EFT (Tapping) on Eating Issues and Obesity

[Blueberry]

I got sent one of these freebies/adverts by one of the Ortner family on tapping to (help) heal from obesity/overeating. The program is for women but I'm sure the information could be useful for any men on OOTS with problems in this area.

With these notes, I'm going to assume the reader knows about tapping / EFT. If you don't, there are undoubtedly tons of free Youtube videos including by the Ortner family. Or if you search EFT here on the forum, you'll find links to free information too. EFT comes up on free Conferences too, which get linked https://www.cptsd.org/forum/index.php?board=272.0 by various mbrs.

According to Jessica Ortner, when you want to lose weight, people concentrate on nutrition and fitness first. The approach is wrong because it goes way deeper. You need to concentrate first on the underlying problem, which lies in events, beliefs or emotions (or in all those categories).

Events: Think back to when you started to have problems around eating or when you started really gaining weight and couldn't stop. What was happening in your life? Events can be 'simple' fat-shaming, criticism from FOO mbrs in your childhood etc. It doesn't have to be a huge thing.

Beliefs: You might have limiting beliefs about your ability to lose weight, e.g. losing weight equals depriving myself, only weak people diet, no point because I'll never manage anyway, when I diet I get exhausted.

Emotions: You may be avoiding feeling any; What do you feel at the thought of somebody taking away your comfort foods? (I feel enraged at the thought of having to give up sugar). Also what emotions do you have when you think of your body? (I experienced shame, shame, shame and some fear and a vague feeling of CSA though of course that's not an emotion, but having that floating back up in my consciousness, I was thinking no wonder this whole eating topic is so hard.)

In addition to thinking back to or feeling into events, beliefs, emotions on eating, dieting, losing weight, body image etc, it's useful to check events, beliefs, emotions on two more broad topics: exerciseand caring for/about yourself. For instance you may use exercise as a punishment against yourself (I felt a lot of bad childhood emotions and still have bad memories from times with FOO and at school in connection with outdoor activities and sports. I also know I tend to get physical pain when exercising and sometimes I dissociate so that I can't follow instructions like 'put your left arm around your right leg' even though I don't generally have problems distinguishing right/left or arms/legs.) Apparently if you feel 'too busy' to exercise, you might need to de-stress.

People also tend to make jail for themselves when trying to lose weight, like they'll say: "I'll allow myself to be happy when I lose weight."
Why not allow yourself to be happy beforehand? Not allowing yourself to be happy causes stress which doesn't make losing weight any easier! (My own example from my teens was: 'I'll start wearing trousers when I lose weight'. Self-punishment - gotta hide myself in skirts. I wasn't even fat! I just didn't like or accept my body, including its natural shape. [Thanks FOO. Not.] Needless to say, my jail sentence didn't work). If you can find the root of your self-sabotaging behaviour,

It's helpful to know what's going on physically when a stressor turns up. Hormones like adrenaline and cortisol flood out, which (1) slow down your digestion and (2)  restrict blood vessels, which make thinking clearly more difficult. This in turn makes you more likely 'to forget' and/or lose sight of your goals and eat a load of comfort food. This flood of adrenaline and cortisol into your body actually inhibits clever decision-making. Cortisol shuts down the creative, problem-solving part of the brain. Stress also decreases your nutritional absorption, which won't help brain activity

Also good to know: There's an emotional impulse to eat AND there's the physical craving. They are different entities.

Tapping reprograms your brain to not react to stressors to begin with. Stress is cumulative so it gets worse and worse over time with a bigger and bigger impact on you. It also takes over your body, so that's why we don't make the best decisions. Stress also makes gaining weight PHYSIOLOGICALLY easier.

When you're beginning the program, it's good to draw a line between the failed diets/exercise programs of the past and now. So  you can write / think / say: My past diets have failed me and that's OK. Or: My past exercise programs have failed me and that's OK. It wasn't my fault they didn't work. Or something similar. (I can't remember, but I think it was suggested you maybe even tap on the sentence. It would make sense.)


Some notes on what to tap on: Any of the beliefs, emotions, memories of events that you come up with in regards to eating, trying to lose weight, exercising, body image etc. You can tap on a phrase like "All this shame" or a whole sentence like "I'll never stick to a diet anyway". Tapping that kind of thing where there's an emotional charge behind the words will reduce the charge! You can also tap in the here and now on a craving. (I first learned EFT from my trauma T and learnt approx "Even though I have this craving, I accept myself." /"Even though thinking of exercise makes me exhausted,...".)  You can tap to reduce future anxiety like when you think about exercising regularly or restricting food intake. Your tapping can refer to quantity or substance (and presumably similar in regards to exercise). Consider also what thought is leading to physical feeling of anxiety. You can also tap on what you feel emotionally and/or physically after overeating. Or if you can find it, tap on the root cause of self-sabotaging behaviour, like if you put yourself in jail / self-punish. (Although my feeling on this one is: be careful if  self-sabotage is one of your cptsd symptoms!)

