A Witchy Guide to Weight Loss

Ever tried casting a weight loss spell to reach your health goals? Forget black magic- use this witchy guide to weight loss!

1. Get outdoors

As a witch, you feel particularly connected to the great outdoors. You have a unique connection to the earth, wind, water and fire. This shows up when you prefer to walk outside for exercise, explore hiking paths or forests nearby, and show an interest in local flora and fauna.

Maybe you prefer camping or living simply, which helps you connect with your own inner being.

This is the best environment for fitness, too. In a study by ACE Fitness, researchers found that exercising outdoors “was associated with greater feelings of revitalization, increased energy and positive engagement, together with decreases in tension, confusion, anger and depression.

2. Body Confidence

Witches are equally comfortable wearing black robes and going skyclad for an important ceremony (Skyclad is in their birthday suit). This is because a witch understands that her body is a vehicle to her power- not an enemy to criticize.

Consequently, she honors her body, and scorns any ideas of meeting some sort of ideal body weight.

The ultimate goal of any weight loss effort is not just to look good in your clothes, but to look good naked. That shows that you are completely comfortable with your beautiful body, because you recognize its worth.

You don’t have to be a beauty pageant queen or plus size model to rock your curves. In this article from Huffington Post, Adiba shares that she strips (despite her stretch marks and lack of thigh gap) in order to celebrate radical self-love and set an example for her special needs daughter, who has physical challenges.

There are many ways to get more comfortable in your own body. You can take a class that focuses on skills, such as yoga or CrossFit, or you can look at yourself in the mirror and give some verbal praise. Or, even rock out to some songs that make you feel like the superstar you are.

3. The Sisterhood

Any witch worth her salt belongs to a sisterhood of other witches. Known as a coven, the group can range from 3 to 13, but any larger group makes spell-casting difficult.

Sometimes, a coven is a loose group of family members.

Regardless, a witch does not act alone, and frequently connects with her sisters.

This is true in the most successful weight loss communities as well. According to the American Psychological Society, social support groups of all kinds help their members not just lose weight, but potentially maintain it as well.

You don’t have to tap into MyFitnessPal or WeightWatchers to find your sisterhood. You can join my free Facebook community, Weight no More, and find the right kind of accountability and group support for your health goals.

4. Herbs and Potions

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble. What witch goes without mixing some sort of herbs and potions in her trusty cauldron?

I googled witch potions, and found Witch University’s five basic witchcraft potions. Believe it or not, these recipes use common ingredients such as honey, chamomile, coriander, hibiscus, lavender, mint and garlic.

Many of these types of ingredients are used extensively for holistic health remedies, to assist with cold symptoms, calming stress, increasing metabolism, cooling the body, and maybe even long-term prevention of diseases.

In order to most benefit from the beneficial effects of potions for weight loss spells, start adding some new ingredients to your grocery list, including fresh and dried herbs, spices, roots and leaves.

5. You have a spell book

Even the most experienced witch needs a trusted resource to turn to for her magic. Playing with magic is no laughing business, and we know that certain spells could become a curse if used irresponsibly.

The karmic principle of what you cast will come back to you 10 fold, also cannot be ignored.

Which is why witches rely upon the historical recipes and processes developed by their ancestors. This gives new witches a framework for understanding how to leverage their own inner power, while doing so in a safe environment.

When it comes to weight loss, having a book is especially important. That book can point out what works well, as well as what doesn’t work well for health goals.

There are literally millions of weight loss books, from personal memoirs to collections of stories of successful losers. My favorite weight loss book is one that not just talks about weight loss, but also about weight maintenance.

The Art of Weight Maintenance is great book for your personal weight loss spell. Use coupon code “jennbook2016” to get this helpful resource for less than $10.

6. You have a familiar

When you see a witch depicted with a black cat, that cat is her familiar. Some familiars appear to be nasty and mean creatures that lurk and spy, and others are reluctant prisoners serving time to their witch.

According to Witchcraft and Witches, a familiar spirit or animal is an animal-shaped spirit or minor demon believed to serve a witch as domestic servant, spy and companion, in addition to helping to bewitch enemies or to divine information. The animal was often believed to be possessed of magic powers, such as the ability to change its shape.

In addition to cats, other common familiars are mice, ferrets, hares, bats, snakes, dogs or birds such as the raven or owl.

In my Facebook network, a friend believes that a familiar is just an animal that works with you to help you reach you full spiritual and magical potential. On a side note, she shared that my own familiar is a tortoise!

How does a familiar help you with your weight loss journey? If you’ve ever had to walk a dog, you know that it could change your exercise habits just a bit.

You might also know that petting a cat or even holding a bunny can elevate your feelings of well-being and decrease feelings of depression. You don’t even need to be physically touching a pet to feel the rewards- residents in nursing homes were found to be more socially active and alert when animals are present.

