The Weigh Forward: "A journey with your subconscious to finally break negative patterns around weight, shape and body image."

INTRODUCTION

Around the world there are now one billion adults who are overweight. 320 million of them are obese yet the weight-loss industry, with its £70 billion annual turnover, continues to systematically abuse the very people it claims to serve. Slimming groups, and the majority of diets, have a failure rate of up to 95 per cent with participants, often in despair at their own failure, regularly gaining even more weight in the long-term as the good intentions evaporate.

Obesity in children and adults has reached dangerously high levels and the sale of slimming pills, products and potions is a multi-million pound business bankrolled by sheer desperation. Millions of people are willing to spend their money on any new product which promises hope. Yet, as weight problems are still dangerously prevalent and the shocking statistics in my first paragraph prevail, the real answers to permanent weight loss are clearly not being found.

It Is Time To Treat The Cause, Not The Effect

Most current approaches to weight loss fail because they tackle the problem from an over-simplified application of conscious reasoning. In other words, if you eat too much or eat the ‘wrong’ food, you get fat. The Weigh Forward, however, will deal with the subconscious root issues of weight gain, uncovering the reasons why we are really motivated to over-eat, eat ‘bad’ food or just unable to shift weight even if we manage to stick to a diet/exercise regime.

Many players in the weight-loss industry will attempt to offer their solution at the purely physical level (a process of diet and exercise) while others proclaim a more holistic solution (versions of psychotherapy/ traditional counselling). Many try and override these blocked emotions with over-lays (hypnosis and NLP) but often never clear the root causes of the problem with their client. Any positive effects gained from these methods will only be short-lived. My book enables anyone to first recognize the causes and then sort them out, at the deepest level - inside out - so the weight-loss can be a lasting one.

People talk about comfort eating, instinctively recognizing that, indeed, we do use food as a way to seek emotional sustenance. Yet there are no comprehensive or accessible guides providing the tools which can access our subconscious experience and clear the traumas which set up the patterning on an emotional level – until now, that is: by working on the principle that subconscious patterning – a process beyond our conscious control - sets up weight gain in the first place.

The Weigh Forward gives you the tools to recognize the emotional event that started weight gain, facilitate a change in the subconscious approach to that trauma and then re-pattern a much more positive connection to weight and food. By re-patterning our belief systems and thought processes, we change our subconscious reactions and, as a consequence, our bodies naturally and effortlessly let go of the excess weight and, as the root cause has finally been removed, the weight stays off.

In this book are tools garnered from twenty years experience in this field; including self-investigation, guided visualizations, emotional releasing techniques, journaling and dialoguing. This method of weight-loss from the inside out is a pioneering and definitive approach which addresses the emotional, mental, physical and spiritual causes of weight gain and facilitates lasting weight loss.

‘To see your drama clearly is to be liberated from it’

Ken Keyes Jnr.

The Weigh Forward is designed to help you understand the numerous and deep seated reasons why your body may have been holding onto to excess weight, and why your mind may be primarily obsessed with your weight, your body and your image. Reading this book and following the exercises will retrain your knowledge and heighten your intuition with regard to your own emotional relationship with food and the shape of your body.

(It is interesting that most of the people I have dealt with over the years, from all walks of life, will accept we are physical, emotional, mental and spiritual beings at the very least. It is not a leap of faith for most people to accept that, and yet we seem stuck in such a severely limited way of dealing with the issues of weight ... People do try diets, maybe even delve into a bit of mind programming. But what happened to the belief that we are truly holistic beings?)

Setting Off For an Arctic Expedition In Your Underpants

If you go off on an Arctic expedition wearing only your underwear, you would be woefully underprepared and regardless of all the willpower in the world, you would be setting yourself up for failure. You would also be underestimating your goal and not taking full advantage of the preparation and what is available out there to assist you. The same is true when embarking on a diet.

The question has to be raised that the current approaches to weight loss focus predominantly on a single word - and the extremely narrow focus of that word: DIET. You can look up a definition from any dictionary and all will make a reference to the association with food and physical shape.

This book is not going to guide you through the history of diets, or the type of diets that have been bandied around since the word hit a nation’s consciousness, around 200 years ago. It is not going to regurgitate any number of so called ‘titbits of dietary information’ which the internet will probably be storing in vast volumes because this book is about taking you forward and about finally offering the answers to lasting weight loss.

In a nutshell, more people than ever are going on diets. More money than ever is being spent on diets and more people than ever are overweight.

To me, the obvious conclusion is that DIETING MAKES YOU FAT.

The sad thing is that many people would recognize the truth of that statement, yet we all are fed by a media that constantly bombards imagery that continues to perpetuate the aforementioned and mighty lucrative dieting market. Serious money means serious marketing! Anyone who thinks that may be an overreaction should check out the combined wealth of the dieting industry and then re-address their opinion.

