Is Your Excess Weight Really Your Fault? 

I’ll be the first to take responsibility for proper eating habits.  However, if you have struggled with excess weight, I think it would be a great disservice if you were not aware of some of the latest research.  In particular, science is now proving that some of your weight concerns may be epigenetic factors or impacted by changes in your daily routine that can make a significant difference for you.

Yes, it is true that it’s important to make good food choices. And that can be challenging at certain times of the year, at certain events, and even when there are factors in your life that are out of your immediate control.  However, one of the biggest issues working against many people for weight and metabolism is hormone imbalance. These can be brought on by factors such as stress and epigenetics.

Stress is a tremendous factor in properly managing weight and metabolism. Hormones do a lot to control multiple communications and pathways in multiple body systems. When stress is out of control, weight management will be a challenge. Some of the main stress hormones which you have probably heard of such as cortisol and adrenaline will literally be demanded by the body to get you through stressful times.  As these hormones compete to bring on the necessary energy to face the stress, cravings for carbohydrates may increase and these sugars will only provide a temporary fix.  And shortly after, the crash will hit from the sugar “high” ending.   Not to mention, some processed foods are made with ingredients that will increase the addiction to the processed food you are eating, requiring you to eat more to be satisfied.  

One recommendation for addressing cortisol and adrenaline imbalances is the Tahiti Vacation Relaxation Exercise.  It only takes 15 minutes and equates to four hours of sleep!  And NO, “Type A” people, it is not recommended that you do this twice a day to equal your eight hours of sleep rather than actually sleeping eight hours.  However, this is a maintenance program and supports the sleep you should be trying to get.  It supports proper rest to help the hormones get to a more balanced way of operating, and can lead to more restful sleep as you continue to practice it.  Until the actual source of the stress is addressed, however, through your body chemistry, your sleep may go unchanged and your weight will stay the same or even increase.

Epigenetics also has a tremendous amount to do with weight maintenance.  Be sure to check out my prior blog on epigenetics to get some background on this topic.  Basically, lifestyle events that may have happened to you or your ancestors cause epigenetic “locks” that prevent your weight and metabolism hormones from properly communicating. Let me give you an example.

You would probably agree that it would not be uncommon for an ancestor of yours to have experienced a famine or shortage of food in their lifetime, right?   Just think back four generations ago and you will see that it's very possible for a famine or shortage of food to be in your family history from another part of the world. It is extremely common to find that stressors such as these created epigenetic locks that caused weight and metabolism hormones to operate differently than they were originally intended to operate.  Literally locking down the genes from transcribing correctly.   And what if because of that food shortage, your ancestor had to teach his body how to manage food and calories differently than you might have to today in our modern world?  And what if that ancestor passed that information to you through your genes? See how this works?

An example like the one above is why I ask the question, “Is your excess weight really your fault”?  Did you have a family member in your history that set your hormones on a path that communicates to your brain that you are never satisfied or are always hungry?  This might also come into play with addictions to drugs, alcohol and even sexual addictions.  The great news is that this incorrect hormone communication, when epigenetically caused, can be greatly supported for correction in a BodyTalk session. We do this by applying priority based healthcare.

Another example could be a toxin or body chemistry imbalance you were exposed to or an ancestor was exposed to that locked your genes from properly transcribing the code to tell your cells how to create themselves in a healthy manner.  See my article on toxins and your weight.

So there you have it.  You are not overweight simply because you eat too much and are a couch potato.  While this is true for some, obesity has not been treated as a serious health issue but rather has been blamed on the overweight individual.  So let’s address that now...research shows that metabolic hormone imbalances make people have low energy and increases their appetite.  The biology underneath all this is driving the lazing and overeating behaviors.   There are even six month olds that are obese.  Having said this, isn’t it encouraging to know that you don’t have to beat yourself up anymore?  There may be a very real metabolic reason for your condition.  

Through a BodyTalk Session or Priority Based HealthCare we can evaluate dozens of factors that could be causing your inability to stay at a healthy weight.  This work can be done in person or long distance using video conferencing.  Call to schedule your appointment today.