Think Yourself Thin You can think yourself thin because the way you think about food has a great deal to do with what you eat and how much you eat. Many people eat for comfort or because they are bored and don't take responsibility for the fact that it is their diet that is the problem. Changing your relationship with food can work wonders.

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Information about healthy eating is widely available and there are more commercial diets to choose from than ever before.  Yet, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) 1.6 billion adults around the world were overweight in 2005 and this figure is set to rise to 2.3 billion by 2015.  An awareness of what and how much we should eat to be a healthy size is not enough in the battle against weight gain, because our eating habits are influenced by our unconscious emotions and past experiences.

Changing the way you think about yourself, your weight, and the food you eat, whilst managing stress and being positive yet realistic about the benefits of weight loss, could help you lose weight.

Accept responsibility for your weight

The first step to losing weight is to accept responsibility for your size. If you usually blame your excess weight on your genes, your metabolism, your age, or your glands - stop! Although recent research suggests that around one sixth of the population have inherited a ‘fat gene’ that can make them around 3kg (7lbs) heavier, only about a third of people with one fat gene and two thirds with two fat genes, are thought to be affected. What you’re more likely to have inherited from your family are the poor dietary habits and low activity levels that cause weight gain.

Heavier people tend to burn more calories and have a faster metabolism than slimmer people because they need more calories to maintain their weight and basic body functions.

Whilst weight gain in old age is partly due to the metabolism slowing down as muscle is lost, it’s also down to being less physically active; the remedy is the same as it is for everyone else - eat less and move more!

Unless you have an under active thyroid – which can be treated with appropriate medication, or you are taking medications that can cause weight gain, such as antihistamines, steroids, antidepressants, certain type 2 diabetes treatments and the contraceptive pill, it’s likely you’re overweight because you’re eating more calories than you’re burning off.  Accepting the real reason why you’re overweight could be your first step towards doing something about it.

Note: If you suspect that your weight gain is linked to a medication you’re taking, speak to your GP or pharmacist - they might be able to offer an alternative with less effect on your weight.

Get motivated!

If you’re finding it hard to stick to your new eating habits, identifying why you want to be slimmer and focussing on the benefits you’ll enjoy when you lose weight, could help.  For example, your motivation could be that you want look good in that little black dress, or you want to feel more confident in a bikini, or you simply want to feel better. Focussing on the long-term rewards of achieving your weight loss goal can help you to resist the short-term pleasures of overeating.

Remember your life won’t be perfect if you lose weight!

Some people mistakenly believe that if they lose weight their lives will be perfect and they’ll automatically become more attractive, more confident and more successful. Many find this scary - what if they can’t live up to their own or other people’s expectations? Unconsciously they hang on to their excess pounds to avoid having to be a perfect person with a perfect life.  Others lose weight, but once they realise they still have the same problems as before, they start to comfort eat, regaining the weight they lost and more.

Losing weight might improve your health and boost your confidence, but you will still be the same person, with your own unique personality and traits. Shedding excess weight will not magically change your life - it will simply change your shape! Once you accept this you might find it easier to lose weight, because you’ll no longer have unrealistic expectations of yourself and what your life will be like once you become thinner.

Think positive thoughts

Self-talk is the ongoing conversation we have with ourselves. Negative self-talk such as ‘I can’t lose weight. I’m fat and it’s too hard for me to change,’ promotes a negative self-image, which your actions will reflect, probably in the form of overeating. If you make sure your self-talk is positive, you’ll find yourself acting in ways that back up your positive view of yourself.

An affirmation is another name for positive self-talk. A good affirmation states what you want, rather than what you don’t want, as if you already have it.  So ‘I am slim, fit and healthy’ works better than ‘I won’t be overweight, unfit and unhealthy’. Attaching positive emotions to your affirmation makes it more real, for example  ‘I am slim, healthy, happy and energetic’. Say your affirmation in your mind. Picture how you’ll look when you’ve lost weight and feel the emotions you’ll experience. Hear the sounds you’ll hear – for example people complimenting on your new shape.  All of this will have a powerful effect on your subconsious mind. Do this on a daily basis and you should find yourself adopting behaviours that support your new self-image, such as eating a balanced diet and being more active.

Be specific and realistic

Set yourself a specific and realistic target e.g. ‘I want to lose 450g (1lb) a week’. You’re more likely to succeed than if your goal is ‘I want to lose weight’, or if you set yourself an unrealistic target like ‘I want to lose 6.5kg (1 stone) in a month’.

Keep a food and drink diary

Keep a food and drink diary for a week, noting down when, what and how much you ate, as well as where and who with, how hungry you were, and how you felt at the time e.g. stressed, happy, sad, angry, upset. This will help you identify the eating patterns that are sabotaging your efforts to lose weight. For example, eating when you’re unhappy, stressed, or bored, rather than hungry. You can then plan strategies to change them.

Feel your emotions – don’t eat them!

Many people comfort eat to cope with negative feelings like fear, anger and sadness and low self-esteem.  They tend to turn to foods they learned to link with comfort during their childhood, such as chocolate, biscuits, crisps and ice cream. 

If you comfort eat to block emotions such as anger, fear, or hurt, look for ways to express and deal with your feelings, such as talking them through with someone you can trust, or writing them down. Identify any issues or problems and seek solutions, so that you can treat food as fuel for your body, rather than an escape from your emotions.  Food may offer a temporary distraction or comfort, but the emotions or problems you’re trying to escape from will still be there, with the added problem of weight gain. So next time you find yourself dipping into the biscuit tin ask yourself ‘Am I hungry, or is something bothering me?’

Deal with stress

When you’re stressed you’re more likely to crave sugary and fatty foods, as your body prepares for ‘fight or flight’ by fuelling up with extra energy. Modern day stressful situations such as pressure at work, relationship problems etc. are ongoing and unlikely to necessitate either of these physical responses; if you don’t fight or flee, the excess sugars and fats are stored as fat – usually around the middle – to provide an easily converted energy source. So it’s important to find effective ways of dealing with stress. Keep a stress diary in which you identify the situations, places and people that make you feel stressed and plan ways to avoid, minimise, or deal with them. Adopt stress-busting techniques like deep breathing, exercising, listening to music, or a long, relaxing soak in the bath, rather than heading for the food cupboard.

Banish boredom

If you tend to eat when you’re bored, plan activities to beat boredom that don’t involve food. Read that book you’ve been meaning to read. Meet up with friends you haven’t seen for a while. Find a new interest that excites you. Once you start living life to the full you’ll ‘eat to live’ rather than ‘live to eat’.

About the author

	Wendy Green battled weight gain on and off during her teens, twenties and thirties and is the author of The Greatest Guide to Slimming & Healthy Living (ISBN 978-1-907906-00-8). During her late thirties, whilst studying nutrition as part of a health degree, she began eating a more balanced diet.  She also worked on having a more normal relationship with food, after realising she often ate when she wasn’t hungry. This time the weight not only came off, but stayed off. Wendy believes that staying slim and healthy involves finding a balanced way of eating that suits you in the long-term, rather than following a strict diet – a short-term solution that will inevitably fail. It’s also about building more activity into your daily life, rather than joining a gym you’re unlikely to attend. Wendy has written nine books about health and currently works in health promotion. She has a degree in Health Studies and is passionate about health and wellbeing. She believes that a healthy lifestyle should be fun, and that it is the small changes you make every day that really make a difference. Her books show you what these changes should be and how they can improve your health.