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Your Brain On Emotions

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Holistic weight loss

Excerpt from Enlightened Weight Loss

The Damage Of Negativity

Negative thoughts don’t only cause negative emotions. The stress hormones triggered in response to negativity impact you in a sinister way. Slowing down brain coordination, reducing your ability to process information and solve problems. They disrupt the regions of your brain that are responsible for memory and impulse control. Essentially, negativity leaves you miserable, dumbed down, and impulsive. 

Worst of all, negative thoughts rewire your brain in a way that makes you more prone to thinking negatively. Your brain creates new neurons and synapses to support whatever you focus on, digging you deeper and deeper into a state of negativity if you allow it.

 

The Benefits Of Positivity

Unlike negativity, positive thoughts have a beneficial impact on the brain. They trigger chemicals like dopamine and serotonin that improve your ability to think, learn, solve problems, and focus.

In the same way that negative thoughts rewire your brain to think negatively, positive thoughts rewire your brain to think optimistically.

It is not realistic to say that you should never have a negative thought. However, once you become aware of how destructive, addictive, and pointless negative thoughts are, it will become easier to separate from them.

It is easy to fall victim to the voices in your mind, however, you will find that indulging in negativity is in vain. In fact, indulging in negativity will only aggravate any problem that has caused it.

For instance, you have an issue with your partner, or you become drowned in paperwork. Continuously indulging in negativity regarding the problem will not solve the problem. It will make it impossible for you to think clearly, focus, and come up with a solution. Finding a way to relax will trigger chemicals that allow your brain to function at full capacity.

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In Body

Emotional Toll of Diet and Gut Health

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Excerpt from Enlightened Weight Loss

Although thought has a large impact on mood, it is not the only determining factor. The food you eat and the health of your digestive system plays a large role in how you feel.

You might eat junk food to feel better, however it is doing you more harm than good. Processed, high carb, high sugar, and high-fat foods increase inflammation in your body. Inflammation reduces the availability of feel-good hormones like serotonin and dopamine, making you feel worse in the long run.

The food you eat also impacts the level of inflammation and the type of bacteria living in your gut, which is incredibly impactful on your mood. The digestive system is not just a place to absorb food. It is actually seen as the largest endocrine organ in the body. With the help of the right bacteria, your gut produces much of the hormones in your body, including the feel-good hormone serotonin.

An unhealthy gut with the wrong bacteria will prevent your body from producing the hormones that are essential to your mental and physical health. In the next section, we will cover ways to improve your gut health.

 

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In Body

The Debate On Calories

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Enlightened weight loss

Many people are under the impression that they should eat as little as possible in order to lose weight, however this does not work. If it were humanly possible to maintain that kind of restriction, then everyone would be thin.

Restricting as much as possible will cause you to lose weight fast for about a week or two, however your body gets used to that very quickly. Your body will adjust to extreme restriction by slowing down your metabolism, using your muscles for energy, and increasing your appetite. That’s why almost everyone plateaus and gains the weight back when they restrict too much.

There is a caloric “sweet spot” for weight loss, and it’s determined by your resting metabolic rate, or RMR. Your RMR is how many calories you need to survive in a completely rested state. The calories you need to do things like breathe and pump your blood.

You burn a few hundred calories more than your RMR every day just by being awake, walking around, and thinking.

If you consistently eat just enough to support your RMR, then you won’t slow down your metabolism, lose muscle, or increase your appetite. However, you will lose fat because you’re still burning more than you’re taking in by moving around throughout the day. You’ll burn even more than that if you decide to exercise.

Unfortunately, I have many patients who fight me on this.

They try to restrict as much as possible because they know they’ll lose weight fast if they do. But they ignore the fact that they always gain the weight back immediately once their appetite ramps up, which it always does. They’re only focusing on the number on the scale. Once I show them their body composition, they get to see that the weight was coming from muscle, not just fat.

You might become impatient or overly enthusiastic and want to restrict more. However, you’re much better off eating the right amount every day, losing one to two pounds a week, feeling satisfied, maintaining your metabolism, and keeping your muscles. Eating less than your caloric sweet spot for even a day or two is enough to slow down your metabolism and interfere with weight loss.

As you lose weight, your RMR will gradually decrease, and you’ll adjust your calorie target accordingly. There will be more on that in Part Five. Not every weight loss plan relies on caloric intake, but it’s good for everyone to have an idea of how many calories they need.

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The Influence You Have Over Your Mood

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Excerpt from Enlightened Weight Loss

Emotions are caused by chemicals in your body called hormones and neurotransmitters. Some make you feel good, and some make you feel bad. Different factors can affect these chemicals, like diet, exercise, puberty, menopause, genetics, gut health, and environment. One of the biggest influences on these chemicals is your thoughts.

