1. Deal With Emotional Eating
Many people use food as a way to insulate themselves from uncomfortable feelings. Food becomes a way to numb out and soothe anxiety. These patterns of emotional eating can be a major contributor to weight problems. Acupuncture can help deal with these issues by calming the mind and helping to unlock unresolved conflict. Some emotional eating issues can go back to early childhood. Look for an acupuncturist who works with emotional issues as a part of a weight loss program. It is also important that you are able to develop trust in your practitioner, so look for someone you can confide in.
2. Detoxify Mind and Body
On a physical level, toxicity and its accompanying stagnation can cause the body to hold onto excess weight. Our toxic environment causes the body to use body fat as a firewall to protect metabolism from toxins. The body will not let go of the extra weight until the toxins have been dealt with. Acupuncture can be a powerful therapy to help the body release toxins. For this reason, acupuncture has long been used in drug and alcohol detox programs with great success.
On an emotional level, negative emotions and unresolved conflict can become toxic and these toxic feelings are stored in body tissue. A negative self-image or being closed emotionally encourages the body to store fat as a form of body armor. Often working with the heart, our emotional and spiritual center, can help heal these wounds.
3. Ramp up Digestive Energy and Metabolism
As the result of a lifetime of poor diet choices, stress and irregular eating habits, which are all a part of the standard American diet, many people suffer from diminished digestive energy. This energy can be seen as a metaphorical fire--the fire of metabolism. As metabolism slows, the body stores fat, partially because a slow metabolism is easily overwhelmed with too many calories. Acupuncture can stimulate the digestive fires, increasing the energy of the spleen and stomach to digest food, and even address thyroid insufficiency to boost the basal metabolic rate. Low digestive energy can also be indicative of blood sugar problems, so if you have hypoglycemia, diabetes or irritability, you can benefit from acupuncture treatment.
Symptoms of low digestive fire include loose stool, low appetite, bloating, fatigue, hair loss, easy weight gain but difficulty losing it, flabby muscles and saggy skin, undigested food in the stool and even difficulty concentrating or excessive worry. Ask your acupuncturist to help you speed up your metabolism and improve digestion. Your practitioner may also prescribe dietary therapy, a time honored and very effective system for addressing these concerns.
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