Self-acceptance; the key to weight loss

Guest Blog Post by Daryl Wood - Intentional Leader of Women's Retreats.

Finding Catherine has been no surprise to me. After all, we are drawn to those we can learn from all the time. Reading her blog reminded me of so many of my own experiences and what I have heard from clients over the years. I too have struggled with eating/food issues and now understand that abusive eating had become another of my addictive responses to not wanting to feel. The tragedy is of course that eating doesn’t resolve the underlying feelings anymore than alcohol, drugs, over-working, mindless video games, etc. In the end, there simply isn’t anywhere we can hide. Why not? Because what we are running from, lives inside of us.

Discovering what triggers us to use food to soothe ourselves is very much worth the investment. The 60 billion (yes, that’s a B for billion) dollar diet industry has no intention of creating lasting change. Why should they? Unemployment would skyrocket if everyone selling pills, creams, equipment, books and comprehensive programs suddenly faced a huge drop in demand from the public. Alas, just like losing weight, things won’t change overnight. If anything, our population is getting fatter rather than shifting to a healthy lifestyle.

What Catherine is pointing us to is the effectiveness of tapping (literally and metaphorically) into our deep beliefs about ourselves. The internal dialogue rooted in our earliest definitions of ourselves keeps playing over in our minds no matter how much we accomplish. And if it’s not celebratory, it’s destructive. For example, it may be hard to imagine that a highly successful executive with enormous responsibility and multiple awards of recognition could have any reason to not feel worthy. But it happens all the time and in every walk of life, every community, every organization and more households than you could imagine.

What I am no longer surprised by is how many people make their way to my coaching programs with low self-worth. That’s not usually what pushed them to call but it’s always lurking in the corner somewhere. The most challenging issue to address is that of self-criticism. You will notice in Catherine’s videos that she doesn’t use judgement and self-negating during EFT treatments. It’s this philosophy of loving oneself that provides the space for self-acceptance and self-nurturing. Only under these conditions can anyone truly change the foundational beliefs that cause self-destructive behaviours.

My specialty lies in creating opportunities for women to slow down, connect with their inner wisdom and get very clear on what matters to them. This comes in the form of retreats and specifically the Women’s Whole Life Retreat and Coaching Program  which I developed to ensure that changes were fully integrated. What Catherine and I share is a common understanding that the fears and shame we try desperately to hide, ultimately shows up all over our bodies. 

There isn’t a pill, diet or quick-fix on the planet that can erase the self-loathing that many overweight people struggle with on a daily basis. What works is changing what we say to ourselves about ourselves so we can feel safe in our own heads. As I’ve navigated this road myself I know that some of what I turned over along the path wasn’t easy to digest, physically and emotionally. But I also know how liberating the process can be. And that makes it all worthwhile.

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Ms. Daryl Wood has been an Intentional Leader of Women’s Retreats creating deeply empowering experiences in sacred, healing environments for over 12 years. She also Coaches women around the world by phone on the biggest challenge of all - Coping With Change - so they can live more fulfilling lives that have a greater impact on their world, no matter how big or small it is. Daryl loves the opportunity to help people move forward in their lives and her slightly irreverent humour adds a refreshing and engaging energy to all her relationships. You can learn more about Daryl at her websites:

www.darylwood.com and www.womenswisdomretreats.com.

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If you would like to learn EFT yourself, Gary Craig's EFT tutorial may be what you're looking for. Gary is the developer of EFT and has just launched a new website with updated information. His videos are also very useful in explaining how the technique is best used.

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The perils of bread and cheese...

Who doesn't love bread and cheese?

Well, certainly most everyone likes bread even if they don't go for cheese.



 As my journey to a healthy weight was continuing I realized that I needed to address my own relationship with bread and cheese. At first it was easy to reject bread, but as the rain poured down outside and the stresses and strains of life accumulated once more, I found that the unsliced white loaf by the toaster was becoming more and more appealing. Before long I was helping myself to a big comforting slice.

 One of the questions we EFT practitioners ask of clients is "when did your first notice this **** start to occur?". For me in this case the "****" is starting to gain weight. Looking back, it started for me when I was 21 and was a student studying away from home. I missed my family and my boyfriend l and food was a comfort. We were also quite spoiled as students because we lived in a hostel that was a 17th Century Manor house, and all our meals were made for us. At lunch times we would buy lunch from the work canteen. The meal I enjoyed best was called a "ploughman's lunch", which consisted of two huge and very dense bread rolls and an enormous piece of cheese. I would eat this almost every day. The meal was very comforting, although it was way too much for one person to eat!!

 In the video below you will see me demonstrate in a general way, how I used EFT tapping to reduce the intensity of craving for bread and cheese. Tap along with me and see how you feel. If you don't have cravings for bread and cheese then substitute the foods you crave instead. You will notice that I don't try and stop myself from eating bread and cheese at all; instead I given myself the choice of eating less and substituting other more nutritious and even more interesting foods. If you would like to learn more about using EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) to eat more healthily and lose weight, click here to go to my website.

Easter Tapping

With Easter being the time for chocolate and all things sugary it seemed like a good time to do some EFT tapping to re-enforce my goals.

I'm still focusing on healthy eating rather than losing weight, but I decided to also add in the intention to release the belly fat that is no longer serving me.

