18 New Year New You Health, fi tness & nutrition Keeping weight loss in mind
Changing your mindset is essential for losing weight and keeping it off — which is why LighterLife combines its total diet replacement weight-loss plans with mindfulness in its new Xpress Slimming Clubs. The result of this unique approach? Fast, sustainable weight loss and a new way of looking at life
O
ne of the most pernicious obesity myths is that fast
weight lost leads to fast regain, therefore the best way to lose weight is slowly. Indeed, this forms a key plank of public health policy, with exhortations to lose no more than 2lb a week. Yet this fl ies in the face of mounting evidence for the eff ectiveness of total diet replacement (TDR) plans, such as the LighterLife Total TDR, which provide 100% nutrition and lead to rapid weight loss and the reversal of type 2 diabetes. Such plans are now starting to hit
the headlines as a result of several major trials, including the ongoing DiRECT (Diabetes Remission Clinical Trial) study funded by Diabetes UK. “The evidence from clinical trials is very clear that people… lose more weight and keep it off for longer with this type of ‘crash’ dieting compared to regular dieting,” said Professor Susan Jebb, Professor of Diet and Population Health at Oxford University, discussing TDRs on the BBC series The Big Crash Diet Experiment. “One of the beauties of… [a TDR] is that you get away from food. It’s a very simple approach: it’s a retraining programme, a chance to rethink your eating habits.” This raises a pertinent question:
how do people motivate themselves to stick to any diet and afterwards to maintain their weight loss? Over 25 years ago, LighterLife addressed this issue by launching a mindful- ness-based approach, which has now helped more than 400,000 people live healthier lives: a unique behaviour-change
programme
that combines TDR plans for fast, eff ective weight loss with cogni- tive behavioural therapy (CBT) and mindfulness techniques. At the heart of CBT is the
thought s-feel ings-behaviour triangle: how we think aff ects how we feel and what we do. By devel- oping the skills to change our perceptions, we can alter our behav- iour — including around food. Owing much to Stoic philosophy, CBT was developed during the 1950s, with the work of Dr Aaron Beck particu- larly infl uential. Beck encouraged patients to detach themselves from negative thoughts such as ‘nobody cares about me’ and see them for what they are — perceptions, not necessarily the truth. He advo- cated looking for evidence for these thoughts, which come from core beliefs, often created in childhood. As adults, we allow those beliefs to inform our decisions, regardless of whether they’re relevant today; we tell ourselves we ‘must’ eat it, and then we regret it. One way to start challenging
these beliefs is by becoming more mindful — being more aware of what’s happening each moment. When our minds are stuck in negative thought patterns, we get caught up in old memories and stories, in ‘what ifs’ and worries about what might happen. Yet the past is gone, the future doesn’t exist, so the only moment that matters is now.
Being more aware of the present
moment enables us to become more aware of our thought patterns, to catch those negative thoughts and investigate if they are true. If they aren’t, that opens the possibility for diff erent ways of thinking, feeling and behaving, including weight management. LighterLife’s CBT groups and Xpress Slimming
new weekly
Club meetings explore ideas that help you understand what trig- gers overeating, with guidance from trained weight-management mentors and counsellors. This mindful approach helps you rede- fi ne your relationship with food and yourself, and work out new strategies for dealing with triggers without sabotaging yourself with food — essential for successful, long-term weight management.
Julia Leese, 46, is a police offi cer
She lives in West Sussex with her husband Mike and daughter, Alex. She lost 4st 9lb with LighterLife and has maintained her weight loss for two years. “My life changed two years ago
when my then six-year-old daughter wanted to go pony trekking with me. We turned up at the stables, they looked at me and ‘my’ horse, then without a word took it away and returned with a larger, sturdier beast that could have pulled carts. They were terribly polite and I was so uncomfortable. It made me question what kind
of a message I was giving to my daughter, and everything came into focus: I’m an older mum and I want to be here for Alex as long as I can. It wasn’t just about how I looked, it was about my health. I found LighterLife’s, and their mindful- ness approach really resonated. My LighterLife counsellor
explained that you’ve got to create a good relationship with food because — unlike alcohol or drugs, which you can live without — you can’t not eat. No other diet plan looks at it this way; it’s just ‘eat this and you’ll be fi ne’
, and you’re
not, because you never discover what’s behind your weight gain. I know, because that’s my story.
With the benefi t of LighterLife, I now see I used food as a comfort blanket. LighterLife’s TDR Foodpacks take your mind off counting calories, giving you plenty of space to focus on sorting your head out, which you do in your weekly meetings. For me, that’s why LighterLife works. It’s completely diff erent from anything else that’s on off er. If I have a bad day now I know
that looking for the answer in the bottom of a wine glass won’t work; I know that whatever made me want to do that will still be there when I’ve fi nished the glass of wine. Now I’ve got the skills to deal with it diff erently.”
Saturday 5th January 2019
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