Need to Lose Weight? Then Meditate.

Take your Ideal Body from wishful thinking to reality!

Call me crazy - people often do - but what if MEDITATION could ship our “inner fat girl”off to boot camp, put her through the wringer and build her into a highly disciplined warrior queen! It’s easy and it’s cheap, there’s no PT or gym membership required...I’m IN!

HOW IT WORKS..

To have a healthy body you first need a healthy mind.Our mind is just like a muscle, we need to train it to get it to work optimally, so flexing it regularly is the way to go.

Meditation is like a phone charger for your mind and body and can open up a whole new world of benefits.

1.Reduces Stress and Anxiety....by relaxing nerve signals.

Sitting quietly with you breath and training your mind not to dwell in the past or contemplate the future but settle in the “now” can have a profound effect in reducing heart rate and blood pressure and stabilising hormones. Cortisol is the important one here. It contributes to abdominal fat storage by activating our autonomic nervous system and the “fight or flight response”. Important for our ancestors who needed a bit of Adrenalin to chase and kill dinner or run like Usain Bolt from a hungry tiger! But we drive to the grocery store, and every type of dinner, sadly, is on the shelf at arms length.

Modern life however has created a whole new set of stresses and pressures;

*Divorce

*Life threatening health event

*Job loss

*Financial burden

*Moving house

*Chronic Illness/injury

*Emotional problems(depression, anxiety, anger, grief, guilt, low self-esteem)

Even city traffic and the threat of being late can create toxic thoughts and keep our Cortisol high all day, making us fat, sick and lazy.

Neuroscientists believe we can have up to 70,000 thoughts per day! And that’s your average Joe. Those at war with the bathroom scale often have a far busier mind. You swing your legs out of bed, do the nudie run to the loo already acknowledging the second glass of wine and packet of Tim Tams you ate last night after a crappy day at work, then climb on the scales... and so it begins, the story you tell yourself every time...

*I hate my body

*Losing weight is impossible

*I’ve tried everything

*Diets suck

*I will always be fat

*What does it matter that I ate the whole block of chocolate

And so it goes on...You can cut the carbs and up your step count to lose a quick 5kg but if you want to be lean and healthy for the long haul, the quality of your thoughts need to be at the highest level.

NUTRITIOUS thoughts for a VITAMIN-INFUSED brain.

2. Better Sleep...a study out of Harvard in 2015, showed that those who did regular daily

mindfulness meditation could more easily control runaway thoughts, “let go and relax” which allowed them to fall asleep quickly and enjoy the benefits of deeper, more restorative sleep.

3.Improves Brain Function...We are talking cognition, concentration and focus.

90% of the decisions we make everyday are made on a subconscious level, so the self-discipline required to quiet the chattering mind, improves clarity of thought and opens the pathway for successful problem-solving and decision-making.

4.Increases Kindness and Empathy....makes you and those around you happier!

We all have the urge to be happy, satisfied and fulfilled...but are we looking for happiness in the right place? ”When I have my Ideal Body/Boyfriend/Husband/House/Account balance, I will be happy” I don’t agree. Being happy in the now means you have a much better chance of achieving one or all of those things in the future.

TYING IT ALL TOGETHER...

Scientists agree the pathway to super-charged health lies in holistic lifestyle modification.

Bring on the BIG 4.....Nutrient-rich food, regular physical workouts, Yoga and Meditation

A wise Yogi once said, ”The quieter we become the more we can hear”.

Meditation has given me effortless access to unlimited reserves of energy, creativity and happiness deep within. And all for free!

Look out for part 2 of this Meditation stuff where we can chat about getting started....what style, how often, how long, solo or group practice? etc.

Thanks for reading and go gently, Brenda