Weight Control

-- FINDING THE CURE TO SELF MEDICATION --
(under construction)

 The title of this page may seem obscure, but actually summarises the reason that so many people are carrying excess weight.  In understanding that the body desires to be whole and healthy (otherwise why would it heal when injured?), we can only draw the conclusion that either the body is faulty or the mind is over-riding the body's desire to be healthy.

In the rare cases of true physical problems leading to obesity, sufferers should be sourcing as many viewpoints as possible to find aid to control their affliction, don't limit yourselves to modern medicine or alternate therapies, examine all with an open but enquiring mind.  It is your path to walk, so decide where your feet will fall.

For the rest of us, the battle of the bulge rages on (and I include myself as being in the obese from 1995 to the start of 2004, having shed a ridiculous 30 Kg). 

One immutable fact must be stated here.  If you are exceeding your body's energy requirements in food consumption, you will store fat.  If you are not meeting your body's energy requirements in food consumption, you will lose excess fat.  I hear in my clinic daily, "I hardly eat anything and still keep all the weight on".  I am sorry but that simply does not hold to basic science. 

A particularly hard nosed medical practitioner (with a concentration camp tattoo on his arm) I know mentions bluntly that there were no overweight people coming out of Nazi concentration camps.  As politically incorrect as that statement is, it is also undeniably true.

Any regimen which has a serious deficit of energy consumption to energy expenditure is NOT healthy and will not sacrifice fat as fast as it sacrifices vital lean tissues and strips the body of nutrients in a self immolation cycle leading to huge health problems later on.  All the new diets and fad diets in the world rarely hold the weight off for longer that the diet period lasts.

Let's first explore why we overeat.  The body tries to tell us when to stop.   We hear it too.  Last time you were really enjoying a good plate full of food but started feeling full, why did you keep eating?  The body did not want it, but the mind did.  What is the payoff for the mind in this overeating then?

Let us re-ask the question with a different slant.  What is the payoff for the fat?  Why is the slim person hiding behind the fat layered around the body?  What motivates the mind to defend itself with those layers of unhealthy tissues?

For me, it went back to six years old and making a conscious decision to become another fat kid in the corner so I would be left alone by the teachers after being falsely accused of cheating in an essay contest.  I had to make peace with the little boy inside and reassure him that the world can be unfair, but he still belonged in it.  Once that was achieved, I no longer desired fatty fried foods, processed junk, hamburgers or even large meals.  The way I lost my excess bulk was through recognising that I did not need it any more at that deep emotional level.

Am I worried about the weight coming back?  Not in the slightest!  Listening to the body's voice has left me able to understand what it is I should or should not be eating at every point in the day.  The mind still tells me that it would like a nice juicy hamburger, but the body feels almost nauseous at the thought.  Listening to the body is the key.

How do you do it?  Find yourself a good counsellor who you gel with.  If you go to someone and do not feel comfortable with them, find someone else.  Decide to get to the bottom of why the fat is there, no matter how confronting or painful the realisations might be.  Be prepared to make the changes needed to become whole.

Is this the only way to lose weight permanently?  NO!  But it is the only one I know of.  I hope you find this at least a little useful.  Please also read the section on food, as it is an extension of these thoughts.