Many of us have a view of their optimal weight and sometimes we feel we are falling short of our ideal sense of it.
With age, our metabolism slows down, and a change in hormones women experience can make things even more tricky.
There are no quick fixes for getting to your ideal weigh – we would have been millionaires if there had been a definitive recipe! But here are some useful tips:
1. Exercise sensibly and with enjoyment. Find something that you find motivating and fun. You are much more likely to stick to it - walking, swimming, tennis, paddleboarding… there are so many choices, some things will resonate more!
2. Move with awareness. In my 20ies, I used to go to a gym and hit the treadmill with loud music on. It does not appeal anymore. And it’s not just the noise. When we are distracted, we are less body aware and more open to injuries. We might not feel the warning signs as we disconnect from our body - and when distracted, we do not lay down important new neural pathways in our brain. There is no learning in that and we do not get the full benefit from our fitness efforts.
3. Go barefoot. Feet have loads of sensory awareness in them. By feeling the ground through our feet, we literally exercise our brain. It’s for that reason young children can hate shoes – they lose sensory input into their feet.
4. Do not follow fad diets. Today’s paleo or clean eating obsession might be replaced with something else tomorrow. Someone is getting very rich off the back of some of these! Eat sensibly, a great range of veg, lean meats, wholegrains, fruits, fast when needed if it appeals, reduce or eliminate alcohol, and always take plenty of hydration.
5. Address any negative triggers that gets in the way of your exercise regime. We hold on to past emotions in our physical body. For example, after an injury, the body will guard against unsafe movement, often subtly, until it is addressed. That includes not just physical rehabilitation, but also, often, understanding and resolving the trauma associated with the original injury.
For instance, I badly injured my ankle decades ago, rushing downstairs in the dark, missing a step and falling down. For years after that, thinking about dark staircases made me break into a cold sweat, and my ankle would ache. Hypnotherapy really helped with both sets of symptoms.
Vanessa adds:
“As Kaye says, there are no quick fixes to weight loss and there are no magical Hypnotherapy wands to be waved which melt away excess weight. However, there are some useful techniques to get you started on your weight loss journey:
Collaboration – working with your wellness and/or movement coach to achieve your goals.
Limiting beliefs and negative emotions? Do you have any around your weight or food?
What are the root causes of your weight gain? Often, eating is a way of dealing with an unresolved emotions or trauma.
What are your thoughts and what are you saying to yourself when you are engaged in unhelpful patterns around food and eating? Be conscious of them.
Jot down your thoughts as you have them with honesty and no judgement. Once you are aware of them, you can change them.“
Thank you Vanessa for sharing your thoughts with us today. To find our more about Vanessa and Surrey Wellbeing Clinic, have a look at Vanessa's FB page or her Instagram page.
To your health,
Kaye and Vanessa