What do I mean by "serving me" ?
Well...I see my belly fat as a protection.
As well as being natural for he human body to store food for times when resources are less plentiful, this layer of flab also has another psychological purpose for me. I see it as a buffer from having to appear as a knowledgeable businesswomen. Somehow this layer of weight keeps me from needing to stand up and be heard, because I can hide behind it.

I set up my EFT tapping by accepting my belly fat as it is, and giving it recognition for serving me so well.

Once I was comfortable with this acceptance, then I tapped on being open to the possibility that I could now let this stored fat go. I noted that although I was still a little unhappy about holding onto it I could still accept its presence and move forward with releasing it.

This brought my resentment about the fat right down to a very low level and I realized that I had choices. At this point I tapped in the choices I wanted to make. I chose to let go of excess weight and to allow my body to find its own ways to do this. After all, we all know diets don't work !!

With this session finished it remained to be seen how this would take effect.
Later in the day I was eating some Easter chocolate and found that it didn't take long before I started to feel sick of it... I'd definitely had enough. If I think about chocolate right now it doesn't appeal to me at all...but the small oranges we bought from the store today really do!! This is much better than having to exert willpower to resist temptation !!!

If you'd like to discuss how EFT could help you to a healthier life, go to mt website and schedule a free 20 min initial consultation:
http://indigobridges.com/schedule-an-appointment/

One week gone and 6 pounds down!

Well!...you could knock me down with a feather!
It's seven days since the last post and I'm 6 pounds lighter!

Better than that: I'm not 'dieting' I'm just eating healthily.

But the most surprising thing is that I feel like I'm being kind to myself and I deserve it. Now when I'm thinking about what to eat I consider what's in it. I think about how many nutrients I can gain from the food and also how much flavour it's going to have when I eat it. I've noticed that when there are more different flavours the smaller my portion size tends to be.

Most significant is the radical change in my attitude to greens. I eat them at almost every meal, and have developed a craving for spinach!!

Overall, my mind is clearer and I have greater energy resources.

The next step I think is working on my attitude to exercise...so far walking the dogs is my limit.. :-)

EFT really is a powerful method of providing self-empowerment!

 Catherine - current weight 202 pounds and falling.....

Indigo Bridges Emotional Freedom Coaching

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Time to focus on nutrients and less on calories

During my first EFT session with a colleague we discussed what might be behind my apparent “lack of willpower” with regards to keeping to a healthy diet. 

Note that the emphasis is always on being healthy and not on losing weight.

We revealed that I had a problem with shopping for green vegetables. I was actually reluctant to purchase them!! Odd… and I had reasons too.

·         My kids don’t like green vegetables, so it would be a waste

·         Green veggies (especially organic ones) are always so expensive

·         You don’t seem to get much substance for your dollar (just a few leaves)

My colleague,  who is also a holistic nutritionist noted that greens are some of the most nutrient packed that I could eat and that really I was doing myself a disservice by not eating them. The body assesses whether it is satisfied by measuring its level of nutrients, and if it’s still lacking it will crave to eat again. The problem is, if you’re not listening to what your body needs it will just store the empty calories it has been given and crave to eat again.

So…. I really needed to clear was my block to listening to my body and its needs. This is where the EFT tapping came in. We tapped on the fact that I didn’t value being healthy, and from that the fact that I didn’t consider myself worthy of eating what was most healthy for me. The key though was that because I was reasonably intelligent I didn’t need, or deserve to be healthy (or thin) as well.

Well, what a revelation. I’ll bet you’re wondering what happened next… I seem to have stopped eating bread. This is not an act of willpower, but when I look at a hunk of bread it really doesn’t look appetizing, it looks like filler. Chips I can take or leave, when previously my mouth would be watering at the sight of the package. I’ve also started eating interesting salads for lunch (I actually love salad) with lots of greens, veggies and a drizzle of dressing, and I really enjoy the food (it’s not for rabbits after all).

Already I don’t feel as bloated and fuzzy headed.  I certainly don’t feel like I’m on a “diet”, I’m just eating what makes me feel the best, and I’m worth it!!

If you would like some help from my colleague, Lise, on improving your nutrition combined with EFT, this is her website:
Liseonlife 

Beginning...

Hello, my name is Catherine and I'm a "Yo-Yo" dieter

Sounds like a line that should be whispered in a cracked voice at a "Yo-Yo Dieter's Anonymous" meeting doesn't it?!

Yes I feel guilty. I know I can lose weight because I've done it before...several times before in fact!
The problem is that the weight always comes back, often even more of it than before!

Now it hardly seems worth starting, if I know what the end result will be. I have so much information that I've gathered over the years; I know exactly how to lose weight and how to eat healthily, BUT I'm just not doing it!!

I must try harder, I must develop more will-power, I must not be lazy, I must get a personal trainer...

There MUST be an answer!

Well now I'm thinking there might be.

I've just finished by Level 2 training in Emotional Freedom Techniques and I know that many physical issues have an emotional element, so I've decided to start my journey to health and "relative" skinniness (I'm not asking for supermodel !). I'm going to ask for some assistance from some of my EFT practitioner colleagues and also do some EFT work on myself.

I'm inviting you to join me on the trip. Why not follow this blog and see how it all unfolds? It will be great to have you support!!!

Thanks for reading,

Catherine:  Starting weight 208 pounds (and only 5'3")

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