Written by: Colleen Faltot, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Achieving lasting weight loss in 2024 and cultivating a healthier relationship with food requires a fundamental realization: it's not just about the food. Regardless of your weight loss goals, the key lies beyond the external realm of diets and workouts. Food serves as a temporary external source of dopamine, used to self-soothe and fill emotional voids. This behavior mirrors other toxic dopamine hits we seek in shopping, alcohol, relationship drama, social media, and our phones. These are coping mechanisms our brains instinctively turn to when triggered into a fight-or-flight response.
Weight isn't a result of food alone, and the cycle of gaining and losing a few pounds isn't solely about dietary choices. Focusing solely on diets and workouts keeps individuals on the treadmill of the multi-billion-dollar diet industry.
To truly enter 2024 free of the weight struggle, the emphasis must shift from physical aspects to mental, emotional, and spiritual liberation. Our brains, designed for safety, constantly scan for threats, contributing to issues with food and weight loss in the modern world.
To break free, one must become conscious of unconscious wounds. Shifting the focus from physical weight loss to shedding mental and emotional burdens is the first step toward healing and sustainable weight management.
6 Steps to lasting weight loss in 2024
For those seeking significant shifts in the new year, here's a framework:
1. Honor Your Emotions
Understand and break down emotions to their core. Embrace the idea that we're rarely upset about what we think we are and allow the release of suppressed emotions linked to physical weight.
2. Identify Patterns
Use somatic tools like breathwork and movement to pause and opt for healthier alternatives when cortisol levels rise. Choose healthy dopamine hits like breathwork, movement, and journaling.
3. Learn Coping Skills
Recognize that past pulls to unhealthy habits were coping mechanisms for stress. Substitute them with healthier alternatives like walking, connecting with friends, or reading.
4. Set Boundaries
Spend time alone to understand your energy and triggers. Cut out energy drains by setting healthy boundaries to protect your peace.
5. Take Responsibility
Accept the past and take responsibility for past actions. This creates a safe space for the unconscious mind.
6. Let Go
Release the past, things beyond your control, and desired outcomes. Embrace the idea that control lies in the mind, and everything is created twice—in the mind and in reality. Letting go of the past is essential for creating a new future.
This work isn't easy, but it promises a transformation in energy, providing the physical, mental, and emotional freedom desired through weight loss.
Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and visit my website for more info on how to lose the physical, mental and emotional weight for good!
Colleen Faltot, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
I've guided countless individuals to sustainable weight loss by empowering them to master their emotions, fostering an unyielding mindset and a healthy body. As a woman in recovery from alcoholism, an eating disorder, codependency, and anxiety, I leverage a proven methodology to address root wounds, transforming pain into purpose through somatic healing and subconscious rewiring.
The Power of the Pause podcast, click here.
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