Well I have just watched last nights episode of Weight Loss ward on ITV. The medical staff do an amazing job with some of the most extreme cases imaginable. As with the last series I am left screaming at the TV in frustration “I think I can help!” It was physically painful to watch each patient talk about how they used food to make them feel better. One lady who weighed in at 31 stone and is just just four foot eleven inches tall, said she ate anything that reminded her of her childhood. No surgery is going to fix that. The additional cost to the NHS of caring for increasing numbers of obese patients is enormous, from building reinforced beds and ambulances, to the additional costs of the actual surgery, yet as was made clear in the programme there is little or no funding left over for the psychological support these patients so desperately need. In the hospital featured they have one psychologist for all of the patients. Imagine if there was one only nurse? The place just couldn’t function.
Those people who like me feel passionately about helping people address the issues that cause emotional eating, have a valuable skill set that is not being utilised. I am a little unique in that I also have a strong background in nutrition (MSc) yet when working with weight loss clients, I probably spend less that 10% of the time talking about food. These people aren’t intellectually stupid, they just do stupid things that hurt them, and will eventually kill them. It is a behavioural problem, an addiction that is driven by the need to do something, in this case eat, that makes them feel better. Food is the drug of choice, but it could as easily be cigarettes, gambling or cocaine.
If you genuinely want to change your body, you have to change your mind, You have to change how you think and feel, you have to learn new ways of experiencing pleasure. We all have an emotional barrel, and when it’s full of junk we do anything at all to feel better to mask the negative feelings, instead of emptying the barrel.
There are a range of non invasive psychological techniques that can be easily taught, with absolutely no negative side effects and that are drug free, that can be used to help people to reprogramme their minds to think and behave differently. It’s not a quick fix, but within a few weeks even small changes can have a huge impact on self esteem and self worth. When this happens self sabotage reduces and eventually stops and new more positive behaviours are put in it’s place. I know this because I see it every day in my work. It can be done and it’s not rocket science……….. is anyone out there listening!!!!
If you would like to overcome emotional eating and learn how to use your mind to change your body, you can contact me directly janet@188.64.190.148 or come along to Champneys for one of my 2 night or 4 night weight loss retreats or you can take yourself through the programme with my unique Think More Eat Less programme which is a book with audio hypnotic downloads.