Negative thoughts trigger hormones like cortisol that make you upset, anxious, unhappy, and uncomfortable. Positive thoughts reduce those stress hormones, and instead, they trigger hormones like serotonin that make you feel good. You can even experiment to see how that works. Repeat something negative to yourself and see how it makes you feel. Then do the same thing with something positive.

Being the master of your emotions begins with the understanding that it is your thoughts that are causing the emotions. Many ignore the control they have over their mood, or they are unaware that they have control. It seems like circumstances or people are the cause of stress, however, they are not at the root of the problem. Your thoughts regarding the person or the situation are causing an emotional reaction.

Of course, you could say that if it weren’t for that person or that situation, you wouldn’t be thinking something negative. Depending on the situation, it might feel impossible to avoid feeling or thinking negatively. However, you do have a choice in the matter. You do not have to continue thinking negatively. The only person that it’s hurting is yourself.

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In Body

5 Methods For Emotional Wellness

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Enlightened weight loss

Losing The Mind

The mind is a dangerous tool if left unchecked. The purpose of the mind is for problem solving and communication. It was not meant to be running and running for every minute of the day. Much effort has been put into developing mastery over the mind. To quiet the mind, and to use it only when it is needed. This is something to work towards when you are ready, and we will discuss the beginnings of this when we speak about meditation. However at this time it will benefit you to learn how to refocus the direction of your thoughts when needed.

Adjust And Refocus Your Thoughts

Aside from dropping the mind all together, there are two ways to lead the mind away from negativity. You can either change your perspective or change your focus entirely.

Changing your perspective and adjusting negative thoughts can feel like brainwashing yourself. It doesn’t seem natural when you first try to replace negative thoughts with something positive. At first, you might need to steer them in a more neutral direction.

If you’re telling yourself that your life is a mess, then it will be hard to convince yourself that everything is perfectly fine instead. It will feel dishonest to yourself. You might be able to tell yourself that things are okay, they could be worse, and that they’ll get better. Changing your thoughts from negative to neutral will begin to lift the weight of negativity. Once you’ve gotten used to that, it will be easier to replace neutral thoughts with positive thoughts.

If you’re having trouble coming up with something positive, then remind yourself of what you’re grateful for. It’s physically impossible to feel unhappy while you’re feeling grateful.

If work is stressing you out, then remind yourself that you’re grateful to have a job. If there’s traffic on your commute home, then be grateful to have a place to come home to.

It can help you to have some go-to phrases or mantras. Before spiraling yourself into misery, you can use the phrases to steer your thoughts in a more beneficial direction.

If you’re running late or your plans were ruined, it is easy to become frustrated. Instead of gritting your teeth every time, you can use the mantra, “Everything happens for a reason.” Truly, you don’t know what could have happened if things did go as planned. You might’ve been at the wrong place at the wrong time and got hit by a bus!

Other times, you might try the mantras

  • All is well
  • Being happy is my first priority
  • This negativity is not important, and it is not worth it

If it is too hard for you to adjust, then refocus.

When you feel stress building up, you can decide that it’s not worth holding onto the negative thought. Then refocus your attention.

It’s okay to let yourself get out of your head by doing something productive, watching television or stand up comedy, doing something creative, going outside and getting into nature, giving yourself a massage, listening to music, reading, exercising, or socializing.

For some people, all the distractions in the world are not enough to refocus your thoughts and get out of your head.

If you’ve never exercised your brain’s ability to focus, then it won’t be easy to do so on command. To strengthen your ability to focus, it would benefit you to practice meditation. This we will cover in the following section.

Meditation has become very misunderstood. It has become just another task to check off the list. While we discuss meditation as a means to reduce the activity of the mind, and as a means to focus the thoughts, it is more than this. If you go into meditation as a means to an end then you will not receive the fruits of meditation. However in the beginning, your mind is very active. There will be effort involved. The effort of meditation will be of focus. The focus may be on the breathing, or on the senses. The effort will also be of patience. You will need patience to allow the mind to run its course. This you will learn.

For now it is for you to understand that a regular practice of meditation will give you the capability of focusing your attention away from negative thoughts. This practice will allow you to escape the mind and become more present to the reality around you. The more focus you have on the present moment, the less focus you have on the negativity designed by the mind.

Stop Reaching For Happiness

While we speak on the alleviation of misery, it is also to be understood that the relentless desire for happiness will lead you astray. Initially, it is necessary to have the realization that bliss is desired. Once you have begun this journey, it is necessary to understand that the constant search for happiness has been in vain for your entire life.

You have searched for the purchase, the life, the lover, and the success that will bring you bliss. However, given some time you will realize that whatever you thought would bring you happiness did not last. The bliss that arises from external sources is fleeting. Once the pleasure fades you will again be in search.

