EFT For Weight Loss Chapter 8
Your Plan for Long-Term Weight Loss with EFT
As you now know, EFT is phenomenally effective for weight loss. Studies show that, as you use EFT, you can not only lose weight, but keep it off permanently (Stapleton, Sheldon, & Porter, 2011; Church & Wilde, 2013). You’ve now read the stories of dozens of people who’ve had this experience, and you’ve started to use EFT yourself. You’ve probably already had insights and breakthroughs that have changed your relationship to food, and you’re likely to have more as you persist with EFT.
You’re serious about weight loss. What should you do each day, each meal, each week, each year in order to apply EFT most effectively to lose weight and maintain your gains?
This final chapter of the book gives you a Tapping Plan for Weight Loss. It provides you with recommendations about what to do on a daily basis, and how to tap long term. If you follow this plan, you will remove most of the emotional associations you have with food. I summarize the plan below. You’ll also find an abbreviated form of these recommendations on a single page at the end of the book. Make copies of that plan and pin it up on your refrigerator. Tape it to your bathroom mirror, and keep a copy in your purse or wallet. These are practices to remind yourself of daily till they become second nature.
Continuous Tapping
One of the phrases I use is “continuous tapping.” This is the easiest way of applying EFT that you can imagine. In most cases it dispenses with the SUD score, the Setup Statement, and the other parts of EFT’s Basic Recipe.
You simply tap on each point, then move on to the next. When you get to the last point, you start again with the Karate Chop point. When doing continuous tapping, always tap the Karate Chop as the first point. Then tap the eyebrow point, the side of the eye point, and so on till you get to the underarm point. Then tap the Karate Chop point again as you start another round of EFT. For instance, I recommend continuous tapping while you eat a food you crave. The way you apply this recommendation is simply to sit down and eat some of that food with one hand, while tapping continuously with the other hand.
That’s all you have to do, so it couldn’t be easier. You don’t have to remember the right words, or any words at all. You just have your experience with the food while you tap continuously throughout. When compared with any other weight loss intervention, you’ll find nothing easier. Yet this one act of soothing your emotions while tapping when combined with eating can make profound changes in your relationship with food.
The Importance of Planning
I’ve divided the Tapping Plan for Weight Loss into six parts. The first is things you do each morning when you wake up. This is an important step. By setting your intentions for the day, and tapping on them, you remind your mind, body, and heart what you plan to do during the coming day. You might not be able to carry out all those intentions. Life happens, and it rarely goes according to plan. There’s a saying by General Norman Schwartzkopf, “No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy.” But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t plan. A plan gives concrete form to your intentions, and provides you with a general outline of what you expect even if every detail doesn’t materialize. General Dwight Eisenhower said, “Plans are futile. Planning is essential.” So tap and plan your day even though you’ll need to respond with flexibility to unforeseen events.
Incorporating Tapping into Eating
As you follow the plan given here, you’ll find yourself tapping regularly throughout each day. As I’m writing this, I’m looking at a beautiful view. I’m visiting my family in Jacksonville, Florida, and my hotel suite looks out over the St. John’s River and downtown Jacksonville. I’m sitting on a balcony and the sun is rising. The boats in the marina across the river are catching the sun’s rays, and the water is shimmering. I know there’s a breakfast buffet downstairs in the hotel lobby, and my tummy is rumbling. I’m looking forward to being able to choose the healthiest foods I know support my weight loss goals.
There’s just one negative trigger. My balcony is located above a ventilation duct for the hotel kitchen, and smells are wafting upwards. The predominant one is syrup. Now I don’t usually crave syrup, because the fake rubbish maple syrup substitute they serve at hotel buffets is way too sweet and packed with artificial ingredients. But this morning the smell is reminding me of how hungry I am, and how long it was since last night’s meal with my family.
