START LISTENING TO YOUR BODY

If you are currently overweight, you might be using food to change the way the way you feel rather than to nourish your body.

Or you might have habits that lead to weight gain, such as eating when you’re not truly hungry, starving then gorging, or eating in response to emotional triggers, rather than physical ones.

You might not even recognize what true hunger is any more.

Whatever the reasons for your tendency to overeat, it is never too late to reprogramme your habits, so that you feel more satisfied on a healthier diet, and start to lose weight.

Your body knows which foods it needs to stay alive, and which will help it heal, repair and grow.

A healthy body wants nourishing foods and knows how to recognize the signals of true hunger.

The problem is that we have learnt to override the body’s healthy signals and have gradually replaced them with unhealthy cravings for sweet, salty and fattening foods that upset the body’s metabolism.

Nor do we really know when we are hungry, or when we are full.

We are out of ‘sync’ with our feelings and our bodies – and widespread weight-gain is the result.

ACTION PLAN: THE 5 MINUTE BODY CHECK

Use the following technique every day, five minutes at a time, to increase your personal awareness of what your body needs.

• SIT IN A CHAIR – GET COMFORTABLE
• CLOSE YOUR EYES. BREATHE IN DEEPLY THROUGH YOUR NOSE. SIGH OUT SLOWLY RELEASING ANY SURFACE DISCOMFORT. REPEAT THREE TIMES.
• CONSIDER AND FOCUS ON YOUR WHOLE BODY
• NOW CONSIDER AND FOCUS ON EACH AREA OF YOUR BODY, STARTING AT YOUR HEAD, THEN WORK DOWN THROUGH EACH LIMB AND AREA OF YOUR BODY TOWARDS YOUR TOES.
• CONSCIOUSLY RELEASE TENSION IN EACH AREA AS YOU WORK THROUGH.
• NOTICE THE TEMPERATURE AND THE COMFORT LEVEL OF EACH PART OF YOUR BODY
• MONITOR YOUR BODY FOR WHATEVER SENSATIONS YOU MAY EXPERIENCE AND ACKNOWLEDGE THEM.
• ACCEPT ANY FEELINGS OR SENSATIONS THAT YOU EXPERIENCE.
• CONTINUE TO TUNE INTO YOUR BREATHING AND NOTICE HOW RELAXED YOU CAN BECOME.