be shed in mind, body, and spirit.  He notes that emotions and relationships can be as toxic as wrong foods.

That is why we utilize a whole-person wellbeing coaching model called Wellness Inventory that addresses 12 dimensions of wellness.  Once a whole-person model is adopted and the mind, body, and spirit issues are addressed one achieves an improved self-image, sheds weight, and finds more peace and happiness.

Ponder the following questions:

• What burdens do you feel that make me heavy?
• What is the purpose of food and nourishing my body?
• Do I relate to food as I do to the world, my relationships?
• What story am I telling myself about my weight? Is it really true?
• Do you generally love and care for yourself and feel good when you do something nice for yourself?

 4 Mind Hacks

There are 4 simple but not necessarily easy mind hacks we suggest to get started in identifying how to have more awareness of your "weight" mind, body, and spirit.

1. Mindfulness – being aware of the way you eat and what your core beliefs are is very important. Knowing that your relationship to food is a mirror of your feelings about love, fear, anger, meaning, and yes, even your spirituality. By using mindfulness techniques, you can manage yourself better and shed some “weight”.
2. Know Your Triggers – triggers are inner beliefs that we create to justify resistance and prevent you from making positive changes. Becoming aware of your triggers can help start the process of making better food choices.  Triggers can be stress, strong emotions, loneliness, cultural conditioning, and more.
3. Track and Tackler Your Triggers – after identifying your triggers it is essential to develop a strategy to handle and eliminate these triggers.
4. Get Off The Couch – it is vital that movement is part of the process to become lighter, eat better and manage weight.

Let Food Be Thy Medicine

The quote by Hippocrates, “Let food be thy medicine, thy medicine shall be thy food,” is such an important quote.  What we eat has everything to do with maintaining good health and happiness as we age.  This is one area of life we can control and it is a worthy and necessary goal.

Changing your eating habits and shedding weight is much more than a new diet. It encompasses all aspects of you and your life, some of which you may not even be aware of. 

“When diet is wrong, medicine is of no use. When diet is correct, medicine is of no need.”  ~ Ayurvedic Proverb

“To keep the body in good health is a duty, otherwise we will not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.” ~ Buddha

Learn more about whole-person wellbeing and how it can shed some "heaviness" so you can shed weight and feel lighter and happier.

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