EFT for Weight Issues
EFT for Weight Loss
Weight loss, binge eating, obsessive thinking about food and body, self-loathing, chronic dieting - my approach with any weight issue is to remove the underlying anxiety and secondary gains that drive it.
Losing the 'emotional weight' that contaminates your relationship to food makes exercise and dieting unnecessary. Weight loss becomes a non-issue as your appetite and metabolism readjust to healthy settings.
One of the key factors in EFT for weight loss is self-acceptance. Easier said than done for most of us! You may have a program running that says if you accept your self, or accept your body, as you are now then you'll lose your motivation to change. Seductive logic, but the opposite is actually true.
EFT for weight loss works by discharging the underlying feelings that drive emotional over-eating. The need to quell the anxiety is gone. It sounds simple, and it IS simple. But there's often a deeper level of work needed, and that concerns "secondary gains".
Secondary Gains are strong subconscious beliefs about the benefits of keeping the issue, or the risks of letting it go:
- If I lose weight I'll get unwanted sexual attention
- People will expect more of me and I can't handle that
- I'll lose all of my (overweight) friends and end up alone
- My sister will be jealous
- I'll have to give up the only thing that gives me pleasure - life won't be worth living
- Dieting is my one connection with my mom - I'll be abandoned
- I won't have an excuse to avoid dating
- I won't know who I am!
Beliefs like these have a powerful effect on us. Consciously we may be desperate to lose weight, but the perceived risk may be overwhelming. So the body receives conflicting directives. Even if, through force of will, we're able to lose 40 pounds, our subconscious need to be safe, secure and loved means we'll gain it right back. And then some.
It can be very effective to use EFT by tapping on the whatever secondary gains you're aware of. It can be as simple as "Even though my sister might be jealous if I lose weight, I deeply love and completely accept myself". This can really help.
However secondary gains always arise from traumatic experiences. Sometimes it's obvious where it started, but other times the memory is hidden. Sometimes there can be a LOT of intense energy in those memories that needs to be resolved.
This is where working with a Matrix Reimprinting practitioner can make all the difference. EFT can discharge the negative emotions, which is great, but Matrix actually reverses the secondary gain beliefs by changing the memory. This eliminates the "need" for the weight issue and things get really easy.
EFT also works great for cravings. Watching a lifelong craving disappear in just a few minutes of tapping is very exciting. This can be very helpful if there's a particular food that's your downfall. Simply tap on "This craving for chocolate"
Of course it's important to discharge the underlying anxiety driving the craving. Otherwise you’ll likely just start craving something else. Still, it's fun and empowering to eliminate a craving - if you have one, try it!
If you'd like to work with me on a weight issue, I do recommend booking 5 sessions. A single session is unlikely to do the trick, but 5 sessions is often enough. That said, if you have a LOT of serious trauma in your past, it might take more work and I'd recommend my 12 session package.
EFT for weight loss is one of my specialties. If you have any questions at all, I'm happy to set up a free 20 minute consultation. Or if you'd like to dive in, please fill out my intake questionnaire and I'll get back to you directly.
Rob, I am so stunned by the change in my eating habits this past week. I haven't eaten one thing I shouldn't. This is utterly amazing. I keep telling myself it's something else that's causing me not to eat, but nothing else has occurred this past week to cause this change in me other than tapping, so I'm going to have to reconcile myself to the fact it works
Dress Maker