Why Superwomen Can't Lose Weight

If you are the average modern women chances are you are juggling multiple roles, responsibilities and stressors in your life…all while being immaculately dressed in the latest fashion, looking fabulous, slim and surprisingly wrinkle free.

The pressure to look a certain way, to have a certain body and to maintain the standards you have set yourself and have had set by society just add to the overwhelm you experience. Magazines and TV promote a quick fix approach that will supposedly work for every woman. You can’t help but buy into the idea that if you just each less and exercise like a maniac you will achieve your goals.

But this just isn’t working for you, at least not in a way that is sustainable or remotely enjoyable.

Four reasons why superwomen like yourself are not achieving the weight loss you desire despite constant dieting are:

• Multi-tasking is over-rated.

Just because you are good at multitasking does not mean it is good for you. When you are racing around and constantly feeling the need to achieve you are putting your system into a state of chronic stress that has a direct impact on your digestive strength and therefore your ability to lose weight.

Stress increases cortisol and insulin levels – both hormones impact on fat storage. Stress also reduces blood flow to the stomach, dramatically reduces enzyme secretions and significantly reduces your ability to digest and assimilate nutrients. When stress is on, digestion is off.

• Starving early, feasting late

Reducing calorie consumption is the first strategy for many women trying to lose weight, and the easiest way to achieve this is to stop eating breakfast and have light lunch. Your motivation is high in the morning so it is much easier to deny appetite early in the day.

However, come 4pm you are starving and will eat anything in sight, and then beat yourself up for being hopeless and having no willpower. This is not a willpower problem. This is simply your body saying…”feed me…you have not given me enough food today!’

Trying to starve yourself and ignore hunger signals will inevitably lead to overeating no matter how much willpower you have.

• You aren’t really hungry for food

A busy, frantic, externally driven lifestyle can leave you very disconnected from your body and emotions. Or maybe it is just a little to scary to stop and really feel what is going on for you.

Do you reach for food when you are bored? Sad? Angry? Learning to distinguish between emotional eating and real appetite is the key to preventing those out of body eating experiences – you know the ones – when you finish eating a packet of chocolate biscuits yet you can’t remember it.

•  Holding onto your inner Princess

During our 20s it is normal for women to be somewhat obsessed with their physical appearance and seek confirmation of their attractiveness from external sources. When you move into your late 30s and 40s the focus needs to change. Yes it is still important to take care with your appearance but this is a time for relaxing into your true worth and treating your body in a more nourishing way.

Dieting and exercise strategies that worked in your younger years are punishing and often cease to be effective later in life. Consider that this is time to stop being that Princess and to step into your power as a Queen: nourishing others and nourishing yourself. Your body will thank you.

For more on these points go to my website happyhealthygroovy.com.au and register for my free e-book