Weight Loss - think yourself thin
Weight loss is one of the biggest industries today because over the last 100 years our lives have improved so much we have available to us food all around the clock, at affordable prices. Only 100 years ago my great aunt was born in Norfolk severely deformed because her mother suffered with malnutrition, throughout the wars my family grew much of their food and I can remember a time when you could only buy what was in season. The upside is we have access to a vast array of different foods now but the downside is that our waistlines are getting bigger and it puts a strain on our heart and our joints.
What we are trying to achieve with hypnosis are the following:
- Being conscious of what we are eating
- Being motivated in increasing our exercise
- Finding and overcoming solutions to increasing or changing current exercise routine
- Reducing anxiety so we are more in control of our decision making
- Learning self-hypnosis so you can talk yourself out of situations.
- Stop bingeing
- Understanding how the body/mind work as far as hunger/stress are concerned.
What Hypnosis isn't
Quite a few people think they can come for one session, I wave a magic wand and hey presto you stop eating. I'm afraid that's not the case. Hypnosis works in one session for smoking because it's not a natural thing. There are so many underlying connections going on with eating we have to look at a much wider picture.
If you have come to this page because you've come to a stand still losing weight through a dieting group, then ask yourself these questions.
- What is it that stops me keeping to this diet plan?
- Am I prepared to put in the time to get to my goal?
- Have a goal?
- Am I prepared to exercise?
- Are there any areas of my life that will stop me doing this?
Weight Loss - things you should know
Our appetite is governed by a number of things going on in our body. The hypothalamus in the brain regulates and monitors various chemical signals from around the body. The signal to eat is triggered by a number of factors. The amount of leptin being produced by the fat cells in our body tells our brains whether we're at risk from starvation. Sudden losses in weight through illness or use of some diet drugs or diets can trigger this leptin production.
When this happens we are drawn to high fat food, it's a subconscious response and research shows that we feel more compelled to eat and not consciously be aware of what it is we're eating. Watching the birds chose the food put out for them this snowy period shows how deep this compulsion is, the birds tend to go for the high fat or sugar foods, like fat balls and fruit. The seeds and bread tend to take longer to be eaten. The birds haven't got the brain capacity to know what's the most nutritious, it's a built in instinct.
We also have a mechanism in the stomach that sends the message to the hypothalamus which tells us we're full and can stop eating. If we're lucky and had a mother who let us get down from the table when we were full we're lucky. Making children eat everything on their plate over rides this trigger and so we lose touch with this stop system.
We use food as rewards, "if you're a good girl you can have a sweety after we've done X, Y & Z". This builds up a pattern of habit in the limbic part of the brain. This template becomes stores in the hippocampus and so when faced with a situation, particularly with a similar unpleasant one, our unhappiness with the situation looks for a way out and last time - your hippocampus tells you, you had a cake, or sweets, or whatever the food choice is. The same goes for smoking or drinking, we enforce these habits as coping mechanisms and they do not allow us to cope at all.
I hope at this point you haven't thought - Oh dear there's just no point I've got no hope then, I think I'll have a cup of tea and a slice of cake to make me feel better - because there are a number of things you can do which will help.
1) Exercise - yes I know, everyone is thinking - oh no not that old chestnut, I can't be bothered or have the time. Well make the time. Let's start with the reasons why. - You burn up calories - You produce Dopamine in the brain - this is the neurochemical that motivates us. The more dopamine you produce the more likely it is you'll carry on exercising and burn off more weight. - You feel happier thanks to the dopamine, which in turn will produce more seratonin. As a side effect Seratonin makes us feel less hungry. Exercise, dopamine and seratonin will also help de-stress you. When you feel stressed you produce cortisol and this will make you feel hungry.
2) Be aware/mindful of what you're doing. I know everyone groans when the two words "calorie counting" is metered around, yes it's a bind but knowing exactly what you're putting in will help you calculate how much exercise you'll need to burn off the calories. Remember if the body loses too much too quickly you'll likely to crave high fat foods, so reduce the calories gradually. You should look for a 2lb a week reduction. Also eat slower - that full mechanism I mentioned earlier, well if you eat your food, chewing and moving the food around your mouth tasting every bit, then swallowing and take your time, you will start to recognise that full message coming back. Eat at the table where you can focus on the food, take as long as you can, and stop when you feel full.
3) Eat more blended foods in the form of soup! Yep a surprising one that, but experiments show that if you make and eat soup made up of blended vegetables and some protein, it stays longer in your stomach than if you drink a glass of water and eat solids.
4) Are you getting good sleep? The reason I put this in is because someone suffering with sleep apnoea will be told by their doctor to lose weight and it should clear up. The problem is though, if you have severe sleep apnoea then you just don't have the energy to do anything, you're falling asleep at the drop of a hat. I know someone who participated in trials to measure cortisol in sleep apnoea sufferers and their levels were way higher than normal. Cortisol, is a stress hormone and continued production will put a lot of pressure on the organs and as I've said before increases one's appetite. This friend on receiving a pap mask lost 4 stone in two years, and now exercises several times a week and is a transformed person.
5) Reduce stress - look at your lifestyle. Are there any areas you're unhappy about? Think of the things you might like to do instead. Set yourself solid goals and the less stressed you are, the more discipline you'll find yourself maintaining.
6) If you're really serious about it, get some help. Contact me today on 01275 854354
What ever you do, don't ignore it. Weight related problems not only cost us the tax payer vast amounts of money in NHS bills each year, but being obese contributes to all sorts of diseases. Joint pain for example, the extra weight our knees and hips have to carry around lead to all sorts of problems. But if you're too overweight the NHS won't operate because it's too dangerous. Heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer, breast cancer - the list goes on.
Not only this, even applying for a mortgage, life insurers can and sometimes will not insure a person if they think they are a high risk. Being in the Obese and Clinically Obese area of the BMI could disqualify you from life insurance.
Also see: What to expect when using hypnotherapy for weight loss