At War with Your Body?

There's lots of things out there right now that promote health and wellness with the campaign that we need to be "kind" to our bodies.

This cookbook? Another example of being "kind" to ourselves in the food we decide to eat. ( Awesome recipes by the way, I would recommend the peanutbutter fudge brownie things!)

You hear things like, "Eat food. Stuff you like. As much as you want." Okay. For me sometimes? That would mean McChicken's and strawberry cheesecake :) The thinking behind this type of philosophy ? We won't actually WANT to eat a 10 pound chocolate cake or a gallon of icecream if there is no little voice in the back of our minds saying we can't eat it. Ya know, the whole, the second you say something is off-limits, that's what you want it? :)

So, one of my goals in my quest for a healthy lifestyle is really to adapt this philosophy of thinking.

easier said than done, or is that just me?

The "be kind" aspect is good to think about for me, but I was having a hard time finding practical ways to implement it.
The tennis club/health club that I workout at and used to work at sends out newsletters every month. One of the latest ones I got really caught my attention.

Have you guys heard about the Gabriel Method?

So as the story goes, Gabriel weighed in at 410 pounds and he had tried every diet in the book. He had an "ah-ha" moment one day, when he realized that as long as his body wanted to be fat, there was nothing he could do to lose the weight. He was "at war" with his body.

In the next two years, he lost 220 pounds completely naturally, with NO surgery or even without counting calories.

How? He realized and dealt with the mental and emotional reasons that his body felt safe being overweight.

What the heck does that mean? that's what I said.

Gabriel explains in in a really interesting way. Once your body understands that being thin is the best way to keep you safe, your body will want to be thin."

It all ties into our survival mechanisms to protect us from freezing to death, starving or being eaten by something.

While in our modern world we don't have to necessarily worry about being chased by a lion, there are some real world implications:

1.) Fear of Scarcity: If you are constantly stressed out about that credit card bill, a message is sent to your body that 'resources' are limited. The only resource your body recognizes is food, and storing that as fat? Welp, that's our body "saving up." :)

2.) Mental Starvation: Feeling your life is turning boring and you need some excitement? Missing your Ladies Night out happy hour with your besties? You could be suffering from emotional or mental starvation. This could take a form of longing for love, joy, fun, intimacy or even a spiritual connection of some kind. These kind of "longings" can send the SAME chemical signals in your brain that physical starvation causes.

3.) Dysfunctional Beliefs: Some guy ever told you to lose weight? Some rude girls ever made some comment about how you looked? If you believe that you are meant to be fat or deserve to be fat, your body will obey by refusing to lose weight.

4.) Emotional Obesity: Is it sometimes easier to maybe not have to think about getting your heart broken by a guy if you just assume its "safer" to stay inside on Friday nights watching TV? At a subconscious level we might have the association that being fat makes us feel safer, or serves a different emotional need. In this case, your body is trying to protect you; by making you feel safer emotionally.

Now, don't get all worried that I am worrying/ thinking too much about losing weight. I just thought this was very interesting when the newsletter email popped into my inbox :)

The mental starvation one was interesting for me. Remember I live with my lovely parents :) Sometimes for me, I feel like I "crave" spontaneity.Like grabbing sleeping bags and renting 6 seasons of Grey's Anatomy and skipping work because we stayed up all night watching McDreamy with my girls. Or at 11PM deciding to dress-up in 80's clothes and going dancing downtown. :)

Either way, I just thought it was an interesting way to look at the philosophy of "being kind" to our bodies. :)