Mindfulness Training for Weight Loss

Learn to step out of that habit loop.

The same powerful processes that helped keep us alive thousands of years ago are still at play today in our brains. The reward-based learning system that helped us remember where to find food before we had well-stocked cupboards and pantries is alive and well.

For many of us, our brains have created a relationship between food and many other triggers beyond hunger. I will teach you how addictive behavior is formed, and we will explore how to use mindfulness to target key areas in this process to change eating habits and step out of this habit loop.

Our brains are hardwired for pleasure.

There has been exciting research conducted over the past several years around the impact of mindfulness on addiction.

The science behind food craving shows that every time we eat something sweet (or salty or crunchy – or some other comfort food), our brains produce a hit of dopamine. Dopamine is the same “feel good” chemical that drives other addictions like smoking, alcohol, cocaine, etc.

Our brains are wired for addiction because it is the same process that helped us remember where to find food back in the days when we had to forage instead of running to the kitchen, or Kroger, or the nearest McDonald’s drive-through window.

But we can hack into this process – this habit loop.

Change the wiring, reduce unhealthy eating.

Using mindfulness practices, we will work together to help you identify the difference between real hunger, emotional craving, and habitual eating.

You will learn to spot the triggers that drive the cravings. Developing mindful awareness skills will help give your brain new data points and ultimately break the chronic cycle of mindless eating.

As part of treatment, we will use an app for your daily homework assignments. This homework will reinforce the necessary skills and provide a framework for eliminating unhealthy habits and replacing them with new, healthier behaviors.

A typical session would go something like this… I’ll ask you to identify a recent experience where you engaged in mindless eating. What was going on before you headed to the kitchen or the pantry or wherever your food of choice was located? Was there a specific event that had triggered you to want to eat? Perhaps you were feeling stressed about something, or maybe you were bored, or perhaps you were looking for a distraction. We will work together to identify the events leading up to your mindless eating.

Next, we will explore what you experienced as a result of engaging in mindless eating. Was the experience as pleasant as you had hoped? Did the food taste as good as you’d remembered? And what about afterward? Did you feel satisfied, or did you feel disgusted with yourself? Ashamed? Angry? Defeated? What was the outcome of these behaviors?

We will explore these patterns and help you become an expert on your habitual eating so that you can manage it in real-time. I will teach you to connect to your habits in a new way, and you will learn practical skills to help manage cravings and urges. By developing mindfulness skills – paying attention to your cravings and allowing yourself to experience the discomfort (as opposed to trying to distract yourself), you create a shift in your experience that essentially provides new information to your brain.

Traditional diets rely on willpower to make changes in our eating habits. These changes tend to last only as long as our willpower lasts. And guess what? The part of our brain that controls our willpower – it gets tired, and when it does… poof, the willpower goes right out the window! This exhausted willpower is why people so often gain back the weight from traditional diets.