why Oprah will never keep the weight off…

Okay, so you probably heard Oprah
recently talk about her weight gain.

As someone who is constantly studying
people who keep their weight down
long term, I was fascinated by the
recent story about Oprah.

I mean here is someone who is
obviously successful and focused
with personal chefs, trainers,
and coaches who has not been able
to maintain the results she wants.

The questions is why?

The good news is that having
all of those things is NOT
what creates permanent weight loss.

After studying hundreds of people
who have lost weight and kept it off
long term, it has become very easy
to spot the biggest problem that
sabotages most dieters success.

And the funny thing is that
Oprah, like most people, knows
exactly what the problem is too.

To me this is the most important
sentence in the entire article:

“I use food for the same reasons
an addict uses drugs: to comfort,
to soothe, to ease stress.”

She says this and then goes right
back into I need to refocus and
get motivated again, etc.

But, if food is her main way
of easing stress and dealing
with unpleasant emotions,
then she’s never going to
get long term success.

Why?

Because being alive means that
we’re going to experience stress
and crave comfort, and if her best
way of doing that is with food,
no amount of motivation is going
to outlast those deep emotional needs.

So, what do people who permanently
change their weight do differently?

They create new and better ways
to relax, take their mind off of things,
and enjoy themselves without food.

Think of all the work people
put into exercising and eating
right, and compare that to the
energy they put into learning
new ways to feel good emotionally
without food, there’s a real imbalance.

I’m not saying that it’s necessarily easy to
do this, but I am saying that your results
will last a lot longer when you do.

Imagine how much easier it would be
to control your weight if you didn’t
look for food when you got stressed,
depressed or bored?

I believe almost all weight issues
come down to emotinonal eating.
If you only ate when your body
needed genuine nourishment,
what would it look like?

So, the next time you’re considering
a weight loss plan or a diet, don’t
make the same mistake Oprah did, make
sure that it teaches you how to feel
the way you want to without the food.

To experience what I’m talking about,
I’ve put a progressive relaxation
session up for you to use here:

http://www.programyourselfthin.com/relaxation

Listen to this 8 minute relaxation
session and notice how it automatically
influences your eating for the rest of the day.

to your beautiful body,
Jim

Comments

  1. Erica says:

    I really enjoyed reading your post and it does cause a bit of self-reflection! I appreciate what you said and I’m going to listen to your relaxation session. Thanks!

  2. Erica says:

    Wow! Thanks!

  3. Yoga London says:

    Hi Jim,

    In short I would say excellent article and observation.

    It is so much true with most women that
    when they are stressed they look towards eating and never lose the weight.

    Thank you very much once again.

  4. DC says:

    That is SO true! I really think emotional eating is a big cause of weight gain. I’m so busy though that it’s hard to find time to sit down and work on this! I think a lot of it is mind over matter too. You need to feel positive. I used Modelherbs.com to get some quick weight loss fast. Just feeling so positive about the weight I lost kept me motivated to keep going. Having a good attitude is really important and losing the weight so quick and naturally made it easier for me to not emotional eat!