It’s that time of year when holiday brochures and TV ads show tempting images of sparkling blue seas, golden beaches – and people in perfect shape showing off their bodies. That can be enough to make you throw the brochure across the room, change channels on the TV and have another handful of biscuits!
We all know that sensible eating and doing some exercise is a good start to healthy living, whether or not the objective is an hour-glass figure. And we all know that “slimming” and “weight loss” are multi-million-pound industries in their own right – just look at the books, magazines and websites dedicated to them, let alone the huge array of products promoted as being the best, the only, solution.
And yet, many people are still “overweight”. I freely admit that I take serious issue with the whole “BMI is the holy grail” nonsense. Those of you who know me will know that I am no size 6 stick insect: I probably come up as “obese” on the medical scale and I admit I could do with losing a few pounds. But other readings come up as green, or healthy, or normal, and if my only problem is holding on to a few extra pounds, then for me, life is too short to worry about it.
The food we eat today is nothing like the food our grandparents ate – it has been sprayed with goodness knows what, much of it has been genetically modified, and there is hidden salt, sugar and oil in just about everything. If you really want to be free of the “three deadly sins” of sugar, salt and bad oils, you have to look very carefully indeed at labels, or buy, prepare and cook your own food from fresh, preferably organic. And that is not always an option.
I do a fair bit of work with people who are seriously overweight, and who have tried everything from the latest faddy diet to hours in the gym, without success. While I would encourage everyone to eat a healthy, balanced mix of food each day and to do some exercise, I believe that, for many people, the real reason they are holding onto excess weight is a deep-rooted emotional trauma. The excess layers of fat could well be there to provide comfort or protection against such events as abuse in early childhood; bullying at school; a broken heart; an abusive relationship; termination of a pregnancy or loss of a baby.
When these traumas are uncovered and healed at source, the excess weight has done its job, it is no longer needed, and it is therefore easier to let it go.
I have also worked with many people who are obsessed with food in this life because they have starved to death in a previous life. Just think about the millions who are starving today in our so-called civilised world, and imagine how many millions more would have starved many hundreds of years ago. An individual who has starved to death will often have as their passing thought – that thought that is with them as they take their final outbreath – “I will never go hungry again” or something similar. It can often be that these people, in this lifetime, are eating physical food to try to fill an emotional hole – and that doesn’t work.
If any of this chimes with you, get in touch. Email me at:
judy@effective-hypnotherapy.co.uk
or call me on 01444 459 433 or 07597 020 512.
I work from Vinings Natural Health Centre in Haywards Heath, West Sussex.