Getting Real About Weight

Magazines, health websites, and TV news shows are constantly talking about weight and how to lose it, but you’ve probably noticed that they’re saying the same things over and over again. The diet experts always seem to be giving the same stale advice that never takes us very far. It’s time for a fresh approach to weight. Please join Emily Rosen, Director of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating, as she shares some cutting-edge insights from the field of Dynamic Eating Psychology in this game-changing new video from IPEtv. You’ll learn why much of what we’ve been told about weight simply isn’t helpful, and you’ll come away with a whole new perspective on this important, complex and timely topic.

In the comments below, please let us know your thoughts. We love hearing from you and we read and respond to every comment!

Here is a transcript of this week’s video:

Feeling Uninspired?

Whenever I tune in to what the mainstream news and popular media is saying about weight loss, I can’t help coming away feeling uninspired. It actually makes me sad when I realize we’re stuck in the same limited conversation around weight that repeats itself over and over and lands us in the same place each time. With obesity rates at an all time high and continuing to rise, I’m stunned at how these cliches about weight never change, and never truly work.

Advertisements tell us:

• Eat less, exercise more
• You just don’t have enough willpower
• Try the latest weight loss drug
• This new diet book is the answer
• And if nothing else works, staple your stomach
• If these solutions don’t work, there must be something wrong with you

But here’s the thing:

I believe science and culture have failed us. Intense moral judgments towards anyone with excess pounds contribute to the current epidemic of social disconnection and depression. But as a society, we’re clueless about the subject of weight, and so we flail around. We try every “diet tip” that comes around, no matter how bizarre, and we consume diet foods with ingredients that are actually toxic.

Let’s use the lens of Dynamic Eating Psychology and Mind Body Nutrition to take a closer look. Here are some thoughts about what fresh thinking around weight might look like:

• Weight is a richly complex, multi-dimensional phenomenon. There are no simple black and white solutions. It’s time to honor the depth and the psycho-physiologic complexity of weight and its loss.
• Excess weight is a symptom, and every symptom brings us lessons that we are being asked to learn. We need to honor this sacred symptom rather than attack it.
• Extra weight can be related to an unlimited number of nutritional and metabolic factors.
• Extra weight can be caused by an unlimited number of emotional factors.
• Too many of us assume that any body fat is inherently bad, but body fat has a brilliant biological purpose. If you could truly suck all the fat out of your body, you’d be dead in an instant.
• There is no reliable scientific criteria for determining how much any given person truly ought to weigh at any given time.
• Extra weight is not a personal issue, it’s collective. If over 200 million individuals in the USA are overweight, then weight is about the entire tribe.
• Eating disorders have skyrocketed, but eating disorders are LIFE issues, expressed through the vehicle of food. It’s time to listen deeply to these sacred dis-eases and what they have to tell us about the world we’ve created.
• As a culture, we project our shadow – our unconscious judgments, our hate, our moralism – onto people who carry extra weight.

The amount of emotional pain we carry around body fat is tremendous. Imagine what would happen in our society if all of us were in love with our own humanity, including our human form. So much energy would be liberated. We’d be more creative, more confident, more connected to one another. We’d have no reason to hold ourselves back.

But being in love with our own human form doesn’t mean: “First I lose the weight, than I love myself.” It means we begin the journey of love now. The field of Dynamic Eating Psychology teaches us that Vitamin L – Love, has long been the key missing ingredient in the weight loss recipe. But the love needs to be guided by a healthy dose of Vitamin W – wisdom.

It’s time to let go of our scientifically limited and emotionally charged beliefs about weight and let love and wisdom guide us to a deeper understanding of this powerful challenge of our times.

I hope this was helpful.

Warmly,
Emily Rosen