Amanda Roe: Acupuncture and Clinical Hypnotherapist.
Call 087 6331898
Email: amanda@marketstclinic.com
Perhaps your weight has always fluctuated but now it seems impossible to lose.
You have tried everything, even resorting to eating like a bird, but you feel like you are starving and the cravings are so strong it is difficult to stay motivated.
Everything seems to be a trigger; when you are tired you eat, when you exercise you eat, when you look in the mirror it is affecting how you feel about yourself and the emotional eating gets worse.
Over the years your weight has gone up and down and you have reluctantly bought bigger clothes holding on to those that don’t fit, keeping them all just in case.
You have tried so many different diets but nothing seems to work and there is a nagging voice saying it must be you!
Well, it’s not you. There are so many reasons why you may be finding it difficult.
Cravings are often a sign of deficiency and not of hunger, but throwing supplements at this is not the answer.
There are three main food categories: Carbohydrates, proteins and fats. It is important to eat a good balance of these so that we get all the nutrients we need.
Understanding the food groups and how your body makes, transforms and uses energy can help you to break this vicious cycle.
On a cellular level our bodies have two ways to make ATP, the energy that our body, including our brain, uses to function. We can use glucose or we can use fats. Glucose is easily converted by your body from simple carbohydrates and sugars in your diet. However eating high amounts of these foods will raise your blood sugar. When we eat too many of them the body doesn’t know what to do with the excess sugar so insulin levels rise and are stored as additional weight.
Amazingly the body also has alternative fuel sources and can break down protein and convert these into glucose, or it can use fat in the form of ketones. This is the system that automatically kicks in when we are fasting.
Many diets that are promoted to help with slimming, completely exclude or try to severely limit fat in the diet, believing that ‘fat makes us fat’. That is incorrect – good fat in the diet is essential for your body to function properly and for weight loss.
Certain fats are essential because every cell in your body is surrounded by a phospholipid layer (fat layer) and needs these to function properly. Our body cannot produce them and so it is essential that we consume them as part of our diet.
When you are craving something and following a diet that restricts fat, eating other foods won’t stop the cravings and may even make them worse – this seems paradoxical even when you are eating healthy foods like fruit. Fruit certainly has some nutrients and fibre, which are really good for you, but fruit is also very high in sugar, which can drive you toward high insulin levels and continue to feed a vicious cycle of weight gain, energy issues and cravings.
Many people come to me looking for hypnotherapy as a magic wand to cure them of cravings and while it is certainly helpful for cravings and particularly for emotional eating, it is important to start by addressing your diet. When you do this, it is possible to have lasting relief from cravings; and sustainable weight loss, improved energy and health, without calorie counting.
Amanda Roe is a Clinical Hypnotherapist, Acupuncturist, Life and Health coach providing natural solutions that will improve your mental, emotional and physical health. For more information call/text 087 633 1898 or email amanda@roehealth.ie
