Weight Loss
For almost my entire life, some 40+ years, losing weight and maintaining a healthy body physically as well as perception of self, has been the biggest struggle for me. In every aspect of my life I’m determined; a go-getter; incredibly hard working and motivated. But when it comes to taking care of myself, nurturing the body, excess weight has been like a dark shadow for more years than I dare to remember. Logically, I know what to eat; but internally logic plays no part because a negative deep rooted emotional relationship with food and self is always the strongest contender.
18 months ago I was at my heaviest; 4 stone heavier than when I was 9 months pregnant (20 years ago!). A rude comment from a so-called friend prompted me to go on a weight loss regime. I went from couch potato to gym bunny; a positive step granted; one which did make me feel relatively good. I lost 2 stone in weight, but I think this was purely from exercise rather than a change in diet; food still is my worst enemy or my great comforting friend.
This year however, I hit a brick wall. While I was still exercising 5 days a week, the weight loss had hit a plateau. I felt confused by all the dietary options; too boost weight loss, was I to count calories, eat fat free, drink smoothies or follows a carb free diet etc. As a result, each week would see a different diet plan start and end just as it had done prior to starting the positive exercise regime; old habits were slowly creeping back in and morale was sinking fast.
This is when I turned to Narelle I thought I’d try it; see if it could help me overcome this one last hurdle to change my life and thinking patterns in terms of healthy eating for good.
I had no idea how Havening worked or what to expect; Narelle is a gentle and caring person naturally, beautiful inside and out, so whatever it was I trusted her as can anyone else contemplating this form of therapy.
Obviously we discussed how the treatment could help me; during the process, I was gently coaxed into discovering more about myself, which lead me to recalling a childhood incident that was related to my weight, size and the ultimate humiliation of name-calling from others, children and elders alike. We discussed the sense of failure, the inability to change and being trapped in a negative, self-loathing pattern.
I don’t want to say too much about the actual treatment as it may spoil it for others; stepping into the unknown with trust is important. Also, if I was to say too much it could create expectation and I don’t wish to do that. But what I will say is that the treatment is so soothing; a kind of very mild relaxation using gentle words; the soft touch of fingertips on your face and arms, which creates a sense nurturing and protection; plus a series of visualisations.
What I do know is that the childhood incident in which I was left reeling from humiliation, went from feeling 10/10 on a humiliation scale to having no effect on my emotional state whatsoever. It went from being all about me and feeling very personal to it feeling like it was someone else’s story that had no effect on my emotional state afterwards.
After the treatment I felt extremely tired and that night slept extremely well. However, my initial instinct was to wonder how on earth the experience would help me lose weight, because instinctively I still felt none the wiser as to what diet plan to follow. All I seemed to feel was a detachment from the mentioned particular childhood incident.
However, I have to say that since the treatment, which was about 3 weeks ago I have lost just over 2kg in weight, 4 cm off my thighs, 3cm off my waist and 1cm off my chest (which is small anyway; so I’m glad about the latter measurement!). I wish I could say to you that I am now following a particular diet plan, but I’m not. I’ve continued to exercise and the only difference is that I have stopped stressing about weight loss, which I guess makes me feel less deprived, which ultimately makes me more relaxed about food and able to make healthier choses about what I eat; food is no longer an enemy or best friend. Perhaps deep down the trigger has been to remove the block preventing success and replacing it with a ‘I can do’ attitude; but it has worked.
I now cannot wait to try Havening with Narelle for another issue in my life; so watch this space.