7. You are sensitive to feelings

Part of exploring your witchy nature is tapping into empathy. Not just empathy for the natural world, but also for other human beings.

If you feel overwhelmed by your social commitments to other people, you might be responding to negative emotions and environments.

This can create its own wave of social isolation, especially if you cocoon yourself away from others.

How does this play out with your weight loss efforts?

You may be more introverted, and less willing to expose yourself to public competition. If you think that competition doesn’t exist in weight loss, you have never seen a Facebook post!

You might also hesitate to reach out to others and share your personal challenges. I know I kept my weight loss program a secret for months before formally telling anyone. While they may have noticed my changes- I wasn’t doing it for THEM. I was doing it for myself, and needed to protect myself from others’ opinions about my new direction.

If that sounds like you- more private and prone to react to strong emotions from the people in your life, it is important to connect with a health coach you can feel comfortable with (who also guards her clients’ emotions and privacy fiercely).

8. You listen to your intuition

There is a reason most witches are women- because men misunderstood women’s intuition.

What exactly is women’s intuition? According to WebMD, a 2008 study in the British Journal of Psychology defined intuition as what happens when the brain draws on past experiences and external cues to make a decision — but it happens so fast that the reaction is at an unconscious level.

But, intuition is NOT all in your head!

Judith Orloff, MD, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA and author of Guide to Intuitive Healing: Five Steps to Physical, Emotional, and Sexual Wellness.”, shares that neurotransmitters in the gut that can respond to environmental stimuli and emotions in the now, creating the sensation of “butterflies” or uneasiness in your stomach.

That’s right, folks. Intuition happens in the gut, too.

Witches rely upon their senses as well as their intuition to cast their weight loss spells.

Here is how it may show up for you:

• You were tempted to hop on the Whole30 bandwagon… and something whispered “no” to you.
• You started the process to be approved for weight loss surgery…and dropped the paperwork.
• You started entering credit card information for some jungle juice supplement to drop weight without trying… and closed your browser.

Maybe you even knew that the particular strict health program you were on was sending you straight into the fires of HE—. So, you stopped.

Our intuition is a powerful tool, and will never let you down. As long as you listen closely to her.

9. You heed seasons and moon cycles

Witches don’t just celebrate Samhain and the change of seasons. Witches also honor moon cycles and natural changes, both in nature and within.

Did you know that excess estrogen can cause weight gain (see full article by Dr. Mark Hyman here)? As a woman, you might also be prone to thyroid issues, which affects 1 in 5 women. Not to mention how stress can actually slow or stall your efforts at weight loss.

Even the natural hormonal cycle on an average woman can cause significant fluctuations in both water weight and body composition. There’s a reason why I recommend that clients don’t weigh themselves to death- because we might naturally fluctuate up to 4 pounds a DAY with no changes to eating or exercise!

This is normal, according to dietician and founder of Delicious Knowledge Alexandra Caspero, R.D.

Additionally, women who haven’t gone through menopause are more likely to experience bloating and water retention every month, which also shifts the scale.

How can you leverage this respect for natural cycles? First, you can heed the best season to start your weight loss plan. It may not be January, during the height of winter. I started my own journey around my birthday in November, and had already firmly established good habits by New Year’s.

Second, you can avoid the bathroom scale during certain times you are likely to be retaining water or if you are building muscle. It’s not all about the weight. It’s about your well-being.

10. Darkness is not scary

Witches are often depicted on a dark night with a full moon ablaze. Wiccan Moonsong shares that nighttime energy is more feminine in nature, and is a time when the veil between the worlds is the thinnest. In her opinion, spells worked at night should be more personal and emotional in nature.

Here is what I know about personal and emotional goals. Both deciding to lose weight, and taking action on it, was the most personal and emotional undertaking I have done. After so many years of being a morbidly obese girl, the biggest girl in my school, and the smart if she was thin girl, I had much more to lose than just physical weight.

I had the weight of disapproval, scorn, disgust and self-loathing to lose as well.

That doesn’t mean I internalized every mean comment. It did mean that I had to be brave enough to accept a new version of myself. One that was determined and sculpted by ME, instead of others.

I had to learn to leave behind the “fat girl” mentality (believe me, thin girls can be fatheads, too) so I could become who I was meant to be.

I don’t know of any effort that is more personal or emotional than that.

Even if you don’t end up in tears because nothing in your closet fits, or you aren’t sure if people will love you when you become thinner, you will be in the dark.

In the dark about your future, your friendships, and your potential.

You don’t have to be in the dark about your path to a healthier you. Get started with the 5 Days to Body Bliss (free) challenge and find a more intuitive way to unearth your very own inner magic. No weight loss spells are required- only a willingness to take action.