These are the facts! Slimming organizations have, on average, a 95 per cent failure rate for long term weight loss. It’s obvious – of course they do – or by now, and all these marketing years later, they would have long ago been put out of business. We would be a nation of lean, fit, and healthy individuals. I have been racking my brains to see if there are any other businesses out there with such a massive failure rate, perversely making more money than ever, and - you know what - there may actually be one close contender – the pharmaceutical industry. Quelle surprise!

The upshot is, anyone who has struggled with a weight issue of whichever kind will want a quick fix answer and is usually habituated to try the usual suspects. Adding to that – as we have already mentioned – are the major financial players in the market and before you know it, we’re back on the merry go round of the dieting industry - depravation, negative attitudes to food, pharmaceutical pills, potions and products, or even drastic invasive surgery.

I think the word ‘sinister’ is quite apt here. Individuals trying to deal with a weight issue are, in fact, having their vulnerability and desperation preyed upon by unscrupulous marketeers all too willing to offer the earth, and yet, in most cases, delivering only a small lump of turd.

Blame, though, is a useless emotion. It inhibits our ability to take responsibility. It’s better to recognize the failing industry that dieting is and recognize extremely clever marketing strategies and the protection of their product. We should also recognize, especially in the last twenty years or so, the advent of the Internet and of the beast that has become ‘celebrity’.

We have created a whole new zeitgeist to contend with which is subtly a further handing over of responsibility – just because you can access information at the click of a button doesn’t make it correct. Just because you continually see celebrity images does not make them a reality or quick fix goal (remember airbrushing and image manipulation?). The key dilemma, it seems to me, is that gradually, over time, people are losing the ability to trust their intuition for what feels right for them. There is so much distraction going on in the outside world that to think for oneself, to trust what feels right for oneself and to act for oneself, is becoming more and more difficult .

The Weigh Forward is actually a deeper process than you may have thought to begin with. It is about dealing with any weight issue from the inside out, rather than what I have highlighted above - which tries to deal with it from the outside in.

Part of this book is a rediscovery of your own self. It does have a spiritual connotation and that is to recognize, by taking the time to take stock of what has actually gone on in your life and to understand what has shaped you, you will be able to hold yourself in good stead. Not just for dealing with your weight issues, but with your relationships, and many of the other challenges that life will throw at you.

Know The Enemy

When I talk about working from the inside out, I mean working with yourself and looking at your emotions, and their associations with food and shape, as your initial investigation. Everything that has been mentioned prior to this has all been external – different diets, different pills, different products, different surgeries, or the outside influences of the celebrity image, of media advertising, or general media imagery in film and television. The female magazine industry and their online counterparts all only offer airbrushed or unrealistic physical imagery to sell or motivate desire. There is little understanding or, at least, honoring of the emotional debt behind the superficial facade. There is always duality to keep the subconscious tentatively oscillating between hurt and happiness.

This is one of the reasons diets have been able to keep being re branded, either by exotic names to make us salivate at the lifestyle they are selling us (The South Miami Beach Diet) or by making a specific food group our enemy. To get together and fight against – like the carbohydrates in the Aitkin’s Diet (for the protein camp, low fat for another group, and so on). Another ploy is the individual case study; the ‘I lost 40 lbs by eating grapes ‘or ‘A bacon sarnie a day banished my gut’.

The same is true for celebrity-endorsed exercise videos. Vanessa Feltz must have made money out of her fitness regime, yet everyone appeared to miss the point. When she ended a long-term destructive relationship, the subconscious no longer needed to protect her from suppressed anger and any fears of being rejected. She could let go of the weight – and, of course, as soon as she was in a new relationship, and the same old subconscious patterns surfaced, she became heavier than she ever was before and seemingly forgot to mention her fitness DVD.

Anyone can think of an example of when they or a friend ended a relationship and had a dramatic change in weight. Just one example of there being deeper processes at work than mere nutrition and exercise – processes are all to do with the subconscious, and a lifetime of individual patterning. Patterning which created certain fears, beliefs, and a way of emotional management (how we deal with painful emotions by suppression or trying to avoid experiencing them again).

The subconscious is actually not just the key to weight loss, but the holy grail of managing a more balanced life – by understanding your own subconscious quirks, traits and patterns and by clearing the negative ones, you can discern for yourself exactly what your body is reacting to (or trying desperately not to react to) and deal with it accordingly.

BEFORE WE BEGIN...

How to Use This Book

This is an interactive book for you to work through in the most clear and comfortable way that suits your learning and self-understanding.

You may choose to either:

Read the book first and then go back and work methodically through all the exercises and visualizations

Read the book, stopping at each relevant place to work through the exercises and visualizations as they are presented.

Either way will be the perfect way for you. The important thing is your commitment to each challenge!

The Tools of This Book

There are 2 crucial components to assist you working through this book:

Your Journal. A writing book that you can use to privately participate in the exercises I give you. All the written exercises I specify should be done in here.

I have recorded your access to the Guided Visualizations to go hand-in-hand with the book’s text. You can down-load these visualizations for free at: www.juleswilliams.com/guided-visualizations/   Password: chemotional.

