New Year Resolutions – Weight?  Smoking? Something else?

Hypnotherapy is really just giving you the tools to be how you want to be – whether it’s to lose weight, stop smoking, manage stress, break habits, lose phobias or a myriad of other problems …

Let’s have a look at weight loss:

Research and clinical studies have shown that hypnosis works significantly well – both in the short term and long term – in enabling people to reduce their weight and keep it off!   The studies have found that people who used hypnosis lost more than twice as much weight as those who dieted without the therapy. Also a recent study found people who used hypno-behavioural techniques lost weight, improved their eating habits, improved their body image and, very importantly, their self-talk.  (Meanwhile, a meta-analysis by UK researchers found hypnosis can actually help regulate the release of peptides that control how hungry and full you feel!)

Emotional and unconscious eaters are prime candidates for hypnotherapy.  Often by the time a client comes to me, they’ve usually tried every weight loss plan on the planet.  They have often had a measured degree of success – especially if they have been part of the multi-billion £ clubs that promote weight loss via weekly meetings with weigh-ins, products, literature etc – however people can get so far then fail, sometimes they have even been able to reach their goals, but then they put the weight back on again, and more. 

It’s just an endless depressing yo-yo cycle of weight loss and weight gain. By the way, around 70% of the client base of these clubs are repeat business – people who may have been attending these clubs for many, many years because it never quite works for them – they can’t get the control and peace of mind that they need.

So what’s the secret missing ingredient? (please pardon the pun)

It is mindset.  Why would these multi-billion £ clubs employ a technique that would lose them 70% of their business?  Also, if someone has experienced repeated failures and is in the yo-yo diet mode, then they may have subconsciously set themselves up for failure.

For effective positive, lasting mindset – Hypno-behavioural techniques work holistically.  It’s not just about what you eat, when you eat, how you eat, why you eat and where you eat.

It’s about safely and effectively re-programming the “self-sabotage” button in the weight loss mindset.  

• learning how unhealthy eating affects us psychologically, which often results in projecting us repeatedly into an unhealthy eating spiral.
• learning the language of self-kindness, self-love, and self -compassion.  We can usually extend love, kindness & compassion to others, but often the sense of feeling that we are deserving enough to receive our own self-love, self-compassion and self-kindness can be very difficult – especially for those with fragile self-esteem. 
• learning about self-care – honouring that mind/body temple with regular, nutritious food and water.   Food is fuel for the mind and the body.  It’s not about being on a “diet”.  It’s simply about healthy eating. If people think they are on a “diet” then they can feel that they are depriving themselves of things, for example chocolate.  They can then start to become very aware of the fact that chocolate is ‘forbidden’ and at an unconscious level they start to miss it and unwittingly weave the lack of chocolate into their everyday situations, until eventually they can feel an irresistible urge to either reward or comfort themselves with chocolate.  Once done, they feel they have let themselves down and abandon their ‘diet’.

With hypnotherapy, no foodstuff is ‘banned’ you simply choose which foods you would like to have an aversion towards –  the food stuffs you would rather not eat. You choose what they are however you can know that you can eat them if you wish – therefore you do not feel deprived and the fixation of what you cannot have is removed.  If you do eat them, then you will look for the reason why, learn from it and gently move on.

I have covered weight management above, but there is so much more that hypnotherapy can help with.  If you would like to have a chat about your personal challenges, then please give me a call.  

In the meantime I will leave you with a quote from the abiding wisdom of the 6th Century philosopher Lao Tzu

Watch your thoughts, they become words 

Watch your words, they become actions 

Watch your actions, they become habit 

Watch your habits, they become character 

Watch your character, it becomes your destiny