subject: Weight Loss And The Mind [print this page] It must be the most common New Year's Resolution: "This year, I'm going to lose... (fill in the blank with an amount in kilos or pounds)". But come February or even the middle of January, we've slipped back into our old ways again. What's the way to break this cycle? And can hypnotherapy help?
Weight loss is a complex issue, and this article isn't going to give you some step-by-step eating or exercise plan that promises that you will drop X amount of kilos in some ridiculously short time. The one problem with all those one-size-fits all plans is that they assume an average person with average activity levels. The plan that helps a man in his thirties with a job that involves physical labour to lose ten kilos won't work for a woman the same age who juggles a sedentary office job and three small children. And it's a proven fact that a lot of those restrictive diets don't work. Restrictive diets always backfire, as they make you crave the forbidden foods (meaning that you'll gorge on them once the diet's over or if you slip up slightly) AND they alter your metabolism so the weight goes on more easily. What's more, a lot of those diet plans tend to involve fancy foods that cost a bucket and are fiddly to prepare. As for those pills, don't get me started!
Diet is only one aspect of losing weight, of course. Exercise is the other factor. Even if you ate only small amounts of vegetables, lean meat and wholegrains, you'd still put on a bit if you just sat in front of the TV all day. And if you're doing a very physical job, you can probably eat vast amounts of the sorts of food that would make the people who write diet plans for the glossy mags faint with horror. So again, it's not a case of one size fits all.
Ultimately, weight loss is about willpower and changing habits. It's down to your mind, as a lot of things are. Hypnosis is sometimes used to help with losing weight because hypnotherapy targets the deep beliefs and patterns of thinking, changing them from deep inside.
It can often be helpful to take a look at the ways we think about weight loss, body shape, exercise and food. What's a myth? What's the truth? What beliefs can be changed via hypnotherapy? Not all of these beliefs will ring true for you - we're all different, after all. If you decide that hypnosis is the right course of action for you, you might need to explore some of these beliefs and thinking patterns with your therapist to pick the right course of action and the right changes to be made.
Belief Number One: I just can't resist chocolate/cake/cheese/beer/your particular favourite.
The Truth: You can resist whatever your particular downfall is if you think you can. Believing that you can break an addiction is always the first step in overcoming it. But food-related addictions aren't like other addictions, e.g. smoking. You can't avoid eating, and there's always going to be a situation where you are offered a portion of your particular nemesis. However, with the right mindset, you can be in control so you only have a little bit. You can be stronger than the cookie jar. It is a case of willpower, and hypnotherapy is one way that is often used to help give willpower a boost.
Belief Number Two: Healthy food doesn't taste as good as the fattening things.
The Truth: This is a matter of habit and what you're used to - in other words, it's in the mind again! Some people are astonished at the idea that what tastes good and what doesn't is a case of conditioning and the mind, but take the case of Vegemite. Australians, on the whole, love their Vegemite. But hand a Vegemite sandwich to someone from the USA and you'll see some interesting reactions as they bite into it. It's simply that the Yankees aren't used to Vegemite and haven't grown up with it. With a bit of help from the mind, possibly with the aid of hypnosis, you can change your eating patterns so your palate changes. When your palate changes, you will start liking the way unprocessed healthy stuff tastes, which is half the "battle of the bulge" won already.
Belief Number Three: I don't have time to exercise.
The Truth: This will depend on your individual situation. You might be working 10-plus hours a day at the office. You might have small children. You might be confined to a wheelchair. But surely, there's some way to build some activity into your day of some sort. You possibly need to give up something else in your day to fit in physical activity. If we really want to do something, we'll find time to do it, no matter what. And here we are, back facing the issue of willpower and motivation again - the mind again! Creating a positive reason for exercise is a great way to be motivated to get active. Instead of telling yourself "I'm going to dance/run/play football so I can shift these kilos", change your thinking patterns to more positive ones "I'm going to dance because I love music and it makes me feel happy," "I'm going to work towards competing in a triathlon," "I'm going to play football so I can make some more real-life friends," and so forth. Positive thoughts are often more powerful than negatively phrased ones, which is a technique that every hypnotherapy counsellor knows when it comes to planting suggestions.
Belief Number Four: I'm so fat - I look nothing like those models in the glossies.
The Truth: You're not fat, weird, abnormal or ugly just because you don't look like those glossy-mag models!. We all know that those girls are half-starved (or even anorexic) teenagers who have been photoshopped into something hardly human. Again, a change of thinking is needed. You need to learn to accept yourself and what the normal human body looks like. Yet another mindset that hypnotherapy can try to change!
