If you are someone carrying unresolved negativity in your life and struggling with weight loss, Cape Town-based Dr Leila Sadien has a message for you.
When the fat just won’t budge, despite our best efforts, the likely cause may be negativity, says the medical doctor.
This is why she’s a huge fan of detoxing before starting any new diet or exercise regimen. “Often clients come to me saying they've tried everything, nothing seems to work for long, and they end up blaming themselves as failures.
“When your inner world is saturated with negativity, it triggers your body to hold onto fat as a storage organ, just as it holds onto physical toxins,” explains the doctor, who is also an intuitive healer and shamanic medicine woman.
Dr Sadien practises holistic and multisensory medicine with the aim of teaching her clients how to access their inner power and potential.
“Just like when you go on a detox diet to flush out the toxins from your body and cleanse your internal organs, it’s also helpful to flush out toxins from the mind and heart. Mental and emotional toxins are not often considered, but they are just as essential to evaluate and to prepare our bodies for the fat burn process.”
She sees weight-loss beyond diets, supplements or exercise but as a holistic lifestyle plan based on the foundations of mental, physical and emotional optimisation.
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Dr Leila shares some expert advice, gained through the treatment of clients in her weight loss programme, that begins with detoxing the root cause of your weight-loss instead of simply forcing the extra fat to shed as a temporary respite.
- LISTEN TO YOUR BODY
“Your body is an ecosystem that is integrated into the environment around it. Skin conditions like acne and eczema, IBS, water retention and weight-gain can all be your body communicating that something is imbalanced and that toxins need to be unloaded.
“If you’re putting on weight and can’t find the reason through conventional medical tests, there may still be an underlying subtle dysfunction not picked up by the disease screen. Commonly early thyroid disease, insulin resistance and IBS, for example, are missed as causes.”
- SELF-NURTURE
“For those who have spent years on yo-yo dieting, it’s easy to feel that their body has betrayed them. This impacts the way that we feel and view ourselves and can lead to self-sabotage. There’s a direct correlation with our relationship with our inner selves and our relationship with food and both can be improved by befriending the body.
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“Work on listening to and honouring your needs and begin to develop trust in yourself as a caregiver. As the body begins to trust you it can let go of the trauma held in the fat, where your inner child could not trust in nurturing.”
- BUILD BETTER BOUNDARIES
“Let go of or redefine toxic relationships that no longer serve you. Often one finds that excess weight is directly in proportion to the toxic relationships they have with those around them.
“A negative detox will help you feel more connected to your purpose in life and your relationship with your body. It’s important to be open and honest with yourself about where this negativity comes from and how you wish to deal with it.
“Once we accomplish this, we can lighten our loads and be kinder to ourselves.”
