What if there was more to losing weight than what you eat and how you workout?

If you’ve followed me for a while, you know that I advocate a holistic approach to healthy living; one that includes behavior change, building sustainable habits and recognizing the mind-body connection.

If you’ve hit a weight loss plateau or aren’t seeing results at all, mindfulness-based behaviors such as meditation may be the missing link.

Regular meditation and mindfulness practices helped me change my eating habits and stop unwanted behaviors for good. 

Powerful stuff, huh? So what’s all the fuss about? 

3 Ways Meditation Can Help You Lose Weight And Improve Your Overall Health. 

Reduces Stress

Chronic stress activates our fight-or-flight response, increasing the level of cortisol in our body. This has been associated with storing extra belly fat, high blood pressure, and decreased immunity.

No thanks!

The average adult thinks between 50,000 – 70,000 thoughts per day (!) so it’s no wonder we find it difficult to slow down, breathe, and just ‘be’!

On the other hand, meditation can activate our body’s ‘relaxation response’, which sees our blood pressure, hormonal levels, heart rate, and digestive functioning return to normal levels.

Increases Your Awareness

Meditation opens up your eyes to ‘what and how’ you are eating. Hands up if you’ve even been halfway through the box of choc-chip cookies during an 11pm snack attack before realizing what you were doing.

Guilty.

Mindfulness practices like meditation, or taking a few deep breaths, help you tap into how you’re feeling in the present moment. Quieting down the impulsive “I must have all the food right now” monkey mind makes room for and helps us recognize our natural hunger cues.

Helps You Identify Triggers

Or what I like to call, the ‘why and when’. Mindfulness allows you to focus on your environment and the cues that cause you to overeat and make poor choices. It allows you to connect with yourself and ask, “Am I actually hungry? What do I really want right now?“.

Once you are aware of the unwanted behaviors and triggers, you can start to reshape your mindset and routine to eliminate them for good.

Sometimes we fall asleep at the wheel of life – it happens! 

Meditation allows us to take a step outside of ourselves and see the big picture. If you think about it, most of the eating we do is in fact mindLESS. But, by reprogramming your mindset you can in turn become more mindFUL about your decisions and kick bad habits to the curb.

READ MORE: 6 Morning Affirmations To Boost Your Confidence 

Meditation for weight loss isn’t as crazy or ‘woo woo’ as you might think.

If you’ve been busy doing ‘all the right things’ like improving your diet and moving your body consistently, perhaps it’s time to introduce some mindful techniques like meditation into your day! 

 

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