3 Meditation Techniques That Will Help You Reach Your Ideal Weight

There are many types of meditation out there that serve different purposes. Here I present to
you three meditation techniques that you can use to reach your ideal weight. You can start
using them today, during your commute (but not while you’re driving!), over morning coffee, or
any other time you have a couple of minutes to spare:

· Meditation technique for ideal weight No.1: breathing meditation -- helps with
overeating

· Meditation technique for ideal weight No.2: visualization -- helps with creating the
right mindset

· Meditation Technique for ideal weight No.3: mantra -- helps with having better
workouts and creating the right mindset

Meditation Technique for Ideal Weight No. 1: Breathing Meditation

(Helps with overeating)

One of the main reasons why people fail to reach their ideal weight is because they eat more
than they need. Why is this so? Can’t we learn to stop on time?

There is a wise Native American proverb: “When they ask the white man if he is hungry, he
looks at the clock.” This is so true! So many times I heard my friends say “It’s 2 PM - time to
eat!” The problem is that through our life and cultural habits, we’ve lost touch with our body's
internal cues. Our bodies are telling us what they need. We just need to learn to listen.

So, find a comfortable place where you can sit undisturbed for 15 minutes or longer. Sit on the
floor or a cushion with your eyes closed, back straight and legs crossed. Place your right hand
in your left, with thumbs touching each other. Start becoming aware of your breaths. Take deep,
unforced breaths in and out through the nose. Observe your breathing. Notice how your chest
and your stomach are moving along. If any thoughts start occupying your mind, just wave them
off and continue focusing on your breathing. It’s impossible to think about more things at the
same time, so by thinking about your breathing only, you are casting aside any unwanted
thoughts -- especially if they’re about craving junk food or sweets!

Doing this meditation will calm you down and prepare you for mindful eating, so it’s a good idea
to do it before a meal. Also, if you have a tendency to eat too fast or too mindlessly, remember
to observe your breathing while eating. This will slow you down.
Meditation Technique for Ideal Weight No 2: Visualizations

(Helps with creating the right mindset)

Start with the breathing meditation. Once you feel calm and aware, start visualizing yourself
looking slim and hot. Don’t be shy to imagine yourself looking your best! Visualize every
moment of the experience, act as if it’s already happening! Imagine yourself walking down the
street, feeling fit and full of energy. Imagine the opposite sex eyeing you and your friends
admiring your abs.

It all starts from the mind. Once you convince your mind this is true, it will be easy with the body.
Athletes have used visualizations for ages and Harvard scientists have proved long ago why
they are so effective. In short, when we imagine something happening, our brain structure
literally starts to change to accommodate the new belief!

Meditation Technique for Ideal Weight No 3: Mantras

(Helps with having better workouts and creating the right mindset)

Mantras are a powerful way to convince your mind of anything. Simply put, they are affirmative
sentences about anything that you want to convince your mind of.
Scientists say there’s over 60,000 thoughts that pass through your mind every day -- and most
of these thoughts are the same as those you had the day before. A lot of it is just negative self-
talk -- statements that prevent you from realizing your goals. For example:

● I can’t do this. I’m not strong/good enough.

● I was always fat, I can’t change that now.
● I’m never going to get those six packs.

You need to become aware of these toxic statements and replace them with constructive,
positive beliefs. At first it will be difficult to believe in these new thoughts, but after a while you
will succeed. And once you start believing, realizing it will be a piece of cake.

Again, start with the breathing meditation to calm down. When you’re ready, begin repeating
your mantra. Focus on each word. It is important to phrase your mantra as if it’s already
happening. For example: “Every day I do my best to look my best.”

A friend told me about a mantra she used while working out:

“I must, I must, I must increase my bust.” Every time she felt like she wanted to quit, she’d
repeat this to herself. Find your own mantra. Meditate on it, think about it and repeat it during
workouts.

Meditation is a great habit to cultivate daily. So, next time you have some free minutes, instead
of checking your Gmail or Facebook, try any of these techniques and see what happens. I’m
absolutely positive that if you just try meditating for a month, a couple of minutes in the morning
and in the evening, the positive effects will spill over into other areas of your life!
Meditation Helps Us Understand Why the Extra Weight Is There in the First Place

It might seem strange to think that sitting alone with one's thoughts can help lose those extra
pounds, but we should agree that weight loss is not just a physical problem. Our extra weight is
connected with our emotions, thoughts, habits and behaviours. By tapping into these, we can
create a healthier relationship with food, our body weight and ourselves. Through regular
meditation, we are able to look into the reasons why the extra weight is there in the first place.
We get to inspect our own patterns of self-sabotage and notice when they come up so that next
time we can respond to them better. So, if you want to lose weight and keep it that way, inner
work is needed along with physical, outer work.
There are many reasons why we pile up those extra pounds. One is emotional eating, when we
are struggling with psychological or emotional issues by turning to food to numb out our feelings
and thoughts. Eating when you are stressed out, upset, lonely or bored are some of the reasons
why people eat, known to many.