This is because the external is not the source of bliss. Many who have everything will admit that they do not have bliss. How many luxuries do you now have that you no longer appreciate? The ability to be happy lies in the ability to experience the purity of reality. To appreciate life and existence itself. The natural state of the body is to be in bliss. However the mind takes you away from that.

To consistently be in a state of searching for happiness, you are not recognizing that it is a state that you already have access to. The search for happiness is not an addition to what you already have, it is a subtraction. An unraveling of the thoughts, beliefs, and desires that crowd the mind and prevent your natural state of bliss.

Prioritize

It is easy to lose sight of what is truly important in your life when you have rent due and you’re behind on all your projects at work. Instead of prioritizing your mood and giving yourself time to relax or appreciating what you have, you eventually spend all of your time stressing over every flaw in your life and everything you need to accomplish.

What would be important to you if you found out that you only had days to live? Not the argument you had with your spouse or how much money you have. You’d wish you hadn’t wasted so much time being unhappy about things that are ultimately insignificant. You would wish that you’d have appreciated everyone and everything in your life instead of taking it for granted.

At least once a day, remind yourself of what’s really important. Create a priority of feeling blissful otherwise you may find on your last day that your entire life has been wasted.

Let Yourself Feel Better

If you are having a hard time using this advice, then make sure you are ready to feel happy. Many times, a person will remain unhappy because they are not yet allowing themselves to feel better.

It could be that you receive sympathy when you complain, you identify yourself as someone who is always stressed, you feel like you can’t be happy until you accomplish something. It could be that you feel guilty or not worthy of being happy, or maybe you’re so used to thinking about something that it’s hard to stop.

It could take some time to let go of negative thoughts, however in order to break this cycle you will need to decide what is most important to you. Holding onto the negative thoughts that are harmful to your mood and your brain function, or letting them go so you can think clearly and be happy.

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Motivation

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Excerpt from Enlightened Weight Loss

Before we get into the details of weight loss, I would like to make sure that you have a realistic goal and that you’re motivated enough to get there.

Give Yourself A Break

Some people could care less that they’ve gained weight, so this doesn’t apply to everyone. But, if you’re beating yourself up for it, then you need to stop. We live in a world where nothing is easier than gaining weight. And we have all the wrong ideas about how to lose it.

You’re not the one to blame. You either didn’t know how to lose weight, or you didn’t care enough to do it. I’m not saying you have to love being overweight. However, beating yourself

up will only make you unhappy. This is especially unhelpful if you tend to use food as an emotional crutch.

You might think that being hard on yourself is motivating you to make changes. But, you’ll only make changes that are too extreme and not sustainable. Then you will berate yourself for sticking to them. So try to relax, and give yourself a much-deserved break.

Determine Why You Want To Lose Weight

In the past, your attempts to lose weight have failed. You might think that you were too weak or too lazy to lose weight. But it could’ve been that you didn’t care enough about losing weight when it mattered the most.

It’s easy to feel bad about yourself and decide to lose weight when you’re trying on tight jeans. However, that’s not when you need motivation. You need it when you’re deciding what to eat for lunch, or whether or not you’ll eat leftover cookies in the break room. At that point, it’s easy to convince yourself that your weight is fine. It’s easy to forget about it altogether. Your desire to eat something that tastes good can easily outweigh your desire to lose weight if you don’t have a solid reason for putting in the effort.

You’ll need to think seriously about how losing weight will impact your life in a way that you actually care about. Something you can remind yourself of when you have a choice between something that’ll help you lose weight or something that will cause you to gain weight.

That reason should feel like a desire, not an obligation.

Otherwise, it will never outweigh the desire to eat whatever you want. Trying to lose weight because the doctor said you should is not a desire. Losing weight because you feel fat might feel more discouraging than motivating. Below are some examples of positive motivations for losing weight. Figure out what feels the most inspiring to you. Think of what’s going on in your mind when you find yourself wanting to lose weight, and remind yourself of that when you lack motivation.

Positive Motivations To Lose Weight
  • To stay healthy and active as you get older To get off of medication
  • To get rid of joint pain
  • To have a healthy future pregnancy
  • To get in control of your cravings
  • To feel good without using food as a crutch
  • To feel attractive and comfortable in your body

Focus On Fat Loss

It is common to pick a number out of thin air and decide that you must weigh this much. The problem is that this does not take body composition into account. Meaning, how much weight loss is coming from muscle and how much is coming from fat. You want the weight that you lose to be coming from fat, and not muscle. That’s because muscle cells burn a lot of calories, even when you’re sedentary.

