Want a NICE solution for obesity? try surgery! In the last 7 days there have been 2 disturbing news headlines; today the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which advises the NHS, said obesity was an “immense problem” and recommended that people already diagnosed with diabetes (a common condition linked with obesity) should be quickly assessed for weight loss surgery. At first glance you might think that is a practical solution, but just last week BBC news headlines also reported that some 2.1bn people – about 30% of the world’s population – are overweight or obese, and that figure could rise to almost half of the world’s population by 2030. When the worldwide cost of obesity is already about the same as armed conflict and climate change, just how practical is it to consider surgery as a standard response? What frightened me even more than the figures was the suggestion “Measures that rely less on individual responsibility should be used to tackle the problem”. Scary or what!
How can you possibly use surgery to overcome a behavioural issue? People become overweight because they eat more than they need. Emotional eating is a huge factor and cannot be fixed with bariatric surgery. Yet again I find myself feeling like a lone wolf shouting into the wind “YOU HAVE TO USE YOUR MIND TO CHANGE YOUR BODY!” Overeating is a behavioural issue, the excess body fat and resulting ill health is a side effect or symptom, not the cause. Until we treat the cause the problem will continue. Can you imagine having some upset that you would normally relieve with a bowl of ice cream, and the desire for ice cream disappearing just because you have had your stomach stapled? Of course not, you might have a smaller stomach but you would still have the same response to emotional upset, compounded by the fact that the very thing you used to do to make you feel better is no longer an option. That’s crazy logic. It’s abundantly clear that behavioural changes are what’s needed. If people have a reward system based almost entirely on food or drink to make them feel better, then no amount of bariatric surgery is going to change that.
I feel so passionately that by helping people to understand how the basic patterns that cause overeating are created, and more importantly can be changed, we can improve health, not just physical but emotional and spiritual wellbeing. Perhaps I should try and imitate the “U2” model of sending everyone a copy of my Easy Slim at home package free of charge!
My goal for 2015 is to help as many people as possible free themselves from the inevitable diet cycle and change how they think and feel about food, and themselves, for good.
If you would like to join me in person to learn a range of practical techniques so that you can be healthy, lose weight and learn how to use your mind to change your body, then check out some new dates for 2015 and come along to a CHAMPNEYS SPA for a totally unique and life changing approach to weightloss 2 night and 4 night Mind Body Weight Loss retreats, and I will personally guide you through the process of using your mind to change your body. Alternatively you can read Think More Eat Less and follow the process using the techniques in the book and the FREE audio hypnotic downloads
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