The scent of that syrup evoked a craving of about a 9 to begin with. I was contemplating abandoning my writing and going to eat earlier than I planned. After three rounds of continuous tapping, the smell is simply pleasant, about a 2, and I continue with my writing. I’ve invited my whole family over to the suite this evening for food and wine. While I tap, I imagine how the evening will go. I expect to enjoy the company, and also eat moderately. I’ll drink some wine, but then switch to soda water before I drink too much. As I tap, I remember that I need to buy some soda water when I pick up the food.
You’ll find yourself setting yourself up for success each day as you do similar tapping. Will you always stick with your plan? You might binge, or forget, and eat or drink far more than you planned. No problem. Just use EFT’s wonderful phrase “I deeply and completely accept myself” and go right back to the plan the next day. If you can’t tap, for instance, when eating a meal with a client, then tap mentally. If you’re following the recommendation to tap when sitting down to a meal but before Your Plan for Long-Term Weight Loss with EFT 263 eating it, simply imagine tapping each point in your mind before you begin eating. You won’t look weird, your client won’t know, and you’ll still keep your commitment to sticking with your weight loss plan.
Tapping Plan for Weight Loss (Extended Version)
Morning:
Review in detail your eating plan for the day, meal by meal, snack by snack, while tapping continuously.
Tap continuously while you weigh yourself.
Look at your face in the mirror and say “I deeply and completely accept myself” slowly five times while tapping and breathing deeply.
Review in detail your exercise plan for the day while tapping continuously.
Daily:
Tap immediately after any negative interaction with another person. Replay the interaction in your mind while tapping continuously till your SUD level is 2 or less.
Whenever you recall any negative past event around food or body image, do three rounds of EFT.
Whenever you catch yourself in a piece of negative self-talk, tap on that negative phrase till it has a SUD score of 2 or less.
Tap continuously whenever you see or smell a food that triggers a craving.
While exercising, tap mentally, or physically if possible.
Before Each Meal:
After you sit down to eat a meal, before starting, tune in to your body, and notice any sensations that arise. Also contemplate the meal with its sights and smells. Complete three rounds of tapping before taking the first bite.
Before eating a food you crave, sit with that food, and tap continuously through five rounds of EFT while focusing on how the food looks and smells.
During Each Meal:
Put your utensils down after the first three bites of food, and complete another round of tapping.
While eating with one hand a food you crave, tap continuously with your other hand.
Tap when theres’s some food left on your plate after a meal and you aren’t sure whether or not to eat it.
When you’re finished eating, look at your plate and tap three rounds.
When You Slip:
Tap continuously while repeating the phrase, “I forgive myself. Even though I slipped, I deeply and completely accept myself.”
Notice any body sensations that arise when you think about your slip. Tap till they have a SUD score of 2 or less.
Notice any self-talk that comes up, such as “There I go again,” or similar negative phrases. Notice your body sensations associated with the phrase, and tap till the SUD score is 2 or less.
Evening:
Review what you ate today and your experiences with tapping, while tapping continuously.
If during the course of the day you recalled any negative events from earlier in your life, tap on them till they have a SUD score or 2 or less.
While tapping continuously, say, “I fall asleep quickly and easily, and sleep soundly through the night. I lose weight while I sleep. I wake up in the morning feeling completely refreshed.”
Next Steps
Tapping reinforces everything else you do to support your health. This book has shown you exactly what those people who are successful at weight loss do. It’s offered you dozens of tips from experts. It’s shown you how to apply EFT to cultivate healthy weight loss behaviors. It’s demonstrated over and over again that success is possible and even easy, no matter how many times you’ve failed in the past. Please continue taking action till you’ve met and maintained your weight goals. Here are some additional ways you can support yourself in your weight loss journey. I strongly recommend you take these seven steps:
1. The Personal Peace Procedure
The first is to use what EFT calls the Personal Peace Procedure. The Personal Peace Procedure basically recommends that you buy a blank personal journal and write down the key emotionally traumatic events that have happened in your life. You’ll find full instructions for this in our free tutorial on the EFT Universe website, and in Chapter 1 of this book.
