Weight Loss & The Power Of The Mind

Peeling The Weight Loss Onion

For those of us looking to shed our excess baggage forever — the stats look grim.

According to a UCLA analysis of 31 long-term diet studies — more than 80% of people who successfully lose weight gain it all back (and more) within just two years.

So, why is the yoyo diet the rule rather than the exception? Why are so many of us stuck on the "gain→lose →gain" weight loss merry-go-round?

Layer after layer, when you peel an onion all the way, what is left? The core.

Likewise, after stripping away all of the reasons we human beings put on weight (including poor diet, low motivation, and lack of exercise), what is at the root? The mind.

Here, we will dive into why our mind is the most critical weight loss component, and why meditation is the world’s best tool for shedding the pounds... forever.

Programming Our Mind With "Suboptimal" Choices

As the storage vault for our experiences, emotions, and beliefs — any svelte body goal that we set must click with our subconscious mind or our efforts will be for naught.

The problem is, many of us have programmed our minds with years and years of, let’s say, "suboptimal" choices.

From raiding the fridge at midnight, to snacking on junk food between meals, to filling up when we are feeling down, every decision we make digs our pathways that much deeper.

While we may be able cut carbs and follow P90x to drop a quick ten pounds, if we want to be permanently lean and mean then we must make sure the nature and quality of our thoughts are on the highest level.

What’s the best way to do this? Meditation.

Meditation Unleashes Our Subconscious Mind Power

The human mind is often compared to an iceberg.

Since our deeply rooted habitual, compulsive, and addictive thoughts ultimately play out in our "above the surface" conscious mind, we need to dive deep below the surface to identify and correct the problem.

Since meditation is, in essence, the very act of interfacing with our deepest mind layers, the millennia old practice is the perfect tool for the job.

When we gain awareness and eventual mastery of our subconscious mind through meditation — the weight loss game shifts.

By tapping into our inner "Indiana Jones treasure trove" on a daily basis, we repave any belt-stretching "feed me now... or else!" thought ruts we may have dug ourselves into over the years.

With our mind clear of self-destructive "chocolate cake is love... make sure every cubic inch of your belly is full of love" toxic impulses, attaining our ideal body shifts from wishful thinking to reality.

What does this mean for those of us looking to tighten up the old waistline?

No more lust for junk food, no more polishing off a tub of Ben & Jerry's to feel "complete," no more devouring a whole bag of Doritos because you simply can’t "stop" — old habits are easy to break with meditation.

Knowing The Mind On A Deeper Level

By interfacing with our mind on the deepest level, meditation gets to the nitty-gritty of why we emotionally turn to food:

"Am I eating because I got chewed out by my boss today? Did the frustration of getting stuck in traffic for an hour cloud my dinner time judgement? Am I using calories to smother my loneliness? Am I stuffing myself because I have nothing else to look forward to?"

This higher awareness allows us to know when our food cravings are the result of "emotional hijacking" versus when our cells actually require nutrition (as nature intended).

By shining a light on the boogeyman hiding under the bed of our conscious mind, meditation clears out the shadowy reasons we unconsciously numb ourselves with food.

How Meditation Disciplines Our "Inner Fat Kid"

When it comes weight loss, the link to our mind runs deep. The struggles some overweight adults face often stem from childhood.

"I’ve been fat since kindergarten, it’s who I am…"

While a bit of a harsh term, our "inner fat kid’s" voice can have us dreaming of Snickers, Butterfinger, and Reese’s Pieces (or the adult equivalent) even decades down the road.

Luckily, meditation shines a light on the deepest, darkest depths of our mind, allowing us to purge any shadow that may be holding us back.

In other words, meditation ships our inner fat kid off to boot camp, puts him through the ringer, and builds him back into a highly disciplined warrior.

For folks struggling to conquer their weight loss demons, meditation can be the only real long term solution.

"Thought Diets" Blow "Food Diets" Out Of the Water

Neuroscientists believe that the human mind thinks 70,000+ thoughts per day. Pulling out our trusty TI-85 graphing calculator, that’s about one thought every two seconds!

And that’s just for normal folks. Those of us at war with the scale often have a far busier mind.

"I hate my body… What does it matter if I eat the whole box, I’m already fat anyway… What a crappy day at work, finishing off this angel food cake will make me forget my worries… I am doomed to be chubby, I have always been this way and always will… Losing weight is impossible, I am hopeless…"

By putting us on a highly nutritious "thought diet", meditation infuses our "vitamin deficient" mind with precisely what it needs for us to make healthy lifestyle choices.

In addition to making us far more mindful of what we put in our body, meditation’s powerful quieting and stilling of the so called "monkey mind" erases two of the key reasons many of us overeat in the first place: anxiety and depression.

Above and beyond becoming a master of the bathroom scale, meditation opens up a whole new world of benefits — with creativity, great sleep, success, less anxiety, less depression, and supercharged health just the beginning.