According to the FDA there is an estimated 50 million Americans who will go on a diet this year and only 5% will keep the weight off in the long run. These aren’t great odds! Anyone who has tried restrictive diets, massive exercise programs and willpower will tell you it’s a recipe for failure.
Many people who enjoy a standard Western diet also carry around a few extra pounds that they struggle to remove. Even with all of the media attention on the necessity of eating a well balanced diet, full of fresh fruits, vegetables and raw nuts and seeds, most people struggle to eat the requisite 8 servings of fruits and vegetables each day.
Couple this struggle with the high levels of stress and negative emotions rampant in a society which draws comfort from airbrushed images of stick-thin models and you have a recipe for disaster.
Enter the weight loss industry! It’s a multi billion dollar industry which has developed every potential answer to this problem under the sun. Among the exhaustive list:
pills, diet and exercise programs, spas, starving, eating only one or two types of food, taking herbal supplements, acupuncture, structured support groups, counting points, weigh ins, weigh outs, and any number of other options to make the whole process easier.
But, do any of these “solutions” really make it easier?
Unfortunately, there aren’t many programs which solve the question of why we eat the way we do and why we don’t exercise, and what do about both.
Enter Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT). This method addresses the stress, anxiety and negative emotions in our lives that are at the root of many of today’s medical problems, including obesity.
People eat for a number of different reasons, not the least of which is hunger. However, hunger doesn’t cause us to become obese. Instead, when people eat because they want to gratify cravings, cover emotions, are bored or are feeding a habit, they can gain weight at a phenomenal rate.
EFT has three remarkable benefits that sets it apart from other methods designed to help you lose weight:
1. It helps to reduce or eliminate immediate cravings you experience 80% of the time. If you can eliminate grabbing that donut 80% of the time you will lose weight and won’t feel deprived. (1)
2. It helps to eliminate overeating because you are trying to cover emotional hurts from past experiences. We all have experienced relationship hurts, job related stress and financial fears.
3. It helps to bring about more peace that leads to better eating habits and subsequently a more normalized weight.
Weight loss is a matter of calories eaten vs. calories burned. If we burn more than we eat, we should lose weight. But, if we are eating more and exercising less because of emotional pain or cravings, then the balance is tipped in other direction. As a result, we gain weight.
Using EFT can not only help you to lose weight but you’ll also gain the other benefits of reducing your weight such as lowered blood pressure, decreased risk of heart attack and stroke as well as reducing the possibility of other weight related illnesses such as sleep apnea, arthritis and gastro-esophageal reflux.
By using EFT, individuals are able to stay motivated to lose the weight and lose the fear that they’ll re-gain the weight that they’ve lost.
People who have used EFT to gain control of their eating habits have found freedom in the ability to eat the foods they enjoy while maintaining or losing weight. They are free from eating and weight issues for the rest of their lives.
The best part about EFT is that once you have learned how to use it you can use it any time of the day or night that you need the extra help and you can use it for other stress related conditions. There is no risk that it will interfere with other medications you are taking or underlying medical conditions.
When you decide that a permanent change is in order with your nutritional intake and not a restrictive diet, it is time to give yourself the other piece of the puzzle that will help you to lose and maintain that weight loss. And that factor addresses your emotional needs and hurts.
References
(1) Emotional Freedom Techniques University: A Randomized Clinical Trial of Meridian-Based Intervention for Food Cravings with Six Month Followup
http://www.eftuniverse.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3575&Itemid=2071
Resources
(2) Emotional Freedom Techniques University: Clinical Benefits of Emotional Freedom Techniques on Food Cravings at 12-Months Follow-up: A Randomized Controlled Trial
http://www.eftuniverse.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9011
(3) Emotional Freedom Techniques University: The Effect of a Brief EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) Self-Intervention on Anxiety, Depression, Pain and Cravings in Healthcare Workers
http://www.eftuniverse.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2442&Itemid=2045
(4) Meridian Therapy: EFT Research Published in Peer Reviewed Journals or Presented at Professional
Conferences.
http://www.meridian-therapy.com/images/research/19-EFT_Research_List.pdf
Editor’s note: It’s a new year. Time for a new you!
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