The MAGIC of the Body Circuit

Today in coaching, a couple talked about their diets. Research has shown that our weight change (change in relative fatness) is highly correlated with the weight changes of those around us.

It's no wonder that couples, after the weight-gaining years, release that weight together. It's not hard to figure out that for most people, eating vegetables, lean protein, healthy fats, a few fruits, and enough truly "garbage" food to avoid quitting the diet in favor of a double-scoop ice cream cone works.

Add to that a rest from food – 12 to 14 hours of freedom from putting things other than water in the mouth – giving the body time to burn up starch and sugar and get busy burning up fat.

We can get on a real high eating healthy like that, making ourselves happy by scoring scads of Joy Points, and finding that our pants are loose or – as someone who stores fat on my thighs (like my Grandmother McClure) – the legs of our pants become loose.

Then something happens. It's like a wire is triggered in our brain and all we can think about is stuffing ourselves with the most deliciously devilish food. Ice cream works, chocolate chip cookies, wine, and a pizza binge can be so refreshing.

What caused it? We forgot to rewire our Body Circuit! In The Stress Eating Solution, this wire is the last of the four we clear because after rewiring the other three (food, mood, and love), we're getting pretty skilled at rewiring, and this one is a doozy. Most people are shocked to find that they have a circuit in their brain that makes it a survival need to stay heavy.

Eating healthy is laughable if you have one of those Body Circuits telling you to protect yourself with body fat as emotional armor or one that insists you must hate your body. It's so much easier to conjure up body hatred if you don't look like a fashion model (even though they have Body Circuits, too). Being able to point to some evidence of body imperfection is in harmony with those wires, and many of us have them.

If you are about to release some extra weight by changing your food intake, make it easier by rewiring your Food Circuit and others, but the best idea is to turn to the last part of the book and go after your Body Circuit.

What happens when you clear that bit of emotional clutter? You have a drive to eat healthy. You aren't insisting that you can have more food. You insist on having less because you are releasing yourself from extra weight that is not "who you are" anymore! That's body pride and body joy!