3 Steps to Permanent Weight Loss By Jeff Forte, CSIC CME


Here’s what you need to know


There is an emotional component that must be addressed if weight loss is to be made permanent. It is not enough to intel- lectually understand what you should do. Here are the facts. Americans spend $40


what you want to achieve in your physical health for 2012. Did you make a New Year’s resolution to lose weight and get in better shape? If you did, you are not alone. Losing weight and getting in better shape are the most popular New Year’s resolutions.


W Making a resolution is great. Keeping it


is the challenge. According to resolution sta- tistics, 25% of people have already dropped their resolutions after just the first week. By the end of January, 36% of people will have totally dropped their resolutions. WHY? It gets worse for those without a goal


or resolution. According to the American Psychological Association people who have made a goal like losing weight are 10 times more likely to succeed if they made a New Year’s resolution. You can only imagine how highly unlikely it would be for someone to lose weight without a goal or resolution.


hat do you want your body to look like by the end of 2012? Now is a great time to decide


billion a year on weight loss programs and products. Diets simply don’t work, or they work for a limited time. People try diet after diet with varying degrees of success. If you wait, there will be a new diet fad coming in the next few months, and forever after because the core problem is not being ad- dressed. Exercise and eating nutrient rich foods


definitely works, but people don’t stay with the exercise and healthy diet even though they know they should. WHY not? Because there is an emotional component that needs to be addressed if weight loss is to be made permanent.


Here’s how you can get the results you want


Step 1 - Control Your Focus What is your day to day emotional


focus? Is it specific, compelling and within your control? Are you crystal clear on what you want to experience every day, or are you


fixated on fears and uncertainties? Is your orientation health or is it filling some emo- tional void? We all have emotional needs and triggers. What is the emotional pattern that restricts your life and prevents you from getting the results you want? Is it anger, self pity, guilt, loneliness, self sabotage? As you begin to shift your emotional focus, every- thing can change.


Step 2 - Use Tools and Strategies that Work What are your tools and strategies for


losing weight? Are they effective? If you want to be successful at losing weight, you have to know what tools and strategies actually work, and which ones do not. As a contrast, you could probably tell me exactly what to do if I wanted to gain weight and get out of shape. Many strategies are built upon an emo- tional foundation, which must be disrupted and replaced by something that feels better, and is better for you. Simply getting rid of a weak strategy usually becomes an opportu- nity for a different weak strategy to take its place when the emotional connection is not broken. Strategies are only as good as the emotional charge that drives them.


Step 3 – Resolve Inner Conflicts You can have a powerful focus to create


change, and the right tools and strategies, and yet if you have an inner conflict, the real change you want will never happen. This is usually the challenge for people who say that they have tried everything, but nothing seems to work.


Is food being used to meet some emo- tional need, or as a substitute for other things in life? Does food bring a feeling of certainty and comfort to dull pain or ease fear? Are you using food to manage things that food can’t fix? For example if a relationship is not fulfilling, food might meet your emotional needs at a very low level, but even when your needs are met at a low level, it can become a habitual pattern. When something in your life upsets you,


22 Natural Nutmeg January 2012


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