Minding It Daily: Creating a Self Care Plan: Allow Your Body to Automatically Manage Weight

Creating a Self-Care Plan: Allow Your Body to Automatically Balance Weight

If you've read my diet books, you know that I struggled with weight my whole life. Eventually, after years of restricting calories, relentlessly exercising, and trying every diet I could find, I washed up on the shore of exhaustion, depletion, and a completely tanked metabolism.

It took learning the truth about deep self care to heal my metabolism, calm my appetite, and restore my health. Once did so, not only did I lose weight, but my body composition changed dramatically.

But it seems that the medical industry has given up thinking critically about the causes of weight gain, and also of the solutions. More often, they are prescribing surgery and drugs. Even to children.

But you can take control of your weight and feel better by improving self-care.

I read yesterday in the New York Times, that Ozempic, and other drugs now being used to "fight the obesity crisis" are teaching us that appetite and weight gain are not moral failings.

It shocks me to think that any educated person, especially doctors, think that, or have ever thought that obesity was caused by loose morals. There are plenty of immoral skinny people. And so many people who struggle with their weight know full well the advice that gets shouted constantly, "just cut out the garbage!" "Eat Less" "Exercise More"! We all know this, and those of us who are struggling aren't not doing it on purpose. The truth is we can't.

Obesity is caused by exhaustion, calorie or nutrient restriction or depletion, and deep stress. These three factors create an insatiable appetite and a lack of energy. They create a deep craving for high calorie, easily digestible foods, and they also create a non-stop "food chatter" in the mind so that we are always thinking about food, always wondering what and when we can eat next.

The only way to change this is to make sure that we have plenty of nutrition and plenty of rest, and we reduce the stress in our lives as much as possible. Anything we can do to address these three factors will allow our bodies to slow down our appetite and speed up our metabolism.

As I researched for my book, The Short Guide to Ordered Eating, the one thing that stood out to me when I poured through piles of research, was that obesity is caused by a lack of consistent and high-quality self-care.

What are those self-care habits that help your body naturally balance weight?

They are all simple, free, and accessible to most of us.

1. Improve our nutrient status by eating high-nutrient food at mealtime, three times a day.

2. Improving our sleep by implementing good, regular sleep habits.

3. Reducing our stress

In my books, I go over the habits that impact these three factors. Really, the only way to start though is to pick a few changes that we know we can commit to over the next month, and implement those. Once we are consistently doing them, we can add more.

These deeply impactful habits can be organized into three categories: Food, Fitness, and Self-Care (Stress reduction). If we pick one thing in each of those categories that seems doable and implement it for a month, we'd be quite surprised to see how much progress can be made in a short time.

If you are just getting started, here are some basic habits you can choose from, pick one from each section and take it from there.

Food:

1. Add protein to each meal: the brain will not shut off appetite until it has had enough protein. Add protein to each meal.

2. Eat MORE earlier in the day.

3. Limit eating to meal times, and do not eat between dinner and breakfast.

Fitness:

1. Walk for 5-10 minutes every day. Even if you just walk out the front door and down the hall or to the end of the walkway or driveway, get up and walk for a few minutes each day.

2. If walking is too hard, or mobility is an issue, do some kind of movement to music or while watching TV for 5-10 minutes each day.

3. Do 5-7 minutes of body weight exercises each day (YouTube has great videos, and the 7-minute workout app has beginner workouts.

4. Commit to not sitting as long each day. Stand more, even if it's just by the sink to do dishes, or to pick up around the house.

Note: Some of us have become extremely depleted and exhausted. If you are extremely intolerant to exercise, or any of these habits are too hard, skip habits in this section until you are feeling better. Chances are, once you have addressed your nutrient status and level of stress and exhaustion, you will find yourself naturally wanting to move more. It's okay to wait for now)

Self Care:

1. Sleep: sleep deeply impacts our stress levels, our appetites, and our metabolism. Improve sleep hygiene and sleep habits. Get up in the morning, eliminate napping, and get to bed 7-8 hours before wake-up time.

2. Create a nighttime routine that supports sleep: before bed, take care of personal hygiene, take a warm bath or shower, read in bed, or listen to relaxing music.

3. Make time to do something you love to do each day, even if it's for five minutes: draw, paint, sing, fix something, knit, listen to music, write, read, cook, look for stars in the night sky, watch the sunrise or sunset, dance, bike, play a game, etc.

4. Three daily check-ins: Three times a day, take a deep breath, scan your body and release any tension, and tune in to how you are feeling. Ask yourself what you need, and see if you can do something about that: maybe a drink of water, a walk around the block or up and down the hall, a sweater if your cold, maybe you didn't realize you've been holding your breath or have to use the bathroom. Just take note of how you are feeling, and if you need anything, and see if you can let go of any unnecessary muscle tension.

These basic self-care habits will start to impact your appetite, your metabolism, and also your feelings about food. Go slow, remember to start small, and build from there. If you have a lot of weight to lose, are physically challenged, or just haven't exercised in a long time, be extra gentle with yourself. It's okay to start even smaller, pick one thing to change and work on that!

If you already have some of these habits in place and are ready for more, my book, The Daily Hearth will teach you how to take your self-care routine to the next level, so that you can impact the factors that are preventing you from being at your best weight.

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Minding It Daily

Thursday, January 25, 2024

Creating a Self Care Plan: Allow Your Body to Automatically Manage Weight

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