CORE EMOTIONAL BLOCK VISUALIZATION:

To access your visualization visit:

www.juleswilliams.com/guided-visualizations

Password: chemotional

CORE ILLNESS VISUALIZATION:

To access your visualization visit:

www.juleswilliams.com/guided-visualizations

Password: chemotional

SPIRITUAL INVITATION VISUALIZATION:

To access your visualization visit:

www.juleswilliams.com/guided-visualizations

Password: chemotional

POSITIVE IMAGE VISUALIZATION

To access your visualization visit:

www.juleswilliams.com/guided-visualizations

Password: chemotional

CONFRONTATION VISUALIZATION PART 1&2:

To access your visualization visit:

www.juleswilliams.com/guided-visualizations

Password: chemotional

THE PROTECTION FACTOR

Protection is probably the best word to describe how the subconscious uses our weight and body fat. Consciously, being overweight can make us unhappy on many levels, creating real and imagined restrictions in our lives. However to the subconscious, it uses the cushion of fat to protect us from suppressed emotions, self-loathing and as a physical buffer from the attention of others.

There are two main types of fat that we store within our bodies:

Visceral is abdominal fat that is stored in the abdominal cavity, packed between the various organs (liver, kidney etc.) Subcutaneous is fat which is stored just below the skin.

Subcutaneous can be defined as situated under the skin, living in much the same manner as certain parasites. Suppressed emotions are literally parasitic feelings that have got under our skin. Physiological definition aside, on an emotional level it is interesting that both these terms are, in essence, clues to how our subconscious uses fat as protection. Visceral can also be defined as characterised by instinct or intuition, rather than intellect and also as dealing with course or base emotions, a raw emotional energy.

Fat, subconsciously, is doing exactly that – our subconscious uses fat to protect us from our raw emotions which are driven by our feelings and instinct as opposed to our being able to rationalise or intellectualism them.

Fat is the body’s internal reaction to past traumatic events. The body is triggered to store fat (protection) when, at different times in our lives, we experience similar circumstances to these root traumas.

Some examples of the emotional triggers for ‘protective fat’ are:

Suppressing anger – because of the fear of being unloved or abandoned by the father and then subsequent male love relationships, any ‘voice’ for the self, which could in any way be construed as anger, gets suppressed (‘He won’t love me and will reject me.’).

The suppressing of emotions of shame – because of a perceived shameful experience when younger (anything from serious abuse to being caught masturbating) uses weight as a protection from that shame, from feeling shame again or bringing shame on anyone else. It’s is exhausting and chemotionally [go figure...] destructive.

Fear – of not being loved, appreciated and of not being liked or approved of – all emotions which are a result of low self-worth.

Self-rejection, self-punishment, self-hatred – all the ways we can attack ourselves are painful emotions to experience, so end up getting suppressed under a protective cushion of fat.

As a physical buffer from attention – in certain cases of abuse, inappropriate or hugely painful experiences the subconscious uses weight as a protective barrier to prevent unwanted advances. (‘If I’m big I won’t get pestered.’)

All the above can be seen as oversensitivity – a constant worry of what you can or can’t say; of how you can or can’t act; how others see you; what they feel about you. But it’s exhausting and destructive.

The upshot – what this really means - is anyone carrying a weight which they are unhappy or uncomfortable with will almost certainly own an underlying reason as to why. The reason will be a suppression of the specific emotions which create those chemotional cocktails and pathways within the body that assist the subconscious goal of holding onto weight as protection.

Physical efforts (diet and exercise) will remain sabotaged or ephemeral in nature until the subconscious reasons are recognized, cleared, healed and re-patterned.

Let’s now look at a powerful example of what I mean by ‘protection’ by the subconscious:

Janice, a forty-year-old mother of two says she has struggled with weight most of her life. After embracing The Weigh Forward programme, she realized that her weight started when her parents got divorced when she was seven.

Janice loved her father but felt abandoned by him. She dared not get angry with him in case he stopped seeing her on weekends and she lost him altogether. A pattern has been set up for Janice, aged seven, which, if one could actually ‘talk’ with her subconscious and ask what pattern was established, would go something like this:

The pain of being abandoned by a male that I loved was too distressing emotionally and I never want that to happen again ... So I will be as nice as possible to every male in my life and make them love me and then they will never leave.

Aged seven, Janice had thought, if she had been less trouble, her dad would not have left home. In addition, she was often treated to sweets and chocolate by her mother after the parental arguments – a third pattern for Janice’s subconscious to ‘work’ with. So, already with her sixteen-year-old boyfriend and, indeed, with all her major relationships, as soon as she was with someone, her fear ‘kicked in’. And the pattern of suppressing unwelcome emotions by eating sweets and chocolate began. Janice stopped being ‘true’ to herself – she dare not get angry or ask for what she wants in case the man she loves leaves her.

So Janice continues with her life until, aged sixteen, she meets her first serious boyfriend and falls in love. Her