Christmas is coming

​​I know, way too early to think about Christmas we haven’t even had Halloween yet.  But everywhere you look the shops are getting ready for it  and people who often worried about their weight  have got the next reason to worry, Christmas, and how they have let themselves go in the summer now it’s time to get back on track for those nights out and getting together with friends and family.  This may or may not be you perhaps you feel  you are one of the lucky ones because you have come across a diet that is working and you are in the confident phase of seeing some weight loss which is making you feel good about yourself and delighting in complements about how good you look and you in telling everyone who will listen that they should give it a go.  Chronic dieters generally fall somewhere in a continuum between these 2 groups at one end feeling shame and disgust at themselves but they continue trying and retrying because the feelings they get during the diet going well at the other end makes everything feel wonderful and life fantastic and they know that this feeling will last forever and they will  never need to start another  diet again, until they do.

Constantly  going from  high to low feelings about your body and your worth can be quite exhausting and, worse than that it can, over time, work to reduce your self-esteem and self-worth both of these being entrenched in how thin you look as well being the possible cause of other health problems like raised blood pressure, cholesterol, gallstones, osteoporotic fractures and coronary heart disease to name a few. But what’s the alternative.  Perhaps it might be time to consider cutting out the lows.  I know you might think, but this time it’s going to work and the feelings I get from being thinner are going to last because I won’t put on weight. I have the willpower because this diets so easy.
Before you read on ask yourself. 
How many years have I been on a diet?
How long did I stay at my ideal weight in that time? 
How did I feel when I fell off the diet? 
Wouldn’t it be good not to have those lows and start to feel you are ok no matter what?

From a biological point of view your body is built to maintain weight not lose weight and it will adapt to help prevent weight loss. Research shows that weight loss leads to a reduction in metabolism which helps to ensure weight is regained and many people not only regain weight but they get heavier. If you have spent a number of years dieting and have always ended up back where you started or weighing even more and you just want to make changes to help you feel good more of the time and  also have the added bonus of  improving your health as you go. Perhaps it is time to make peace with all food and claim back your self-worth.  Stopping dieting does not mean you are giving up on yourself or your body it just means that you are going to stop the diet cycle that may well have led you to having low self-worth and the belief that some foods are so powerful you have to avoid them making them even more powerful.

  Give another way a chance by setting goals to feel good and improve your self-care, which in turn can help improve your self-worth and ultimately your health. This option is not a quick fix, like the promises from the diet culture out there, but if you have spent the last 5-20 years on a diet what is 12 months from now. Coming up to Christmas 2019 or Halloween 2019 how do you want to be feeling?  Do you want to feel good or treated because you have made a lasting change for you self-worth or tricked into another diet that has left you a year older but still on that continuum. 
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So why not make a start right now
Start to listen to your body signals for hunger and fullness and noticing how different foods leave you feeling satisfied
Give yourself permission to eat all food
Listen to you internal dialogue around food and when diet rules come up challenge them
Start to plan for all aspects of health care including sleep, having fun, relaxation, work load, physical activity and treating yourself with kindness.

If you would like to try this way but not sure how to get started why not contact me for an appointment.