Chrissie Webber works as a writer, business coach and motivation/ leadership trainer and is Managing Director of Life-Shapers Ltd, an online weight-loss motivation company. With over 20 years experience in the field of business and people development she has an expertise in the area of motivation for permanent weight loss.
Following a lifetime of weight issues - at her heaviest, over 21 stone and a massive size 30 – she has personal experience of diets and their devastating effect on size and psyche. With a background in nursing, psychology and business coaching, coupled with a lifetime of dieting, she developed and successfully used a series of models and tools that enhance weight loss motivation. Now over 5 dress sizes smaller and having sustained her weight loss for several years, Chrissie continues her passionate drive to change the mindsets of people away from a ‘Scarcity’ dieting mindset – where food is demonised as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ – to an ‘Abundance’ mindset where mind, body and spirit work hand in hand with food and nature.
Increasing your level of exercise is always a good way of reducing weight and the effects of stress, which often lead to comfort eating. But there is another way of combating the dreaded comfort eating – through the power of the mind.
Comfort eating is often triggered by the habit of focussing incessantly on negative thoughts, feelings and food. Whatever the external trigger (stress, boredom, loneliness etc.) it throws our minds into a state of rumination. This is where we are churning negative thoughts and beliefs in our head. The more we ruminate, the more our negative mood deepens and the more we want food as a comforter.
Natural instinct is to try and think our way out of this unhappy state but that just increases the rumination and our misery. The interesting fact is that thinking about our thoughts is a trap that leads to more comfort eating.
Research has shown that the way out of this sorry state is to exercise the mind in a different way. This form of mental exercise is based on the meditation technique of focussing on the breath. Such a focus brings you into the 'NOW' (the present moment) and away from thoughts of food and your negative ruminating. It brings with it a feeling of peace and therefore a reduction in the need to comfort eat.
The way to do this is to concentrate on your breathing. Feel the sensation of your breath as it travels in and out of your body. Feel the rise and fall of your chest and abdomen. Trace the breath flow though your body, right to your toes and then out again. Let all thoughts of food and negativity go. As the thoughts drift back, don't fight them, just keep refocusing back on your in and out breaths.
Whilst you can use this technique as the basis of a meditation, you can also use it whatever you are doing. It heightens all your senses and makes you far more focussed on whatever you are doing.
Practice switching onto your breathing as often as possible every day. Do this for a period of 5 – 10 minutes or longer. Use it especially when something has raised your stress levels. Like exercise it takes daily practice but the results are amazing...
- Reduced comfort eating
- Increased happiness
- Increased self-esteem
- Reduced stress
- Reduced focus on food
- Increases concentration
Happy breathing!
