Obesity is the major problem among people these days. But instead of various efforts no one gets win over the obesity.
And also this is not a problem of any individual but it is trending globally. So let’s find out results of some studies. That if the body is not helping in weight loss then could brain will help?
As I told you obesity is not only the problem of any individual, the developed countries like the US are also the worry of it. In fact, 70% of the population of America is overweight.
At this time an average adult is almost 24 pounds heavier than the adult in 1960. Our growing girth adds about the US $200 billion in a year for our health care expenditure, amounting to the severe health crisis.
Exercises help people in weight loss for short term only. One you stop exercising your body will again regain the weight. Diet also helps for only short-term weight loss. Also, there is no pill or medicine that can help lose weight and also keep it off.
If there is any pill to help in weight loss, it will be a challenging brain, especially the primitive parts of the brain, the mammalian or emotional brain, and reptilian brain.
These parts are the house circuits, which controls the stress and also our stress generated thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.
So by rewiring these circuits in humans and changing them we get a chance to find the root cause of the stress related problems including the obesity.
Moreover, obesity and overweight are sometimes due to genetic makeup. While many studies are suggesting that stress plays a key role and is the master for weight gain. Most of the people under stress and tension turn towards food for comfort.
Hence a neuroscience-based approach came to light, for weight management and handling with common excesses that we all face, by our emotional brain training.
The basic idea was to change the brain by the neuroscience-based tools so that complete range of the common excesses would be fade away. And the results were almost same as expected.
The emotional brain is the command central for the weight and common excesses. This includes the starvation, reward and fear centers.
When this brain is in tension and stress, then all the three centers promote the weight gain and overeating.
Moreover, we have more strong drives to do the same which we know, to not to do it. But we can’t help ourselves because our emotional brain is in the stress.
The stress increases the hunger for carbohydrates and also reduces the metabolic rate, that’s almost ensuring the weight gain.
The stress and obesity link are well documented. Also, our thinking brain, neocortex, stops working and extremes of our emotional brain call the shots.
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For The Care Of Body, Take Care Of Your Brain
The foremost step to control and maintain your weight is to de-stress your emotional brain. In the emotional brain training (EBT), we come out of our stress by checking in few times whole day.
And by determining our level of depression and stress and uses the techniques for that stress level to spiral up to the state of well- being.
Here, I am telling you the five levels of the stress and its five tools. To get the idea of their working just take few breaths and check within yourself and determine your stress level. Then use these tools for that levels of stress to decrease your stress quickly.
Stress Level – 1: Very Low Stress, Compassion Tool
This tool is for the lower level of stress. Just say to yourself that feel compassion for myself, after that wait for the feel of compassion to just flow throughout your body. Now say that, feel compassion for others, and feel the wave of warmth. And then say, feel the compassion for all the living beings.
Stress Level – 2: Low Stress, Feeling Tool
For this level of stress ask yourself that how do I feel? Few feeling will bubble up, but wait for long enough to get the strongest feeling, and that’s the one. Now ask yourself that what do I need? And lastly, do I need the support?
Stress Level – 3: A Little Stress, Flow Tool
For this level of stress say to yourself that I feel angry because and realize what words come into your mind to complete that sentence.
Now state the same sentence again for the other seven feelings like guilt, secure, happy, afraid, sad, proud and grateful. And then notice the glow in the body and how your stress is gone.
You might ask why your stress had gone. This is because when we feel the negative feelings they fade away.
We are now no long in peril and our brain automatically focuses on the positive feelings. And this gives us the energy and strength to move forward and do some great things in our life.
Stress Level – 4: High Stress, Cycle Tool
At this level of stress start by saying that what is bothering you? And then protest your stress by saying that, I can’t stand it that or I feel angry that, or I hate it that. And then realize the words that come into your mind.
This would unlock that circuit so that you will be able to change at the deeper level.
Wait for a while and say to yourself that, I feel afraid that or I feel sad that and then again realize the words that come into your brain to complete the sentence.
Now make yourself strong and say that of course, I can do that like overeating, as my unreasonable expectation is and then again wait for the words that come out from your unconscious brain like I find my safety from the overeating. And that’s an old glitch of memory which needs updating.
Hence update it by saying the opposite expectations like I didn’t find my safety from food. The time you say this when the circuit was the freshly unlocked, then the circuit could change into the expectation of your own choice.
The time new expectation become dominant, then the emotional drives for many excesses including the food will fade way. Hence changing of behavior will come easy.
Stress Level 5 – Very High Stress: Damage Control Tool
At this level of stress, we need to get de- stress and comforted. Sometimes just by rocking your chair and breathing deeply helps a lot. Furthermore, you can recite the calming words like minimize harm, don’t judge or know that it will pass.
Survival Circuits Activates The Strong Emotional Drives To Overeat
One you learn the trick of coming out of your stress from the emotional brain, most likely you will see that still you get triggered sometimes. You may blame yourself the mindless eating. But actually, it is the survival circuit.
When we are in stress they come into action and then we reach to food to cope up. And then our mind remembers that food saves us from the stress.
Hence encodes it as the expectation like I find my safety from the food. And this circuit will replay for lifetime and fuels for maladaptive eating.
Hence encodes it as the expectation like I find my safety from the food. And this circuit will replay for lifetime and fuels for maladaptive eating.
Now research shows that these so-called survival circuits can rewire and we can do that in the EBT program.
But they can be only rewired when we are in the stress. Only that time the circuit will unlock and make changes more long lasting.
By the EBT stressed person reaches for the tool, not for the food and stops the craving and changes the circuit. Hence the drive for overeating fades away.
Keeping The Weight Off – The Last Step
This task is quite hard but we can do it with ease if we improve our mind’s emotional set point.
The set point in the stress, encoded from the adverse experiences in the early life causes chronic tension and stress overload in our emotional brain, that’s a set point for the weight regain.
The solution for this problem is to change the emotional set point so that our emotional brain can get rid out of the chronic stress of the EBT program.
So that participant becomes resilient towards the new stress and has fewer chances to regain the weight that they have lost and can lead a joyous life.