How Meditation Helps Us Lose Weight

· Meditation enables us to sit with any unpleasant emotions and instead of turning to food
to avoid them, we get to understand why, when and how they show up.

· Many people eat due to loneliness. Well, meditation is known to rewire those parts of the
brain that make us feel lonely.

· One of the ways in which meditation helps is by helping create a you that is confident,
compassionate and loving towards yourself. This new you will not turn to comfort food when
feeling unpleasant emotions. Instead, this new you will have a healthy relationship with food
and find other ways to deal with painful emotions and events.

· Many studies have shown that although diet and exercise help lose weight, after the
weight loss program ended, most people gained their weight back. On the other hand, those
weight loss programs that included mindfulness meditation were more effective in keeping
the weight off.

· A review of 14 studies showed that mindful meditation helps with emotional eating, binge
eating and weight loss.

· Meditation helps us manage our cravings and addictions better.

· Meditation lowers cortisol. High cortisol levels are connected with obesency and storing
belly fat.

· Many eat because they feel anxious or stressed. Others feel anxious and stressed
because they are trying to stick with their weight loss plan. In both cases, meditation helps
reduce stress and anxiety.

· Meditation improves sleep, which in turn increases our metabolism.

· It helps us differentiate between physical and emotional hunger.

· Thanks to meditation, you get to explore the reasons why you turn to fast food when you
are feeling upset or why you skip your workouts and feel guilty about it afterwards. You get
to unlock any subconscious blockages that might have been hiding there since your
childhood.

· By practicing meditation regularly, you are more likely to stick to your efforts to reach and
maintain your ideal weight.
 · Meditation helps you find peace with yourself, food and your physical appearance.

· Even if you do miss a few healthy meals or a few workouts, regular meditation will help
you be more forgiving to yourself instead of going into a self-blaming downward spiral.

· Meditation creates a space for you to face yourself and any triggers, traumas or limiting
beliefs that might sit at the root of your problems with managing weight.

· Meditation encourages us to replace overeating with healthier coping mechanisms. For

example, instead of opening the fridge, next time we feel stressed we might take a short
brisk walk, or play soothing music. We might drink more water, or plain and simple – focus
on our breathing. You wouldn't believe how far simple breathing exercises can take you!
You can actually breathe through all those unsavory emotions instead of eating them away.

· With meditation as a support, you will create a holistic and personalized approach to
your weight loss regime.

Mindful Eating

Meditation helps us learn to eat mindfully and intuitively. Mindful eating is not about basing our
dietary habits on physical results we are trying to achieve, but about the inner feeling that food
gives us. It's about staying present while we eat. It's about eating and noticing how the food
feels, and how the body reacts to it. When we eat mindfully, we engage all the senses, we
notice the food's texture and tastes and how the food we consume affects our moods and
states. Eating intuitively means listening to our body's inner cues, and not some dietary regime.
If you base your nutrition on some outer results you are trying to achieve, you are not eating
mindfully any more.

To eat mindfully, chew your food slowly. Notice and really enjoy each and every bite. Check in
with yourself halfway through the meal to see if you are beginning to feel full. Listen to your
body's physical reactions. Pay attention to how your food smells. Make it a habit to smell your
food before diving into the plate. Notice if the food you are consuming is making you feel sleepy,
bloaty or still hungry. Leave any electronic devices away from the table, and focus on eating
only.

Mindful eating inspires us to slow down when we are preparing food. We learn to enjoy every
little part of the food preparation process. We also become more observant of any triggers and
dysfunctional habits we might have around food.

Observe if you are eating because you are physically hungry or because there is some other
need you are trying to satiate. And if you do spot that need, abandon any judgment of yourself.
Feeling guilt or shame is not what mindful eating is about. Remember to be kind to yourself, and
to understand that this is a process. It took us so long to develop an unhealthy relationship with
food, it will take some time to unlearn it as well. Be curious, inquisitive and observant about how
you treat food, never judgmental.
Conclusion

Meditation and mindful eating are great practices for anyone looking to learn healthy ways to
relate to food, weight and their body image. By including meditation in your weight loss plans,
you will create a holistic and sustainable approach to being slim. You will become more loving,
compassionate and forgiving to yourself, all of which is needed because every now and then
you might fall, and you will need these inner resources to get back on the road to looking and
feeling your best self. A healthy and constructive approach to reaching and keeping your ideal
weight includes the whole of you - your feelings, emotions, thoughts, habits and behaviors, not
just your body. It’s all interconnected, and the sooner we acknowledge this, the sooner we will
create a new, slimmer, happier and healthier version of ourselves.