Meet Isabelle's Aunt

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I want to tell you about my aunt: she’s a lovely lady, 59, who retired about 4 months ago. In her 50s, she started complaining about gaining weight. She blamed it on lack of exercise, having 3 children and the menopause. Her weight stayed fairly stable throughout her 50s, until she retired. Then she started piling even more weight on, at quite a fast rate. As she was sharing her concerns with me, I asked her about her eating and she readily admitted to grazing all day long, even when she’s not hungry. She even said that she doesn’t even know what hunger feels like any more and probably hasn’t for years. She soon realised that her eating is her way to deal with stress and anxiety. You might wonder what she has to worry about now that she is retired but there are a few things to consider: you have to find yourself a new routine, decide what you want to do with all this free time; some people have health concerns, etc. In other words, it’s a huge change and change often causes anxiety. And in my aunt’s case, anxiety makes her eat. I can relate to that and I am sure a lot of you can too! Why am I telling you about my aunt? Well, read on…

Lose Weight on Holiday?

As a retirement present to herself, my aunt decided to go to Mexico for 2 weeks to meet her son-in-law’s family. She was a little worried about the food before she left: Mexican food is renowned to be quite rich and there is also this stereotype about people gaining weight. She got back a week ago and I couldn’t wait to speak to her about all the wonderful things she saw! I was especially interested to find out how she got on with the food! To her surprise (and mine if I’m honest), not only she didn’t gain weight, she even lost some! Wow! I was so shocked I didn’t know what to say apart from: well done!

Since our conversation, and I came up with a lot of questions, so I called her back today to see if she would be willing to answer a few of them. When I started talking about her weight loss, she interrupted me straight away and said: “That was all last week! I’ve started eating all day long again and I gained 3 pounds in a week!” I think my jaw must have dropped at that point! Thankfully, my training kicked in and I started to ask her to think back to her trip and to what was so different that she managed to lose weight. These are the main points that came out and that I would like to share with you as they illustrate some of the ‘Eating the Naturally Thin Way’ principles beautifully.

• ‘Eat the Foods you Love and Eat Mindfully’

Most of the food she ate was new to her, so she discovered a lot of new flavours. She really enjoyed the new tastes and really savoured them. As a result she felt really fulfilled and satisfied and never felt the need to overeat.

• ‘Sit Down and Eat in a Relaxed Atmosphere’

Meals were very convivial and lasted about an hour. This allowed my aunt to take  her time with it, and to be able to listen to her body. She was able to identify when she was satisfied. She would take a few bites, then put her food down and share with her hosts her impressions on the flavours that were new to her. She would then take a few more bites whilst listening to her hosts’ response. And so on and so forth, until she didn’t feel hungry anymore.

• ‘Forget about Food and Carry on With Your Life’

The whole atmosphere all throughout her stay was relaxed, convivial and very loving. She was busy visiting the country and was enjoying every minute of it! She was living in the moment and not worrying about yesterday or tomorrow. In other words, no anxiety whatsoever! She would eat at mealtimes, then forget about food and get on with her life! When she was out visiting all these wonderful places, she wasn’t thinking about food at all! She was just busy doing something she really loves: visiting new places and finding about different cultures.

The good news is: you don’t have to go on holiday to lose weight! You can learn these Naturally Thin Principles with a coach, right here at ThinWithin.com. Why don’t you claim your complimentary call and find out what coaching can do for you?

I can’t wait to hear from you and help you on your weight loss journey!

Isabelle
Body Breakthrough Coach