The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn throughout the day. Additionally, extra body fat is detrimental to your health. Fat cells send out inflammation into your body that causes damage and leads to diseases like cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s.

Therefore, your weight goal should be based on fat loss. This could result in a weight goal that is much less extreme because fat is very light compared to muscle.

If you ever look at a picture of ten pounds of fat, you might be surprised at how much that actually is. Losing only ten pounds of fat makes a vast difference in your health and in your physical appearance.

For instance, there was a time that I had an arbitrary obsession with weighing 110 pounds. I would deny myself of food, and the end result was that I appeared like a skeleton. By that point, I was desperately craving food and I was left with no muscle. Every time I reached this weight I would almost immediately gain it back. I just blamed it on a lack of willpower, as we all do. But, I eventually realized that getting

down to that weight was in vain. It only served to strip me of precious muscle and motivation. After gaining an education, however, I readjusted my weight goal to 120 pounds at which I have less fat, more muscle, and the ability to eat more now than I ever did in the past.

If you focus on fat loss, then you might be relieved to see that you don’t have to lose as much weight as you originally thought. And by preserving your muscles, your body will burn more calories. In other words, you can eat more without gaining weight. We will talk more about preventing muscle loss and how to measure your body fat in Part Seven. For now, you can use the reference below to help you reach an understanding of what your body fat percent goal can be.

Break Down Your Goals

If your weight goal is too overwhelming, then you should break it into smaller parts. Your ultimate goal could be getting down to 150 pounds and 25% body fat without feeling like you would kill for a slice of pizza. However, that starts with smaller goals like losing a pound a week and getting more sleep. You don’t have to think of everything all at once. It’s like climbing a staircase; you need to take one step at a time. Just one pound a week turns into 50 pounds in a year.

Be Patient

Losing weight takes patience and persistence, not extreme effort. If you restrict what you eat and exercise a lot, then you’ll lose weight fast. But it won’t last for long. You’ll end up losing motivation, gaining back the weight, or plateauing at that weight for weeks.

Some people are impatient, which is understandable. They’d rather lose seven pounds a week than one or two. Without having experienced the lesson on your own there is a strong temptation to restrict too drastically. You might even try this on your own. However, you will come to find that in the first week you will have dropped maybe even five pounds. But after another week the weight will return. It will have been time and energy wasted.

A Little Effort Goes A Long Way

Some people are the opposite of the impatient go-getters. Their weight stays exactly the same because they don’t want to make any changes. No matter how small those changes are. I would like to remind this person that you will not be putting in the effort for the rest of your life. You can lose five to 16 pounds in just a couple of months. By that time, the changes you made will be a habit. And once you reach a weight that you’re happy with, you can eat more than when you were losing weight.

Think Of How Good You’ll Feel

There will be times when you need some extra motivation to keep you from eating midnight snacks or to get yourself off the couch and head to the gym. When you’re feeling lazy, it’s easy to forget why you wanted to lose weight in the first place. When that happens, it helps to think about the outcome of your effort. Instead of the effort itself.

Try to picture yourself at your goal weight and comfortable in your body. Or how you’ll feel when you see your weight drop the next morning. That feeling can inspire you to work towards it.

Have Faith

If I have a new patient that can’t get motivated, I’ll ask them if they actually believe that they can lose the weight. Surprisingly, many of them will say no. Some people are so used to

struggling with their weight, that being thin turns into an unattainable desire. Rather than an actual goal.

It makes sense, though. If you’ve never hit your goal weight, then you might not actually believe you can. You might not be able to picture it happening. If you don’t believe you can lose the weight, then you’ll get easily discouraged by slip-ups. You’ll chalk it up to the fact that you just can’t do it.

If you actually believe you’ll lose the weight, you won’t take those slip-ups so seriously. You’re much more likely to realize that it’s just part of the process. And that you’ll do better next time. So have some faith, especially because you’re doing things differently this time.

Don’t Wait For The Perfect Time

Often it seems as though a person will use their frustration from an inconvenience as an excuse to become indulgent. It becomes a reward for whatever negative emotion you’re experiencing. You missed the train, you lost your keys, and your day isn’t going as planned. Your day isn’t going perfectly so what’s the use in staying on track with your diet?

Your weight loss plan won’t be hard. But will require consistent motivation to reach your goal. If your motivation disappears every time there’s a bump in the road, then you’ll never get there. Don’t keep waiting for the perfect time to stay on track, because there will never be one. Stressful situations

will recur like clockwork, and they’ll knock you off track every time if you let them. You can’t keep using them as an excuse to lose motivation.

There’s a time and a place to enjoy all the foods you like, but your plan won’t work if you need to use food as an emotional crutch. In the next section, we’ll work on ways to manage mood and anxiety so that you don’t need to use food to feel good.

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