One thing that has become very apparent to me is that the way our body currently looks and feels is purely feedback about the input it is getting. Some of it relates to how we eat and how we move (exercise and activities) but it has more to do with how we think. Your body is mostly a reflection of how you think mostly because of all the actions we do (including eating) are a result of the information your body is receiving from the outside world–and you do that mostly through interpretive thoughts.
What you choose to eat and what you crave to eat are usually a product of what you are programming your body to want and need. How much you move and are inspired to move is also a result of the programming your body has received.
This programming happens from how we interpret our bodies and our other physical plane experiences. Every time you have an experience in your physical environment you have a conscious interpretation of that event. The way you interpret that subject leads to an emotional response. Some big, some small, and some that feel pretty neutral (usually from those mundane things we do on a daily basis – brushing our teeth, putting our shoes on, etc.). Point is, every time you have a reaction to an observation in your experience and you create an emotional response you cause a chemical cascade to happen in your body that your body then responds to based on the feedback. Where this should be of interest is when your body is receiving messages of stress.
The part of your brain that responds to signals of stress does not know the difference between emotional stress and physical stress. So, if your body has extra body fat there may be a very good chance that you are programming your body, via negative emotions, to store fat. You may very well be creating a chemical blueprint from an emotional response that is the same blueprint that tells your body that you are physical starving or in a state of famine, which is one reason why your body would want to not only crave more food (because it is being told that it is starving–just emotional starvation, it doesn’t know there is an abundance of food) but also store what you eat in the event that you will go long periods without food. Your cravings also might be driven by the need for your body to refuel itself with calorie dense foods. And since your brain knows what your likes and dislikes are it will help you go after food by creating a craving for the foods it knows you like.
Your desire to move, or not to move, can come from this programming as well. If your body is getting the signal that it is “starving” then less movement would be essential for survival–again, based on the signaling the body is getting. So, not liking to exercise or move around may have more to do with your bodies needs than it does your willpower. Especially if you were a kid who ran around a lot and did a lot of physical activities. Your body was getting different programming then.
So, what are the thoughts that could create this false signaling that is causing your body to crave foods, want to store fat, and not move as much (remember, these things are just indicators)? Feeling bad about your body is the biggest one I can think of. Judging yourself for where you are or where you are not can create the same chemical blueprint as actual starvation. Just from the fact that every time you identify something you don’t like you create another point of relativity, that being what it is you would like as your solution or improvement, and if you don’t give attention to and move towards what it is you now want you create a sense of lack or deprivation–lack of having what you want or depriving yourself from what you asked for (even if you are not clear on what that is yet because you are so focused on what you don’t want). You can then imagine just by creating this sense of emotional lack and deprivation (by not moving toward your new desire) creates a similar chemical blueprint as real-life starvation. And every time you are thinking something negative about your body you reactivate this signal and your body responds to this even if you are eating an abundance of food.
Another situation that can cause this same chemical blueprint would be neglecting your craving because you are on a diet. If your body feels it is in a starvation state (this would be a chronic starvation state, not an acute situation where you haven’t eaten for a little while) from bombarding it with negative signals and you don’t eat because you don’t want to go off your calorie restricted diet, you create another sense of deprivation–both emotionally and physically. And if you did eat you could have two situations active. One would be that your body, being in starvation mode, would store this food as fat (this being the result of the chemical blueprint, not necessarily causing it unless that stored fat has you responding negatively later on). The other situation would be that you felt guilty for eating the food you did (especially if you ate at the level of your body’s asking). This sense of guilt can create the same chemical response that tells your body it is starving or that there is big trouble.
However you look at it, your body is an indicator of how you have been thinking. It is also an indicator of what you have been eating and how you have been moving but both of those could be an indicator of how you are thinking. What you desire to do and eat as well as desire not to do and not to eat comes more from a primal instinct to survive.
If you don’t like where you are and are forcing yourself to do things you aren’t inspired to do (diet and exercise), then you might want to take a look at how you are thinking about your body and your eating as well as other things in your life.
One way to tend to this to see if in fact you have a negative chemical response that is going on is to sit for a few moments with your eyes closed. Think about something you really enjoy (love, appreciate, etc.) and while you do that pay attention to how you feel. Once you notice the sensation that comes along with your positive focus, turn your attention to how your body looks now. Notice where you feel the negative emotion. Most people feel their negative emotion in their abdomen area. This, to me, could be a false sense of hunger. It may or may not feel like hunger to you but it could be the beginning of a hunger signal. If you feel any negative emotion, regardless of where you feel it, you want to use that negative emotion as another indicator. It is indicating a thought that is working against you. Do your best to challenge that thought so you feel better. Once you remove the negative (limited) perspectives that surround your subject you will be de-activating the fat storage mode your body is in. Not to mention, you will also stop your body from producing all the extra calories that comes with the release of cortisol (mobilized blood sugar), which is the result of stress–both physical and mental.
