Amy FriendJuly 7, 2016

My friend, Billy, recently sent me this article saying, “Something to do more research on and start teaching?” I love it when my friends can guess exactly what fires me up and what I would LOVE to do more research on. The article discusses the secret to weight loss. You can bet I will be exploring and testing this concept. It makes sense. Everyone wants something easy… a magic pill, per se. I believe it takes hard work (at first) to successfully manage your weight and your health. It can be done. All you need is the desire to make it happen.

Here it is – the stats that get me fired up every time. The average adult is 24 pounds heavier today than in 1960! What does this mean? It means we are in a severe health crisis that is costing our nation over $200 billion per year in health care expenditures! Why isn’t anything getting done? I will save that for another article which will address the fight with big businesses and lack of governmental involvement. For now, we are solely responsible for our health. The following is a weight loss “secret” that is worth exploring.

It has to do with changing your brain and stress! If there was ever to be a magic pill, as a solution to weight loss, it will be changing the “emotional” brain. It’s the areas of the brain that house the circuits that control stress, thoughts and behaviors. These circuits can be rewired, and by changing them we have a chance to address the root cause of stress-related problems. More and more research shows that stress plays a major role in weight gain and many people turn to food for comfort. This is where “Emotional Brain Training” comes in to play — based on a neuroscience approach to weight management. The emotional brain is command central and includes the fear, reward and starvation centers. When the brain is in stress, all three centers promote overeating and weight gain. It is a strong drive to do exactly that which we know we shouldn’t, but we can’t help it! We feel out of control.

So how do we destress the emotional brain? We need to check in several times a day by taking a deep breath and identifying our level of stress. There are five levels of stress and five tools.

1. Compassion – very low stress. Feel compassion for yourself, others and all living things.
2. Feelings – low stress. How do you feel? What do you need and do you need support?
3. Flow – a little stress. Identify the negative feelings and change them into positive to give you the energy to move forward.
4. Cycle – high stress. State what is bothering you using the exact words that you are feeling; for example, “I hate that I have to complete that project all on my own”. By listening to these words you can unlock this circuit. Take a couple deep breaths and then change those words to something like, “Completing that project on my own will be a challenge”. Next support yourself. You have changed the circuit to one that you are now choosing the task. With this new expectation, the emotional drives begin to fade and you gain control.
5. Damage Control – very high stress. This is where the breathing becomes really important. Say phrases to yourself; such as, “Don’t judge” and “It will pass”.

Once you’ve released stress from your emotional brain, you will find that you are much less likely to reach for food to cope. The rewiring takes time as the brain remembers that food “saved us” from stress, but over time it gets easier. The solution is to move the emotional setpoint so we get the emotional brain out of chronic stress.

Do you reach for food when you’re stressed? If so, I would encourage you to read the full article and give it a try. Seek others within your community to talk to about it and get support. I, for sure, will be exploring this area of training the brain, not the body.

Stronger mindset,

Amy