The Number 1 Reason For Weight Gain... And It's Probably NOT What You Think!

The focus of my practice is in working primarily with women to heal their relationship to food and their bodies. We work on emotional eating, food cravings, energy and weight concerns often. From this work, I have developed my own unique way of working with clients that is part nutrition related and a big part emotional clearing related.

I find that with this unique perspective my clients move into joy and freedom much faster and with more ease.

I was listening to a talk recently by another renowned clinical practitioner today speaking about one of the most common causes of fatigue, weight gain, and mood swings that he sees in his practice.

Can you guess what it is? Do you think its excess sugar in the diet or maybe even excess carbohydrates? Is it maybe eating too many processed foods or not enough exercise? Insulin resistance maybe?

Nope, none of the above. (Though of course they are contributors and often symptoms in my experience of something else.)

The number one cause of weight gain as well as mood swings and fatigue is emotional stress.

So what is emotional stress and what do we do about it?

Emotions like grief, overwhelm, sadness, fear, anxiety, panic, depression, anger and frustration either from past hurts and experiences or current ones are some of the most prevalent causes of stress that can contribute to weight gain over time.

Unfortunately many people have a hard time resolving stress fully so it accumulates. Interestingly, past traumas can play a very big role in our weight gain currently, even when we feel we have gotten over an issue already. Often, though we may have put the experience behind us, there is a significant amount of trapped emotion in our bodies that when released, allows for a lot of forward motion toward our goals too.

How does this work?

I'll tell you a story about how this can work based on one client's experience. When this client was able to release the emotional stress from a current event that triggered an earlier trauma for her, it really changed everything for her.

This client went from being so exhausted she could hardly stay on the phone for her session, to bounding with energy in under 20 minutes after releasing some emotional issues. Here is the best part: She wasn't even conscious of the emotional issue, it just came up naturally through meridian tapping.

Because I also work with nutrition and this person had implemented what I had recommended with food and supplements, I knew that was not the issue. I felt strongly that she had the nutrients her body needed to be well, but that her fatigue was related to something else.

I had asked her if anything was up for her or if something had happened that had stressed her since our last session and she said no, but I still felt confident that something was there to look at.

In sessions I often feel a very strong connection to the person with whom I'm working, and I can have an intuitive "lock" on what is going on with them. In fact, I have learned how to test my intuitive hunches using muscle testing now when needed. I knew we needed to look at this with EFT.

Tapping Allowed the Issue to Come Up Naturally

We began tapping and within minutes something came up that she had not realized was triggering her into such extreme fatigue. We began by tapping on the fatigue she was feeling:

Side of the hand: "Even though I'm so exhausted, I can hardly stand to be on the phone right now.. I deeply and completely love and accept myself... "

Inner eye: I'm totally exhausted, and I don't know why
Outer eye: I'm so exhausted, I can't stay on the phone
Under eye: I'm exhausted
Upper lip: I'm exhausted
Chin crease: I'm exhausted
Collarbones: I'm exhausted
Side of body: I'm exhausted
Top of head: I'm exhausted

After around one round of tapping she realized that something had happened with a man she had dated over the weekend, but she didn't really think it was relevant.

However, she couldn't get the incident with him out of her mind and she didn't know why. It was really bothering her.

We did one round of tapping on this.

Side of the hand: "Even though I'm upset about what happened with X this weekend... I deeply and completely accept myself."

Even though I have no idea why I am so upset about this incident, it seems so small but I can't get over it... I deeply and completely love and accept myself.

Inner eye: I'm upset at X
Outer eye: I don't know why
Under eye: It feels so small, what happened
Upper lip: I can't get over it
Chin crease: I'm upset over this thing that happened
Collar bones: I'm upset over this thing that happened
Side of body: I'm upset over this thing that happened
Top of head: I'm upset over this thing that happened

Suddenly it all became clear and she began to cry as this seemingly meaningless incident that had happened to her with the man she had dated - the incident that came up as we tapped - reminded her of something that had happened with her father when she was a child that felt like a core issue for her.

At this point we were able to tap on the core issue and then within minutes ALL of her energy came back! It was beautiful to witness.

I see this kind of release so often with people every day using EFT and other clearing techniques.

Here is this client's experience from the testimonial she wrote:

"When I first started working with Sandy only two months ago I was barely able to get through the day I had such low energy and a hard time focusing. I also struggled with anxiety, was very sensitive emotionally (which I thought was just my personality) and food cravings. I took a lot of naps and couldn't get a lot of work done it seemed without being exhausted. I also felt a lack of confidence in client relationships.

Working out even mildly would wipe me out. In fact in our first session, I could hardly stay on the phone I was so tired. But after implementing even the first few things that Sandy recommended I was feeling much much better, even the next day! It was amazing. Though there were ups and downs as I was recovering, I began to have my energy back more and more with time.

I now can work out without wiping myself out, my clear thinking is back. I feel more confident, even in client relationships, less obsessive and anxious, don't have food cravings and feel like I did many years ago and my energy is consistently strong throughout the day. In fact I started bringing in big clients during the time I was working with Sandy and I had the energy and confidence to do it! I am so grateful for the support I've received from you... it's made a big difference for me. I was beginning to feel hopeless. I'm referring a few friends to you."

Another example of how emotions can effect weight specifically is when we are over-eating, using food to comfort ourselves or binge eating. Often there are many emotions we are "tranquilizing" with food that we are totally unaware of.

One woman I recently worked with was so overwhelmed by her life and couldn't understand exactly what was going on that was making her over-eat, but when we tapped on her stress and feelings of being overwhelmed, she realized she was filled with anger at her partner. This completely shocked her however as previously she hadn't realized she had been "stuffing down" so much anger. When we worked on the emotions that were coming up and released them she immediately noticed she was no longer over-eating.

Another common experience I see often is when past hurts are still causing extreme emotional stress though again, unknown to someone. The only way we actually realize that it is causing us stress is because there is enormous emotional release when we look again at what happened in the past and later after clearing it, behaviors are different especially around food. Loss of relationships and loved ones are some of the more significant losses that contribute to stored stress and weight gain in my experience though any event or difficult experience that remains unresolved will contribute.

Ultimately the anti-dote to emotional stress is our own love and acceptance. Sometimes it can be enormously difficult to feel all of our feelings fully and release them while we are going through challenging times. Emotions can get "trapped" and cause difficulty down the road and ultimately cause other problems such as eating to dull the pain, though as I said often without our awareness. When we allow ourselves our full experience and accept it all, we move forward fully and find will-power is no longer necessary to stick to our health goals, and food no longer holds the draw it used to.