According to Jessica Ortner, you should target the most "present"/strong/pervasive emotion/thoughts/beliefs. (I think it's possible if you have cptsd that that might not be a good idea, especially if you're still skirting around topics rather than dealing head on. Certainly go with your inner feelings).

I'm saving this briefly so I don't lose the whole post.



 

[Papa Coco]

Blueberry, this is helpful. Thank you for posting it.

I was a VERY thin young man. I was known for being overly thin. (I was 6 foot tall and weighed 140) Until I hit my middle thirties. During my 50s I lost 60 pounds in 60 days three times by simply counting calories. Note, in order to lose 60 pounds three times, that means that as soon as I got to 190 pounds, I obviously started eating badly again, which is why I had to do it again and then again. That's yoyo dieting and I'm told it's very harmful to the body to do it.

Your note above made a lot of sense that I should go back to my mid-thirties and explore how life was changing then. What made me change my eating habits? Why do I now find comfort in food and not in anything else?

Also, I see you writing about tapping quite often, and I have never taken it up. But you know what? I think I like what you said here and I'm going to explore tapping.

I just looked up yoga for people who hate yoga. I watched a youtube video put on by a young, thin, flexible woman who said she was going to show us yoga-haters how to do yoga. Within a minute or 90 seconds I already hated her and her yoga. She started bending her skinny little frame in ways I cannot now, nor ever will, be able to do. For one thing, my knees hurt so bad from arthritis, that I can't even stand the way she says to stand, let alone do the complicated moves she started doing in just the first 30 seconds.

Summary: I don't care how they frame it, I still hate yoga, even yoga for those who hate yoga, and have no desire to even try.

But tapping. Hmm. That might be doable. I'm going to start my research on tapping right now.

Thanks for sharing this post. It hit home with me today.

[Blueberry]

My thoughts on this program:

I didn't buy the program and I can't imagine any situation in which I would. The program is guided and takes 6 weeks (though you might have life-time access, I'm not sure, can't remember). The idea for me of tapping the amount of stuff that would come up and trying to process it in the space of 6 weeks is indescribable - I go blank at the idea. Impossible for my system to handle. I did tap a food craving shortly after listening to it all and the craving was gone within minutes. Wow!!

Unfortunately the craving returned with a vengeance the next day and I went ahead and ate and didn't tap and have been having cravings and giving into them ever since. Tho of course none of that means the program doesn't work! But unfortunately I have experience with programs that weren't really designed for cptsd and brought up ever more memories and realisations to deal with. Then instructions like: then use our methods on this new topic and that new topic     till I was totally exhausted.

There's been research on the short-term and medium-term effectiveness of EFT, maybe long-term too.  According to the Ortners it's especially effective for ptsd (there's a study of veterans...) though the study was EFT versus 'talk therapy' / CBT (the presenter couldn't remember which), not EFT versus EMDR /Somatic Experiencing or other kinds of therapy which work to at least some degree for cptsd. Anyway, with a study on a group of veterans, that's ptsd and not Cptsd.

EFT is especially good for reducing cortisol levels, based on the study, which included doing 1 hour of EFT a day. I can't physically or emotionally tap for an hour a day or 10 times a day for 6 minutes, but I do know EFT does work and is not a bunch of hocus-pocus. 

I do find Jessica Ortner's explanations of events, beliefs, thoughts which keep you from being successful in losing weight or in exercising or giving yourself better nutrition etc interesting and logical, really. It all makes sense and good on her for coming up with all this. She did it for herself first, so she has walked her miles in those shoes before. She's genuine, I think. Once you know how to do EFT, you can take some of the information from her program and apply it to yourself. Atm I feel overwhelmed at the number of 'topics' that one little presentation brought up, but I could tap on that too   In a way it's good for me to know how many 'topics' and of them how many really difficult ones are behind my eating issues, because it's easier for me to have some compassion for myself.

I'd certainly recommend listening to a freebie on this healing method and adapting for self if you feel it might be your thing.

[Blueberry]

You're welcome, Papa Coco! I'm happy when the notes I type up help just one person. Gives me a sense of purpose.