You may have had hundreds of events throughout your life that bothered you, upset you, or made you angry. Writing them all down in a journal and looking at them isn’t always fun. If there are hundreds of events in your childhood, healing them all might seem like an overwhelming task.
Yet if you then just tap on three of them a day, and reduce your number from a 5, 7, or 10 down to a 0, 1, or 2, you can make fast progress on erasing all that emotional trauma. Tapping on just three a day, in a year you can tap on 1,000 different events. That cleans up a huge chunk of your childhood. I recommend you purchase a personal journal and follow the Personal Peace Procedure. You can also go through a guided version of the Personal Peace Procedure here.
2. The 9 Gamut Procedure
The second thing I recommend you do is familiarize yourself with EFT’s 9 Gamut Procedure. It’s described in The EFT Manual (Church, 2013). There’s also a description of the 9 Gamut Procedure, along with a free Tap- Along Video, on the EFT Universe website. The 9 Gamut Procedure is very useful as an add-on if the Basic Recipe we taught you in this program isn’t working for a particular problem, or isn’t working fast enough.
3. EFT Workshops
I also strongly recommend that you take an EFT workshop. The EFT workshops have been designed based on watching thousands of people learn EFT, seeing precisely how they assimilate the information, and then training them in expert use of EFT.
We’ve analyzed the steps by which people learn EFT and apply it most successfully; each level of the program is divided into eight learning modules. In those modules, you learn the basics of EFT step-by-step. You discover how to apply it effectively to many different situations. Certified EFT Universe instructors teach EFT workshops all over the world; you can enroll in one near you through the web link. Workshops are the way to unlock the full power of EFT.
4. Search for Stories Like Yours
EFT Universe contains some 10,000 stories in over a dozen different languages. You will likely find stories written by people who have faced the same situations you have, and have used EFT successfully. From their stories, you can glean tips, techniques, and ways of using EFT that will help you on your journey. It’s absolutely free, easy to do, and easily searchable.
5. Tapping Circles
I recommend you join a Tapping Circle. These are groups of people that get together to work with each other on their issues. They may be online groups, or they may meet in person. You can find tapping circles on the “Volunteering” page on the EFT Universe.
6. Instant Sessions
Using the Stress Solution app, you can tap with a certified Clinical EFT practitioner any time you choose. This is incredibly useful for when you’re stressed, overwhelmed, emotional, or in the grip of a craving. Bookmark the web site MyStressSolution.com on your computer, and have the Stress Solution app on the home page of your phone. Help is always available there.
You can also make a regular practice of using Stress Solution. Nancy, one Naturally Thin You member, makes it a habit to tap with a practitioner on Stress Solution every week. It’s been key to her successful long term weight loss.
7. Certified Practitioners
I strongly recommend booking a session with one of our EFT Universe Certified Practitioners. These practitioners go a through rigorous training in Clinical EFT. If they’re listed on our site, we have confidence that they can help you. You can search the practitioner database by name, state, and specialty to find the perfect practitioner for your needs. Many of them offer a free introductory session, so you can interview a number of practitioners to find a good fit.
My final word of advice is to tap immediately.
When you’re in any kind of an emotional jam or physical need, start tapping right away. Don’t worry about finding the right words to say, or even whether you’re tapping the correct points. Doing EFT is more important than doing EFT perfectly. It’s hard to mess up EFT. Start tapping. You’ll find that it has a calming, soothing effect on your body, even if you “do it wrong.”
Once you’ve calmed yourself, you can check the manual, search the site, find a practitioner, or take other steps toward solving your problem. Don’t delay tapping till you have one of those resources at your disposal. When in doubt, tap! You’ll find yourself better equipped to deal with whatever stress faces you.
I urge you to love yourself enough to learn EFT, memorize EFT, and equip yourself with EFT. You’ll then find that whatever the stress, strain, or emergency, you have a potent tool at your fingertips. EFT will help you deal with the problem, get through those stresses, and come out on the other side. You’ll progress much more quickly, feel much better, and attain a much higher level of health and vitality.
