Gaining weight doesn't happen in a vacuum --- nor does losing weight. For many people, emotional and mental factors affect eating habits and lifestyle choices. The holistic path to weight loss considers the whole person in its approach, meaning it not only considers the number of calories consumed in a day but also other factors that can contribute to both your short-term and long-term success.
The concept of dieting in the traditional sense, where you control your calorie intake for the amount of time required to obtain your weight loss goal, is both short and narrowly sighted. Your relationship with food is a lifelong one; making short-term changes does not address your eating habits once the diet is completed. Dieting in the traditional sense is a road often fraught with disappointment and failure in meeting your weight loss goals. Many health professionals urge instead to look at lifestyle changes and the examination of your relationship with food. In doing so, you are more likely to obtain long-term success in eating to live rather than living to eat.
Emotional Factors
Weight loss is an activity that requires changes in both the mind and body. Alternative medicine practitioners such as Drs. Phillip and Jane Mountrose, Emotional Freedom Techniques experts and authors, advocate a holistic approach to weight loss that addresses the social, emotional and spiritual aspects of the person in addition to the physical ones.
Traditional Medicine
A wide range of holistic approaches to weight loss are available. You may be more interested in a traditional medicine approach that involves your health care practitioner and allied health care professionals such as dietitians, nutritionists and counselors. There are an increasing number of general practitioners and family physicians that understand and embrace the philosophy of holistic medicine including weight loss.
Alternative and Complementary Medicine
In developing your changing lifestyle, you may be interested in one or more of the alternative or complementary health practices available. Acupuncture has been used with success in some people seeking to lose weight. Yoga provides both physical activity and promotes relief of stress; tai chi provides similar benefits. All of these therapies can be used regardless of your age.
Considerations
Regardless of the choices you make in your holistic approach to weight loss, become in tune with yourself. You are the best judge of what feels right to you. If you've tried to lose weight unsuccessfully in the past, put those attempts behind you. How you talk to yourself affects your self-esteem; speak as kindly to yourself as you do to others. The better your self-esteem, the more likely you are to succeed, not only at weight loss but in many areas of your life.
References
- "Medical News Today"; Holistic Weight Loss A Non-Diet Approach To Good Health; January 2010
- "Monitor"; Bringing More Effective Tools to the Weight-loss Table; Leigh E. Rich; January 2004
- Getting Thru: Holistic Healing Resources; Drs. Phillip and Jane Mountrose; 2011
- Getting Thru: About Drs. Phillip and Jane Mountrose; Drs. Phillip and Jane Mountrose, 2011
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